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Part III: Understanding Audit Concepts and Tools
Chapter 7
Audit Evidence: A Framework
Learning Objectives:
1. Identify the basic sources of audit evidence, including for review engagements.
5. Identify basic audit and review procedures and the assertion(s) involved in each
test.
7. Describe the purposes and contents of good audit documentation for audits and
reviews.
Teaching Suggestions
Auditing is a process of objectively gathering and evaluating evidence pertaining to
assertions. In planning an audit, three basic questions need to be answered: What
procedures should be performed? How much evidence is needed? When should the
procedures be performed? Audit programs, no matter what their size, whether
standardised or customised, are designed to provide assurance on management’s
(1) Different audit objectives are served by different forms of evidence; some forms of
evidence serve more than one objective. Give several examples of audit objectives and
explain how they may be met with one or more of these evidence types.
(2) Some types of evidence are inherently stronger than others. Go through the reliability
of evidence from various sources. Explain how the quality of the client’s internal control
system affects the reliability of internal evidence.
(3) The Auditing Standards require that ‘sufficient and competent evidence’ be obtained,
but does not specify what constitutes such evidence. The components of competence
(validity – relating to evidence quality, and relevance – relating to audit objects) should
be fully discussed. Explain the role of professional judgement in the evidence-gathering
process. Explain what is meant by directional testing.
Develop a few tests of transactions examples and go over them. Students should easily
grasp the material dealing with sources of audit evidence, but the importance of
effectively using analytical procedures should be emphasised. Explain how analytical
procedures are increasingly being used by the profession both for audit planning purposes
and as a source of evidence regarding specific account balances. Explain the nature and
purposes of audit programs.
Start the discussion of audit documentation by emphasising that audit documents are the
only evidence the auditor has that s/he complied with Auditing Standards. Explain the
role of audit documentation in litigation both from the perspective of the plaintiff and the
defence legal counsel. Distinguish between current files and permanent files; provide
examples of the contents of each. Explain the uniqueness of procedures for testing
management’s estimates.
Illustrate what typical audit documentation looks like; explain its components and
critique its ‘quality’. Note that a good documentation ‘stands alone’ and explain this
concept. Note that audit documents are currently prepared by computer in most public
accounting firms and, as a quality control, are subject to engagement quality control
partner review.
One pedagogical approach to this material would be to follow the lecture/discussion with
an application exercise (which could be done in class). Divide the class into ‘audit teams’
and require each to identify management’s assertions and an evidence-gathering strategy
for several account balances. Reconvene the class and compare the various ‘audit
programs’. The complexity of the assignment depends upon the number and nature of the
accounts used and the background data and assumptions provided (e.g., quality of client’s
control system, integrity of management, new vs continuing client, etc.). Besides being
able to point out that valid alternatives exist for evidence gathering, this exercise
facilitates further discussion of audit effectiveness and efficiency.
Chapter Outline
I. OVERVIEW OF THE AUDIT MODEL
A. Auditors spend most of their time obtaining and evaluating evidence
concerning the assertions management makes through the financial report.
The evidence-gathering process is the core of an audit. The auditor considers
the risk associated with an account balance or other measures of business
performance, the types of evidence available, and the reliability of alternative
sources of evidence to develop an audit approach. Management makes
assertions about a number of different things: earnings and financial
conditions, the organisation’s internal controls and its operations, compliance
with governmental regulations, and other measures of business performance
such as on-time arrival information for an airline. Auditors may be called on
to perform audits of these assertions. This chapter develops a framework for
approaching the detailed evidence-gathering process that is common across all
audits. Evidence is first gathered on the factors that may affect an account
balance misstatement and the risk that an account balance may be misstated.
After assessing all those risks, the auditor must directly test the account
balances that have a residual risk of potential misstatement. In doing these
direct tests of account balances and transactions, the auditor is guided by the
third standard of fieldwork, which states:
1. Sufficient, competent audit evidence is to be obtained through audit
procedures performed to afford a reasonable basis for an opinion
regarding the financial report under audit.
B. Thus, the auditor must obtain an appropriate amount of reliable evidence
concerning the truth and fairness of the financial report and their conformity
with Accounting Standards.
C. Sufficiency
1. The amount of evidence must be convincing. This is a matter of
experienced audit judgement. Statistical sampling can help
determine how much evidence is enough based on the quantification
of audit judgements about materiality, audit risk, and sampling risk.
E. Internal Documentation
1. Internal documentation ranges from legal agreements to business
documents to accounting documents to planning and control
documents. The reliability of internal documentation can vary.
