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 BRIEF SURVEY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT EXTENT AND EVIL TENDENCIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LOTTERY SYSTEM, 
 
 AS EXISTING IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF A MEETING OF CITIZENS OF PHILADELPHIA, FAVOURABLE TO THE 
 ENTIRE ABOLITION OF LOTTERIES. 
 
 PiClatrrHjftCa: 
 
 WILLIAM BROWN, PRINTER. 
 
 1833. 
 

 • « » • 
 
At a meeting of a number of citizens of Philadelphia friendly to the 
 entire abolition of Lotteries, held on the 12th day of January, 1833, 
 an Essay was presented and read by Job R. Tyson, Esq. who had 
 prepared it in compliance with a previous request, upon the history, 
 extent, and pernicious consequences of that species of gambling. 
 
 Whereupon it was Resolved, That five thousand copies of said Essay 
 be printed, for gratuitous distribution through the United States. 
 
 (Signed) THOMAS C. JAMES, Chairman. 
 
 Attest. — John M. Atwood, Secretary. 
 
 iVilS9361 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/briefsurveyofgreOOtysorich 
 
A BRIEF SURVEY, &c. 
 
 Gambling, by means of the lottery, is not of very mo- 
 -dern origin. Though it has been tolerated, and even fos- 
 tered by Christian communities, it dates its birth so far back 
 as a remote period in the history of the Romans. The 
 .uses to which it was applied are faithfully delineated by 
 Menestrier, a Jesuit father, who published the result of 
 his researches about the close of the seventeenth century. 
 As it is not necessary to trace its existence, or ascertain its 
 effects, in Pagan lands, let us scan it in its consequences 
 nearer our own day, when the meridian sun of Christianity 
 is dispensing his genial rays for the illumination and im- 
 provement of the world. 
 
 I The Christian world is indebted to the republic of Genoa 
 for suggesting the idea of resorting to the lottery as a mea- 
 sure of finance. Its introduction into Great Britain was 
 early, being nurtured by the paternal hand of government 
 as a happy expedient for raising money upon the principle 
 of voluntary taxation. The first lottery mentioned in the 
 English history, was established in 1567; and Maitland of 
 Stowe, informs us that, in 1569, two years after its com- 
 mencement, there were but three lottery offices in the 
 kingdom. A few years sufficed to produce an enormous 
 accession to the number, and divers statutes were enacted, 
 to assuage, by restrictions and penalties, the malignity of 
 their influence. But no emollient was equal to the emer- 
 gency of its purpose ; a new genius awoke into being, com- 
 petent to evade, by dexterity and stratagem, the provisions 
 of each new law. At length its enormity had become too 
 
 
c * ,t c 
 
 obvious and crying to be longer withstood without a serious 
 inquiry into the measures which had been employed for its 
 palliation. That inquiry was made^ and on the re- 
 commendation of a Committee of the House of Commons, 
 new guards were applied. Still checks were found to be 
 but temporary alleviations, which, like most remedies of 
 that nature, produced the effect of giving false security to 
 the patient, rather than efficacy in counteracting the dis- 
 ease. Nothing less than the total abolition of the system, 
 was capable of expelling a poison so deeply seated and per- 
 vading. 
 
 It may well be supposed, that if it prevailed in England 
 when this country was colonized, the policy would be ob- 
 servable in acts relating to its early settlement. Accord- 
 ingly, the second lottery granted by Parliament was author- 
 ised in the reign of the first James, for carrying on the 
 colonization of Virginia. The prevalence of lotteries in 
 the United States, has since continued, notwithstanding 
 their extinction in the country from which they were im« 
 ported. Legislative sanction may here be seen given to a 
 vice, under the various pretences of excavating canals, and 
 building bridges, as well as for the construction of edifices 
 erected for the solemn purposes of worshipping God ! Un- 
 happy, indeed, that pious professors should consent deeply 
 to injure the cause of religion and morality with the osten- 
 sible view of aiding their promotion ! 
 
 But whoever has been instrumental in the diffusion of 
 lottery grants in the United States, the objects to which 
 they have been applied are not more multifarious than their 
 number and amount have been overwhelming. There now 
 exist, in the different states, no less than twelve or fourteen 
 lotteries which claim the authority of legal sanction for their 
 origin. What the amounts hazarded in a single week 
 may be, it is difficult to calculate with any thing like accu- 
 
racy. That it is even prodigious in amountj may be pre- 
 sumed from the fact, that in the single State of New York, 
 schemes have been issued, since the adoption of her new 
 Constitution, to the enormous sum of thirty-seven mil- 
 lions of dollars. In Pennsylvania, schemes issued under 
 the authority of seven other states, are illicitly vended to 
 an incredible amount. It could not have been anticipated 
 by the provincial assembly of 1762, when it prohibited lot- 
 teries with so striking a preamble as the following, that a few 
 years would witness their multiplication to such an extent: 
 /^Whereas, many mischievous and unlawful games, called 
 lotteries, have been set up in this province, which tend to 
 the manifest corruption of youth, and the ruin and impo- 
 verishment of many poor families; and whereas, such per- 
 nicious practices may not only give opportunities to evil 
 disposed persons to cheat and defraud the honest inhabitants 
 of this province, but prove introductive of vice, idleness, 
 and immorality, injurious to trade, commerce, and industry, 
 and against the common good, welfare, and peace of this 
 province, ^c." This preamble shows the sentiments of the ; 
 colonists in regard to the evil itself; it is denounced in the 
 body of the act as ^^a public and common nuisance;'^ the 
 sale of a ticket is prohibited under the penalty of twenty 
 pounds; and the forfeitures incurred by infraction, are 
 given to the Overseers of the Poor. This act, in display- 
 ing the domestic feelings of the colonists at an early period, 
 likewise demonstrates the foreign origin of the lottery sys- 
 tem. But this is more distinctly proved by its language, 
 which expressly excepts from the operation of the statute, 
 "all state lotteries erected and licensed by act of Parlia- 
 ment in Great Britain.^' There is no doubt, that the pa- 
 rent country taught her imitative offspring to legitimate 
 the lottery, by pointing out the uses which it might sub- 
 serve. This fact informs us, what is by no means unim- 
 
8 
 
 portant, that the lottery is not indigenous to this soil ; that 
 it did not spring up in this country, the result of necessity 
 or the dictate of pecuniary expediency ; but, that our pro- 
 genitors condemned it as a mischievous and unlawful ^awc,* 
 and opposed to their religious sensibilities and moral sen- 
 timents. They pronounced it detrimental to youth and 
 ruinous to the poor — the source of fraud and dishonesty — 
 alike hurtful to industry, commerce, and trade — as it was 
 baneful to the interests of good citizenship, morality, and 
 virtue. Let us take a rapid survey of its tendency as a 
 public measure, and of the operation of its effects upon 
 those who come within the sphere of its influence, both as 
 the source of pecuniary emolument or ruin to its votaries, 
 and as a meritorious instrument of adventure, or the means 
 of idleness, dissipation, licentiousne^^s, and crime. 
 
 As a public measure, it must be regarded in the shock- 
 ing aspect of its noxious and destructive character to the 
 individual, considered as a member of civil society. Most 
 governments recognise the importance of good disposi- 
 tions and industrious habits as indispensable ingredients in 
 the composition of a worthy citizen. This at least is the 
 theory, and in most cases, the tendency of the practice of 
 most governments which are founded on the principles of 
 civil freedom and social equality. When we encourage 
 industry or reward genius, when we establish institutions 
 of learning or give birth to those of benevolence, we in- 
 tend to repress idleness and vice, and to bring into exer- 
 cise the better dispositions of the mind and heart. Every 
 country, however, though it may acknowledge in the ab- 
 stract, the supereminent importance of industry and virtue, 
 has, in some form or other, given countenance to idleness 
 and furnished nutriment to vice. France when she re- 
 ceives the prodigious sum of 14,000,000 of francs per 
 
 * Vide Note 1, Appendix. 
 
annum, from her gambling tables, seems to act upon the 
 principle that so large a sum in her public coffers, coun- 
 tervails the private injury which they are the means of 
 inflicting. Thus it may have been with Great Britain 
 when the lottery was made an instrument of finance, but 
 its abolition proves that in that opinion, she knows herself 
 to have been mistaken. Those States of our republican 
 Union which adhere to the system of raising money by 
 lottery, must likewise believe, if they reflect at all upon 
 the principle upon which it is founded, that public ag- 
 .grandizement is preferable to public and private virtue. 
 But why is the public money expended for the suppres- 
 sion of vice ? For what purposes are houses of refuge and 
 penitentiaries for solitary confinement? Why are semina- 
 ries established for moral and literary instruction at the 
 public expense ? No, as the principle can not be 
 maintained, that public wealth should be placed in com- 
 petition with private merit, the argument must be re- 
 linquished as false and untenable. We are therefore 
 reduced to the necessity of inquiring, whether lotteries 
 are permitted to exist without reflection and regardless 
 of consequences, or because public opinion has not been 
 enlightened on the subject of their enormity? We be- 
 lieve the latter; and for the purpose of giving some 
 exposition of their direful and lamentable effects, we pro- 
 pose to exhibit by well authenticated examples, some of 
 the evils which they have entailed, 
 
 A brief comparison between lotteries and manual chance 
 will convince any one that the lottery is the most injurious 
 and ruinous of all systems of gaming. Wc are not de- 
 sirous of concealing any of the horrors of the Palais Royal 
 of Paris, nor of drawing a veil over the atrocities which 
 are there committed, the fortunes that are wrecked, or the 
 suicides which it leads to, but we shall contend upon facts 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 not to be controverted and upon reasoning plainly de- 
 duced^ that the establishment of a Palais Royal in Phila- 
 delphia^ or in any of our principal cities, is less earnestly 
 to be deprecated, because less fruitful of injury than 
 the continuance of our present lotteries. For the pur- 
 poses of a fair contrast, we may refer to Scott's Visit to 
 Paris in 1814, as a book which gives a competent insight 
 into that scene of debauchery. We select this single in- 
 stance, because from the protection which play receives 
 from the government of France, as a means of revenue, 
 and from a peculiar proclivity in the passions of the peo- 
 ple, gambling is there made to present a spectacle of 
 abandonment and vice deplorable without example. 
 
