which is thought to be of sufficient value to justify special reference
to it. This was a young man, No. 4,160, aged 17, sentenced January
6, 1860, for two years and six months. He had been a very bad boy,
and had been imprisoned before, (but not under our System,) without
being benefited. After being in the Penitentiary several months, he
was favored with a sense of the “exceeding sinfulness of sin,” and
of his need of a Saviour, and by yielding to the monitions of Divine
grace, he in due time, as we trust, experienced an entire change of
heart, and attained to a state of acceptance in the Divine sight.
Several months before the termination of his sentence, he was attacked
with consumption, which soon gave evidence that he was not long for
this world. During the remainder of his term, his disease steadily
progressed and he often suffered much, but he was entirely reconciled
to his condition, and felt comparatively happy, esteeming it as a
great mercy that he had been placed there, where as he said he had
found his Saviour. He only hoped that he might not die till he was
discharged, and reached the arms of his pious mother at a distance
from this city, for her comfort and his own. On the 6th of July last,
at the termination of his sentence, he was discharged. This occurred
on the first day of the week. A member of our Committee took him from
the Penitentiary to his own house, and kept him there until he could
be suitably forwarded to his mother. This member in referring to him
remarks, “One evening, after our family reading [of the Scriptures], I
went up with him to his chamber and knelt with him at his bedside in
prayer, when we each offered up a petition to the Throne of Grace. I
was about leaving the room when he said, ‘Don’t go yet, stay and have
a good talk.’ I did so, when we had a full and free interchange of
thought. I questioned him as to what he was resting his hopes of pardon
on, and found that it was on the only sure foundation,--Christ Jesus
and his atoning sacrifice.” He reached his mother, and was with her
nearly a month when he died on the 8th of August last. The following
is an extract from a letter written by her to the member referred to,
a few days after his decease: “I know you and Mrs. ---- will sympathize
with a sorrow-stricken mother. My darling child is no more. He sweetly
fell asleep in Jesus, at 4 o’clock on Friday, August 8th, after three
days’ great suffering, which he bore without one murmur. His answers
to all were surprising, his conversation humble and childlike. His
confidence in his Saviour never wavered; patient, gentle, and loving
to all, but to his poor mother he was all love. How hard I feel it
to say, Thy will be done! His consoling words to me were, ‘My dear
mother, don’t weep but look up.’ In the valley he felt his Saviour’s
presence.” Soon after, she addressed to the same another letter, from
which the following is an extract: “I did not know how dear I loved
him until we were called on to part. His patience under such suffering
was surely the work of grace, so gentle, so meek. For a week he seemed
to be getting somewhat better, and a ray of hope shot up, he would
be spared for some time at least. But four days before his death, ...
his agony was great, but not one word of complaint escaped his
lips. His whole conversation was his Saviour’s wonderful love. His
anxiety for the children’s conversion, especially his brother Thomas,
was great, and his prayer that God would make him the instrument in
converting one soul was lovely to me, nor have I one doubt but that
[his] prayers will be answered.... For the whole day before he
died, he kept on saying, ‘Dearest mother, look up but don’t weep.’ At
4 o’clock he called for his brothers and sisters to bid them farewell,
which he did, shook hands and kissed each one with a prayer, that his
Saviour would grant them grace so to live, as they would meet him in
heaven,--but to Thomas he said, ‘Kneel beside me, dear brother.’ Thomas
did so, and then James said, ‘Dearest Thomas, will you promise your
dying brother to seek the Lord, to give him your whole heart?’ Thomas
said he would try; then he lifted his dying eyes to heaven and said
distinctly, ‘O Saviour, grant him grace to keep this solemn promise.’
He seemed in great pain. I asked him how the Saviour appeared to him
in the dark valley. Aloud and clear he said, ‘Dearest mother, Jesus
is precious.’ These were his last words. He became insensible, and
continued in a sort of stupor until a few minutes before 4 o’clock,
when I whispered in his ear, ‘Do you know your mother, my son?’ He
turned such a lovely look of recognition, moved his lips for me to
kiss him, I did so, one gentle sigh, and all was over.”