F. External Documentation
1. External documentation is generally considered to be highly reliable,
particularly when the auditor receives it directly. If auditors have
reason to suspect the validity of external documentation obtained
from the client, they should confirm the validity of the evidence.
2. Paper vs Electronic Documentation
i. A major challenge for auditors is to determine which electronic
data has the same degree of reliability as paper-based
documents. Fortunately, computer systems can be designed to
provide safeguards similar to those that surround paper-based
documents.
H. Audit Procedures
1. Overview of Audit Procedures
i. Audit procedures vary according to the risks associated with
the client and the methods used to record transactions. The
auditor’s task is to determine which procedures provide a
sufficient level of evidence to achieve the desired levels of
audit risk with the least amount of audit cost. Each of these
procedures has strengths and weaknesses that should be
considered on each audit engagement.
2. Directional Testing
i. Directional testing involves testing transactions or balances
primarily for either over- or understatement, but not for both at
the same time. Directional testing leads to audit efficiency
because:
• Misstatements of some accounts are more likely to
occur in one direction than the other.
• Directional testing of an account balance provides
evidence on a complementary set of accounts.
• Some assertions are directional by nature.
3. Commonly Used Audit Procedures for Direct Tests of Account
Balances and Transactions
i. A wide variety of audit procedures are used to perform direct
tests of account balances
• Observation
Observation is the physical process of observing
activities or physical assets to reach an audit
Teaching Note: Explain that ACL software can be used to extract documentation
from computer records for subsequent processing and then be used to perform some
of that processing.
7-1 (LO 3) The auditor wishes to gather evidence to test the assertion that the client’s
capitalisation of leased equipment assets is properly valued. Which of the
following sources of evidence will the auditor find to be the most persuasive
(most reliable and relevant)?
a. Direct observation of the leased equipment.
b. Examination of the lease contract and recomputation of capitalised amount
and current amortisation.
c. Confirmation of the current purchase price for similar equipment with
vendors.
d. Confirmation of the original cost of the equipment with the lessor.
*7-2 (LO 3, 5) Which of the following is the least persuasive documentation in support of an
auditor’s opinion?
a. Schedules of details of physical inventory counts conducted by the client.
b. Notation of inferences drawn from ratios and trends.
c. Notation of valuers’ conclusions in the auditor’s documentation.
d. Lists of confirmations and the nature of responses received from the client’s
customers.
7-3 (LO 5)An auditor determines that management integrity is high, the risk of account
misstatements is low, and the client’s internal controls are effective. Which of the
following conclusions can be reached regarding the need to perform direct tests of
account balances?
a. Direct tests should be limited to material account balances, and the extent of
testing should be sufficient to corroborate the auditor’s assessment of low
risk.
b. Direct tests of account balances are not needed.
c. Direct tests of account balances are necessary if audit risk was set at a low
level but are not necessary if audit risk was set at a high level.
d. Direct tests should be performed on all account balances to independently
verify the correctness of the financial report.
7-4 (LO 4) A test of inventory for overstatement provides corresponding evidence on:
Cost of Goods Sold Revenue Accounts Payable
a. Overstatement Overstatement Understatement
b. Understatement Overstatement Overstatement
c. Understatement Understatement Understatement
d. Overstatement Overstatement Overstatement.
7-5 (LO 5) Observation is considered a reliable audit procedure but one that is limited in its
usefulness. Which of the following is not correct regarding a limitation of the use
of observation as an audit technique?
a. Individuals may act differently when being observed than they do otherwise.
b. It is rarely sufficient to satisfy any assertion other than existence.
c. It is rarely sufficient to satisfy any assertion other than valuation.
d. It is difficult to generalise from one observation as to the correctness of
processing throughout the period under audit.
7-7 (LO 7) Regarding the auditor’s reasoning process about an account balance, the
auditor should:
a. Simply state a conclusion because anything else would lead to second-guessing
by another auditor or a lawyer.
b. Identify all of the elements of the reasoning process and document them in a
memo.
c. Assure that audit documentation, by itself, is sufficient to support the auditor’s
opinion without an explicit description of the reasoning process; that is, the
evidence can stand on its own.
d. Be limited to analysis made by the partner in charge of the engagement.
7-8 (LO 5) An auditor observes inventory held by the client and notes that some of the
inventory appears to be very old but still in reasonable condition for sale. Which
of the following conclusions is justified by the audit procedure?
