Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-07-19
DAILY NATIONAL ERA.

Il
they certainly have no respectable authority,
and cannot claim serious notice until youchcd
by an official report
But, allowing them to be truly drawn from
the Census Returns, they are evidently partial,
and without explanation calculated to mislead.
The following short paragraph is all that
tho published returns of the Census contain in
relation to criminal statistics. From the COR
respondencc Of figures, il is evident that the
statement copied by the Enquirer from De
BOWS Reviow only refers to the number in
prison on the first day of June, 1885, and not
TO the number Of convictions during the year.
For reasons which We viii proceed to cduce, it
will be perfectly apparent that such state
msnt, even if true, is 80 partial and incomplete,
as, taken without explanation, to amount to q
Misrepresentation. Here follows the paragraph
contained III the Abstract, page 30
1Cyime. Tho statistics of crime form the
subject of cur investigation. From the returns,
it appears that the whole number Of persons
convicted d crime in the United States. for the
year ending the first day Of June, 1850, was
about 27oo0; Of these, 10000 were native, and
$4,000 foreign born. The whole number in
600, of which A 800 were native, and 2,460
foreign IL will be borne in mind that the ma
tive prisoners include colored convicts, the
number Of whom il is impossible to state, as
time has not suficed to admit of the more par
ticuIar separation into classes other than ma
tive and foreign. Our criminal statistics when
fully understood, will present many subjects
for reflection, and open a wide End interesting
field for the study Of the Christian, moralist
and statesman"
In the first place, they have no State prison
or Penitentiary in some of the Southern States
We know that there is no such institution in
either North or South Carolina; we are i'm
pressed with tho belief that other Southern
States are in = like situation. In those Slater,
the practices Of avhipping and branding pre-
vail, and are used as substitute for Peni-
Tertiary, and long imprisonments.
In Virginia and other Southern States,
owing to the sparseness Of population, it is
found inconyenient to send men to the Peni-
Tertiary at Richmond from remote districts, to
remain six or twelve months. The expense in
such cases exceeds tho value of labor which
the criminal performs. To send a man from
one Of the western counties bordering on Ohio
or Tennessee I'll Richmond, to atone for petit
larceny or breach of the peace, by six or
twelve months probation in the Penitentiary,
would evidently be losing business. The
distance by any practicable route is from five
to seven hundred miles; and the criminal
would necessarily require an escort Of two
guards, whose wages and expenses would
amount to round sum. The expense and in
convenience of such system would be unbear-
able by any community; and hence the Legis-
laturc of Virginia has provided that where the
punishment due to an offence is not equal to
two years imprisonment in the Penitentiary,
the lash and the brand, fines, and perhaps
short imprisonment in Jail, shall be substituted.
We believe that similar dispensation Of pun
ishment is made in most Of the Southern States
where they have Penitentiary.
The free States, whose criminal statistics the
Memphis gentleman undertakes to furnish, are
the most densely populous in the Union, and
are everywhere permeated by railroads. The
largest of them New York and Pennsylvania,
have each two or more penitentiaries besides
work houses, which can be reached in few
hours from the remotest districts. There is
therefore, not tho same reason for restricting
their use to the higher grades Of offences.
The ,rhipping- post and the brand are nsver
used in the free States Every offence is pun
shable by imprisonment in their woll-ordered
warehouses; and common jails
On the other hand, these instruments of
corporal punishment are universally used in
all the slayeholding States They rank en-
phatically among the peculiar institutions"
Of the South and their application is not con-
fined to the negro race. In most Of the slave
States whose statistics tho Enquirer UNDER
takes to furnish, the practice Of whipping and
branding white men prevails; while negroes,
slaves as well as free, are rarely punished in
any other way, except for capital feloniss
The whole colored population, therefore,
must be left out Of tho account and it would
be necessary to add every instance Of whip
ping and branding white men, in order to
make fair comparison Of criminal statistics
between the North and the South.
But further. The fact is we'll known that
the laws are moro rigidly enforced in tho free
than in the slave States. That large class Of
cases which results from the relation Of master
and slave, in which the laws even Of the South
ern States, designed for the protection Of the
latter, are disregarded, are rarely punished 9TH
erwisc than by fines; and, in fact, they are rare
" punished at all A man may become odious
and unpopular in consequence Of his known
cruelty TO his slaves, but it is deemed an unsafe
precedent TO bring him TO justice, 60 long as he
refrains from taking Life. Such interference
in behalf Of the slave is looked upon as Of
doubtful proprioty, from its supposed tendency
10 olavate tho slavr,s estimate Of himself The