Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1845-10-16

IDENTITY demands, suggests the direction which
might be given to part, or all, of these sources of
income when released from their present connec-
Ition. It is believed that the annually accruing in
erost on that portion of the present school fund,
loaned on private securities together with the an
nual income from pedlars licenses would be sullc-
lent for that purpose. We may thus institute q
system of Supervision and Accountability, which
shall give concentration and energy to the present
efforts to raise the standard, and multiply the ia
clities of education, until the minds of the mass
of our children-the happy mingling of the poor
and the rich together shall feel its equalizng and
elevating power. Thus while comforting substan-
tlal benefits on the present generation, we may
send forward an influence which shall flow on in
a continually widening stream of benefits and
blessings to the generations that shall succeed us
to the end of time
Should be found that no interest of the present.
or of future generations, can be benefited by n
continuance of the State Indebtedness to the fund
of which | have spoken and the Indebtedness
should be cancelled, the State debt would then
stand as follows:
Due the safety fund banks, including interest to
Oct. |, S30,3S9 81
Due the surplus fund, S14,sl2 20
Deduct the amount loaned
out the past year, 1l,OO4 90
- 3,sOS 2s
Salaries due, Oct. |, 1,l09 SO
Due to towns for interest surplus
fund, 444 SO
Total, S35,75O rs
The balance in the Treasury on the
18th Of Sept. was SIsAI7 81
Balance of taxes due, 23232 50
Total, - $50 AZ
To what extent the service of the coming year
"a portion of which necessarily constitutes draft
on the present balances in the treasury and tau
es-wil permit the application Of a part of those
balances towards the eXtngushment of the indebt-
edness of the State, may be determined, upon the
careful examination which ought to be made into
every branch of expenditure, with view to ascer-
tain whether there can be any reduction, consis-
tenty with the public interest. In looking at the
expenditures of past years, have been struck with
the large amount discussed under the heads of
" Supreme and County Court ORDERS" and g Clerks
of Courts for the expenses of Supreme and County
Courts J" which have risen from S20,405, in 1899,
to S2S,970 in 1S45 The amount discussed I'M
der these heads during the last seven years. has
been SlS4,300 averaging S26,32S per annum
would suggest the proprety of an examination in
to the details of these large items of expenditure
in regard to which it may possibly be found that
in course of years. abuses have crept in requir-
ing corrective legislation.
The treasury is happily relieved from charge
which, for many years hung upon it, in the form of
yious to, and including the year 1913, when they
ceased to be draft on the treasury, amounted to
the sum Of SlS,50l. | am happy TO say that, by
a law of last year. the people are relieved from the
still more burdensome tax of annual trainings of
the enrolled militia.
1t may be reasonably hoped that, by a practical
BILE, and not injurious reduction of expenditures
in the heavy items to which have re-
terred, sum may be saved which, with fixed APP
preparation of the income from the bank tax--re-
Iieved from its present pledge to the school fund
might, within moderate period, eXtinguish the |
entire Indebtedness of the State.
The reference have made to the items of ex.
penditure in connection with the Supreme and
County Courts--a large portion of which results |
from criminal prosecutions suggests a topic of
much interest," to which | would call your atten- !
ton.
The great purpose of criminal law is reforma- |
ton. This purpose lies at the foundation of the
Pententary system, which combines with impris-
onment hard labor, and course Of moral dsci- !
pine suited to bring back offenders to the paths of
rectitude and virtue. But this system is applica-
Die, under our laws, only to the higher offences,
leaving large class of offenders without the ben
eft of any such reforming process and substituting
Tor it, confinement in the county iails--in some |
cases, with the alternative of the payment of fines
INTO the county or town treasures, for nonp payment
of which, Imprisonment necessarily follows.
ed as punishment or results from inability to pay
ines, it obviously has effect entirely the reverse
If reformation 1t is impossible to visit convict
hus thrown into county Jail, with little or no
attention to any except his mere animal wants, |
without feeling painfully impressed with a convic-
ion, that it is an unnatural and monstrous perver-
non of the power of punishment. Without employ |
nent or exercise, the convict is left to the corro-
ling and maddening influence of the reflection that
he is an outcast from the charity and sympathy of
he world; and that the law and its executioners |
ire alike his enemies. Every moments continl-
lnce of such confinementtends to weaken his pur- |
,oses of amendment, and prepare him for abandon. !
nent to the commission of higher offences. There
ire cases in which this is not true but they con-
titute the exception and not the rule If the his
DRY of all the State prison convicts fully dis
,losed it would probably be found, that a large
PORTION of them have been tenants of county jas, |
n punishment for inferior offences.
The remedy for this evil is Obvious. 1t is the APP
,licaton of the principle of penitentary discipline
o minor offences, by means of Houses of Correc- |
ion in each county-to be made comfortable in
heir structure and accommodations, and to be
with such arrangements for the profit !
lble employment of the inmates, and the exercise !
IF such firm and steady discipline, sound wis |
lom and the spirit of Christian kindness may sug-
yest BY such means may offenders be made use
u to the public, during the necessary continuance
d ther conhnement, whiie the hlgher purpose
shall be answered. of impressing upon their minds,
BY every thing they shall see around them, that
hey are men hound TO society, not by the law of
orce merely, but by the higher law of moral obi
cation, well as by the sympathies of our common
nature.
Such course of treatment would, doubtless,
have very happy influence upon "vagrants and
idle and disordery persons" for whose restraint and
discipline our laws make no provision, save that
of the town poor houses which, by the DIST section
Of chapter II of the Revised Statutes, are constu.
led houses of correction, but which, while they
involve the evil of an unnatural mingling of the |
aged and infrm poor with the FESTIVE and trouble
some, can seldom be tnade TO accomplish, to any
considerable extent, the purposes of correction and
reform.
The bearing upon our whole system of criminal
Justice, of such process of discipline as may be
carried into effect in county houses of correction
asnecially in the cases of inunniln ntInnders