Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-12-15
S ale and this may meet a. the same

last year, the State incurred liability
Of more than thirty thousand dollars, a
considerable portion of which remains
as yet unpaid by the United States
Government, as will more fully appear
by the report Of the Quartermaster
General. ss-
Two other Regiments, being the
fourth and fifty of Infantry, and one
company Of Cavalry, have this year
volunteered, and are now in Mexico.
In the organization of these latter
troops. did not consider myself eth.
er authorized or called upon 10 expend
large sums of money: first, because
Congress had made liberal appropria-
| tions for the support of the army,
which were under the control of the
President. and the Legislature of Ohio
had not, for that purpose, placed funds
at my disposal; and, secondly, because
the requisition itself contained the fol-
lowing clause: The proper officers of
the Staff Departments will be immedi-
.ately sent 10 the place of rendezvous,
with funds to delray the necessary ex.
penses, which may be incurred agree
ablyto law
The Asylums for the lunatics, for the
blind, and for the deaf and dumb, have
all been managed, by their respective
superintendants and officers, with dis
tinguished ability and success, every
way worthy of the high character
which they have attained, and of the
lustre which they have shed on the good
name Of the State: I cheerfully com.
mend them to your continued patron
age.
The mild yet firm discipline admins
| tered by the warden and officers of the
Penitentiary. and the moral and relig.
Gus 'nstrumen'a!ities brought into requi.
sition, including the largely increased
library ior the use of the conyicts COL
lected by the Rev. Mr.. Findley, are
exercising, trust, wholes ONE influ-
ence upon their character. No duty
entrusted to government is more diff
cult OF execution than that of the pun.
lshment OF crime. The great object
to be kept in view is the protection of
society by the confinement, and espe-
cial1y by the reformations of the Grim
mails IN such manner as shall at once
delray all expenses, and train the con-
vIcts to habits Of industry; not forget
ting, though fallen, they are men, with
minds to be enlightened and hearts to
be animated by the lessons of morality
and religion. 1t is not true that we
have directed our ..attenton too much
to the finoncicial view alone of this
great governmental obliga,ion7 Hav-
ing succeeded in making the Peniten-
tlary defray its own expenses; aid in
| erecting other institutions, and paw
| balance into the treasury, have we not
| overlooked the nature of the contracts
by which the convicts have been hired
out and transferred from hand 10 hand:
and have we not in some respects. for.
gotten what is due to their minds and
bodies? May it not well be questioned
whether unremitting and unrequitted
toll from early dawn I'LL night, under the
eye of an interested taskmasier, with
out an hour to read by day or light to
read at night, constitutes the great road
to moral reformation? 1t is right to
continue in the hands of one individual
a monopoly Of between two and three
hundred laboring men, at only thirty
three cents per day, boarding, lodging.
and work kshops found? Is It lust to
keep up that monopoly at that price.
in competition with the honest mechan.
les the State? Is it to be tolerated
that such a contract is claimed 10 be
perpetual? | submit to your deliber-
ate judgment whether the warden ofI
The Penitentiary had power, either bv
virtue Of his Office, or by any legal
enactment, to limit or control Iegisla. |
ton, by any such perpetual contract.
and awhatever the General Assembly
has not undoubted right in the exercise
of its discretion, to abolish the peniten.
tiary system entirely, or to adopt soil.
iary confinement, either in whole or in
part; or, if they find the presen, system
detrimental to the industrial concerns OF
the state, whether, from the nature of
government, and the terms of the con.
tracts themselves, they may not employ
either the whole ora part of the con.
victs at the public buildings?
And ! would further submit to the
WiSNoin w aHS AIC9 9iSittluiC, WnclDer
the work on the State House ought not
TO be Immediately and earnestly re.
sumed; and whether lconvict labor ought
TO be withdrawn from avocations iniu
rious TO mechanical pursuits, and direc.
led TO this necessary object, taking care
in its gradual withdrawal, to w ork no
injury to any just rights of contractors.
And if by this direction 10 the labor
Of the prison, or a portion of it, appro-
priations become necessary to pay for
The stone quarry purchased, and 10 sup> :
port the institution, whether they should :
not be made. Is it it not better to do {
that than either to hire out convicts at |
lhirty-three cents per day, and employ
other laborers to do the same work at I
one dollar andl fifty cents per day: or
to sutier the foundation laid, and mate ,
rails provided for the State House, as t
well as all our archives, 10 90 TO rnin i