I. The older inventory is obsolete.
II. The inventory is owned by the company.
7-9 (LO 7) Which of the following statements is not true concerning the auditor’s
documentation?
a. The auditor should document the reasoning process and conclusions reached
for significant account balances even if audit tests show no exceptions.
b. Documentation review is facilitated if a standard documentation format is
utilised.
c. Audit documents should cross-reference other documents if the other
documents contain work that affects the auditor’s overall assessment of an
account balance contained in the documentation.
d. The client should not prepare documentation schedules for the auditor even if
the auditor independently tests them.
*
All problems marked with an asterisk are adapted from the Uniform CPA
Examination.
Review Questions:
7-1. (LO 1, p 253) Audit evidence is all the information used by auditors in arriving at the
conclusions on which the audit opinion is based. The basic sources of evidence are
knowledge of the business and industry, analytical procedures, tests of controls, and
substantive/direct tests of account balances and transactions.
7-2. (LO 1, p 253; LO 3, pp 256-262) The auditor must decide how much evidence is
needed (extent), what kind of evidence is needed (nature), and when to gather the
evidence (timing).
7-3. (LO 2, pp 254-255) The assertions form the framework for gathering sufficient,
competent audit evidence as required by the professional standards. The assertions tie
into generally accepted accounting principles in that those assertions are also
embodied in Accounting Standards. The five main assertions are defined as:
Existence/occurrence. The assets, liabilities, and equity interests exist and all
transactions reflected in the financial report actually occurred.
Completeness. All assets, liabilities, equity interests, and transactions that should
have been recorded have been recorded, i.e., nothing is left out of the financial
report.
Rights/obligations. The entity holds or controls the legal ownership to assets, and
liabilities are legally owed by the entity.
7-4. (LO 2, pp 254-255) Valuation is usually one of the most important assertions to
address in most audits. The intent of this question is to have the students think about
the detail required by Accounting Standards in forming specific assertions to be tested
with individual accounts. The basic components of the valuation assertion for
investments in marketable securities are these:
• The securities are initially recorded at cost and are thereafter valued at market.
• Cost includes all costs, including brokerage fees, to purchase the securities.
• Market is:
o Defined as aggregate market value determined either by classes of
securities or treating all securities as one class.
7-5 (LO 1, pp 253; LO 3, pp 256-262) The basic characteristics that distinguish the
reliability of audit evidence are:
More reliable information
• Directly observable evidence
• Evidence derived from well controlled information system
• Evidence from independent outside sources
• Documented evidence
• Original documents.
7-6. (LO 1, pp 253; LO 3, pp 256-262) Audit risk and reliability of audit evidence are
related. If audit risk is low rather than high, it implies that the auditor has to gather
more evidence of the same quality, more reliable evidence, or some combination of
each. For example, if audit risk has been established at a minimal amount because the
auditor is concerned with overstatement of sales and accounts receivable, the auditor
may seek more persuasive evidence such as subsequent payment of a receivable, direct
contact with the customer by the auditor, or verification of invoices by direct reference
to shipping documents (as opposed to only a confirmation of the account balance sent
to a customer address at a post office box number). The auditor would be seeking
more reliable evidence. In other situations, the auditor would control audit risk by
taking larger sample sizes that statistically control the risk of making an incorrect
inference as a result of the audit tests.
7-8. (LO 1, pp 253; LO 3, pp 256-262) All things being equal, external documentary
evidence is considered more reliable than internally generated evidence. However, it is
seldom that ‘all things are equal’. External documentary evidence is generally more
reliable when provided by independent, knowledgeable external parties.
Examples of external documentation are original vendor invoices that are in the
client’s possession and confirmations sent directly to the auditors by third parties.
Internal documentary evidence can be very reliable when it is developed within a
strong internal control environment. Examples of internal documentation are sales
invoices, receiving reports, payroll records, and purchase orders.
7-9. (LO 4, pp 262) Directional testing is the design of audit tests to search primarily for
either over-or understatements for particular accounts. It takes advantage of the
double-entry bookkeeping system. The auditor is normally concerned with
overstatement of assets or revenues and understatement of liabilities or expenses
because there are greater risks associated with misstatements in those particular
directions.
Directional testing can lead to audit efficiency because audit tests of an account in one
direction provide evidence on other related accounts. An example is auditing accounts
receivable for an overstatement, which also provides indirect evidence on the potential
overstatement of sales. Efficiency comes from planning the audit to consider the
relationships among a number of different accounts.