In the introduction to this branch of the Report, we speak of visiting
the _prisons_ and the _prisoners_. The Law incorporating our Prison
Society, and that conferring on the Acting Committee the character
of Official Visitors, contemplate that in addition to the salutary
influence we may endeavor to exert upon the prisoners, by social
intercourse with them, and impressing upon them moral and religious
instruction, we should also observe the workings of our Prison System,
bring anything which appears to be wrong to the notice of the proper
authorities, that it may be remedied, and suggest any reforms or
improvements in the System which may appear to be desirable. Under this
view of our duties and privileges, our Committee, besides observing the
general condition of the Institution, as to good order, cleanliness,
healthfulness, &c., make special inquiries as to the supply of labor
furnished the prisoners, whether the ignorant and illiterate among them
receive proper attention from the teacher, how they are progressing
in their learning, and if those who can read are freely supplied
with books from the prison library, and have copies of the Sacred
Scriptures placed in their cells. All these inquiries have resulted
satisfactorily, excepting that the teaching force is not sufficient
to give such frequent lessons to those requiring them, as would be
desirable. The progress which many of them make is very gratifying,
and indeed surprising. The instances are frequent, where prisoners
who entered wholly without school-learning, that is to say, without
any knowledge of letters or figures, in a very few months, are able
to read, write, and cipher, with considerable facility, and a very
gratifying circumstance connected with this is, that most of them
highly value the knowledge they are thus acquiring.
The library is now in a very good condition, having been overhauled
during the year and a new catalogue prepared, after withdrawing several
hundred mutilated and imperfect volumes from the collection. It now
contains about 2,600 volumes, all complete and in a good state of
preservation, about 2,060 in the English, and 540 in the German and
French languages. While the library was regularly open, 11,526 books
were loaned, and in addition, considerable reading matter was furnished
during the several months in which they were engaged in examining and
re-arranging the books, of which no regular record was kept.
The various officers of the Penitentiary, by their general kindness
and good temper in their care of and intercourse with the prisoners,
evidence their fitness for their position, and as “like begets like,”
similar deportment is reciprocated by the prisoners towards them. This
is one of the excellent features of our System, which rarely, if ever,
calls for the exercise of harshness by the keepers, and, consequently,
instead of vindictive or bitter feelings being excited towards them,
on the part of those under their control, a mutual feeling of sympathy
is frequently brought into action. This was recently very pleasantly
exemplified in the presence of a member of our Committee. A keeper, who
had charge of about thirty prisoners in one of the corridors, received
intelligence of the death of a son in the army, and having obtained
leave of absence for a few days that he might go to Virginia to bring
home the remains, before leaving, called at the cell of each of those
under his care and bade them farewell. Both the words and deportment
of the prisoners evidenced that they sympathized with their caretaker
in his bereavement. It is also a general practice with the keepers in
the evening, as they pass from cell to cell to hand in a light and
lock the doors, to exchange a parting salutation with the inmates. We
think it must be self-evident, that such a condition of things is much
more favorable as a school of reform than that where the harshness of
discipline prevails, which is said to be inseparable from the _Silent_
System. The former is like the mellow soil moistened by the gentle
shower, which receiving the seed kindly, when deposited by the hand
of the husbandman, it soon germinates, and in due season brings forth
fruit, which abundantly rewards him for all his toil. Whilst the latter
is like the arid, indurated clay, upon which equally good seed may have
been scattered, but being dry and impenetrable, it either never springs
up, or at best it has a stunted growth, and its yield never compensates
for the labor bestowed upon it. The entire number of prisoners in the
Penitentiary during the year 1862 was 586. The largest number at any
one time was 451, on the first day of the year, and the smallest 353.
The number in confinement there on the first day of this year (1863)
was 369, to wit: white males 297, white females 18, black or colored
males 51, and black females 3. There were 6 deaths and 18 pardons in
the course of the year.
The Committee on the County Prison have attended faithfully to their
duty as visitors during the year, but the reports from them are not
so minute as those from the Committee on the Penitentiary, and,
consequently, we are unable to analyze them so as to set forth the
particulars of their services. One of the members so thoroughly devotes
his time to the duty, as to visit the prison more than 500 times during
the year, generally twice a day for more than 250 days. The other
members report having among them paid 419 visits in the course of the
year.
Under the care of the present judicious and efficient Board of
Inspectors, the prison has been satisfactorily conducted; but the
population is so unsettled (being largely composed of vagrants, the
untried, and those committed for petty offences), that it cannot be
considered to fairly illustrate the “Separate System,” and therefore
we think it proper to make more especial and extended reference to the
Penitentiary than to it.
