The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1818-06-09
SPEECH
Gentlemen Of The Senate, and


Gentlemen Of the House Of Representatives.,
A REVIEW of the past, and an exam
ina,ion Of the existing circumstances of the
Commonwealth can never be more pertin-
cnt or useful than on occasions like the pre-
sent The practical Effects of lawsupon So
ciety furnish the legislator with the most In
struciive political lessons, and the safest
guides for his future conduct. Laws,
which time, that so uneriugly drvelopes the
merit and demerit of every thing human,
has proved 10 be adapted TO the genius and
circumstances of the people, command res
pect and challenge perpetuation. And
such appears to be the happy adaptation of
the civil statutes of the Commonwealth, to
our actual condition, as to afford little room
for Legislative correction. The field OF
Legislation being thus narrowed, the duties
of the Legislature will be less onerous and
YOU may pursue, with less divided atten
lion, the moderation of the criminal code,
and the promotion OF objects of general u
rility.
HUMANITY has long hewailed the mise
ries which crimes have brought upon socie.
iy: And the efforts of many individuals
and of governments have been continually
making to prevent their preparation.
Some very ingenious and learned men, par.
iicularly oft last and present centuries,
indulging in distracted views of the human
character and of human rights, have pro-
scribed all capital and corporal punish
ments, not only as cruel and sanguinary, as
unjusti6able and useless, but as tending to
produce the crimes they we're designed TO
prevent And the origin of punishment has
been referred to an ardent spirit Of domino
zion, or to the malignant passions Of men in
power.
BHNEvoLENcE and humanity would de-
light in the idea that crimes and punish
ments were speedily to terminate. Hopes
have even been cherished by many philan-
ihrophists in our own country, that under
mild and mitigated system of penal and
criminal law, the utility of public punish
ments would diminish or cease. But de.
auctions from the hypothetical rights OF in
diyiduals, and the pertectability OF man, are
Two subtle and indistinct TO be assumed
as practical maxims of jurisprudence. IF
the right of a government to infliot high
degree Of punishment be denied, it will be
difficult to define point at which the right
TO punish in any degree shall commence.
MEETING the question upon the broad
ground of Justice and public utility, the
government Of Massachusetts, maintaining
the RICH, to punish, has abolished many OF
the ancient laws which ordained The inf1ic-
lion of death as punishment. An appeal
to our present statutes will show that great
improvements in favor of human weakness
have been effected. We can only, hewev-
err, permit ourselves to boast Of an approx
imation to a due adjustment of punish
ments to the various grades of offences.
Crimes are daily perps trated; and much re-
mains 10 be done. Even in the present i'm
proved state of our own country, when the
spirit Of liberty. of philosophy, and of the
christian religion, have united to suppress
vice and crimes, 10 mitigate the rigour of
punishments and 10 endow them with re-
forming power, we painfully witness the
protracted prevalence of vice and depray
ily And it continues to be The indispensa-
Bile, though irksome duty of Christian
Legislature, 10 oludht puuiSilfiicut LOT
crimes and by good and wholesome laws,
protect the persons and properly of the or
DERBY and virtuous, against the depredstions
and outrage Of the unprincipled and auGA-
cious.
THE utility OF concentrated system of
penal and criminal law, in which punish
ment shall be graduated by the nature and
aggravation of crimes, and adapted to the
actual state of society and public sentiment,
was duly appreciated by your immediate
predecessors and have great satisfaction
in adding, that revision of the criminal
code of this Commonwealth was, to the full
lest extent, referred to committee ofthree
ofour most learned and distinguished Ju-
rists, designated by the Legislature in the
month of February last from whosetalents
and labors we may anticipate the most SAL
utary results.
In adverling to objects of general utility,
limit my own views TO inviting your at
tention TO consideratieas of that character.
The present period being time of peace,
the citizens not only of this State, but of
the other States in this confederacy, are
assiduously availing themselves OF the mo-
ment to cultivate and improve the arts of
life, and to augment the means OF personal
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