New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-17

q.
"by penalties, unless you make them honest men by
discipline" This il has been We'll said, contains
the grand purpose of all civil policies toward
| criminals. By discipline We do not mean molly
coddlirg the convicts aud Offering premium to
our Uriah Keeps and Littimers to cultivate by
pocrsies for the spiritual pride Of chaplains and
| visitors. but wi,e system Of treatment which
shoud have for it's object the real conversion of
bad men into good citizens, and the permanent &C.
cusion of those who are unequivocaliy incorrigbe.
This we freely admit to be difficult; but We do not
believe il is impossible.
The fret thing that must be done toward
thorough reformation of our puntcry system is the
substitution of totally different class Of men from
those who low have charge of them, and the placing
them entirely beyond the yicissitudes of politics
We dare say The persons who now have charge of
the penitentares in this State and elsewhere are as
competent as the average Of their predecessors
But they are taken as general thing from the re-
spectacle employments Of middle life--industriou'
sensible, contentious men, we dare say, but not
men who have any especial gift for dealing with men
or fer reading or influencing character That such
men should often make mistakes is inevitable-lust
as inevitable as if the Superintendents of Hospitals
for the Insane, the Deaf and Dumb the Blind the
Idiotic we've TO be selected en- the same principles
| from the same class Of society. And this often,
| with the best intention IN the world Take the
| Massachusetts, State prison, for example. 1t en-
Joys the reputation Of being as well conducted 40
any other, and we know nothing specif-
sally as to the details of it's manage
ment But the fact that WaB1en and his
| Deputy have both been murdered within a month
of each other, and that some twenty convicts are
in close confinement for having concealed weapons
and showing other dangerous symptoms, is proof
| enough that there is something wrong there. No
withdrawing paragraphs in newspapers, or reports
of chspains or inspectors, hinder the inference
1t is inevitable from the ackno xledged state Of the
| facts Now, we dare say that the unfortunate Off
GERS who have paid the fatal penalty of their errors
and all their sub )rdiDates, did the best they knew
how. But they did not know how best to do. 1t
was not in the nature of things that they should.
If the SICK, the Blind, the Insane, the Deaf aud
Dumb, the IdOtic, demand peculiar Originalftnesses
and careful specific preparation on the part of
their Superintendent, still more do the moral
epers who nfest society call for men Of science
and special training TO undertake their cure or
their charge. OF all tasks this demands the sound
est Judgment, the wisest penetration, the most ac
cuIate observation the profoundest acquaintance
with the phenomena of the mind and of the body.
The prisons and pententiaries should be in the
charge of men at least the equals, in all these cir
cumstances Of preparation of the gentlemen who
conduct the benevolent Institutions above indicated
or their superiors, il such can be found. If such
men be called for, they will be sure to appear, and
we are sure, when they do, they will work
as great change in their condition and
in the results of penal establishments as
tie skillful men who nov replace tue old
keepers Of mad houses and amshouses have
wrought in the condition of the unhappy class
of sufferers who used to be subjected to that
ignorant cruelty. Such men would be equally free
from the hardening influence which the constant adj
miDsiration of hardship produces On common minds,
and also from the tendency to yield to the fattery
OF pretended conversion, TO which wel-meaning
but unworldly chapains are sometimes subject.
Their scientific knowledge of the structure and dis
eases Of the mind and body would teach them how
best to treat the unfortunate subjects Of their care
with an eye to their complete cure, or il would in
time satisfy them that such cufe was hopeless.
Ii is delicate point to touch Oh inst now, that of
insony; but no enc acquainted with facts or phi
lcsopby can doubt that crime is the result OF a
morbid state of mind arising often from diseased
state of body. The normal action of the miod pro-
duces only good things. Many evidOers are Justly
responsible to society for their evidoings, who still
need the curative hand of the good physician of the
body and the mind more than the correction Of q
jaer. As matters now stand there can be no dis
tincion made between different shades OF weak
ness or Of wickedness of character. A certain
specified Oiense must have certain amount
OF penal servitude, and it must be administered
in just such way, without regard to lido
syncrasies or mental qualities because the men
now charged with the execution Of their sentences
are not competent to observe or to make the dis |
tineton. But humane man, of the highest |
science and most cultivated observation, would |
classify and indiyiduaize the treatment OF |
his subjects 10 such way as to re-
store many TO themselves and TO society, |
Who are now for ever lost 10 both. Much |
as improved Prison Discip has done toward the |
diminuton of crime and the reformation Of criIni-
nsls, We believe that il is but the foretaste of the
coed which the placing the Prisons and Peniten-
tsries under the Of men of the highes. human.
ity, science and cultivated knowledge of mankind,
would accomplish. Here ends.h the First Lesson. |
Tie Second shall follow by and by.
All the arguments devised by intellectual lnse- |
nuity in support of Slavery look 10 The future MOst