Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1845-11-19
Crime.

j
The session. o { court which has just closed
has shown an alarming increase OF crime In
this county, or most fortunate effort at its
detectlon.
It is true that comparatively few of those
who have been recently artaigned at the Bar
of criminal Justice in our county are of our
own citizens, yet there are enough -of them
there 10 admonish us that all the guilt is not
tn be thrown on other heads. Be that as it
NAV, no one can fail to have noticed the
great increase of criminal business and the
alarming frequency of crime. Il
1t is high time we began to inquire after
the cause of this change. It will not do for
us to fold our arms and suffer matters ofthis'
kind to progress while remedy may be found.
1t might be grave and useful problem for
some one skilled in the analysis of Moral
causes to determine, how long crime may in
crease at its present ratio before the citizens
of our county will be obliged to trust their
arms rather than their laws for political se-
curity. Too much cannot By said in con-
mendation of their vigilance and activity
arresting and furnishing the criminal; but is
this all we can or ought to do. Surely NOT
We ought carefully to search out the causes
of these efforts and enquire what may be done
to prevent them. Is this increase of crime Of
a local or general character? We should be
glad if we might conclude it was local, but
facts will not allow us that privilege. Facts
demonstrate that at no period of our Coun-
trys history has crime been SO frequent or SO
fragrant. The torch of the incendiary has
ruined half our cities, the Burglar, the
Highwayman, the Assassin, the Murderer are
characters of such common occurrence in
our public prints that they scarce excite our
wonder or detestation. Is not this true? and
if true, ought we not in earnest to search OUT
the causes and apply the remedy to this evil
or rather this host of evils? The causes we
believe are almost as apparent as the effects
aud may be as easily traced, One of the first
of these causes we believe to be disposition
on the part of our law makers to look with a
lenient eye on breaches of good faith; to tol-
crate with impunity the reputation OF moral
and pecunary obligations and on the, other
hand to stigmatize as barbarous and cruel
those sautary laws which were wont to visit
fraud and bad faith with punishment because
something perverted. Most of lis can re-
member the day when mans word was like
his bond, sacred. How different is it now.
In this respect we are far behind our fathers.
Again another cause may be found in the
wide, the endless circulation of light, frivi-
lous and lieentious Literature which invest
the vicious of our race with the high character
of hero or heroine and gives to vice the
gaudy habiliments of fietion assf tha& fearful
reality was not common enough in real life.
Crime begins in the imagination. Man ney-
er deliberately commits it until he has SO sur
rounded himself with its imag mary benefits
and delights as to drown its terrible enormitys
Another cause we think may be found IN the
great preponde-ance drawn in our modern
systems of Education of merely intellectual
over moral cultivation. This is fundafnen.
tai and most powerful cause and lies at the
root of all others. When cultivated intellect
wields its power to adorn and elevate vice,
corruption must prevail, our laws, our relig>
ion, our public men and institutions will all
feel its pervading influence and conquerng
power.
The press and the Pulpit are even now
whitening under this influence, and is this a
time for good men and good citizens to sleep!
We think not. In hopes that these brief
hints on an important su bject may arouse
some abler mind we take our leave of it for
the present.