Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-12-20

for the most part, not by the law of the
Hand, but under one of the great economi
cal relations of life, by the master. Sucl
is no longer the case. They are now turn
ed loose upon society, ignorant thriftless
lndolent-the victims often of the more I'M
scrupulous and designing of the white race.
| The consequence is inevitable and natural.
| From a community in which there was as
| strict obedience to law, and as profound
| regard for order as has existed in any age
| or nation, our State has become infested
| with crime, the majesty of the law is disre-
garded, the rights of property are trampled
| under foot, and In many portions of the
| State the honest husbandman, striving un-
der the primeval curse to gain a livelihood
| for wife and children, does not know, when
| he lies down after the tolls Of the day,
whether there will be food enough for eth
er on the morrow. There is a saturnalia OF
| lawlessness. and what was once called pet
| ty theft, but which, from it's frequency and
! universally, is sapping the very founda-
tons Of our prosperity. This is known to
be the condition of things in the State, and
If 1T is to continue, it viii ruin our people.
Our Court Houses are crowded with pris-
onerS who go hence to eat the bread of
idleness in the jails, or to the whipping
post, 10 return soon again to the Court
House. to go through the same round
The administrators of the law thus present
the spectacle of being engaged in the mis-
cradle pas time5of dropping buckets into
empty wells and growing old by drawing
nothing up" Ii is even worse, for in the
mean time a horse has been stolen, house
has been broken open, some helpless female
whose natural protector, it may be, sleeps
in sheetless grave by the Rappahannock
or the Chickahominy, and whose sole pro-
iCt l,n ,f hos
lost her last piece OF meat or her last bush
el of corn.
It is this state of things, to the minds of
your Committee, which, in no small degree,
causes the hearts of the great mass of the
people to sink within them, and which is a
fruitful source Of the gloom and despon-
dency which paralyze their energies. It
is, by some, entirely attributed to the I'M
settled relations of the State to the Federal
government. This doubtless has it's infiu-
ence, but it is by no means the sole or the
chief cause with the great body of the peo-
pie
No, if there is dependency in the land :;
if the hand of industry is paralyzed if the
heart of the husbandman is faint, and he is
no longer urged to force "a superintendent
subsistence from the accursed earth, it is
because crime is rampant and there is no
longer that protection to property, without
which no community ever did or ever wall
prosper. That some change IS demanded
by our altered condition in dealing with our
criminals, We believe to be q profound con
viction of the public mind, and the queS-
ton, ''wnat is to DE done with them ?" is
one Of pressing Importance, and one which
comes home to every citizen. It Is q sub
jCct beset with difficulties-the same diff
culties which the thickly populated coun-
/
for centuries, and which nothing but the
vast unoccupied territories of the Union,
have prevented the North from having to
grapple with IL sober earnest. Still, she
has had her share of trouble in dealing with
her criminals, and builds Sing Sings and
Auburns, and putting VOW OF silence upon
their lips, cOnsigns them to the T0mbs.-
The question now presses upon us and de-
mands sOlution-that solution your Com
mittee respectfully submit, taking into view
all the circumstances which surround us. is
the establishment of Penitentiary, with
such changes III our criminal code rs may
be found necessary.
For the great mass of offences under cap
ital feIonies, our present punishment is
whipping and Imprisonment. It is need
less to reason upon the ineficiency of whip
ping as punishment for large part OF ouI
population, now amounting to one-third OF
the whole; that part, too, the most prone
to crime. Our lately enamel pated blacks
will feel the lash as a smart wound: but
they do not yet, and will not for a long
time If ever, feel it as q stain. From its
probable frequency in the future, as well
as its short physical pain to those upon
whom it will be chiefly administered, with
out any civil disabilities whatever, it is like,
ly to lose its efficacy as public punish
ment. It's utter inefficiency, on all clas-
ses, is clearly demonstrated in the crime OF
horse stealing, which has caused many, in
a season of evaporation, to favor the in
Fiction of the death penalty for that offence.
1t is not pretended by the advocates of this
change in our criminal code, that the crime
of horse stealing is more heinOus now than
it was six years go, but that some change
is demanded by It's frequency, as 4 preUen,
tire. That the prevention of crime is one
of the ends of punishment is freely conce-
ded but that it is the sole end, will scarce
ly be maintained by any one who has re,
hected deeply upon the question, or ana
lyzed carefully the operations Of his OWL
mind.
II the prevention Of crime be the only
lawful end of penal sanctions, then the ell
cacy Of any proposed penalty restraint
upon the preparation of offences, is the test
OF our right to infiict it. It is right under
this view OF the case, to fine a man, lmprls
on or hang him, if We have sufficient reason
to believe that We may thereby produce {
certain amount Of good to the community
in the restraint imposed upon the commits
sion OF crime. Let US suppose, then, thai
tue iutiicsion Of this doom, whatever it may
be, upon an innocent man would preven
an equal amount Of crime, would it be RICH
to lay it upon him ? Could it be certainly
known that the hanging of some man
whose hands are pure from crime, would
prevent all future murders down to the enc
| of time. would it be right to lay it upo1
him What right have We to take any maj
ana torture him, merely for the sake of do
! ing good to others Under this view, tn
convicted horse thief is told, ''you are t.
| he hung, not because you stole horse, bu
| thas horses may not be stolen" What Ugh
have We to catch man and hang him N
| because We have reason to believe that h
will prove a scare-crow to brighten Othe
inen from mischief? We can have ne RICH
except that which this theory leaves entire
ly out Of view, the intrinsic IL desert Of til
offender. The foundation of human pun
ishments can never be laid, by any JUS