The result of these debates called forth the following letter from M.
de Tocqueville, of France, addressed to Mr. Sumner.
[TRANSLATION.]
MY DEAR SIR,--I have read in the Daily Advertiser of
June 1st the account of a meeting of the Boston Prison Discipline
Society, in which you proposed a resolution, the effect of which
was to declare that this Society ought not to be considered "the
pledged advocate" of the Auburn System, or of any other system,
and that it should judge all systems without taking sides in
advance, and without prejudice. I have since learned, by the same
paper, that the Society refused to adopt the resolution. This vote
has surprised and pained me. I take a very lively interest in
the reform of prisons, and I have always cherished a respectful
attachment for the Society, which has, of its own accord, done me
the honor to make me one of its members, and which enjoys so just a
reputation in the philanthropic world. It is under the influence of
these two sentiments that I feel an impulse to write to you.
The vote of which I have spoken will cause, I do not fear to
say, a painful surprise to almost all those in Europe who are
devoted to the Prison question. They will interpret it as a solemn
determination taken by the Society to make itself the champion of
the Auburn System, and the systematic adversary of the Separate
System. Instead of a judge, it will seem to become a party.
I need not inform you, that, at the present day, in Europe,
discussion and experience have, on the contrary, led almost all
persons of intelligence to adopt the Separate System, and to
reject the Auburn System. Most of the governments of the Old
World have declared themselves more or less in this way, not
hastily, but after serious inquiry and long debates. I will speak
only of the two great free nations of Europe,--those which I know
the best, and which are the most worthy of being regarded as an
authority, wherever questions are decided only after discussion
before the country, and obedience is rendered to public opinion
alone,--France and England. Among these two nations, I can assure
you, the Auburn System is almost universally rejected. The greater
part of those who had previously inclined towards this system
have completely abandoned it, when they came to discuss it, or
to see it in operation, and have adopted, wholly or in part, the
system of Separate Imprisonment. The two governments have followed
the same tendencies. You know that the French government brought
forward, a few years since, a law, of which separate imprisonment
formed the basis. This law after a discussion of five weeks,
the longest and most thorough which has ever taken place in our
parliament on any question, was voted by an _immense majority_.
If this same law has not yet been discussed in the Chamber of
Peers, the reason is to be found in circumstances entirely foreign
to the Penitentiary Question. The Chamber of Peers will take it
into consideration at the opening of the approaching session; and
among the most considerable men in this Chamber, the greater part
have already pronounced openly in favor of its principle. As to
the press, almost all the journals sustain the system of Separate
Imprisonment. The journal which had most skilfully and earnestly
combated the system has recently declared itself convinced of
its excellence. This change has been produced, in part, by the
experience had for many years in a large number of our prisons.
Indeed, it may be doubted, whether, when the law shall be reported
to the Chamber of Peers, there will be found a single person to
combat its _principle_.
In this state of facts and opinions, the vote which a society
so enlightened and celebrated as that of Boston has just passed
will not be comprehended among us; and I cannot, I confess to you,
prevent myself from fearing that it will be injurious to the high
consideration which the Society enjoys on this side of the ocean,
or that, at least, it will weaken its authority. I should strongly
regret this, not only from my interest in an association to which
I have the honor to belong, but also from my interest in humanity,
whose cause it can so powerfully serve.
Be pleased to receive, Sir, the assurance of my very distinguished
consideration.
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE,
_Member of the Institute and of the Chamber of Deputies_
TOCQUEVILLE, August 6, 1847.
CHARLES SUMNER, Esq., Boston.