7-10. (LO 4, pp 262) The efficiency of directional testing comes from the double entry
method of bookkeeping. If an asset increases, it must come from the recognition of
revenue, the decrease of another asset, a misclassification of an expense item as an
asset, or an increase in a liability. Thus, testing an asset for overstatement can provide
information on potential understatement of another asset or expense or overstatement
of revenue or a liability.
7-11. (LO 5, pp 262-268) Observation is best suited for testing the existence assertion (e.g.
the existence of inventory and the adequacy of the client’s physical inventory count
procedures can be observed). It may be indirectly useful in helping test some valuation
assertions. For example, the auditor can observe the quality of inventory and make
reasonable inferences about the value of inventory.
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION
Use, labor of each for all, is the health and virtue of all beings. Ich
dien, I serve, is a truly royal motto. And it is the mark of nobleness to
volunteer the lowest service, the greatest spirit only attaining to
humility. Nay, God is God because he is the servant of all. Well, now
here comes this conspiracy of slavery,—they call it an institution, I
call it a destitution,—this stealing of men and setting them to work,
stealing their labor, and the thief sitting idle himself; and for two or
three ages it has lasted, and has yielded a certain quantity of rice,
cotton and sugar. And, standing on this doleful experience, these
people have endeavored to reverse the natural sentiments of
mankind, and to pronounce labor disgraceful, and the well-being of a
man to consist in eating the fruit of other men’s labor. Labor: a man
coins himself into his labor; turns his day, his strength, his thought,
his affection into some product which remains as the visible sign of
his power; and to protect that, to secure that to him, to secure his
past self to his future self, is the object of all government. There is no
interest in any country so imperative as that of labor; it covers all,
and constitutions and governments exist for that,—to protect and
insure it to the laborer. All honest men are daily striving to earn their
bread by their industry. And who is this who tosses his empty head
at this blessing in disguise, the constitution of human nature, and
calls labor vile, and insults the faithful workman at his daily toil? I see
for such madness no hellebore,—for such calamity no solution but
servile war and the Africanization of the country that permits it.
At this moment in America the aspects of political society absorb
attention. In every house, from Canada to the Gulf, the children ask
the serious father,—“What is the news of the war to-day, and when
will there be better times?” The boys have no new clothes, no gifts,
no journeys; the girls must go without new bonnets; boys and girls
find their education, this year, less liberal and complete.[161] All the
little hopes that heretofore made the year pleasant are deferred. The
state of the country fills us with anxiety and stern duties. We have
attempted to hold together two states of civilization: a higher state,
where labor and the tenure of land and the right of suffrage are
democratical; and a lower state, in which the old military tenure of
prisoners or slaves, and of power and land in a few hands, makes an
oligarchy: we have attempted to hold these two states of society
under one law. But the rude and early state of society does not work
well with the later, nay, works badly, and has poisoned politics, public
morals and social intercourse in the Republic, now for many years.
The times put this question, Why cannot the best civilization be
extended over the whole country, since the disorder of the less-
civilized portion menaces the existence of the country? Is this
secular progress we have described, this evolution of man to the
highest powers, only to give him sensibility, and not to bring duties
with it? Is he not to make his knowledge practical? to stand and to
withstand? Is not civilization heroic also? Is it not for action? has it
not a will? “There are periods,” said Niebuhr, “when something much
better than happiness and security of life is attainable.” We live in a
new and exceptionable age. America is another word for
Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine
Providence in behalf of the human race; and a literal, slavish
following of precedents, as by a justice of the peace, is not for those
who at this hour lead the destinies of this people. The evil you
contend with has taken alarming proportions, and you still content
yourself with parrying the blows it aims, but, as if enchanted, abstain
from striking at the cause.[162]
If the American people hesitate, it is not for want of warning or
advices. The telegraph has been swift enough to announce our
disasters. The journals have not suppressed the extent of the
calamity. Neither was there any want of argument or of experience. If
the war brought any surprise to the North, it was not the fault of
sentinels on the watch-tower, who had furnished full details of the
designs, the muster and the means of the enemy. Neither was
anything concealed of the theory or practice of slavery. To what
purpose make more big books of these statistics? There are already
mountains of facts, if any one wants them. But people do not want
them. They bring their opinion into the world. If they have a
comatose tendency in the brain, they are pro-slavery while they live;
if of a nervous sanguineous temperament, they are abolitionists.
