Egypt is said to have been the cradle of letters; and happy had it
been for her history, if she had never cradled any thing worse. There
are the first and oldest pyramids, the sphynxes, and the labyrinths;
and there was erected the first prison of which history has taken
notice. A cruel and heartless people, they deserve the infamy of
corrupting the principles of penal justice, and of transforming their
prisons into theatres of the most fiend-like barbarity, and unhallowed
revenge.
With the same spirit which led the scholar to pry into the
hieroglyphic mysteries of this land of wonders, has the genius of her
prison discipline been copied by the nations of the earth, till the
whole world is filled with these terrestrial hells. But as this sketch
leads me rather to the contemplation of _Penitentiaries_ than prisons
in general, I shall turn my thoughts to them in _particular_.
ORIGIN AND DESIGN OF PENITENTIARIES, WITH A VIEW OF THEIR
IMPERFECTIONS.
These lurid and doleful mansions, owe their existence to the
sinfulness and depravity of man; and they are designed, by a mild and
salutary process, to reform the sons of guilt and crime. Long
experience had demonstrated, that sanguinary measures produced no
_good_ effect on the sufferers, but rather made them _worse_.
Humanity, too, recoiled from the cruelty of such inflictions as the
lash, and the brand; and as the effect of such severity was no
argument for its continuance, humane legislators devised the
_Penitentiary_ system, by which criminals are confined to labor, and
_should_ be allowed full opportunities of reflecting on their conduct,
and of reforming their lives. And as the design is to have them
treated with kindness, and allowed all the means of moral and
religious instruction and improvement, that man can furnish, the
benevolent hope of the community is, that their sufferings, thus
tempered with mercy and humanity, will be salutary and reforming in
its effects. Mercy and benevolence were the inspiring angels of this
system, and could it ever be brought practically to bear on offending
man, it would produce a salutary reform in his heart and life.
But the great difficulty with which this system has to contend, is,
the absolute impossibility of finding proper persons to carry it into
effect. The life and soul of it is unmingled mercy, and men, qualified
by gentleness of temper and benevolence of heart, to administer its
laws, are not to be found on earth. Man, in his ruined and fallen
nature, is a savage, and the milk of human tenderness was never drawn
from the breast of a tiger. To give a full practical demonstration of
the tendency and effects of the Penitentiary discipline, as it exists
in the speculations of the philanthropist, _God_ must become the
_director_, and _angels_ the ministering spirits of its
administration. Such a system, in the faultlessness of perfection, is
now in practical operation on the entire community of fallen and
impenitent spirits; and the success of the past demonstrates the
rationality of the expectation of universal success. On this the mind
rests with perfect pleasure, and is relieved by it from the
painfulness of witnessing the inefficiency of human means, to reform
the votaries of guilt.
There can be no moral truth more fully demonstrated than this, that
nothing but _goodness_ can beget goodness. Material substances
communicate their own properties to each other, and moral qualities
impregnate, with their own nature, the objects on which they exert an
influence.--Hence the baleful influence of tyranny on the human mind.
Hence the contagion of vice. And hence the reason of the truth, that
"we love God because he first loved us."
Where, in all history, can an instance be found of a single
reformation from guilt, by any other than gentle and clement means?
The blaze of retributive vengeance may awe the propensities to crime
into inaction; but it cannot uproot them. The _terrors_ of the Lord
may make men afraid, but it is the _goodness_ of God that leads to
reformation. This is the secret of the Lord, which is with them that
fear him. This is the golden key which opens the cause of that
success, which has, _visibly_, in so many cases, marked the progress
of the gospel of the _grace_ of God; and which is, in all others,
attaining the same happy result, by a process so _silent_ and _slow_,
as to evade the careless observation of the unreflecting multitude.
This is the philosophy of the divine administration, and it is one of
those simple sciences which the pride of man is reluctant to learn;
but which the humility of Christ will dispose him to receive, and by
which his nature is to be renewed and adorned.
A ray of this science darkened by the dusky medium through which it
passed, shot from the throne of blended goodness and intelligence, and
crossed the mind of that philanthropist who conceived the ideal theory
of an effective Penitentiary discipline, in the hands of man. A gleam
of sacred light seemed to spread over the anticipated results of the
embryo experiment, as he resolved it in his enthusiastic mind; but it
was like the gleam of the north, which shoots on the eye, and is
immediately lost in its vivid expansion. It is a vain and idle theory;
splendid, indeed, but impracticable; lovely, but visionary; and can
never go into perfect operation till the occasion for it shall have
ceased. In all but intelligent and sympathizing hands, this system of
benevolence must necessarily be perverted; and as "man's inhumanity to
man makes countless thousands mourn," the same uncomely traits of
character will continue, till the Spirit of God shall have humanized
mankind, and obviated the necessity of corrective discipline.
Another obstacle, not only to the exhibition of a _perfect_
Penitentiary, but to so good a one as _might_ exist, even in the
present state of human depravity, is, the well known fact, that
_merciful_ men cannot be obtained to enforce its discipline; none but
the true sons of an uncompromising and iron-hearted severity, will
consent to perform for any considerable time, the unenviable task of
inflicting pain on a fellow creature. Hence this duty is too
frequently assigned, from necessity, to those who find in it the
highest enjoyment of which their dreadful natures are capable. There
are numbers of very bright exceptions to this remark, and I shall
notice them with pleasure when I come to treat of the character of the
keepers. Could such men as may be found on earth--those brighter
fragments of ruined humanity, which are frequently to be met with,--be
placed at the head and in the offices of our Penitentiaries, and could
they be removed at that very hour when the too frequent perception of
suffering begins to corrupt and deaden their moral feelings, many of
the evils which now grow out of the perversion of those means of good,
might be obviated, even if no salutary results could be produced. And
this I am confident is an improvement in those places for which the
demand is impressive and thrilling.
Another reason why prisons do not effect more good, or prevent more
evil, is, the design of them is lost sight of. Instead of an altar to
God, the keepers erect one to Mammon; and among the sacrifices at this
altar are found the health, peace, and life of the convicts. Here,
surely, reform is called for in a voice as sacred as it is loud and
awful. Remove that altar; subsidize no longer the blood of souls in
the interdicted worship of an idol; but allow the subjects of penal
bondage time and opportunity for reflection; for reading the Holy
Bible; for prayer; for public and social worship;--and furnish them
with all the means and facilities of moral and religious improvement
which intelligent piety can suggest.