If our left hand had been mangled, and continued to be an inflamed,
ulcerating mass, though carried in a sling and treated by all the
surgeons of repute around us,--never through a long life giving any
promise of restoration or even relief,--would not its restoration be
the most prominent question in our minds?
Society has a crushed, ulcerous, and painful hand upon which the
doctors of the college and church have expended such skill as they
have in their occasional perfunctory visits, and the hand grows no
better, but rather worse, during the whole existence of the American
Republic.
The existence of an increasing mass of crime, pauperism, and insanity
is the crushed and diseased hand of civilized society, to which and to
its obvious, natural method of healing I have vainly endeavored, in
the "New Education," to call the attention of our clergy and our
teachers. It is true that three editions of that book have been
disposed of to the delight of progressive thinkers, but it has made
little impression on those who control public institutions and public
opinion. Why is this?
There are sounds in nature too finely delicate to be heard by the
average ear, and rays beyond the violet too fine for the average human
eye, though visible to those of superior nervous endowments. So in the
world of thought there are ethical conceptions too high and pure for
the multitude,--conceptions so far away from their habitual life that
they cannot appreciate or sympathize with them. Such conceptions
constitute the ethical system of education, which is competent to
banish crime, and to introduce a higher social condition, as has been
amply proved by its imperfect introduction in the Lancaster, Ohio, and
other reformatory schools.
Why is not this made the prominent theme in every religious society,
as prominent as temperance? True, intemperance supplies us the
majority of criminals, but when the criminal is prepared in the
hot-bed of alcohol, society transplants him into a richer soil,
impregnated with a greater amount of filth than the saloon, and
cultivates him into the full-blown, hardened villain, for whom there
is nothing but a career of crime, very costly indeed to society.
Why is this insane course pursued? Because society has not the
Christianity which it professes, and the pulpit has not learned how to
instil the Divine law of love, while the college cares nothing about
it.
Society itself is _criminally indifferent_, and barbarously cruel. Its
only thought in reference to its debased members is not their lost
condition, and how to redeem them, but how to punish them revengefully
for their evil deeds, in imitation of the Divine Demon whom orthodox
theology recognizes as its model. Until society has enough of
benevolence or enough of practical sagacity to get rid of this common
impulse of brute life, we shall continue to have an energetic,
skilful, and formidable army of criminals, spread all over the land,
levying an immense tax upon respectable citizens, and requiring an
increasing army of police to restrain them.
The best discourse that has yet been preached in a Boston pulpit was
once delivered in Trinity Church by the assistant minister, Mr. Allen,
a few weeks since, which was made the basis of an admirable article on
"our prisoners" in the _Banner of Light_ of April 2. Mr. Allen treated
this subject in the spirit of the "New Education," showing that our
penal system, instead of reforming criminals, educates and perfects
them in crime, under which system crime is continually and alarmingly
increasing, the statistics which he gives being of the same terrible
character as those presented in the "New Education," showing that our
demoralization is progressing beyond that of any other country. His
statistics, which I have not examined in detail, show that there were
more than eight times as many prisoners in this country in 1880 as
there were in 1850. In Massachusetts, and especially in Boston, the
proportion of criminal population was still greater.
England, having adopted a reformatory system, has kept the criminal
population in check,--brought it down to one in 18,000, while we have
one to every 837, because our prisons are colleges of crime instead of
houses of reformation. A criminal population of 5,000 in Massachusetts
is kept under this debasing system, excepting about 700 in the
reformatory at Concord and the women's prison at Sherburne. Our
criminals are held for punishment amid evil influences, and turned out
only qualified to prey upon society again, since they have the brand
of shame upon them.
The only proper and wholesome view of this subject, the only view
compatible with ethical or religious principles, is that our
unfortunate criminal brethren need our loving care instead of
vindictive hate. They should never be sent to prison for any definite
term of confinement, as a punishment, but, like lunatics and pauper
patients, should be placed under care and control until they are
cured. Every criminal who will not obey the law in freedom should be
sent to prison for life, under a kind and humane system, there to earn
his own support and in some cases to repay the damage he has done, and
in all cases to remain there until he has, beyond all doubt, become so
thoroughly reformed that he may be safely entrusted with freedom. To
encourage in the work of reformation, he should be from time to time
rewarded by enlargement of his privileges and enjoyments, just in
proportion as he proves himself worthy; and after enjoying partial
freedom for years, with faithful and exemplary deportment, he should
be granted full liberty, on the sole condition of reporting himself at
certain regular periods, that a supervision may be retained over his
conduct, and confinement renewed if ever he should prove unworthy of
entire freedom.
This system has been tried with entire success, and travellers speak
of seeing prisoners in Ireland half emancipated, working in the
fields, whom they should not have distinguished from the common
laborers. That courageous philanthropist, the late Burnham Wardwell,
adopted a system of moral government in the Virginia penitentiary,
under which punishment was almost abolished; and he was able to send
out convicts in the city, under paroles, without any doubt that they
would faithfully return. Under a similar system at Lancaster, Ohio,
walls and locks were made unnecessary, and the youthful convicts went
out freely, when permitted to mingle with the neighboring youth. When
their reformation was completed, which did not require over three
years, they went forth to lead an honest life; and subsequent reports
showed that they walked in the path of respectability and honor.
The mother's love never abandons the idiot and criminal; but, alas!
society is neither mother nor father nor brother to its unfortunate
members, and hence society suffers, as we ever suffer from violation
of the Divine law.