And although the pursuit of them is a matter of natural right, yet society, perceiving the irresistible bent of some of its members to pursue them, and the ruin produced by them to the families depending on these individuals, consider it as a case of insanity, quoad hoc, step in to protect the family and the party himself, as in other cases of insanity, infancy, imbecility, &c, and suppress the pursuit altogether, and the natural right of following it.  There are some other games of chance, useful on certain occasions, and injurious only when carried beyond their useful bounds.  Such are insurances, lotteries, raffles, &tc.  These they do not suppress, but take their regulation under their own discretion.  The insurance of ships on voyages is a vocation of chance, yet useful, and the right to exercise it therefore is left free.  So of houses against fire, doubtful debts, the continuance of a particular life, and similar cases.  Money is wanting for an useful undertaking, as a school, &c. for which a direct tax would be disapproved.  It is raised therefore by a lottery, wherein the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility of a higher prize.  An article of property, insusceptible of division at all, or not without great diminution of its worth, is sometimes of so large value as that no purchaser can be found, while the owner owes debts, has no other means of payment, and his creditors no other chance of obtaining it, but by its sale at a full and fair price.  The lottery is here a salutary instrument for disposing of it, where many run small risks for the chance of obtaining a high prize.  In this way, the great estate of the late Colonel Byrd (in 1756) was made competent to pay his debts, which, had the whole been brought into the market at once, would have overdone the demand, would have sold at half or quarter the value, and sacrificed the creditors, half or three fourths of whom would have lost their debts.  This method of selling was formerly very much resorted to, until it was thought to nourish too much a spirit of hazard.  The legislature Were therefore induced, not to suppress it altogether, but to take it under their own special regulation.  This they did, for the first time, by their act of 1769, c.17., before which time, every person exercised the right freely; and since which time, it is made unlawful but when approved and authorized by a special act of the legislature.

Since then, this right of sale, by way of lottery, has been exercised only under the discretion of the legislature.  Let us examine the purposes for which they have allowed it in practice, not looking beyond the date of our independence.

1.  It was for a long time an item of the standing revenue of the State.

1813. c. 1.  Sec. 3 An act imposing taxes for the support of government, and c. 2.  Sec. 10.

1814.  Dec. c. 1.  Sec. 3. 1814.  Feb. c. 1.  Sec. 3. 1818. c. 1.  Sec. 1. 1819. c. 1. 1820. c. 1.