 Can we oppose to a picture such as manual chance 
 there exhibits, any thing so dreadful and terrific in the 
 operation of the lottery ? It would be no difficult task to 
 pourtray, by a stroke, in colours sufficiently black and 
 hideous the true aspect of the latter, and ask whether 
 the horrors of the Palais Royal would not dwindle in the 
 comparison ? But we prefer to exhibit its effects by cases 
 and examples, and substitute a series of dry but well 
 authenticated facts for general description. 
 
 Before we present some cases which have occurred in 
 this country, let us review its effects in England, whence 
 we have derived it. It will be recollected, that there the 
 public coffers were enriched by it as an instrument of re- 
 venue, and that it was guarded by laws of great severity. 
 The committee appointed by the House of Commons in 
 the year 1808, examined individuals upon the evils of the 
 lottery in general, as well as in its relation to its imper- 
 fections as a legal system. Crimes of every dye were 
 found to be committed, suicides were frecpient, and the 
 extent of illegal insurances which it introduced, were 
 greater than could have entered into the imaginations of 
 
11 
 
 its enemies. — In the testimony of Robert Baker, Esq. a 
 police magistrate of ten years standing, given before the 
 committee, several striking instances are related, which 
 had come under his notice, of frauds committed, and of 
 the facilities which were given to^ forgery. His decided 
 opinion is, that the money obtained for the public, by no 
 means compensa^^^^ evils and distresses growing out of 
 
 practices connected with the lottery. One case is nar- 
 rated, which, as it shows the class of people to which the 
 lottery proves most prejudicial, we will give in his own lan- 
 guage : " I remember one very strong instance af distress 
 four or five years ago. It was the case of a journeyman who 
 belonged, to a club, which club purchased a lottery ticket 
 which came up a great prize. The share of this man was 
 dglOO, or thereabouts ; he had been an industrious work- 
 ing man before, and he was persuaded by his friends to 
 invest the money in the stocks in the joint names of him- 
 self and his wife, in order to prevent his making away 
 with it. He did so ; but he soon got into habits of idle- 
 ness, now he was possessed of the money. It was to this 
 cause to be attributed that he changed his habits of indus- 
 try to those of drunkenness and idleness, and destroyed 
 all his domestic comforts. It was the ruin of the family.^' 
 
 In a written statement which Baker subsequently sub- 
 mitted to the committee, he expresses himself thus : 
 
 '^ I am most decidedly of opinion, that the lotteries have 
 the worst possible effects upon the morals of the people, 
 inasmuch as they afford a ground- work fol*, and give a sort 
 of public sanction to, that spirit of gambling which is so 
 prevalent among the lower orders. That the practice of 
 insuring frequently occasions crimts there can be no 
 doubt. That it produces distress to a very great degree 
 is still more clear. — Another most serious evil; frequently 
 
12 
 
 arising from the same source, is the dissentmi and misery 
 it occasions in families, — ^The bare possibility of obtaining 
 a large sum in return for a small advance, is so strong an 
 inducement with the lower classes to adventure, the in- 
 genuity and profits of the persons whose interest it is to 
 excite and keep alive in them the spirit of gambling are 
 so great, that I am satisfied nothing short of the total dis- 
 continuance of lotteries will put an end to the mischiefs/^ 
 He adds in the annotations subjoined to his communica- 
 
 i tion : 
 
 I ^^ It is a common observation among manufacterers and 
 master-tradesmen, that they find more difficulty in keep- 
 ing the persons they employ steadily at work, during the 
 drawing of the lottery than at any other time.'' 
 
 The Rev. Wm. Gurney, who had been six years minis- 
 ter of the Free Chapel of St. Giles, deposed before the 
 committee, that he found, in visiting among his parish- 
 ioners, much of their domestic trials had their origin in 
 the lottery ; that it was the fruitful source of conjugal dif- 
 ferences ; that it was ^^ a very general cause of distress ;'' 
 and that such was the infatuation of those who had once 
 indulged, that money was thrown away upon adventures, 
 ^' when the children have been starving, or at least want- 
 ing the common necessaries of life.'' His own language 
 in another part of his deposition, will better illustrate the 
 severity of its inflictions upon the poorer classes of society 
 than the most successful attempt at abridgement. 
 
 " I know of a family in Holborn," says he, ^^ the last 
 of whom died in an alms-house, owing to the lottery. This 
 person was a widow. She was in a good line of business 
 
 i fts it silk-dyer ; which I suppose brought her in about 
 
 T ,i64.00 a-year, clear. The foreman she had was in the 
 habit of insuring, he was led astray, and they insured to 
 the amount of dg3()0 or ^^400 a-night, although the fore- 
 
13 
 
 man had only ^^33 a year wages. It appeared, on his 
 decease, he had insured immense sums of money. He died 
 insolvent ; I acted as his executor, and paid three or four 
 shillings in the pound for him. He had received a great 
 many bills for his mistress, which he had never crossed 
 out, and he ruined her. She was not able to pay three 
 shillings in the pound. She was obliged to go into an 
 alms-house, and she died there in four or five months. A 
 gentleman who drew the foreman into the snare was ruined 
 by it. He formerly kept his carriage, and lived in Queen's 
 -Square. It was like intoxication with him. If a man 
 gets into the habit he dont leave it. — I know of another 
 very remarkable case. The man was a coachman. The 
 family consisted of the man, his wife, and an orphan child 
 they took care of. They resolved, as soon as they bought 
 some tickets, to insure them, which they understood was 
 legal. They got each of them one-sixteenth of a ^£20,000 
 prize, the coachman, his wife, and the child. From that 
 time the man became a noted gambler in the lottery. He 
 went out of his mind, and he was always raving about the 
 lottery. He has since recovered his senses. His wife 
 fretted herself to death. I attended her in her last mo- 
 ments. — I have known several instances in which I have 
 given money to relieve the distresses of persons gambling 
 in the lottery, which has been taken from them imme- 
 diately at my own door. To one woman I gave tive shil- 
 lings, to buy bread with for herself and her children. I 
 gave it as treasurer to a benevolent society. Her husband 
 took it away, and went to one of those collectors of in- 
 surances and laid it out, and they were obliged to go to 
 the overseer of the poor to get relief that night, otherwise 
 they would have been starved. — ^There is another instance 
 of a young woman now at Botany Bay. She had insured 
 three numbers, which she had dreamed about, and she 
 
14 
 
 procured money by improper means, which led her to 
 her fate/^ 
 
 William Hale, a silk -manufacturer, and treasurer of the 
 poor rates, gives it as his opinion, very emphatically ex- 
 pressed, that nothing is so pernicious to the labouring poor 
 as the lottery — that it is the prolific parent of disorders 
 and criMies — that no other mode of gambling would be so 
 baneful — and that its evils are inherent and altogether 
 irremediable. "If,'' he says, ^^I might give my opinion 
 of the ill effects of the lottery, of the influence it has in 
 corrupting the people, — and if I might form that opinion 
 from the appearances in Spital -fields, I should be led to 
 conclude, that there is no circumstance which conduces 
 so much as the lottery to make the lower orders of the 
 people bad husbands^ bad icives, bad childreuj and bad 
 servants. I know no one thing which has been productive 
 of so many evils and so much suicide as the lottery. There 
 is hardly a year but one or more have hung themselves, or 
 cut their throats, from gambling in the lottery*" 
 
 On a second examination he said ; " I have conversed 
 with several persons who have had to do with parochial 
 concerns, and they all agree in the beggary produced from 
 this cause ; and I am convinced, that, independently of 
 the depravity and guilt it occasions, ihei^e is more lost 
 than gained by the lottery to government. ^^ 
 
 The Rev. Brownlow Ford, the ordinary of Newgate, 
 who had filled that station for the period of ten years, de- 
 posed, that the lottery was the author of great poverty and 
 distress — that it was the acknowledged origin of much 
 crime — and that it was the occasion of bringing many per- 
 sons to the gallows. He says, "When I have put the 
 question to malefactors, ^ What first drove you to crime ?' 
 the answer has been, ^ It was poverty from buying and 
 insuring in the lottery,^ '' 
 
15 
 
 The evidence of Hector Essex, a pawnbroker, who had 
 been in the business twenty -five years, is pregnant with 
 proofs of the wonderful infatuation of persons engaged 
 either in the purchase of tickets, or their insurance, by 
 pawning plate, linen, beds, and the common necessaries 
 of life to obtain money, which was ventured and lost. He 
 speaks of women as being most captivated by the alhire- 
 ments of the game, and alleges, that discord and bank- 
 ruptcy, the distress and dispersion of fiimilies, always 
 marched in its train. One instance is given of a female, 
 who, though always unsuccessful, persevered until her 
 liusband was ruined. When informed of the fact, he 
 drowned himself in a fit of despair. 
 
 Such are some of the facts elicited by the examinations 
 of the committee of the House of Commons, whose report 
 led to enactments, assuasive, they were considered, of the 
 •complicated and accumulated evils of the lottery. Other 
 examinations show what it is here unnecessary to quote — 
 the ingenious and multiplied expedients of the lottery 
 venders for evading the laws, as well as the perfidy of the 
 government officers in winking at transgressions, and par- 
 taking of the fruits of illicit adventures. The whole re- 
 port discloses a scene of iniquity so ojultiform, and of 
 misery so hopeless, as to sicken and appal the mind. The 
 restrictions intended by new statutes soon ceased to exhibit 
 any mitigation in their effects, till at last the whole sys- 
 tem was abscinded as the most noxious and venomous ex- 
 crescence that could deform the legislation or poison the 
 moral atmosphere of England. Its close was distinguished 
 by events which perhaps will ever be remembered in the 
 annals of self-destruction. A scheme was formed in Lon- 
 don displaying several magnificent prizes of ,£50,000 and 
 dglOO,000, which tempted to ventures of very large 
 amount, and the night of the drawing was signalized by 
 
16 
 
 fifty cases of suicide ! With these tragedies terminated 
 the career of the lottery in the English isle. — From facts 
 of this character what opinion are we authorised to form 
 of the magnitude of the evil ? An evil which paralizes in- 
 dustry, destroys domestic concord, saps the foundations of 
 correct principles, and leads to the commission of the 
 darkest crimes in the criminal calendar ? What ought we 
 to think of that legislation which can give it protection ? 
 As well might a legislature cherish by the public bounty, 
 a monster whose pestilential and baneful breath scattered 
 deformity, sickness, and death widely over the country. 
 
