Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-11-07
CHINE, NORTH AND SOUTH.

CRIME, NORTH AND SOUTH.
We hear so much about the crimes
committed in the S outh, that the reader
will probably be surprised to learn that
there has been a steady and large in
crease in the different grades Of crime in
the Northern States since the close Of
the war. This increase is perhaps the
more remarkable because Of the boosted
higher civilization Of that section Of the
country. We have heard so much of
this higher civilization as contrasted with
that of the Southern States, that our
people will hardly be prepared for the
facts which statistics demonstrate in re-
gard to the progress Of crime in that sec.
ton which essays TO give US both laws
and rulers The Springfield Republican
furnishes some statistics of crime in Mas
sachusetts which show very formida-
BILE increase in the lower grades Of crime,
those offences against morals and laws
which lead on to the preparation of
crimes at which humanity rcvolts. The
Republican says:
The returns of commitments for
crimes and offences made to the Board Of
State Charities for the year ending Octo-
Der l, 1865, show a total of 1926, but
the number of different persons thus
committed does not probably exceed TO-
900, though it may be few hundred
more than that So many persons are
committed several times, or to different
prisons, as to make this great difference
between the actual and the apparent
number. The prisons from which re-
turns come are, the State prison at
Cbarlestown, to which $50 different per-
sons were committed during the year
the State WorkhOuse at Brldg swater,
which received 25G persons the Boston
House of Industry, "a city wOrkhouse,)
which had 25Sl commitments the tit-
teen County Houses Of Correction, with
3349 commitments; and the nineteen
county tails with 1888 commits
ments 9942 commitments were Of
males, and 1881 Of females; the cor
responding figures for 1867 being 1896
males and 1924 females; showing that
the increase OF crime has been chiefly
among men. The whole increase Of
commitments has been 1916, the in
crease in drunkenness and common
drunkards alone being 1876; so that the
increase in general crimes apart from
drunkenness has been but ITO, or about
L., per cent. only. The three higher
crimes show the following relative fig
ures Murder, % persons committed
in 1868 against 81 in 1867; mansIaugh-
ter, Is in 1868 and s in 1867; rape, 81 in
1868 and % in 1867; making total for
these three crimes of Is in 1868 and 81
in 1867. The whole number committed
TO the State Prison in 1868 was $50,
against lbs last year; the number IN
that prison Oct l, was j5S, and the av>
eragc number for the year 546, against
j37 in 1867. These are the largest ay-
crage numbers ever known at Charles
town in 1865 the average was but 359
| The average number in the county prls-
ons and in the State and city work
| houses have also increased; in the for
mer slightly: in the State WOrkhouSe
about $50 and in the House Of Industry
about 80.
We see from these statistics that MAJ
sachusetts has not been exempt from the
evils resulting from the war. We have
not seen returns from other Northern
States, but there is scarcely a doubt that
they can show no better, if as good a re-
cord as Massachusetts. The truth
might as well be confessed that crime
has scourged those States with its fearful
evils as it has the Southern States. The
Northern people have been exempt from
| the incentives to crime under which the
South has labored. Here the "reconstruc
ton laws of Congress have thrown
to the surface a portion Of the COM
munity as the governing class was were
wholly unused to place or the exercise o
power, the lower order Of the whites and
the ignorant blacks, who have assumed 8
haughtiness and domineering disposition
toward those who now, as in years past
| treated them as interiors. These whites
who have thus got int places of au
thority, have used the influence thus &C
quired to provoke hatreds and collisions
that they might have some show of eX
cuse for the oppressive measures they
have heaped upon the Southern people
We owe the increase Of crime in thu
Southern States mainly to the irritating
cause we have Just mentioned. WheI,
the fears, and the superstition, and tht
mean passions of a people are played upol
by bad men, we may confidently look tol
an accompaniment Of crimes which vii
shock the moral sense Of communities
Oar section has been no exception L
this rule. We must therefore charge
and Justly, whatever increase there ha
been in the various grades of crimes
especially the more revolving types, t.
the ilI-digested and malignant policy u
the Radicals toward the Southern people
The North has been exempt from th'
incentives to crime which have grown on
Of the enforcement of this policy upon
people who would have been made t
submit by the use of the bayOnet if they
had attempted to resist. Yet crime hal
fearfulIy increased in that section. The
statistics of one State. shows with an
erring certainty, that such is the fact
There is a vast field for the philanthrop
st in the North as well as in the South
and it is time that the men who have s,