The Portland daily press., 1867-11-02
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Saturday M ,rning, November Q, 1867.
The Rationale of ,he Consrr.sio..I Pol.

Ahe Rationale Of the Con. rr,s,...I Pal.
| icy.
Modern French wit has produced ro,h;,,,
better than a little paragraph which was
reproduced in these columns a lew DAYS since
declaring, in substance, that the morals OF So
ciety have this extent and no more; the
State hangs three or four poor devils occa-
sionally in order that the rest oil mankind
may have leave to think themselves very up
right and conscientious persons. There is a
good deal OF this yicsirlous atonement in
the world. A brutal Clifton Harris or Luther
Verrill, dragged 10 the gallows or TO lifelong
imprisonment, may, ii he have mind enough,
very properly reflect with emotions of bitter
resentment upon the hypocritical proceed
ings OF his fellow men who have themselves
been criminals in leaving him unaided and
uncnred TO suffer the consequences OF mental
malformation Tor which he is as little respon-
sible as he would be for club foot or a crook
ed spine. The phrenologist is his perfect
vindcator before human tribunals at
least. But society has not yet effected a
nice adaptation OF its ordinances to meet the
fdfylilS cqulIlcS Ot luutNfuudt CdSco- DN Iuut
general laws it provides according to the
measure of its wisdom for its selfpreserya-
ton. If man attacks it in the person OF one
OF its members it strikes him down, without
stopping to inquire whether his organs OF
veneration and benevolence are well develop
OF will which are arbitrarily fixed.
Many persons coniound this remedial pro-
eeeding OF the State with the revengeiu act
OF an individual, who strikes when his blood
is up, and cures his own hurt by gloating
over the agonies of his enemy. But this is
not the true philosophy of punishment by
law. The criminal is not imprisoned or fined
because of his i'll desert, but because there
is no safety for his neighbOrs unless he suffers
the penalty of his offences. So the world
goes on, the greater or the more unfortunate
offenders brought to the scafold or the dun
geon by those who differ from them only in
the degree or manner Of their misdoings, the
more exact apportionment OF retributive just
ice, or complete indemnity for all, being left
till the time when we meet at compt."
There Is noalternative. Society may pity
the offender as much as it will, but it must
punish him or relapse into barbarism.
The punitive element in the reconstruction
policy OF Congress rests upon precisely the
same ground as all other criminal legislation.
The North was partaker in the national
crime which the South is expiating, but it re-
sisted to the utmost the overt acts which
hrnnpbt no rar,nauanoa Of Al.
into immediate peril. TO say that it inflicts
the punishment which Heaven itself has left
it no choice but to prescribe, is to ignore eve
ry fact of contemporary history. There has
been absolutely nothing revengeful in its feel
Ing or its acts. 1t has confined itself strictly
to those measures which were demanded for
the preservation of the Republic and the safe
ty OF its citizens. How gladly, at the c.ose of
the war, would the people of New England,
upon whom the bitterest reproaches are cast
for their supposed harshness, have welcomed
back their erring and repentant brothers OF
the South, II they would even then have re-
Trained from inficting injury upon men who
had not participated in their crime No drop
OF Southern blood was spilled for acts which
generous government could class under the
convenient head of f"political" 1t was not at
first proposed to make the negro the state,
and to exclude Rebels from the body polite.
The ten States which are denied representa-
ton in Congress, might now be enjoying all
the rights OF their sister States, with no dis
franchisement of whites and no enfranehise-
tuent of blacks, if Their people and
their governments would have foreborne to
attack the lives and liberties of loyal men
They were only required at first to adopt the
constitutional amendment securing beyond
reversal tie cioil rights OF the blacks They
scorned even to do this. They areiagr essive.
Congress has to deal with criminals and is
forced to treat them as it does. The disfran-
ehisement OF the rebel whites or the practical
reinstatement OF the loyal blacks is for the
time inevitable. The hiding up OF exelu-
sively negro States at the South is not work
that anyone enjoys, but it is the work of Prov
idence and not of a Republican Congress