 If an investigation were made of its influence in this 
 country, we should have no cause of triumph at an ex- 
 emption from any of the ills which it inflicted on England. 
 Cases are numerous, exhibiting its effects in producing 
 great pecuniary distress, in exciting to the commission of 
 extensive and multifarious frauds, and in leading to suicide 
 and other atrocious felonies. The only difficulty consists, 
 not in the want but in the selection of examples, since, 
 from the respectability of relations and friends, much deli- 
 cacy is necessary in the mention of circumstances. Though 
 from this cause the names of the persons whose cases are 
 detailed, may, with some exceptions, be suppressed, as 
 well as the authorities upon which they are given, yet we 
 pledge ourselves for the truth of each related, and can 
 produce living witnesses of their accuracy. 
 
 We first give an extract from a letter written by Joseph 
 Watson, Esq., formerly Mayor of Philadelphia, who, in 
 addition to his general testimony, gives an affecting in- 
 stance of moral aberration in the decline of life. 
 
 ^^I do not think it necessary, says he, to go into a detail 
 of a number of cases that occur to my remembrance of the 
 awful efiects produced on individuals and families by the 
 infatuation of lottery gambling, I have known individuals 
 
17 
 
 of former good repute and standing in society, who, in 
 bitter agony of feeling, have declared to me, that they 
 were guilty of breach of trust, larceny, or other crimes, 
 induced solely by gambling in lotteries, and vesting all 
 their property, and that of others entrusted to them, in 
 tickets. I will state to you a single case, some time, I think, 
 in 1827. A gray-headed old man, of gentlemanly appear- 
 ance and acquirements, was brought into the police office, 
 charged with picking a pocket; his trunk was searched, 
 and in it were found lottery tickets, plans, and schemes, for 
 many past years. Being asked why so great a quantity of 
 these were found in his possession, he answered, in sub- 
 stance, that they were the product of his lottery dealings 
 for the last twelve or fifteen years, within which period he 
 had actually squandered or expended for tickets as many 
 thousand dollars, without at any time having been success- 
 ful, except in trifling prizes — that he had recently spent 
 his last dollar, his last ticket had come out a blank, and to 
 prevent starvation, he had made the attempt for which he 
 was brought up. This man, it was believed, had previously 
 maintained an irreproachable character. I think he died a 
 convict, in Walnut street prison.^^ 
 
 The following instance of wrecked happiness and 
 fame, is from the pen of an estimable gentleman, whose 
 character is a full guaranty for its correctness. We merely 
 abridge his narrative by excluding extraneous circum- 
 stances. 
 
 ^^ A young man, of respectable family, was in the employ 
 of an extensive mercantile house in this city. (Philadel- 
 phia.) For a number of years he conducted himself with 
 great propriety and fidelity, married an amiable young 
 woman, with whom he lived happily, and had an interest- 
 ing little family growing up around him. His salary was 
 such as to enable him to live comfortably and respectably, 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 with a proper attention to frugality. For some time pre- 
 vious to the sad development of his dishonesty, there was 
 an obvious change in his countenance and conduct at home. 
 He became irritable, and showed some unkindness to his 
 wife and children. One morning he was missed from the 
 counting house ^ * *. He had eloped — and left his wife 
 and children in a situation even more distressing than that 
 of the widow and the fatherless. A note was found ad- 
 dressed to his employers, stating that he had been tempted 
 many months before to purchase a lottery ticket, the pos- 
 session of which had excited an insatiable thirst for buying 
 more. That he had gone on for a considerable time, occa- 
 sionally elated by obtaining a prize, and at other times 
 almost in despair, racked with anxiety and suspense, and 
 tortured with the fear of the consequences which must re- 
 sult from the iniquitous course he was pursuing. But the 
 passion for this dreadful species of gambling had com- 
 pletely infatuated him — he exhausted his own funds in the 
 purchase of tickets, and reached forth his hands to em- 
 brace the money of his employers. The compunctions 
 which he first felt for so disgraceful an act, were soon 
 drowned in the vain and false hope of retrieving his ruined 
 fortunes. Again and again did he appropriate their mo- 
 ney to gratify his unholy appetite for lottery tickets, con- 
 triving by false entries to conceal the robbery — until at 
 length the sum became so great that it could not longer 
 be kept a secret. Unable to face the degradation and re- 
 proach which must ensue, he took the desperate resolution 
 of abandoning a faithful and affectionate wife and his help- 
 less children, and absconded, leaving them destitute of 
 almost every comfort. The sum of which he had de- 
 frauded his employers amounted to thousands of dollars. '^ 
 ' We cannot resist the temptation to quote the following 
 account, given by a lottery vender of New York, as to the 
 
Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 Class 30, 
 
 was 
 
 S50 
 
 do. 31, 
 
 do. 
 
 40 
 
 do. 32, 
 
 do. 
 
 12 
 
 do. 11, 
 
 do. 
 
 50 
 
 do. 33, 
 
 do. 
 
 300 
 
 do. 34, 
 
 do. 
 
 50 
 
 do. 35, 
 
 do. 
 
 100 
 
 19 
 
 destination of prizes which were sold by him in a certain 
 class drawn during the autumn of 1831, and of his own 
 impoverishment by purchasing in the lottery. 
 ^^The highest prize sold by me in Class 30, 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 , ^^The first prize, of ^50, was sold to a black man. I 
 never saw him after. 
 
 ^^The second, of 840, was sold to a black man. He spent 
 it all in tickets, and got in my debt S2.50, which he has 
 not paid. 
 
 "The third, 812, was sold to a neighbour of mine. He 
 took the amount in tickets, and lost the whole. He never 
 purchased of me after that. 
 
 *^The fourth, of S300, was sold to a journeyman baker. 
 He drew a S 1,000 prize afterwards; he spent the whole 
 8300 prize with me, and, as I understand, he left his em- 
 ployment and the city much in debt. 
 
 "The fifth, of S50, was sold to a woman who spent the 
 whole for tickets, and more too, in less than a week. 
 
 ^^The sixth and last was sold to a young gentleman of my 
 acquaintance. He bought more tickets than the prizes 
 came to. He drew afterwards S 1,000; I presume, in fact 
 he told me, he had spent every cent of it in lottery tickets; 
 I am thus particular, and I am enabled to be so, from hav- 
 ing kept a book in which ^all my tickets were registered, 
 and I have invariably taken the names of purchasers, or a 
 description of their persons. The lottery brokers gene- 
 rally do so ; they are a keen set of fellows, and pretty sure 
 not to let a person who may be so unfortunate as to draw 
 
20 
 
 a high prize, escape their clutches. It may not be amiss 
 to state my own experience. I have within seven years, 
 drawn the whole of . - - . 810,000 
 
 Half of 824,000, - - - - 12,000 
 
 Half of 5,000, ... - 2,500 
 
 and minor prizes of 81,000 and downwards, to an immense 
 amount. I have drawn at least twenty prizes of $1,000 
 each, and I am now indebted for lottery tickets over $7,000, 
 without the means of paying a mill ; and I believe my luck 
 has been better than that of any other man in America. I 
 have had tickets forced upon me by the venders, to the 
 amount of $5,000 in a single lottery. As long as there 
 was any chance of redeeming myself from insolvency, I 
 was willing to take the risk, and so were they, believing 
 in my ability to pay them." 
 
 The pernicious and destructive influence of the sys- 
 tem is justly depicted by the Hon. John Sergeant, in 
 a speech which he delivered in Congress in the year 
 1829. We extract a brief passage, as well for the 
 intrinsic value of the testimony, as for the case which 
 is related in elucidation: — **So great,^' says he, ^Ms 
 this temptation in its actual results on society, that in a 
 thousand cases it has urged men to the commission of 
 acts which brought them to a jail, if not the gallows. He 
 adverted to one very affecting instance in illustration of his 
 position. It was the case of an aged and highly respecta- 
 ble man of character, till then unblemished, and of such 
 standing as to bring him into an office of great trust in a 
 monied institution. In consequence of a defalcation in 
 the funds, the gray hairs of this unhappy man were brought 
 down to the lowest state of ignominy, by his being tried 
 and convicted for purloining the money of the institution. 
 It was found on examining into the case, that all this amount 
 of funds had gone into a lottery office. The man had been 
 
21 
 
 dealing in lottery tickets a long time before, (in tickets 
 authorised by law,) but being unfortunate, he yielded in 
 despair to the force of a propensity which sometimes gets 
 the mastery of the strongest minds, and which is sure to 
 make an easy conquest over weak ones.'' 
 
 The case of C g is well known by many persons in 
 
 this city. He was teller in the Mechanics' Bank, sustained 
 an unexceptionable character, and had an interesting 
 family around him, to which he was affectionately at- 
 tached. His income was sufficient for his comfortable sup- 
 'port, but attracted by the splendid prizes in lottery 
 schemes, in which the price of a ticket was fifty dollars, 
 he embarked, and purchased to very large amounts. It 
 is calculated that he lost about ten thousand dollars by his 
 lottery adventures. Necessity induced fraud, and he lost 
 his situation in the bank ; he became poor in purse and 
 despicable in principle ; and he died in a miserable con- 
 dition — an object of disgrace and scorn. 
 
 A person in the laboratory of the Messrs. , drew 
 
 20,000 dollars. With this sum he furnished a house, and 
 commenced living in a style totally different from that to 
 which he had been accustomed. He contracted intem- 
 perate habits, and in twelve months squandered the whole 
 amount of his prize. He became miserably poor, incapa- 
 ble of working, and very dissolute. 
 
 A young man of the utmost respectability was gradually 
 drawn into gambling in the lottery. He purchased to such 
 an extent beyond his means, that for the purpose of pay- 
 ing the lottery broker, he was obliged to have recourse to 
 overdrawing the bank. This he did to the amount of five 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 The cashier of a bank in , who had long enjoyed 
 
 the entire confidence of his fellow-citizens, was discovered 
 to be a heavy defaulter. He at length confessed that the 
 
22 
 
 cause of his ruin was the lottery, in which he had largely 
 embarked. He was insolvent to the amount of fifty thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 A married woman of respectable character commenced 
 gambling in the lottery. She lost a large sum, which she 
 had secretly abstracted from the desk of her husband — 
 the result of his hard earnings. Becoming alarmed and 
 unhappy from the apprehension that he would miss the 
 money, she submitted to prostitution to enable her to re- 
 place it. The facts were subsequently developed, and the 
 family, in consequence, " were ruined and broken up." 
 
