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

By the criminal codes Of those States, men arc
liable for petit larceny horse stealing etc, to the
penalty of thirty-nine stripes laid On the baro
back. But during the reign of Gen. sicke', who
has been for year or moro in command of North
and South Carolina, i. has not been allowed that
criminals, either of the whte or black race,
should be punished according to the lawS of these
codes. In both State, many cases of aggravated
crime have come before the Courts, and upon con-
viction, the criminals, some white, some black, have
boon Sentenced to receive nine and thirty ashes In
almost every instance, when the ceremony WAS
about to be performed, Gonl Sctles has forbidden
it in an official order and stopped it by military
interference. In North Carolina lately this in
tcrfcrcnce became SO common and so high.hnnd-
cd, that Gov. Worth of that State, and one or
two sther gentlemen Of prominence, went on to
Washington for the purpose of bringing the mat
ter before the President. Thcir journey has had
this cheering result; Tha. the President has di-
rected the Secretary of War to revoke the order
of Gen. Sickcs forbidding corporcal punishment
to be inflicted In tho Caronas for offences against
the criminal LAWS of these States.
We are very much pleased that the Prcs;dont
has adopted course SO logical and constitutional.
The question has always seemed to US very
plain one; and it is this: Are the ponal 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,
"a able to detect anything in either abhorrent to
his personal tastes, or not, IL his Judgment,
"adapted to tho ideas of the age7' Porit is
upon this latter plea, we believe, that Gen. Siekes
forbids corpor0al punishment. Are North and
South Carolina to be held amenable TO questions
of tastc or the ideas of the age; there GER
tain fixed ccquisitions Of organic law which es-
tablsh their duties and rights as States of The
Union, and outside of which the ideas of the ago
and the tastes of individuals have no effect upon
their political powers and condition?
We arc no particular advocate of the penal
systems o! North and South Carolina, but it is
not because wo share one whit in the mawkish
and ridiculous scntinontalism Of wild, licentous
cage in reference to tho special degradation of
corporeal runishmcnts over all others. As we
bave said b,fore in theso columns wo do not SEQ
that thief is moro degraded by whip or pillory
than by. the verdc which pronounccs him a thief
and puts him such in the pententinry at hard
labor. The degradation is in tho crime; and the
man mean enough to steal can be but little de-
graded ty tho lash. But, be this or not, the
people of North ard South Carolina have n right
to subject themselves to these penalties 70. arimc
if they prefer them, and it is nobody's business
except their own. To suspend the administra-
tion Of justice in those States upon the pleas set
up by Con. Sicklcs is mere u,urpaton, as ground
less in right and law as II ho had declared their
statutes should not be in force because they were
not printed in gold, upon vellum. II n man does
not like to be whipped for stealing, and yet means
to steal, ho sh ould move into a State whore tho
laws provide some other and moro gcntocl ponalty.
But observation proves that, in many instances,
rosucs prefer this primitive kind of justice TO the
moro modern -ctncmcnts Of the Pcnitentiary.
l:Sr Yankee trait, don't suit 1cracy mon. A
Boston pedagcgue has been arrested at 1rving.on,
for mildly whipping hoy in his school, so that
he died on the 81 instant. lie is to be tried for
murder.
~ writer In lie Rockyills (Mnryand) Sen
tnel suggests Gen. Grant for President a.t: Cen
eral Leo for Vi,c President of tho United States
to be run rs thu National Union candidates.
gS- A boile' exploded al Memphis, blowing
the engineer out Of sight. He will receive Sl5 |
iay from lifc insurance company until he comes
down.
Gs- Butler was called on to mako speech
the other day, &. Nashville. He said no didn't
10 lni