I ought to touch this subject with a delicate hand. Many giants of
speculation have been this way, and they have laid down principles
from which I am compelled to dissent. I am well aware of the charm of
greatness, and of the danger of appearing singular with those on whom
the mantle of popular veneration has been seen to fall; and I feel
that in the strictures which I am commencing, I shall gain no applause
from those who are kindly delivered from labor of thinking for
themselves. This weighs, however, but little with me. A being who has
visited the moon knows more about it than astronomers have ever
taught. A man who has burned his finger knows more of the effect of
fire on flesh, than the most eloquent lecturer who has had no
experience. Confident, then, that my own experience may be safely
trusted, I shall follow it cheerfully, whether it lead me _in_ the
path which speculation has trodden, or _across_ it. BACON lays it down
as a principle in philosophy, that man is ignorant of every thing
antecedent to observation, and that experience is at the bottom of all
our knowledge. To this principle I bow in submission, and take it for
granted that what I have experienced I know.
Sustained then by my own personal experience and observation, I say
_fearlessly_, that the solitary confinement plan, is an unwise,
unfeeling, and ruinous innovation upon the Penitentiary discipline.
Every body knows that it adds to the terror of such places; evinces a
cruel recklessness of the feelings and personal comfort of the
prisoner; and has the effect to convince him that the government is
not his friend. This destroys his confidence in its mercy, and creates
in him a disposition for revenge, which will eternally baffle all
efforts for his reformation. He may, indeed, be awed with the gloomy
horrors of the law, but cannot, by _such_ means, be regenerated into a
love of virtue. No; before you can do any thing towards reforming a
sinner, you must convince him of your real friendship for him, which
can be done only by _being_ friendly; and it is _not_ being friendly
to inflict pain without a benevolent motive. The construction of
ordinary prisons is full cruel enough to fill the soul with terror; no
_friend_ would build even such a place as Windsor prison _was_, for
one he loved, and no human being could suppose that love and
friendship for the human race, had any thing to do in forming its
plan. Should an angel from some happy world, in his flight near our
earth, pause and contemplate the old prison at Windsor, he would
hasten back and inform his companions that he had seen a _hell_. That
place was designed or ignorantly constructed, as a fit house in which
Revenge might feed in luxury on the tears of distress, and dance to
the groans of despair. Every prisoner could read the spirit of the
place in the massy walls--the iron grates and doors--and the noonday
twilight of the cells; and the impression on every mind was, that the
spirits of the infernal world had been erecting a very appropriate
Temple for their chief. This is neither fiction, fancy, nor poetry,
but solemn literal truth. The deathly chill which it threw on my
spirits when I entered it, makes me shudder to this hour. But the
_new_ prison caps the climax of relentless invention, and sets
description at defiance. Now, I say, that no prisoner can suppose by
any reach of rational candor, that the builders of this _new_ prison,
were his friends; and hence all efforts, purporting to spring from a
tender regard for his good, will be appreciated accordingly.
But it may be said, that the contagious nature of vice rendered it
necessary to separate the prisoners into small solitary cells, to
prevent their social intercourse, and its supposed consequence, their
reciprocal progression in vice. To this I reply, and I will appeal to
the facts in the case in support of my position, that the practical
effect of such a separation goes to prove, that it is only a
refinement of cruelty. The more completely you put one man into the
power of another, the more perfectly do you create a tyrant, and
prostrate a sufferer. Solitary cells and _flogging_, go hand in hand.
Thus, the more certainly is the sufferer convinced that the authority
is his enemy, and the more certainly is his reformation rendered
impossible. The evils of solitary cells are far greater than the evils
they were designed to remedy. I appeal to the experiment. I have only
one more observation to make on this head, and I make it with a design
to have it remembered. It is this--_Benevolence_ will _appear_
benevolence, and nothing _but_ apparent benevolence will turn a sinner
from the error of his ways, and lead him to purify his heart.