 A young man, a clerk in a wholesale store, was tempted 
 to try his fortune in the purchase of tickets. To carry 
 on his purchases he was obliged to borrow money upon 
 the credit of his employer. The fraud was finally de- 
 tected, and an investigation resulted in finding him a de- 
 faulter to the amount of eighteen hundred dollars. He 
 was, besides, indebted one thousand dollars to the lottery 
 brokers. 
 
 There is another instance of a clerk in one of our most 
 respectable counting houses, who, from his losses in the 
 lottery, was induced to embezzle money intrusted to him 
 for deposite in bank, alleging that the amount was less 
 than represented. The frequent recurrence of the trick 
 led to his detection. The total prostration of his charac- 
 ter and ruin of his prospects, were the consequence. 
 
 W of failed, in the autumn of 1832. He had 
 
 been engaged in what appeared to be a profitable retail 
 dry goods business. The cause of his defalcation was dis- 
 covered to be the lottery, in which he had lost about five 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 Our list of examples is concluded with the following 
 narrative, kindly communicated by a very respectable 
 gentleman, who is connected with the institution to which 
 
23 
 
 it refers. The principal facts — that of the abstraction 
 and its origin — are matters of notoriety in this community. 
 We alter only to abridge : 
 
 '' The evils of lottery gambling were never, perhaps, 
 more strongly exemplified, than in the case of that infatu- 
 ated man, Clew, the porter of the Bank of the United 
 States. This individual occupied, in the Bank a 
 very confidential station, and although many small 
 sums of monies were occasionally missed, under cir- 
 cumstances very trying to the officers, and particularly 
 to the Tellers, yet no suspicion had attached to Clew, so 
 exemplary had been his general conduct. One day, the 
 officers of the bank in settling their daily morning balances 
 with the city banks, missed two notes of a thousand dol- 
 lars each. * * * In a few hours both the missing notes were 
 presented by two lottery brokers, who upon being asked 
 from whom they had been received, stated from Clew, the 
 porter of the United States' Bank. To each of these 
 brokers he was then indebted for lottery tickets more than 
 a thousand dollars, and when thus detected there were 
 found in his possession 426 whole tickets, 462 half tickets, 
 1361 quarter tickets, and 78 eighths of tickets, in various 
 lotteries, making in all two thousand, three hundred and 
 twenty-seven chances, which after having been all drawn 
 and examined by order of the bank, produced less than 
 twenty dollars ! Facts afterwards disclosed satisfied the 
 officers of the bank, that this man had been for years led 
 away by this worst of all species of gambling, because the 
 most seductive and the least odious, and had constantly 
 been defrauding the institution that confided in him, of 
 sums of money for the purpose of carrying on his nefarious 
 speculations. 
 
 '' It is scarcely necessary to add, that his villanies met 
 with the reward consequent upon them, — trial, conviction, 
 
24 
 
 imprisonment, — and that with blasted reputation and 
 ruined character, he yet lives, a lasting monument of the 
 miserable effects of this pernicious system.^' 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that in all cases of delinquency on 
 the part of officers of the Bank of the United States, whether 
 belonging to the principal institution or its branches, the un- 
 lawful fruits have been squandered in lottery offices. So 
 far too as any knowledge has transpired in relation to the 
 origin of delinquencies in our local banks, the same re- 
 mark will apply — they are all traceable to, and centre in, 
 the same shocking reservoirs of ruined virtue, shipwrecked 
 fortunes, and blighted hopes ! 
 
 The instances of fraud and crime which have been no- 
 ticed as growing out of the system, might be greatly mul- 
 tiplied. But we forbear, and shall content ourselves with 
 introducing a few examples of the disastrous effects of what 
 is termed good fortune in drawing the large prizes, 
 
 A person of the name of J , who was engaged in a 
 
 respectable grocery business, drew several prizes amounting 
 to forty thousand dollars. He quitted business, and was per- 
 suaded to adopt an expensive style of living. He very 
 soon expended the whole sum, became intemperate, and 
 died insolvent and broken hearted. 
 
 A man who resided in , drew a prize of thirty 
 
 thousand dollars among other smaller ones. He continued 
 his adventures, and eventually failed, fifty thousand dol- 
 lars in debt ! 
 
 A man who was pursuing a small but successful busi- 
 ness, purchased some lottery tickets, and drew one thou- 
 sand dollars. Again he drew ten thousand dollars, and on 
 another occasion five thousand dollars. The public heard of 
 all these prizes, but not of the expenditure in tickets neces- 
 sary to secure them. He neglected his business, and 
 finally abandoned it for that of the lottery. His habits 
 became dissipated, and he is now reduced to penury. 
 
25 
 
 Mr. , whose good fortune in the lottery had Leen 
 
 extensively bruited as wonderful, failed a few years ago. 
 He had once drawn a prize of S40,000, and others of in- 
 ferior amount. The account which he had kept showed 
 an aggregate of SBO^OOO, drawn at different periods, but 
 his expenditure for tickets amounted to the sum of 
 8120,000 ! He was insolvent ^70,000 !* 
 
 If we refer to the records of our Insolvent Court, we 
 shall find how very large a proportion of those who have 
 recourse to the insolvent laws, attribute their misfortunes 
 "to the lottery alone. f Intemperance, as can be proved by 
 almost innumerable instances, almost invariably follows as 
 one of its consequences ; for what is more likely to be re- 
 sorted to as a cure for the tedium of idleness or the agony 
 of successive losses than the excitement and insensibility 
 to be found in the glass? The tenants of the alms-house 
 and penitentiary at Philadelphia, bear abundant testimony 
 to its baleful influences. In a very recent case of commit- 
 ment to the latter, it was acknowledged by the oiTender, 
 that the lottery was the occasion of his crime, and the 
 first and last cause of his ruin. 
 
 These cases are tedious, but they cannot be uninterest- 
 ing to any one who regards the welfare or morals of the 
 community, as matters of moment. Would licensed gam- 
 bling tables be introductive of so much distress, such 
 variety and blackness of crime? The ademption to regu- 
 lar purchasers tnust always be great, for if every ticket 
 in a lottery were taken by a single adventurer, he would 
 find that after the deduction of profits for the manager 
 and the vender, and the defalcation from the nominal 
 amount of the prizes, nearly the half o^ his disbursements 
 
 * Vide Note 2, Appendix. 
 t Vide Note 3, Appendix. 
 
26 
 
 could not return. No other gambling is so ruinous in its 
 ultimate results. Besides it is afiirmedj and the argument 
 is by no means without plausibility and force, that the lot- 
 tery by Permutalioriy is radically a cheat; because it can 
 be ascertained which tickets are entitled to the prizes. — 
 But setting aside the inevitable losses and the inherent 
 frauds of the system, the lottery is more extensively and 
 deeply prejudicial than other modes of gambling. — The 
 odium of holding tickets in a lottery may be prevented by 
 committing to another the charge of the purchase. Not 
 so with manual gambling, in which, as personal superin- 
 tendence is necessary, the disgrace attendant upon par- 
 ticipation, cannot be obviated. Thus it is, that persons 
 pretending to respectability are induced to embark in lot- 
 tery adventures, who until a long course of obliquity has 
 rendered them callous to its consequences, would not incur 
 the disgi'ace. 
 
 The risks are greater in the lottery than in other gam- 
 ing ; for the risk of the latter may be as one to one, or 
 greater, at the discretion of the player, but the hazards 
 incident to the former are frequently in the proportion of 
 one to a thousand. In the one, loss of fortune may ensue 
 in a single night; but in the other, the excitements of 
 hope and the agony of disappointment may alternate in 
 such rapid succession, that the unhappy adventurer may 
 have a protracted struggle with the fickleness of chance 
 before he may know the result of the contest. In the 
 meantime he is rendered a useless, not to say pernicious 
 member of society, — his principles are contaminated by 
 familiar association with infamy and guilt, and his habits 
 debauched by indulging in the excesses to which he has 
 been driven. The life of a regular gambler may admit of 
 useful occupation in the intervals of play. But the ad- 
 venturer in the lottery broods by day and night over his 
 
27 
 
 tickets — his imagination is gloated with the grand idea of 
 possessing the capital prize — and his mind is held in that 
 state of constant excitement, which admits of nothing to 
 divert it from the one great and absorbing object of its con- 
 templation. Ordinary gambling may ruin the victim of 
 its infatuation at once, and drive him to suicide, or he may 
 borrow from his successful companion, beyond the possi- 
 bility of repayment, in the hope of retrieving his broken 
 fortunes. The speculator in the lottery, on the other 
 hand, is not vanquished at a blow, but in the caprices or 
 accidents of the wheel, though often the loser, he is some- 
 times the gainer — new stimulus is thus imparted to his 
 cupidity — he is urged on to new ventures — great good 
 fortune only whets his appetite for greater — and continued 
 411 luck only nourishes the hope of its speedy termination. 
 He soon finds that he is incapable of a higher effort than 
 discussing the merits of a scheme, or lounging upon the 
 counter of a lottery office, so that that which was resorted 
 to as promising a great blessing, has become the bane of his 
 happiness and the solemn business of his life. When his 
 means are exhausted, and his friends lose their confidence, 
 he cannot gratify his passion for the game, or his pru- 
 riency for its successes, by appealing like the regular 
 gamester to the fortunate winner for a new supply. Driven 
 as well by the desperate necessity of ministering to his 
 excitement as by depraved principles and reckless de- 
 spair, he is ready for the perpetration of any enormity. 
 Which then has the preponderance of evil as an engine 
 of state ? If the risks be greater by which the consequent 
 prospect of loss must be commensurately increased — if it 
 be more likely to lead to incurable idleness — if its perni- 
 cious influence be more widely diffused — and if its inevit- 
 able and more certain tendency is to intemperance, to 
 perfidity, to fraud, and to crime, we can be at no loss to 
 
28 
 
 which to attribute the loathsome superiority. — But placing 
 the lottery upon the same level with other gambling — 
 placing it upon the footing of a great moral^ and, in our 
 country especially, a great political evil, may we ask 
 whether its continuance by law should be permitted, un- 
 der a form of government which depends for its existence 
 and conservation upon the high minded purity of its 
 members? Whether that which is so directly at war with 
 the whole policy of this country, whose every interest 
 consists in making wealth the fruit of intelligent industry 
 and presenting every incentive to useful and honourable 
 exertion, should be cherished and nurtured by the genial 
 sunshine of protective legislation ? 
 
