Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-09-02
THE INCREASE OF CRIME.

|
Some of the newspapers are noticing the increase
OF crime of all kinds in the country, and endeavor
ing to account for it There can be no doubt thai
crime has increased considerably during the last
year, for the papers contain more of it in various
shapes than have ever before observed; but some
allowance must be made for the added means o.
publicity, by which nearly every thing that is done
no matter where. is at once make known,
| But wherefore this increase of crime? Whose
| fault isit? What is the remedy? We can scarcely
open newspaper without seeing an account of a
homicide, robbery, rape a suicide, or a con-
spiracy to deprive fellow-beng of property life.
Then we have -burnings, and riots, and mobs
and assassinations-all tending to the conviction
that the increase of evil deeds than keeps pace
with the increased population of the country. We
think we can give of the reasons for this, and
that is idLnessa disposition to live without
labor-a dependence, not upon industry and manly
exertion, but on shrewdness chicanery, and over
reaching An idle brain is the DEVILS workshop :"
and man habitualy lazy is habitually and inc
vitality mean.
Another reason may be that the laws are not as
rigidly enforced they should be- Juries, under
the influence of the eloquence and ingenuity of coun-
SELL who in turn under the influence of gold in
the shape of large fees too prone to acqut the
wealthy when charged with crime; while the poor
man, general rule, is subjected to the rigors of
the law and left to his punishment a matter of
course and without compassion. What would have
been the fate of the murderer of Butler the school
master, if he had been poor2 He would certainly
have been hanged by the neck until he was dead !;
but Ward had money, and what was falsely called
social distinction, and eloquent counsel and so he
acquitted and the tendency to violations of the
law and to crime thereby increased.
But it is useless, perhaps, to dilate upon these
things If the pulpits of the country cannot restrain
vice and save communities from the increase of de-
pravity and disregard of law, the press will scarcely
be able to effect it. Yet it is incumbent upon all
who WELD influence to set their faces against what
is calculated to engender encourage crime;
and prominent among those who possess influence
in this respect for go ID, class the clergy, the CT
vii authorities by whatever name called, and the
press. 1t will require the power, and all the power
of these conservators of morals combined, to stay
the flood of evil now sweeping over the land, and
manfesting itself in so many acts of crime.
One noticeable feature in this matter is that there
is crime in the New England States in proper
ton to their population than there is in the Western
Southern States. The statistics of the last
will show this. The canting and hypocrisy of so
many of the people of the former States the SUBJ
ject of domestic slavery, are we'll known They can
the mote in their brothers eye, but have no in
cnation to remove the beam that is in their own
eye. So true it is that the fanatics of New England
not only not heard for their 'much speaking but
they not improved thereby. Thanking God that
they not other men, their skirts neverthe
less stained with pauperism fourfold to what is
in the South, and with constantly varied and aug
menting crime. The condition of the slaves gener-
ally of the South is much better than that of many
of their overtasked white laborers; yet grave par
sons sentimental young and old ladies, and ignorant
but pious young consume their time in plying
the slave and in devising means for what would be
his ruin, to wit, his emancipation forgetting the
while that the wretched, the heart-oroken the hun
gered of their own blood and color. are in their
very midst 1t is but natural that crime should fol-
low close upon the heels of hypocrisy; and we are
not, therefore, surprised to find the former on the
increase in the States referred to.