The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-01-20
THE ",vHrPPINGp PARTY.

We have at length found new and APP
propriate title for the heterogeneous, dis
cordant and nameless mob that has hither-
to been styled the Conservative party of
Virginia. 1t should in the future be called
the "Whipping-Post" Party. That is the
leading idea of its present organization,
and in furnishing it with name, it be-
comes our duty also to supply it with q
banner, device, and q motto. The flag
should be of white and black stripes,
horizontal, whereon should be pictured a
representation of the Chesterfield county
whipping with a negro stretched upon
it, while the sheriffs iercest and most
cruel deputy stands by, in the act of
cutting strips of flesh from the barred
back of the victim. In the back ground,
to finish the picture, place poor white
culprit waiting his turn. The motto
should be "The whipping-post for the
poor thief, but the highest honors for the
rich"
The arguments advanced by the "Whip-
ping-Post" advocates in the Senate on
Wednesday last, were disgrace to the
civilization, humanity and Intelligence of
the age. They carried us back thousand
years almost in barbarism and inhumanity.
The whole intention of the aristocratic
gentlemen who advocated this mode of
punishment is, that it shall be inflicted
only upon the poor and lowly criminal.
They know very well that the rich and
high-born, no matter how much they may
steal, will run no risk of being degraded
by this kind of treatment. la fact, it is
well understood that rich and respectable
thieves are not to be punished at all.
Juries, attorneys, and judges are selected
with an eye to the safety of that class,
who can steal with impunity and without
fear of either the whipping-post or the
penitentiary. They can rob the widow
and the orphan and defraud the poor man
of his just dues, and force them to become
thieves to save themselves from starvation,
and then, like good Christians as they are,
take their place in the jury-box and send
them to the whipping post
One gentleman would have but two
kinds of punishment-the whipping
post" and the ''gallows" aware that
the unfortunate poor only would be the
victims. Wealth and station in this State
neither fear the one nor the other. Money
or influence can procure immunity for
every crime. These aristocratic law-mak-
ers have no sympathy with weak human
nature in rags, or in black skin. They
would bind the poor fellow who takes a
few sticks of wood to save his family from
freezing to death, or loaf of bread to
keep them from starving, and score his
quivering flesh, or cut it eff in great fakes,
and then turn him loose to be the laughing
stock of the world, degraded and disgraced,
without hope OF existence save through
life of crime, for which they have so well
prepared him, by this cruel Constitution :"
while he who steals his thousands of dol.
lars, could employ counsel, bride wit
nesses, corrupt jurors, and through their
aid escape both the lash and the prison
with the largest portion of his plumber in
his pockets.
With the poor man all property in the
estimation Of the rich is theft. Anything
of value found in his possession, is con-
elusive evidence of guilt, and as poor peo-
pie are not now tried by juries of their
peers, but by juries drawn from among
those who have no sympathy with, but
mortal antipathy against them, it is no
wonder our jails and penitentiaries are
full, and the cost Of supporting criminals
is so heavy burden on the taxpayers
but if the whipping post is to be
substituted, we shall multiply thieves and |
increase crime SO rapidly that the cost of
prosecution will far outgrow that of main
tsnance. The argument, however, that
punishment of cruel and unusual kind |
should be resorted to 20 as to save expense
to the State, is most fendish one. On |
the same principle, we ought to hang
man instead Of combining him for life, be-
cause feeding him is burden to the State
It is barbarous, inhuman, most unchristian
and wholly unworthy sober thought
from intelligent gentlemen.
1t would be far wiser to devise some
plan, as they have in all other States,
(save that other dark corner of the earth,
where the whipping post" still fourishes,
and all things else decay, Delaware,) aud
make the labor of the convicts in the peni-
Tertiary pay the cost of supporting the
institution. 1t can easily be done. And
more than this, their labor can be made
source of revenue to the State. Then,
under proper management, and humane
system of prison discipline, there would
be some hope of reforming criminals; or,
at the worst, of preventing their depreda-
tons upon property, and the demoralizing
influence they would exert in commu-
nifty, when turned loose fresh from the
'whipping-post." They would not then