 But not only is the lottery injurious in the abstract, as 
 contributing to great pecuniary distress and moral wrong, 
 but the system as conducted in Pennsylvania, and no doubt 
 from the existence of similar causes elsewhere, superin- 
 duces additional evil. Every means seems to be employed, 
 every incitement resorted to by the guardians of the lot- 
 tery, to render it as extensively prejudicial and as radi- 
 cally hurtful as possible. Let us take a brief view of its 
 administration in Pennsylvania, since the remarks which 
 apply to it here, may, with very few exceptions, be made 
 in relation to other parts of the Union in which the lot- 
 tery prevails. 
 
 There exists but one lottery which has even the 
 semblance of law in Pennsylvania, and that had com- 
 mencement in the year 1795. Though an act of as- 
 sembly passed three years before, prohibited the sale 
 of foreign lottery tickets under a severe pecuniary 
 penalty, and the act of 1811, incorporating the Union 
 Canal Company, greatly increased the forfeiture for the 
 exclusive benefit of the Company ; yet the law has been in- 
 fringed in the face of day by the open and notorious vending 
 
29 
 
 of a greater quantity of tickets, by twenty times, than the 
 Company have ever been permitted to sell. The continual 
 augmentation of lottery offices in Philadelphia, illustrates 
 the progressive character of the evil. In 1809 three 
 offices only are recollected to have existed in Philadel- 
 phia; in 1827 the number was computed at sixty; in 
 1831 they were ascertained to amount to one hundred and 
 seventy-seven ; and now, in the beginning of 1833, the 
 number may be estimated at above two hundred. In these 
 offices were vended, during the last year, tickets in 420 
 schemes, whose prizes amount to 53,136,930, dollars, as 
 may be seen by the subjoined tabular statement : 
 
 States authorizing Lotteries. 
 
 Amount of Prizes. 
 
 Number of Schemes. 
 
 New Y(jrk, 
 
 Virginia, - 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 Delaware &, North Carouna, (joint grants,) 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 $13,188,818 
 10,010,153 
 7,638,201 
 7,184,486 
 3,174,324 
 2,028,162 
 614,408 
 
 73 
 
 65 
 81 
 62 
 34 
 17 
 29 
 
 *Aggregate for 11 months, 
 
 Add one-eleventh, (to complete the year,) 
 
 $43,838,552 
 3,985,322 
 
 361 
 33 
 
 Aggregate for one year. 
 
 If to this be added the amount of the Union 
 Canal Lotteries drawn within the same 
 period, 
 
 $47,823,874 
 5,313,056 
 
 394 
 26 
 
 Grand Total, ... 
 
 $53,136,930 
 
 420 
 
 Of these 420 schemes, whose tickets have been con- 
 stantly for sale in Philadelphia during the year 1832, all 
 are expressly prohibited by law, except the 26 issued 
 by the Union Canal under an authority which almost 
 every one admits to be terminated. Thus the people of 
 Pennsylvania are made to contribute to the internal im- 
 
 * Taken from an accurate list of schemes up to December 1, 1832. 
 
30 
 
 provements of New York, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, Delaware and North Carolina, Maryland, and De- 
 laware, as well as to pay a large sum to a Company of their 
 own state, whose grant has expired. Nor are the other 
 states in which there are large cities, exempt from similar 
 burthens — each is taxed for the local convenience of the 
 others, in proportion to the facilities presented for impo- 
 sition. But Pennsylvania, by being the great mart for 
 nearly all the lotteries in the United States, has reason for 
 stronger and louder complaint. In defiance of all her legisla- 
 tive prohibitions of foreign lotteries, her citizens are annu- 
 ally taxed to an immense amount — perhaps for a church in 
 Connecticut, or a rail road through the Dismal Swamp, or 
 for other improvements in which she has as remote a pros- 
 pect of interest or advantage. 
 
 The amount of purchases in the United States, we can- 
 not pretend to assert, but the pecuniary loss per week to 
 the people of Philadelphia may be estimated at thirty 
 thousand dollars. This sum is nearly lost to the people, 
 for the only pretended benefit accruing to the cause of 
 physical improvement is the inconsiderable sum of thirty 
 thousand dollars per annum, supposed to be applied to the 
 purposes of internal navigation. It follows that all the 
 pecuniary distress — all the idleness and crime superin- 
 duced — are inflicted upon the citizens of Pennsylvania, 
 without the hope of benefit or the expectation of return. 
 
 The drawings in Philadelphia are frequent, and it is 
 believed about every fortnight throughout the year. Wit- 
 ness the assemblages at the arcade on these occasions. 
 Hundreds of wretched persons are collected, whose in- 
 tense anxiety is read in their flushed and distorted coun- 
 tenances. Listen to the loud imprecations and blasphemy 
 mingled with the scarcely audible whisper of profane. 
 
31 
 
 delirious, and intoxicating joy, upon the announcement of 
 a prize ! Follow the motley throng upon dispersion, and 
 witness the agonizing disappointment and despair which 
 ninety-nine out of a hundred exhibit ! Yet to the relief of 
 these hope soon comes in the chances of to-morrow. They 
 again attend, and with a beating pulse and palpitating 
 heart, hear — another disappointment in another blank! 
 Are not such spectacles and scenes a disgrace to, and re- 
 flection upon humanity? 
 
 In the two hundred lottery offices in Philadelphia, it is 
 estimated that there may be fiwQ or six hundred persons 
 employed to attend to the business of the respective offices. 
 These persons subsist and grow rich by preying upon their 
 deluded fellow-citizens. Boys of the tenderest age are 
 initiated into all the mysteries of the craft, which are those 
 of habitual falsehood and schemes of rapine. The arts that 
 are practised to induce a purchase, and the cheats devised 
 for robbing the wretched victim of his prize w^hen he hap- 
 pens to draw one, are too notorious to need elucidation by 
 example. Nevertheless, a remarkable instance of the lat- 
 ter shall be recorded. A person residing in or near Ger- 
 mantown held a ticket which drew the capital prize. Be- 
 fore the fact was known to the holder, three men rode out 
 from the city, and so frightened the man by representing 
 to him that his ticket was forged, that he was induced to 
 relinquish it. The men returned to the city, obtained the 
 prize, and divided it amongst them. The fraud was sub- 
 sequently detected, and the culprits convicted and punish- 
 ed. — It would be endless to notice all the species of petty 
 frauds which are daily committed; such as disposing of 
 five and seven quarters of tickets, selling and insuring 
 tickets which have long since been drawn, and the forgery 
 of tickets and prizes. We shall here give an instance of 
 the last. A young man by the name of Ebenezer Wright, 
 
32 
 
 was brought before the Mayor some time ago, charged with 
 presenting at a lottery office^ to be cashed, a ticket whose 
 number was entitled to the prize. The report of the case 
 is contained in a newspaper, and concludes thus: — 
 a Wright has been dealing largely in lottery tickets for a 
 number of years past, by which he has sunk a considerable 
 sum of money, notwithstanding on one occasion he drew a 
 prize of 1500 dollars. He remarked to the officer who 
 arrested him, that lotteries had cheated him out of a clever 
 fortune, and he thought retaliation no more than justice." 
 
 Tickets are so subdivided into minute parts, that 12| 
 cents is sufficient to purchase a chance. Thus a lure is 
 held out to youth of both sexes and of all conditions, and 
 every motive is presented for stealing the trivial sum which 
 gives an opportunity for the capital prize. Accordingly, 
 we find the apprentice to a trade, the indented girl, and 
 the chimney sweep, among the adventurers. The venders, 
 as if to secure customers at any hazard, have standing cur- 
 rent accounts with girls in kitchens, apprentices to trades, 
 and young clerks in stores, who, from month to month, are 
 debited with tickets, and credited with prizes. The result 
 is always disastrous in the privation of all they possessed, 
 and insolvency to a frightful amount.* 
 
 From such a melancholy exhibition of the abuses of lot- 
 teries, and the number of individuals sustained and enriched 
 by them, the inference is unavoidable that the number of 
 adventurers must be proportionably great. There is no 
 means of ascertaining with any desirable precision, what 
 number of people buy lottery tickets. But it is certain, 
 and may be relied upon as an incontestable fact, that hun- 
 dreds of persons in Philadelphia depend upon their suc- 
 cess in the lottery for their subsistence, and pursue no 
 
 * Vide Note 4, Appendix. 
 
33 
 
 other means of livelihood. Can it be believed, that in % 
 city like Philadelphia, there can exist so much crime, dis- 
 sipation, and idleness? In a city where honest and useful 
 exertion is so well repaid, where benevolence is so actively 
 employed to promote virtue by the establishment of libra- 
 ries and schools — to prevent vice by the institution of a 
 Refuge for young delinquents — and to arrest its career by 
 presenting opportunities of reform in separate imprison- 
 ment? It is nevertheless, true, that hundreds pursue no 
 other occupation than inspect schemes, purchase tickets, 
 and attend to the drawings, with the other venial devices for 
 cozenage and fraud which are its necessary concomitants. 
 If it be the duty of government to encourage idleness, that 
 duty may be accomplished through the instrumentality of 
 the lottery. If the objects of laws be to introduce domestic 
 unhappinessand every diversity of criminal propensity, it is 
 apparent that the lottery will well achieve those objects. 
 
