Smyrna times., 1867-04-17
For the "Smvrna Times.

PuLoRIEs, &C.-What does the New York
Times mean, Mr. Editor, by 1.-THE triennial
whipping of woman III this State, as assert
ed in its editorial republished in your Smyrna
Times of last Wednesday? Has any oCOn,an
been legally sentenced to receive the lash peri
Odically-say every three years-fOr one and
the same offence? BY the phraseology ofyOur
namesake, We are left thus to infer. Such
sentence would indeed be refinement upon
cruelty in the nfiction of judicial punishment
of women.
But this splenetic New York editor must be
something U0rSc than mistaken In this matter.
Undoubtedly the spirit Of the age counsels the
discontinuance of judicial whipping and the
pillOry. Aud III accordance With the prevalent
sentiment among their constituency, the Della
ware Legislature at their last session, took IN
cipient steps towards efectuating that reform,
looking to the early substitution OF a State
Penitentlary system in lieu of the whipping
post, as an auxiliary of the gallows and the
county Jail, neither of which does your cotem-
pOrary propose to abolish, as we have seen,-
although both are somewhat spiced, according
to u class of transcendental moral reformists,
with that "barbarism" to which he singles out
Delaware as particularly obnoxious, and against
which he inveghS with 50 manifest want of
temper.
Now within the recollection of the writer
hereof, PILLORIES Tor Stocks and WHlP-
PING-PoSTs were regular appendages of Jals
Ind Court Houses at the County Seats "
throughout the Empire State: So that Objur-
cations against little Delaware on that score do
not come with the best grace in the world from
that quarter. More especially, since the ante
cedents of Mr.. Editor Raymond, Of the n. Y.
Times are well calculated To provoke scathing
T.. IL H., ,or.
wards Delaware: A recurrence to his origin
and career shows, that it is not many years
since he migrated to New York from NEW
ENGLAND, bringing with him the pharisaical-
ness OF his progenitors: Who, according to
Mather, cOtenlpOrary, aud other veritabe
chrOniclers of the early incidents Of that region
Were tho Hl0st prOScrIptYe rSligiOnists and
bloody prOpagandiStS that ever peopled this
continent from Europe. They prosecuted for
conscience sake they Chpped, hung, drowned
(Old women for alleged l0itclt-cuft!) , banished
and sold into bondage, not only Indians and
negroes, but Quakers, and even BaptiSts, and
all other nOn-cOnformiSts to their puritanica
dOgmas! And even at the present day, the
sensibiiities of mercifully disposed persons and
phlanthrOpic people, are frequently shocked
at the wantOn tchippiRg and eXcOriating of the
girtS as well as the boys in the PRIMARY schools
VI AN6W l1uglduus lOE IIlfldl ueCCdulOo anu
the legally constituted authorities there cOun-
tenance and palliate this barbarity In one
notable instance, an ordained Minister of the
Gospel in that region Uhippetl his 0tca child to
death ,-the heavy hagcllatiOn continuing for
hours, before death came to the relief Of the
little victim the sole offence of the infant
martyr being non conformity (peradventure a
tdLtdt inability to coniOrm) To its cruel parent 5
exact directions in the urterance Of its evening
prayersl
With the odor of these incidents upon his
skirts, dispasslOnate retroSpectl0n, We might
reasonably suppose, would have suggested to
that Editor not to make SO unsecmly Il dis
play of the fire.and iaggOt proclivitieS he i'm
blbed from such an ancestry, as he does in
his Quiqotic assault upon the three remaining
PILL0RIES in the State of Delaware.
Though perhaps we ought not to marvel at
ex-COngressman RAYMOND suffering neryine
Spasms at the bare mention Of WHIPPING
POSTS: Since it must be familiar to the minds
OF all attentive newspaper readers, that nc
public man OF the day Was ever more merciess-
ly icIippet into line by his political yoke-fel
lows, than Henry j. Raymond during the last
session of Congress And no spaniel ever bore
a fagellatiOn more OLcdtently than he, so far as
Uohng was concerned Thus illustrating, in hi:
own case, the power of the lash over mora
suasion, particularly in reclaiming tr,td,t pol
iticians.
Reforms, like charity, should begin at home
And we would hint to Mr.. Raymond this piece
of advice, gratis: That he set about abolishing
the aoLippiag ordeal in his party's eaucuses al
Washington, before again arrogating to him
self the Office of judicial and moral reformer ii
Delaware: For the prestige Of the BLUE
HEN CHICKENS" in the Revolution of '76
as we'll as in later days. ought to admonish hin
and others, that they are class of biddies'
more easily coaxed than driUeR; and that soft
words and fair dealing are more persuasiv,
than fonl aspersions are potential with them.
| LOCKER ON.
j Smyrna, 18th April, 1867.