Poverty seen as a sin

[Sara S]

from delancyplace.com:


In today's excerpt - social Darwinism. The greatest U.S. economic crisis prior to
the Great Depression itself was "the Panic of 1873," a depression that lasted from
1873-1879. It brought unprecedented unemployment to the country, and unloosed a
nationwide hysteria known as "the Tramp Scare." Thousands unemployed "tramps" crossed
the country looking for work that wasn't to be found. Instead of reacting with aid
and compassion, cities and states passed harsh "anti-Tramp" laws and labeled the
unemployed as morally inferior. Conveniently, Charles Darwin's brand new theory
of evolution was available could be freely adapted to the social world to provide
justification for this scorn:
"Impressed with what they took to be the hard, scientific fact of natural selection,
many prominent American intellectuals, politicians, and businessmen followed [leading
intellectual] Herbert Spencer in wanting to extend Charles Darwin's insights on
nature to society. To those who enjoyed the benefits of American prosperity, unrestrained
capitalism appeared a law of nature, and one that should be obeyed by all and not
altered, as to do so would undermine social progress. Daniel S. Gregory's popular
Christian Ethics argued that 'The Moral Governor has placed the power of acquisitiveness
in man for a good and noble purpose,' so that interfering with greed was actually
a sin. Not surprisingly, the rich and their acolytes crafted an ideology from this
perception that equated wealth with morality and poverty with a defective character.
No one gave voice to this belief system better than the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher,
the most famous - and highly paid - minister in America: 'The general truth will
stand, that no man in this land suffers from poverty unless it be more than his
fault - unless it be his sin.'
"Though it had its origins in England with Spencer's writings, social Darwinism
became an obsession among educated Americans in the late 1870s. While
scholars place the first use of the phrase 'social Darwinism' in Europe in 1879,
it is telling that the phrase actually first appears in the public press in the
United States in 1877 - and then in the context of the tramp menace. The Nation
converted to social Darwinism in 1877, its editor, E.L. Godkin, declaring that
nothing of value 'is not the result of successful strife.' Those who are successful
in life deserve their wealth, while trying to lift up the weak undermines this natural
struggle and thus social progress. ...
"So popular had evolutionary theory become in 1877 that The Congregationalist complained
that too many 'preachers seem to think it their duty to give their congregations
dilutions of John Tyndall and Thomas Huxley and Herbert Spencer,' the leading promoters
of Darwin's work. They noted with concern that Harvard students are now expected
to read Spencer. Later in the year, Harvard's professor John McCrary, who held
the chair in geology, resigned in opposition to this cult of Herbert Spencer. But
his was a lonely voice, as readings of Spencer became common at high school exercises
throughout the country, even in Milwaukee. Despite their rejection of evolution,
most Protestant ministers and intellectuals were entranced by social Darwinism.
The Reverend William A. Halliday used Darwin to point out that progress is certain,
but that not everyone advances together; 'the survival of the fittest is nothing
the unfit can cheer about.' ...
"[Yale professor] William Graham Sumner found in Spencer scientific justification
for his extreme version of laissez-faire. Sumner could thus claim it was a fact,
'fixed in the order of the universe,' that government intervention threatened to
disrupt the workings of natural selection - from the eight-hour day to public education,
protective tariffs to the post office, they all thwarted progress. Appearing before
the House of Representatives, Sumner was asked, 'Professor, don't you believe in
any government aid to industries?' To which he emphatically replied, 'No! It's
root, hog, or die.' ... Meanwhile, Henry Ward Beecher turned to Spencer to argue
that economic success is evidence of the working of both God's will and natural
selection. Given that double authority, no one should attempt to ameliorate economic
inequality. Science proved God's will in making certain that 'the poor will be with
you always.' "
Author: Michael A. Bellesiles
Title: 1877
Publisher: The New Press
Date: Copyright 2010 by Michael A. Bellesiles
Pages: 127-129