 Upon what principle can enlightened legislation, having 
 other objects and duties, permit an instrument of this sort 
 to continue? Is it for the value of the money raised, or is 
 it because the losses incident to lottery speculations may 
 be considered in the light of voluntary taxation? Its de- 
 luded victim does not regard it as a tax, but as the road to 
 sudden wealth, dispensing with the necessity of labour. If 
 it be called taxation, it is unjust because it is unequal, and 
 comes chiefly from the pockets of the poorest of the people. 
 May not money be raised by a mode which is equal in its ope- 
 ration, which takes from the rich man in proportion to his 
 property, and which, not confined to the necessitous, will 
 not dry up the means of future support, and cut off the 
 possibility of future contribution? If the physical im- 
 provement of the state be one object of the lottery, let us 
 not forget what more than countervails the benefit — the 
 moral deterioration of the citizen. If revenue be its ob- 
 
 5 
 
M 
 
 ject, let us not forget that larger expenditures will be re- 
 quisite for the construction of new alms-houses and new 
 penitentiaries. In fine, there is no mode of raising money 
 which is so unequal and oppressive — no species of adven- 
 ture in which the chances are so many against the adven- 
 turer — none in which the infatuation attending it is so 
 powerful and engrossing — none which inflicts so much dis- 
 tress — and none which produces more general and atro- 
 cious criminality. The Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons, near to the close of their report, thus express their 
 opinion of the lottery as a measure of finance. It is es- 
 pecially true as applied to this country. — "Your Commit- 
 tee are conscious that they are far from having exhausted 
 all the grounds which might be urged, that the lottery 
 ought not to be resorted to as a financial resource. The 
 reasoning upon them appears to your committee to apply 
 with peculiar force, to the situation, the habits, and all the 
 circumstances of a great manufacturing and. commercial 
 nation, in which it must be dangerous, in the highest de- 
 gree, to diff'use a spirit of speculation, whereby the mind 
 is misled from those habits of continued industry which 
 insure the acquisition of comfort and independence, to 
 delusive dreams of sudden and enormous wealth, which 
 most generally end in abject poverty and complete misery.'' 
 The great question remains, what will have the effect of 
 extirpating so prodigious an evil? Experience has proved, 
 both in England and America, that no regulations can pal- 
 liate its mischiefs, and no prohibitions, though armed with 
 penalties, are adequate to give to it a prescribed restriction. 
 If the act of 1805, passed by the Assembly of Pennsyl- 
 vania, for preventing insurances by forfeitures be coolly 
 \ contemned — if the acts of 1792 and 1811, likewise annex- 
 ing pecuniary penalties to the sale of foreign tickets be 
 inadequate to their purpose, what confidence is to he re- 
 
35 
 
 posed in fines and forfeitures? Could not its destruction be 
 effected by imposing imprisonment as for a criminal offence? 
 Should not that which destroys the peace of families and 
 is the origin of every criminal excess, be itself visited by 
 criminal punishment? We commend the subject to the 
 anxious and deliberate attention of the philanthropist and 
 patriot, as incalculably momentous to the present well-being 
 of society, and to the future prospects of the country. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTEl. Pages. 
 
 We quote from an excellent book, designed to show the evils of 
 the lottery, a passage in reply to the allegation often made, that it is 
 not a game, and consequently does not fall under the denunciation 
 against ordinary gambling, The book is in the form of a dialogue, 
 and the passage quoted is in reply to that observation. 
 
 *' Are not the silent partners in a game as much interested as those 
 who are manually engaged ? Are the gamesters upon the turf less in- 
 terested for not riding their own horses ? Every ticket holder is a 
 partner in the lottery game, and the managers are their deputed agents 
 to play it. But the managers are by no means disinterested, their com- 
 missions upon the amount staked being a powerful stimulous to exer- 
 tion; and from causes which I have not descended to investigate, they 
 not only withhold all profits from those who furnish the capital, but 
 absorb a great portion of the capital itself. A case has been publicly 
 stated in this city, and not disproved, where the adventurers in a single 
 lottery suffered a loss of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. I 
 make no allegation of fraud ; but that men, without capital, should 
 realize such immense profits from their labour, appears irreconcilable 
 with fair deahng. I know not what so essentially constitutes gaming, 
 as placing property at the disposition of hazard ; and in no case, actual 
 or supposed, can it be more completely subjected to the control of 
 chance, than in the lottery wheel. The conclusion then is just, that 
 managers, to protect their profession from suspicions of fraud and cir- 
 cumvention, in drawing the lot, must either acknowledge the lot to be 
 a fair game of chance, or by denying it confirm those suspicions." 
 * * ^t It * 
 " I have heard you with patience and without surprise ; for I am 
 no stranger to the influence of avarice upon principle, nor of sophis- 
 
38 
 
 try required to * make the worse appear the better reason ;' and with 
 your indulgence, will analyze some of your positions, and try their 
 validity by the standard of rectitude. Your description of gaming is 
 correct ; and I am the more particularly indebted for your explanation, 
 from its special application to lottery especulation ; for you have urged 
 no reasons for the prohibition of gaming, that do not apply with aggra- 
 vated force to what I denominate lottery gambling. You mention t(i/c- 
 9168^ as a concomitant of gaming. What has a greater tendency to 
 rerttit exertions than the expectation of independence without it ? You 
 justly insert dissipation in your list of evils attached to gaming. In 
 what other game is the subversion of reason so necessary for the suc- 
 cess of the players as in that of lottery ? This is evinced by the uni- 
 ifcrm support given by lottery dealers to the licensing system, and their 
 opposition to the temperance reformation. What class of venders 
 make sale of so many lottery tickets as retailers of ardent spirits ? The 
 winner must heat for his good luck, and the loser drown his grief in 
 the bottle. You say that dishonesty is an appurtenance of gaming. I 
 agree with you, and hope to coDvincc you that no game so necessarily 
 engenders this vice as the one which lottery brokers play for a living. 
 Be not disturbed ; I bring no * railing accusation' against ihe players, 
 however much justice might inculpate them. My business is with 
 the dishonest principle which is inseparably interwoven with the sys- 
 tem. You pertinently annex covetousness, avarice, and disregard to the 
 rights of others, to the catalogue of delinquencies. I shall consider 
 them all one family, and treat them as kindred. What better evidence 
 can be produced of the existence of dishonest principles in men, than 
 their coveting their neighbour's goods, without paying a consideration? 
 And where is this principle inculcated so effectually and unblushingly 
 as in lotteries 1 Here adventurers are enticed by every seductive arti- 
 fice to risk their money. The allurements of sudden wealth are dis- 
 played in their most dazzling colours. The devout aspiration * lead us 
 not into temptation,' which was enjoined by Him who * spake as never 
 man spake,' is little heeded by the adroit and interested manager. The 
 ignorant and unwary are thus entrapped, and made the willing con- 
 verts to sordid selfishness. The ties of social interest are loosened, 
 and the cords of reciprocal good will severed. Liberality is supplanted 
 by covetousness, and generosity by avarice ; and the gamester, des- 
 poiled of all the benevolent feelings of his nature, lives for himself 
 alone. He envies the prosperous, and asperses the good. He well 
 
39 
 
 knows that others must lose what he hopes to win ; and the climax of 
 his hope is the ruin of his neighbours. Such unsocial feelings and de« 
 basing affections are generated by the lottery system, and '■ grow with 
 its growth and strengthen with its strength.' They take full pos- 
 session of the minds of adventurous youth, and moral honesty * has 
 not where to lay its head.' 
 
 " Do you doubt these truths, sir? attend the police courts of our 
 city, and witness the incipient progress of these principles in juvenile 
 offenders. See their early depravity nourished by the poisonous ali- 
 ment of gambling speculation ; and if I am not misinformed, lottery 
 tickets are the frequent stakes at the most filthy gambling tables. The 
 contagion infects the whole community ; neither town, village, nor 
 hamlet is free from the contamination. Mechanics and children issue 
 unauthorised schemes, and to * conspire to defraud' is the popular test 
 of ingenious merit, and has been deemed legally excusable by our 
 courts of judicature. Your plea in support of the lottery system, that 
 its existence is indispensable for the accomplishment of objects of 
 public utility, I contend is untenable. The equality of the contribu- 
 tions which you assert, is warranted by no experience ; the reverse is 
 the fact. JVine-tenihs of the amount raised by lottery for public im- 
 provements, I have confidence to believe, are paid by the poorer class 
 of people, to whom these improvements can be of little or no value." 
 
 NOTE 2. Page 25. 
 
 Though cases in sufficient number are mentioned in the text for tha* 
 purposes of illustration, we cannot consent to exclude the following. In 
 every material fact these likewise are believed to be entirely correct ; 
 and several are very important. 
 
 " A young man, clerk in a highly respectable store in Market street, 
 with a salary rather exceeding his expenses, was in the habit of ex- 
 pending the excess in the purchase of lottery tickets ; the brokers be- 
 came acquainted with him, and commenced taking tickets to him at 
 his residence; after some time he purchased by the package, leaving 
 the tickets with the brokers, they to pay themselves out of the prizes, 
 and return him the overplus — the costs generally exceeding the amount 
 
40 
 
 of the prizes, he gave his notes for the differeace. At one time, being 
 pressed for money, he borrowed money in the name of his employers, 
 expecting to refund from the profits of a lottery to draw in a day or 
 two ; he was unsuccessful — his employer was called on for the money 
 borrowed — discovered the transaction, and dismissed him from his 
 employment — he was sued by one of the brokers, and took the 
 benefit, indebted to lottery brokers about g3,000." 
 
 " A respectable mechanic, a freeholder, and supposed to be well off, 
 was in the habit of purchasing occasionally a ticket, drew a prize, and 
 afterwards increased his purchases. He was beset by the brokers at 
 every drawing of a lottery to take the tickets remaining on hand — 
 sometimes the loss would not be great, but generally, there was almost 
 a total loss ; on some occasions he was stopped by brokers on Sundays 
 when about going to church with his family — they stated that news of 
 a drawing would be in by the mail of that day. He continued this 
 about two years, and then stopped, with a loss of about gl2,000." 
 
 " About four years ago, a young man entered into the employ of a 
 respectable cabinet-maker in this city, as a journeyman — in which 
 i3.ituation he continued about two years, conducting himself while un- 
 cler the notice of his employer with great propriety. His industry and 
 application to business were such that his weekly earnings were gene- 
 rally greater than those of any other person hired in the establishment. 
 The exemplary manner in which he conducted gained him the esteem 
 and confidence of his employer, who frequently entrusted large sums 
 of money to his care — and his weekly bills for work were made out 
 with so much accuracy and fidelity that they seldom needed any cor- 
 rection. Thus he continued for a considerable length of time, giving 
 entire satisfaction both in the performance of his work, and also, in the 
 sobriety and steadiness of his deportment. At length it was observed 
 that his dress became shabby and neglected, and he was mostly very 
 bare of money — so that it was a subject of surprise and wonder what 
 he could do with his money. One article of apparel after another dis- 
 appeared, until he was left almost without clothing, and eventually he 
 sold his last hat for a dollar. Suspicions had, before this time, been 
 excited, that he had fallen into some evil habits, and it was found that 
 the proceeds of his hat were expended in the purchase of a lottery 
 ticket! Here, the sad mystery of his poverty was at once unveiled ; — 
 
41 
 
 his earnings had been squandered in this worst species of gambling. 
 Again and again he had lost, and still seduced by the vain hope of re- 
 trieving his ruined circumstances, in the desperation which such a 
 course usually leads to, he determined to make one more attempt — to 
 ** try his luck" once more, and, in order to do so, he sold the only hat 
 he had to wear. But as is usual with all lottery gamblers, he lost 
 again ; and, dreadful to relate, in the extremity to which this wicked 
 system generally brings its deluded victims, he was tempted to com- 
 mit FORGERY. The principle of honesty and sense of shame, already 
 weakened by the debasing practice of dealing in lottery tickets, proved 
 too feeble to withstand the temptation, and he forged a check for two 
 hundred and fifty dollars ! Detection soon followed the commission 
 -of this dishonest act — he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to soli- 
 tary confinement in the penitentiary — where he now deplores his first 
 yielding to the purchase of a lottery ticket, which has blasted his hopes 
 and prospects for life, and stamped a character, once fair and honoura- 
 ble, with infamy and disgrace." 
 
