OF THE

Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.

When we consider that the obligations of benevolence which are founded

on the precepts and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not

cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures; and when we

reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary

severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt, (the usual attendants of

prisons,) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to

that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid

of humanity, their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the

links which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under all

circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degrees and modes of

punishment may be discovered and suggested, as may, instead of

continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our

fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth

and obligation of these principles, the subscribers have associated

themselves under the title of “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING

THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.”

For effecting these purposes, they have adopted the following

CONSTITUTION.