Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-01-02
Corporeal Punishment in North and
South Carolipa.--TheL Laws Upheld
by the President.

by the President.
By the criminal codes of those States, men are
liabl, for petit larceny, horse stealing, etc. to the
penalty of thirty-nine stripes laid en- the baro
back But during the reign of Gen. Sickles, who
has tcen for year or moro in command Of North
and South Carolina, 1t has not been allowed that
criminals, either of the white or black race,
codes. In both State, many cases of aggravated
crime have como before the Courts, and upon con-
victioa, the criminals, some white some black have
been sshcncedt to receive nine and thirty lashes. In
almos: every instance, when the ceremony WAS
about to be performed, Gonl. SicEes has forbidden
it in an official order and stopped it by military
interference. In North Carolina lately this in
torfcrcnce became so common and go high -hnnd-
cd, that Gov. Worth of that State, and one or
two ether gentlemen of prominence, won't on to
Washington for the purpose of bringing the mat
ter before the President. Fhcir journey has had
this cheering result; That the President has di-
reoted ,hc Secretary of War to revoke the order
Of Gen. Sicklcs forbddng corporeal punishment
the criminal laws of those Statcs.
We are very much pleased that tho President
has adopted course so logical and constitutional
Tho question has always seemed to us very
plain one; and it is this Are the penal codes or
the Governments Of North and South Carolina to
be suspended whenever the military representa-
tive of the U. S. Government within her borders,
is able to detect anything in either abhorrent to
his personal tastes, or not, in his judgment,
"adapted to the ideas of the age7" For:it is
upon this latter plea, we bolicvo, that Gen. seklcs
forbids corpor0al punishment. Are North and
South Carolina to be held amenable to questions
of tasto tho ideas of the agc or arc therc GER
tain fixed acquisitions of organic law which es-
tablish their duties and rights as States of the
Union, and outside of which the ideas of the age
and the tastes Of individuals have effect upon
their political powers and condition?
We arc no particular advocate of tho penal
systems o! North and South Carolina, but it is
not bccauso wo share one whit in the mawkish
and ridiculous scntimontalism Of wild, liccnticus
(" age" in reference to the special degradation of
corporeal punishments over all others. AS we
bave said before in these columns, wo do not SEQ
that n thief is moro degraded by whip or pillory
than by. tho verdict which pronounccs him thief
and puts him as such in the penitentiary at hard
labor. The degradation j, in tho crime and the
man meau enough to steal can be but little de-
graded by tho lash. But, be this so or not, the
people of North and South Carolina have q right
to subject themselves to these penalties for crimc
if they prefer them, and it is nobody's business
except their own. To suspend the administra-
ton of Justice in those States upon the pleas got
up by Con. Scklcs, is mere u,urpation, as ground
less in right and law aa If ho had declared their
statutes should not be in force because they were
no. printed in gold, upon vclum. II q man does
not liko to DO whipped for stealing, md yct means
to steal, ho should move into State whore tho
laws provide some olhor and moro gcntocl penalty.
But observation proves that, in many instances,
rosucs prefer this primitive kind of justice to the
moro modern rcEnemcnts Of the Pcnten tiary.
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Egy Yankee traits don't suit Jcracy mon. A
Boston pedagogue has been arrested at Irvngton,
for mildly whipping boy in his school, so that
be, died on the 81 instant. lie iS to be tried for
murdeE.
~" writor In t,e Rockyillo (Maryand) Sen
tinel suggests Gen. Grant for President and Con
eral Leo for Vice President Of the UnitcG Statcs
to be run as tho National Union candidates.
gS- A boiler exploded ps Memphis, blowing
the engineer out Of sight. He will receive sl5
day from lifo insurance company until he comes
down.
@s- Batter was called on to mako speech
the other day, at Nashville. He said ho didn't
60 thero to mako speech "No| yellod man |
q; tHa cro,v, Gvnu ce,rn deys to s3aar e,,hh,,ss,