The Prison “Association of Women Friends” (which is recognized by us as
an auxiliary in the good work), have continued to be diligent visitors
to the females confined in both prisons, and have entered on the
service under a full sense of its serious importance, and with desires
that their labors might be promotive of the temporal and eternal good
of the visited. In the course of the year they paid 987 visits to the
prisoners in the two institutions.
In addition to the moral and religious instruction communicated to
those confined in each of the institutions, through the medium of our
visitors and those of the association just referred to, the Eastern
Penitentiary has, as one of its regular officers, a “Moral Instructor,”
whose time is devoted to visiting the prisoners individually in their
cells, and there instructing them in those things which most nearly
concern their temporal and eternal interests. The present incumbent of
the office is John Ruth, a worthy minister of the Methodist persuasion,
who appears to be well fitted for the discharge of the duties of
his station. Ministers of different denominations also frequently
visit the Penitentiary, both for the purpose of having religious
opportunities with individual prisoners, and for the more general
and public discharge of the duties of their calling. In the County
Prison, although there is no regular officer employed for the purpose
as in the Penitentiary, yet the institution is pretty well supplied
with volunteer religious instructors from different sources, and, on
the first day of the week, the prison agent generally procures the
attendance there of one or more ministers.
In our Report last year, we informed that the Quarterly Journal,
which had been published by the Society for a number of years, was
discontinued, and an Annual Report and Journal substituted for it. The
principal reason then assigned for the change was, the large absorption
of our funds which its publication occasioned, while our means for
aiding discharged prisoners and sustaining other objects of practical
benevolence in carrying out the original object of our organization,
that of “Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” were entirely
too limited. The result, we think, has already confirmed the propriety
of the course then adopted. Our financial condition has considerably
improved, and our appropriations in 1862, in aid of discharged
prisoners, were upwards of fifty per cent. greater than in 1861.
EDWARD H. BONSALL, }
JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, } Committee on
TOWNSEND SHARPLESS, } Annual Report, &c.
CHARLES C. LATHROP, }
ALFRED H. LOVE. }
PHILADELPHIA, _1st Mo. (Jan.) 15, 1863_.
For the Prison Journal.
MAGISTRACY.
The Magistrate must have his reverence, the laws their
authority.--BURKE.
Moses, in reply to the question of his father-in-law, “Why sittest thou
thyself alone and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?”
said, “Because the people, when they have a matter, come unto me; and
I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes
of God and his laws.” In him we have a model magistrate. But finding
the labor “too heavy” for him, by the advice of Jethro, he confined his
duties in this respect to those of an appellant judge, to be for the
people “Godward,” to “bring the causes unto God,” and to hear “every
great matter,” and he did “provide out of all the people, _able men,
such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness_, and placed such
over them to be rulers,” or minor magistrates, “and made them heads
over the people,” “and they judged the people at all seasons; the hard
cases they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged
themselves.” In this record of the first institution of the office
of the magistrate, and the qualifications considered as requisite in
the man to fill the position, we have a lesson that it becomes us
diligently to consider at the present day. If there has been degeneracy
of the world since the days of Moses, in no respect perhaps has it
been more forcibly felt, than in the mode of administering justice,
(or as it would be more properly termed _in_justice,) at the present
day, by the police or committing magistrates. The evils resulting to
the community, the cruelty done to the unfortunate being who falls
into their hands, by the system prevailing and carried out by many of
the magistrates, especially of this city, have become so aggravated
as to demand a thorough reformation. “Moses chose _able_ men,” whose
qualifications were known “out of all Israel.” Men who acted in the
“fear of God,” and “who hated covetousness;” or would not take “_fees_”
or levy severe contributions on their victims, or the victims of
others’ wrongs, or commit them to prison on false or trivial charges,
to exact the payment of “charges and costs.” He did not leave the
_election_ of the magistrate to any body of the people whom they were
to judge, much less to the worst or dissolute portion of them.
The very word “magistrate,” (from _magister_, master,) implying
control, direction, suggests to the mind the idea of equity, safety,
and purity. It excites reverence and a sense of exalted dignity, and
imposes such a power and responsibility as never should be exercised by
a bad or incompetent man.
In countries where the magistrate is _appointed_ by the head or ruling
power for his qualifications, and is _independent_ of the people over
whom he presides, this feeling or sentiment, as a general thing, has
been justified. The people living under the administration of such,
lay themselves down and sleep in peace, and arise and go to their
avocations, feeling that their rights, their property, and their lives
are secure, because the righteous magistrate dwells in the land!