Then interests were never persuaded. Can you convince the shoe
interest, or the iron interest, or the cotton interest, by reading
passages from Milton or Montesquieu? You wish to satisfy people
that slavery is bad economy. Why, the Edinburgh Review pounded
on that string, and made out its case, forty years ago. A democratic
statesman said to me, long since, that, if he owned the state of
Kentucky, he would manumit all the slaves, and be a gainer by the
transaction. Is this new? No, everybody knows it. As a general
economy it is admitted. But there is no one owner of the state, but a
good many small owners. One man owns land and slaves; another
owns slaves only. Here is a woman who has no other property,—like
a lady in Charleston I knew of, who owned fifteen sweeps and rode
in her carriage. It is clearly a vast inconvenience to each of these to
make any change, and they are fretful and talkative, and all their
friends are; and those less interested are inert, and, from want of
thought, averse to innovation. It is like free trade, certainly the
interest of nations, but by no means the interest of certain towns and
districts, which tariff feeds fat; and the eager interest of the few
overpowers the apathetic general conviction of the many. Banknotes
rob the public, but are such a daily convenience that we silence our
scruples and make believe they are gold. So imposts are the cheap
and right taxation; but, by the dislike of people to pay out a direct tax,
governments are forced to render life costly by making them pay
twice as much, hidden in the price of tea and sugar.
In this national crisis, it is not argument that we want, but that rare
courage which dares commit itself to a principle, believing that
Nature is its ally, and will create the instruments it requires, and more
than make good any petty and injurious profit which it may disturb.
There never was such a combination as this of ours, and the rules to
meet it are not set down in any history. We want men of original
perception and original action, who can open their eyes wider than to
a nationality, namely, to considerations of benefit to the human race,
can act in the interest of civilization. Government must not be a
parish clerk, a justice of the peace. It has, of necessity, in any crisis
of the state, the absolute powers of a dictator. The existing
administration is entitled to the utmost candor. It is to be thanked for
its angelic virtue, compared with any executive experiences with
which we have been familiar. But the times will not allow us to
indulge in compliment. I wish I saw in the people that inspiration
which, if government would not obey the same, would leave the
government behind and create on the moment the means and
executors it wanted. Better the war should more dangerously
threaten us,—should threaten fracture in what is still whole, and
punish us with burned capitals and slaughtered regiments, and so
exasperate the people to energy, exasperate our nationality. There
are Scriptures written invisibly on men’s hearts, whose letters do not
come out until they are enraged. They can be read by war-fires, and
by eyes in the last peril.
We cannot but remember that there have been days in American
history, when, if the free states had done their duty, slavery had been
blocked by an immovable barrier, and our recent calamities forever
precluded. The free states yielded, and every compromise was
surrender and invited new demands. Here again is a new occasion
which heaven offers to sense and virtue. It looks as if we held the
fate of the fairest possession of mankind in our hands, to be saved
by our firmness or to be lost by hesitation.
The one power that has legs long enough and strong enough to
wade across the Potomac offers itself at this hour; the one strong
enough to bring all the civility up to the height of that which is best,
prays now at the door of Congress for leave to move. Emancipation
is the demand of civilization. That is a principle; everything else is an
intrigue. This is a progressive policy, puts the whole people in
healthy, productive, amiable position, puts every man in the South in
just and natural relations with every man in the North, laborer with
laborer.
I shall not attempt to unfold the details of the project of
emancipation. It has been stated with great ability by several of its
leading advocates. I will only advert to some leading points of the
argument, at the risk of repeating the reasons of others. The war is
welcome to the Southerner; a chivalrous sport to him, like hunting,
and suits his semi-civilized condition. On the climbing scale of
progress, he is just up to war, and has never appeared to such
advantage as in the last twelvemonth. It does not suit us. We are
advanced some ages on the war-state,—to trade, art and general
cultivation. His laborer works for him at home, so that he loses no
labor by the war. All our soldiers are laborers; so that the South, with
its inferior numbers, is almost on a footing in effective war-population
with the North. Again, as long as we fight without any affirmative step
taken by the government, any word intimating forfeiture in the rebel
states of their old privileges under the law, they and we fight on the
same side, for slavery. Again, if we conquer the enemy,—what then?
We shall still have to keep him under, and it will cost as much to hold
him down as it did to get him down. Then comes the summer, and
the fever will drive the soldiers home; next winter we must begin at
the beginning, and conquer him over again. What use then to take a
fort, or a privateer, or get possession of an inlet, or to capture a
regiment of rebels?
