In the spring of 1863, as the Civil War raged across the country, editors at a newspaper in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region found something else to worry about: the foul language of local workingmen.
In a short column published in the Pittston Gazette of Pittston, PA, the paper turned its attention away from the battlefield and toward everyday life in Luzerne County, taking aim at what it saw as a widespread habit of profanity among mechanics and laborers.
From the Pittston Gazette, May 21, 1863:
Do not Swear!
Profane swearing is very justly regarded by all true gentlemen as a most debasing practice. The utterance of an oath quickly sinks a man in the estimation of all who entertain proper notions of true manhood.
We have noticed that the habit is quite too common among our mechanics; and we would urge upon them to quit it. If a man happens to pound his finger with a hammer, the injury and pain are made none the less severe by swearing about it.
The tongue is an unruly member and needs constant watching lest it become fouled with immoral sediment.
This is advice that I’m not known for following…
Read more from Pittston in the Civil War
Massive political rally in Pittston, PA for Abraham Lincoln | November 1864
A Luzerne County newspaper’s editorial about Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia | April 1865
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