Under our democratic ideas, that because “the people are sovereign,” we
must therefore permit them, in carrying out these ideas, to exercise
the power of electing all of our officials from the highest to the
lowest, we run a great risk of placing the liberty and the welfare
of the citizen, in the hands of bad and immoral men. However capable
the people may be _as a whole_ to judge of the qualifications and
fitness of any certain person for a magistrate, _if they would as a
whole exercise their sovereignty_, no one, we presume, will claim
that the portion of the “sovereigns” who congregate in “grog-shops,”
and act under the inspiration of intoxicating beverages, in procuring
nominations, are properly exercising the sovereign power, or that
“the voice of _the people_,” thus expressed, is “the voice of God.”
That _some_ good magistrates, as we truly have, are elected under the
present system, but illustrates the truth _that it is possible_ to
elect the right kind of men to office, if the better class of citizens
will but exercise the privilege of the franchise, which under our
theory of government it is the _bounden duty_ of every good man to do.
The evils arising from the magistracy, as at present administered, are
the results of two causes, which ought to be removed:
1st. The mode of selecting or making magistrates.
2d. The mode of compensating them.
From the nature and duties of their office, they should be removed as
far as possible from any dependence upon the favour, the votes, or the
fees of the people over whom they judge or rule.
Being a part of the ruling power, having delegated to them the
“mastery” over the people, they should receive their authority or
appointment from, and be dependent upon, the supreme authority or head
magistrate, or “Master” of the City or State, and his constituted
advisers, the council or senate, and removable only for cause. Being
thus appointed by him who represents the sovereignty of the people,
and by his position and responsibility to the people for his acts, we
might reasonably expect to find men appointed, capable of discharging
the duties, and worthy of the sacred trust of a magistrate. Again, as
to the second point, the magistrate should not in any way be dependent
upon, profited by, or have any portion of the “_fees_” of his office,
but should be appointed for a certain precinct, ward, or district,
and receive a certain _fixed_ compensation or salary from the public
treasury. All “fees” or charges, being the penalty for breaking or
infringing the laws, should be collected and paid over to the public
treasurer by the magistrate, leaving him free to act uninfluenced by
them, as the impartial agent of the law, as between the ruling power
or sovereignty of the people and the accused, and enable him to act
as a peacemaker, or reconciler of difficulties. Under the influence
of the “fees” to be derived from “committing” the person accused, is
there not danger that self-interest may sometimes induce the magistrate
to commit unnecessarily, or otherwise encourage bad feelings between
the accuser and the accused, when a more independent position might
lead the magistrate to secure a reconciliation and settlement of the
difficulty?
All persons thus appointed and acting, should have power to act not
only as committing magistrates of persons after examination, to be
tried by a higher court or magistrate for heinous offences, but
they should be authorized and required to try all trivial or minor
cases, summarily, and to decide upon the same, and pronounce sentence
accordingly, without appeal except in specified cases. A system similar
to this prevails in other cities, or did at least in New Orleans
before the rebellion, where Recorders or criminal magistrates acted or
presided over certain defined districts; justices of the peace acting
in civil cases only, one being entirely separated from the other,
and the same person not allowed to act in both positions. The system
was found to work to advantage there, though the incumbents of the
position, contrary to what we deem wise, were elected by the people.
As adjuncts to such a system, a Work-house for mature offenders and
vagrants, and a House of Industry (or Refuge) for juvenile ones, to
which the magistrate could sentence them, would be needed to relieve
our County Prison of the _surfeit_ of cases now sent there, and to
relieve the public, by the fruits of their labor, from their cost of
maintenance; and so situated as to lead as far as possible to their
reformation, and to the formation of habits of industry, regularity,
and temperance. Such institutions could, as elsewhere, be made to pay
a profit to the city, instead of as now maintaining the victims of the
magistrate at heavy cost, in idleness and amidst evil associations. The
workings of the present system prevailing in our city, are forcibly
presented by the Reports of the Inspectors of the County Prison, and
those of the prison agent of the same,[2] from the latter of which we
select only the following, which are but a sample daily occurring:
1. One of these cases is that of a young soldier committed [May 15th],
on the charge of homicide. The Agent went to Washington, visited the
camps, and saw that witnesses therefrom were brought here. These were
brought here under the charge of an officer, specially detailed by the
Court for the purpose, to prove an alibi in his behalf. It was not,
however, found necessary to present this evidence, as another witness
was found who testified to seeing the murder committed by a different
person. The prisoner, in consequence, was at once acquitted.