 "A young man about nineteen years of age entered a lottery 
 office in Exchange street, on Monday morning, and bought part 
 of a lottery ticket, which he paid for with a pair of new gloves 
 and a black silk handkerchief. A person who kept his office in 
 part of the same room noticed the circumstance, and after the young 
 man retired, he advanced and inquired of the vender at what price 
 he had taken those articles. The vender answered that he had 
 allowed forty cents for the gloves and about sixty for the handker- 
 chief. Being a judge of the articles, and knowing that their estimated 
 value could not be less than three dollars, he took them from the lot- 
 tery vender and proceeded into Washington street, with a determina- 
 tion to find the young man and ascertain whether his suspicion that 
 they had been stolen was well founded. After showing them at seve- 
 ral stores, they were recognized and the young man identified. When 
 charged with having fraudulently obtained the property, the young 
 man made a full confession, and stated that he had been in the habit 
 of depredating upon his employer's property for some time, in order 
 to raise money to buy lottery tickets. What has been done with the 
 delinquent we have not been informed. This is another glaring and 
 startling instance of the mischievous consequences resulting from lot- 
 teries. Here is a young man probably ruined for life — whose charac- 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 ter was unblemished — who was tempted to a course of vice and crime, 
 merely to buy a lottery ticket — to make his fortune ! Let young men 
 take warning from his example." 
 
 " To . 
 
 " Sir — In compliance with your request to furnish you with any 
 information I might possess of the injurious effects of lotteries, I beg 
 leave to state, that I was intimately acquainted for many years with 
 
 Mr. ; that he was an excellent mechanic, well acquainted 
 
 with his business, which appeared to be prosperous and was pretty 
 extensive. 
 
 " He died in March, 1829, and I was called upon to assist at the 
 examination of his papers, and became one of his administrators. We 
 found a large number of lottery tickets, and his estate was entirely 
 insolvent ; those creditors who were not secured by judgments or 
 mortgages got nothing. 
 
 " 1 have no hesitation in saying, that I think the lotteries were the 
 principal cause of his ruin. He left a family entirely unprovided for, 
 and his losses in lottery tickets must have been very great, and I can- 
 not in any other way account for the great deficiency in his estate. 
 "I remain, very respectfully, yours, 
 
 J. R." 
 
 " A coloured boy, in the family of , was tempted to gamble in 
 
 the lottery. He stole six dollars from a white servant girl residing in 
 the family, and continued his lottery speculations till he drew five 
 hundred dollars. This led to his detection, when other frauds were 
 brought to light." 
 
 " A person of the name of W drew a prize of forty thousand 
 
 dollars, and several smaller ones. He continued to purchase in the 
 lottery until he lost, not only all he had gained, but failed seventy 
 thousand dollars in debt." 
 
 « "W , a dentist, lost twenty thousand dollars by a long course 
 
 of gambling in the lottery in connexion with C . Both were com- 
 pletely ruined." 
 
 " A pocket book containing the following letter was lost in this town 
 
43 
 
 yesterday. The letter was not sealed. The gentleman, into whose 
 hands it fell, opened it, for the purpose of ascertaining to whom the 
 pocket book belonged. The letter contained thirteen dollars of good 
 Portland money, bound on its way to the principal lottery office in 
 town, to purchase tickets. 
 
 " The gentleman believed as we do, that the publication of the letter 
 would do good, and therefore put it into our hands. The owner has 
 been found, and has received his pocket book, letter, and money; 
 and we think it not improbable that before the day's paper goes to 
 press, the money will be in the hands of Mr. Mudge & Co., for 
 tickets. This individual stated that this thirteen dollars was all the 
 money he had in the world, except nine shillings. — Portland Daily 
 Advertiser. 
 
 " Portland, Sept. 23, 1832. 
 
 " Mr, Mudge & Co : — Being brought from affluence to a state of 
 absolute need, and one of the aggravating kind ; three years ago 
 I was in possession of an elegant farm in New Hampshire, Cooa 
 county; it was considered to be worth g3,000. One of my neigh- 
 bours, by the name of Smith, had 81,000, and proposed to go to 
 trading. I, not being very well, consented to mortgage my farm for 
 j^l,500, for two years. Said Smith took his money and mine and 
 went to Boston to purchase the goods, and for me to get a store in 
 readiness for the reception of the goods at the appointed time, but no 
 Smith returned. Two weeks more passed away, but they were very 
 long, — no Smith came then. I began to be exceedingly troubled. I 
 went to Boston: he had not been there. I pursued him to St. 
 Marks, East Florida — gave it up — never heard a sound of him since. 
 I rented the farm ever since. It is very much out of repair, not being 
 able to do much on account of my severe loss of what I gained by the 
 sweat of my brow. Smith has been the cause of my family experi- 
 encing months of pain and sorrow. I have a wife, five children, and 
 aged parents, and a decrepid sister, all who look to me for their 
 support. My parents must go to the poorhouse in spite of all that I 
 can do ; yes, that must be their doom. My property is reduced to 
 one cow and pig ; and nothing to subsist upon this winter of any con- 
 sequence. I have been to Boston this season to see what I could 
 do. I received a letter from the man that I mortgaged my place to ; 
 says he, I have been to see your family ; they are all well, but full of 
 trouble. If you will get the S 1,500 in six weeks after the redemption 
 
44 
 
 is out, you may have the place again, providing you will get sufficient 
 bondmen for the interest. If you can get the g 1,500 sounded and re- 
 «ounded in my ear. I took what I had earned this season, went to 
 the lottery office, and purchased S57 worth of tickets of your lottery. 
 It so happened, to my ill-fortune, that I drawed only gll from the 57. 
 There went my summer's work. Then I was down again. Then 
 the thoughts of maintaining my family this winter rushed on me in 
 torrents. — Thought I, to Portland I will go, and from there home. 
 As I came into the city I concluded to tarry awhile. After I took 
 lodgings this thought came into my head ; whether good or not, I 
 know not; but I hope it will prove a benefit to me, viz : to give you 
 a true detail of my situation, and inclose what money I have; and if 
 you could work it so that 1 could draw a little something to support my 
 family thia winter, if nothing more, this little sum of money that I 
 have inclosed in this paper will be a productive one. There is not 
 one person on earth that is more needy of fourteen or fifteen htip4red 
 dollars than poor me — not more deserving. Now I pray yo\i to ad- 
 here to my petition, if you can assist any way to do it, so that I can 
 go home to my family with a joyful heart. I never will divulge it 
 during life; no one but God in heaven knows what my mind on this sub- 
 ject is. It is dire necessity that induces me to write you thus. I 
 never thought of such a thing before, and hope you will take no offence. 
 Please to drop a line in the post office immediately, for I want to 
 know my fate. Do, I entreat you to do the best for me that you can. 
 Tou say that you will warrant nine prizes in twenty tickets ; it is a 
 mystery to me ; but you know best. You can put the capital prize in 
 quarters, and give rae all the chance you can, says your distressed 
 
 E. H. H . 
 
 " Please to drop a line in the Portland Post-office, when to come 
 for the tickets. I purchase quarters in the three thousand dollars lot- 
 tery. I want you to let me have all you can for fifteen dollars. I am 
 an entire stranger in this place ; every thing looks very dismal to me. 
 Cold winter is fast approaching. When I look home, 0, my heart 
 aches. 
 
 "I don't see why twenty prizes don't coine in twenty tickets, as 
 they are all put into the wheel at once, or as likely not to be one prize 
 in a package. Losses, writs, and executions, and doctors' bills, have 
 eat up four thousand dollars for me ; but if I could get the farm back 
 again, I think I should be a happy man again. 
 
43 
 
 ** I want you to let me have tickets that you know will draw some- 
 thing — I know you can — because I want to go home soon and make 
 them all rejoice. Pray don't mention what I have wrote to you." 
 
 " A gentleman, worth considerable money, commenced the lottery 
 business in this city, about two years since, and did a very large busi- 
 ness, and risked a great many tickets for himself, so many that he 
 stopped with the loss of all he commenced with, and much indebted to 
 the managers. A friend of this gentleman called on the managers to 
 see what arrangement could be made about the balance due. The 
 managers very readily informed him, that they should not trouble Mr. 
 — — for what he owed them, as * he had not only ruined himself, but 
 had broke more men than any other vender in so short a time.' " 
 
 NOTE 3. Page 25. 
 
 The following Table of insolvent persons who have sustained losses 
 by dealing in lottery tickets, is made from the Records of the Insol- 
 vent Court of Philadelphia, by inspection of the petitions themselves, 
 deliberately sworn or affirmed to by the petitioners. One case only is 
 given from distinct recollection, as having occurred in 1826 ; a few 
 are given in 1828 and 1829 ; but in the last three years, to wit, in 
 1830, 1831, and 1832, a regular examination has been instituted, and 
 in those years, the list is believed to be complete. It may be observed 
 that many losses are occasioned by purchases of lottery tickets where 
 no mention is made of them in the petitions, but the fact is frequently 
 elicited by examinations at the bar. Such cases, which are numerous, 
 are of course not included in the table. 
 
 LOSSES ON LOTTERY TICKETS BY INSOLVENT DEBTORS. 
 