But one weapon we hold which is sure. Congress can, by edict, as
a part of the military defence which it is the duty of Congress to
provide, abolish slavery, and pay for such slaves as we ought to pay
for. Then the slaves near our armies will come to us; those in the
interior will know in a week what their rights are, and will, where
opportunity offers, prepare to take them. Instantly, the armies that
now confront you must run home to protect their estates, and must
stay there, and your enemies will disappear.
There can be no safety until this step is taken. We fancy that the
endless debate, emphasized by the crime and by the cannons of this
war, has brought the free states to some conviction that it can never
go well with us whilst this mischief of slavery remains in our politics,
and that by concert or by might we must put an end to it. But we
have too much experience of the futility of an easy reliance on the
momentary good dispositions of the public. There does exist,
perhaps, a popular will that the Union shall not be broken,—that our
trade, and therefore our laws, must have the whole breadth of the
continent, and from Canada to the Gulf. But since this is the rooted
belief and will of the people, so much the more are they in danger,
when impatient of defeats, or impatient of taxes, to go with a rush for
some peace; and what kind of peace shall at that moment be easiest
attained, they will make concessions for it,—will give up the slaves,
and the whole torment of the past half-century will come back to be
endured anew.
Neither do I doubt, if such a composition should take place, that
the Southerners will come back quietly and politely, leaving their
haughty dictation. It will be an era of good feelings. There will be a
lull after so loud a storm; and, no doubt, there will be discreet men
from that section who will earnestly strive to inaugurate more
moderate and fair administration of the government, and the North
will for a time have its full share and more, in place and counsel. But
this will not last;—not for want of sincere good will in sensible
Southerners, but because Slavery will again speak through them its
harsh necessity. It cannot live but by injustice, and it will be unjust
and violent to the end of the world.[163]
The power of Emancipation is this, that it alters the atomic social
constitution of the Southern people. Now, their interest is in keeping
out white labor; then, when they must pay wages, their interest will
be to let it in, to get the best labor, and, if they fear their blacks, to
invite Irish, German and American laborers. Thus, whilst Slavery
makes and keeps disunion, Emancipation removes the whole
objection to union. Emancipation at one stroke elevates the poor-
white of the South, and identifies his interest with that of the Northern
laborer.
Now, in the name of all that is simple and generous, why should
not this great right be done? Why should not America be capable of
a second stroke for the well-being of the human race, as eighty or
ninety years ago she was for the first,—of an affirmative step in the
interests of human civility, urged on her, too, not by any romance of
sentiment, but by her own extreme perils? It is very certain that the
statesman who shall break through the cobwebs of doubt, fear and
petty cavil that lie in the way, will be greeted by the unanimous
thanks of mankind. Men reconcile themselves very fast to a bold and
good measure when once it is taken, though they condemned it in
advance. A week before the two captive commissioners were
surrendered to England, every one thought it could not be done: it
would divide the North. It was done, and in two days all agreed it
was the right action.[164] And this action, which costs so little (the
parties injured by it being such a handful that they can very easily be
indemnified), rids the world, at one stroke, of this degrading
nuisance, the cause of war and ruin to nations. This measure at
once puts all parties right. This is borrowing, as I said, the
omnipotence of a principle. What is so foolish as the terror lest the
blacks should be made furious by freedom and wages? It is denying
these that is the outrage, and makes the danger from the blacks. But
justice satisfies everybody,—white man, red man, yellow man and
black man. All like wages, and the appetite grows by feeding.
But this measure, to be effectual, must come speedily. The
weapon is slipping out of our hands. “Time,” say the Indian
Scriptures, “drinketh up the essence of every great and noble action
which ought to be performed, and which is delayed in the
execution.”[165]
I hope it is not a fatal objection to this policy that it is simple and
beneficent thoroughly, which is the tribute of a moral action. An
unprecedented material prosperity has not tended to make us Stoics
or Christians. But the laws by which the universe is organized
reappear at every point, and will rule it. The end of all political
struggle is to establish morality as the basis of all legislation. It is not
free institutions, it is not a republic, it is not a democracy, that is the
end,—no, but only the means. Morality is the object of government.
[166] We want a state of things in which crime shall not pay. This is
the consolation on which we rest in the darkness of the future and
the afflictions of to-day, that the government of the world is moral,
and does forever destroy what is not. It is the maxim of natural
philosophers that the natural forces wear out in time all obstacles,
and take place: and it is the maxim of history that victory always falls
at last where it ought to fall; or, there is perpetual march and
progress to ideas. But in either case, no link of the chain can drop
out. Nature works through her appointed elements; and ideas must
work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or
they are no better than dreams.