2. Another case was that of a United States marine, the victim of a
conspiracy, whose object was to have him arrested and imprisoned as a
deserter, in order to recover $30, which are usually allowed in such
cases by Government. The chief actors here--as it appeared--were a
sergeant and two tavern-keepers, who sued him before two different
aldermen for an indebtedness, amounting to $17 for board and for
money obtained--as they say--under false pretence, which consisted
in his promising to pay after receiving his wages from Government.
At the settlement the sergeant claimed $135 out of $140.80; exacting
one-fourth of the sum loaned for its use, and leaving but $5.80 for the
prisoner to cancel the $17 debt. This $135 was paid to the sergeant for
the use of $101.25 advanced to the prisoner within 19 days subsequent
to his being paid--all of which he had spent. A ten days’ furlough was
granted to him, and then he was imprisoned, as above mentioned.
In investigating the case, the Agent learned from the prosecutors,
that they intended to get paid by keeping him in prison till after
his furlough expired, and then getting the major to arrest him, as a
deserter, with a promise that he would see them paid out of money,
which the prisoner would eventually have to pay, after being put in
irons and confined, for three months, in the barracks--which is said to
be the customary punishment in such cases.
3. Another case was that of a United States Army captain, who was
imprisoned on the charge of _enticing_ soldiers out of a regiment in
one State into a regiment of another State. It appears that, from
patriotic motives, he had resigned the command of his company in
Virginia and went to New York to raise a regiment of which he was to be
major. While he was in Philadelphia the orderly-sergeant of his former
company sent him a letter, inquiring how he progressed in forming his
new regiment, and also informing him that, after pay-day, many of his
old command would quit their company.
This portion of the letter came to the knowledge of one of our city
aldermen, who construed it, as enticing soldiers from one company into
another, and thereupon unjustly committed the captain to prison.
On the Agent stating the truth of the case to the alderman, and asking
the prisoner’s immediate release, as his services were needed in our
country’s defence; the magistrate refused to discharge him, unless he
or his friends would pay the costs, and thus submit to the illegal
extortion of money, as also to the imputation of having violated the
laws. Whereupon the Agent, after consulting the United States Court
officers, applied to the Court of Quarter Sessions for a writ of habeas
corpus, had the case examined, and the prisoner was discharged by the
authority of Judge Thompson.
4. Another extraordinary case was that of a woman charged with
kidnapping and robbery. The alleged kidnapping--as was proved in
Court--consisted in her taking possession of her own son, of 16 years
old, a runaway, found by her in Schuylkill County, and the robbery
in the taking of his clothes, which she had a right to take, as was
shown by her acquittal in Court, at her hearing upon a writ of habeas
corpus, procured by the Agent; when the fact of his being her son was
established, not only by herself, his mother, but by his brother, of 19
years old, and by a respectable citizen and others, who had known him
from infancy.
5. Another case, presenting, perhaps, still more striking features, was
that of a woman committed, on a bail-piece issued by one of our city
aldermen, November 20th, and discharged November 21st, by bail being
entered for her appearance at Court. The original charge against her
was for assault and battery on a neighbor woman.
According to the prisoner’s account, she got into difficulty with this
neighbor about some children belonging to another party. They struck
each other, and then the prisoner was sued by the other woman before
an alderman, who granted a warrant gratis, as at the time she had no
money. The prisoner was required to give bail, or go to prison. She
then arranged with the alderman’s constable (at his suggestion) to pay
him $2 for being her bail, on her receiving money, which she expected
daily from her husband and son, who were in the United States Army. She
also agreed to pay the alderman $1.80. On her receiving, soon after, a
remittance from her son, she promptly paid the amount agreed upon.
She was then told, by the alderman and constable, that she must now
enter freehold bail for her appearance at Court. She replied, that she
thought that unnecessary, as she and her prosecutrix had settled their
quarrel, and were now as friendly and intimate as sisters, visiting
each other in their respective premises almost every hour in the day.
But, notwithstanding all this, and although, being a simple case of
assault and battery, it was fully within the magistrate’s power to
settle it, he would not do it, but insisted on having freehold security.