 Thomas Hope, Petition for March term, 1826, No. 77, About $50,000 
 
 Samuel Patterson, " " " " 1828, " 119, Amount not known 
 
 Thomas Hope, « " Sept " 1828, " 98, $200 
 
 William Diehl, " " " " 1828," 46, returns the following 
 
 lottery brokers as his creditors, to wit : — 
 
 N. & S. Sylvester's note, $1294 82 
 
 John Francis, book account, 82 24 
 
 John Reeder, do. 32 87 
 
 P. J. Decker, do. 32 47 
 
 Robertson & Little, book account, 13 00 
 Robert T. Bicknell, do. 27 31 
 
 The whole amount is, $1482 71 
 
46 
 
 Martin Dubs, Junior, 
 
 Petition for June term, 1829, No. 48, 
 
 $3900 
 
 Thomas Desilver, 
 
 M U U H 
 
 1829," 45, returns A. M.Nutt 
 
 
 and N. Sylvester, amount not remembered. 
 
 Henry Gebler, 
 
 PeUtion for June term, 1829, No. 61, 
 
 $4275 
 
 Robert B. Carson. 
 
 U U M U 
 
 1829, " 21, 
 
 About 800 
 
 George Weaver, 
 
 « " Sept " 
 
 1829, No. 336, 
 
 between fifteen 
 
 
 
 and twenty 
 
 thousand dollars 
 
 Thomas M'Kean Fim«ton, u u u u 
 
 1829, No. 103, 
 
 At least 200 
 
 John Arentrue, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1829, " 14, 
 
 $700 
 
 John Arentrue, 
 
 " " March •* 
 
 1830, « 7, 
 
 Actual loss 700 
 
 John C. Bickham, 
 
 U MUM 
 
 1830, ** 15, Am't not known 
 
 WiUiam Peitman, 
 
 U tt H U 
 
 1830, " 126, 
 
 U tt u 
 
 Edward Lehmanowsky, 
 
 U (1 U U 
 
 1830, " 127, 
 
 About $450 
 
 Lewis Lehmanowsky, 
 
 M U M U 
 
 1830, " 128, 
 
 About 450 
 
 George Apple, 
 
 " June •• 
 
 1830, - 11, 
 
 About 1600 
 
 John Dolby, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1830, « 75, 
 
 About 100 
 
 Joseph B. Dengan, 
 
 M U U U 
 
 1830, •* 77, 
 
 Nearly 1400 
 
 John King, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1830, - 168, 
 
 550 
 
 James Richman, Jr. 
 
 ti u u u 
 
 1830, " 252, 
 
 $1420 75 
 
 Peter S. WUtbohn, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1830, " 319, 
 
 About 4000 
 
 C. P. Yard, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1830, •» 329, 
 
 1263 
 
 Alexander Scott, 
 
 " •* Sept " 
 
 1830, •* 218, 
 
 350 
 
 Thomas Webster, 
 
 U U U M 
 
 1830, " 263, 
 
 About 400 
 
 David Babneus, 
 
 " Dec « 
 
 1830, " 7, 
 
 More than 2500 
 
 Charles L. Cook, 
 
 t u u u 
 
 1830, " 44, 
 
 Nearly 400 
 
 George M'Lcod, 
 
 u u u u 
 
 1830, " 130, Heavy and repeated 
 
 
 
 
 losses 
 
 Joseph Brown, 
 
 PetiUon for March term, 1831, « 27, 
 
 About $100 
 
 John S. Furey, 
 
 tt U tt u 
 
 1831, " 73, 
 
 About 2000 
 
 George White, 
 
 M U tt tt 
 
 1831, " 200, A fine for selling 
 foreign lottery tickets, $2000 
 
 Allen Green, 
 
 « « June « 
 
 1831, Na 88, Amount not known 
 
 Timothy T. Cutter, 
 
 tt U W tt 
 
 1831, " 52, 
 
 About 75 
 
 Aaron F. Kille &, Co. 
 
 tt tt U tt 
 
 1831, " 114, 
 
 At least $5000 
 
 Aqtiila Newbem, 
 
 tt U M U 
 
 1831, « 152, 
 
 200 
 
 Augustus G. Richards, 
 
 tt U tt tt 
 
 1831, " 171, 
 
 About 500 
 
 Nathaniel Sylvester, 
 
 tt tt u u 
 
 1831, " 199, Returns the foUow- 
 
 
 ing debts as due to him 
 
 , viz. 
 
 
 
 George Weaver for lottery tickets. 
 
 $4500 00 
 
 
 Thomas Desilver, 
 
 do. 
 
 2700 00 
 
 
 Henry Wendell, 
 
 do. 
 
 240 00 
 
 
 James Farthing, 
 
 do. 
 
 250 00 
 
 
 George Apple, 
 
 do. 
 
 140 00 
 
 
 J. L. Hammond, 
 
 da 
 
 250 00 
 
 
 L. Tayntor, 
 
 do. 
 
 21 00 
 
 
 J. Howell, 
 
 do. 
 
 7 00 
 
 
 George K. Lentz, 
 
 do. 
 
 13 40 
 
 
 John Farrar, 
 
 do. 
 
 48 79 
 
 
 John Norvel, 
 
 da 
 
 21 00 
 
 
 John TiUinghast, 
 
 da 
 
 11 00 
 
 
 S. Blair, 
 
 da 
 
 10 00 
 
 
 Wm. B. Hart, 
 
 da and cash lent, 1100 00 
 
 
 Edward Barry, 
 
 da 
 
 100 00 
 
 
 George R. Leiper, 
 
 da 
 
 22 00 
 
 
 Aaron Clements, 
 
 do. 
 
 100 00 
 
 The whole amount due him is $9534 19 
 
4T 
 
 Brought forward, Amount due N. Sylvester, 
 The following lottery brokers are creditors : 
 
 Yates & M'Intyre of Philadelphia, $7000 00 
 Robertson & Little, 900 00 
 
 Yates (fcM'Intyre of New York, 800 00 
 
 Due his creditors, $8700 00 
 
 $9534 19 
 
 8700 00 
 
 $18234 19 
 
 Several of the debtors have been insolvent, and are returned in 
 this list. 
 
 A. J. Cozens, Petition for Sept term, 1831, No. 52, About $150 
 Joseph Eyquen, " " " " 1831," 87, Amount not known 
 WiUiam Frost, u u u u 1831, " 100, At least $600 
 William Hart, « ♦» « " 1831, " 131, says that he lost two 
 
 or three hundred dollars 
 
 B. W. Birge, Petition for March term, 1832, No. 9, Owes Yates & 
 
 M'Intyre, $25000 
 
 Paine & Burgess, 5000 
 
 In all, 30000 
 
 Jacob Hazzeza, 
 Richard M. Stockton, 
 John G. Weikel, 
 
 Edmund Barnard, 
 John H. Bryant, 
 Joseph P. Cloud, 
 A. G. Davis, 
 John Hofl&ier, 
 Henry T. Rees, 
 
 J. Hartwell, 
 Jacob Hazzeza, 
 William Clinton, 
 
 Jtme 
 
 Sept. 
 
 1832, No. 80, Amount not known 
 1832, « 185, $5000 
 
 1832, " 203, Has lost considerable 
 sums in tickets drawn blanks 
 1832, No. 5, $98 
 
 1832, " 25, $4 62J 
 
 1832, »♦ 47, Amount not known 
 1832, " 57, « u « 
 1832, " 117, «* « u 
 
 ^1832, " 236, The chief, and in fact 
 only cause of his present embarrassment, is owing to his 
 having dealt to a very considerable amount in lottery tickets, 
 and thereby sustaining gi-eat losses. 
 
 Petition for Dec. term, 1832, No. 97, $90 50 
 
 " " « " 1832, " 102, $36 
 
 « a u u 1832, « 37, Has lost by having lot- 
 tery tickets left on hand, about $3000 00 
 He oweg Yates & M'Intyre, 503 43 
 
 Robertson & Little, 1088 53 
 
 J. J. Robinson, 2 00 
 
 JohnHarker, 20 00 
 
 In all, $4613 96 
 
 NOTE 4. Pago 32. 
 
 The following extract from a recent Presentment made in New 
 York, may be here quoted in confirmation of the text : 
 
48 
 
 *' The Grand Jury cannot separate without calling the attention of 
 the Court to the subject of lotteries. The evils arising from this 
 source are greater than at any former period, and fall principally upon 
 the poorer and less informed portion of the community. In the year 
 1824 there were but from eight to ten dealers in lottery tickets in the 
 city, while at this time there are one hundred and forty-seven, and 
 some of our principal streets are literally disfigured by their advertise- 
 ments. Citizens and strangers are interrupted by boys and men thrust- 
 ing lottery advertisements into their hands as they pass through our 
 streets. 
 
 * * If * m if 
 
 " In order to understand some of the evils arising from the sale of 
 foreign lottery tickets, we would specify, the running of expresses, the 
 mispayment of prizes, the forgery of numbers, fraudulent drawers, non- 
 payment of prizes, and last, not least, policying. On this subject we 
 would say, there are some offices in this city that on the day the ac- 
 count of the drawers is received frona abroad, are crowded with per- 
 sons who have paid from three dollars to some shillings each, for a 
 policy against certain numbers being drawn. These persons are mostly 
 servants or poor people, who spend their time and means in this way, 
 affording great temptation after they have policied away their own 
 property to use that of others. In all these points we have sufficient 
 evidence to make this Presentment. 
 
 " One of our number states, that during the late epidemic he had 
 charge of a district in the upper part of the city for the purpose of at- 
 tending to the wants of the poor, and in conversing with some of the 
 destitute, he learned that they had spent their earnings in procuring 
 lottery tickets. Another states, that he knew an individual that ex- 
 pended all his earnings (above paying his necessary expenses) for a 
 year, which amounted to several hundred dollars. Another says, that 
 not long since it came to his personal knowledge that a person was 
 intrusted with about seven hundred dollars to take to another part of 
 the country, but in this city he was induced to purchase a ticket, which 
 was a blank. He then ventured more to gain what was lost, and went 
 on till all was gone ; the last sum he spent was two hundred dollars at 
 one time for tickets in a fit of desperation. 
 
 " If such a mass of facts respecting this evil has come to the per- 
 sonal knowledge of so small a number of individuals as compose this 
 Grand Jury, what must be the sum total of misery caused by the prac- 
 tice complained of V^ 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 DEC 22 1947 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY