Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-10-17
Weakness Towards Criminals.
In = recent article We referred to tn,

criminal. There is a growing dispo-
sition among a certain school of phi
lanthropists to overlook the claims of
justice, as if they were altogether i'm
aginary, and 10 merge the higher
claims of society in pity for the vota-
ries of vice, as if they were unfortu-
without any rolition of their own and
without any real ILL desert. Conse-
quently society is regarded by such
men as altogether debtor to the crimi-
nal, bound to take the most tender care
of him as if he were the victim of dis
ease or accident and in no sense a
debtor to society. The very order of
justice is turned upside down, and the
words vice and crime, if they have any
meaning, are used to express disease
and misfortune That this is no carl
cature of modern notions leavening
the public mind, will appear from ut
| terances like following, which is a
brief report of sermon recently de
iivered in Boston by Rev. Laird Col
lier, of Chicago. We taKe the report
from the Christian Register, in which
it is credited to the Daily Advertiser:
''Rev. DR.. Collier, of Chicago,
preached at the FIRST Parish church
last Sunday. His subject was the phi
| losophy and treatment of crime. He
took the ground that the majority of
criminals were not such from choice,
but from q kind of necessity. They
had morbid impressionability which
made them an easy prey to temptation.
Man was said to be free; but like a
horse, he was free under bit and lash
the bit of hereditary, or natural bias
and defect, and the lash of poverty and
want. Crime was disease. It must
be cured by the doctor rather than be
rendered more hard d-hearted and in
durable in the hands of pitiless task
master. When we view the poor
wretch behind the iron CRATES, we are
| gazing upon our own blood; and it
may be by the merest accident that it
is not our own body. The only true
remedy for such persons is sympathy
They can be reached in no other way.
Society must regard crime as the mis-
fortune of its subject rather than of its
object. Its jails and penitentiaries
should be converted into hospitals for
the treatment of disordered souls. It
was futile, lie believed, to attempt
to, reclaim evil -doers by force,
and society only injured itself if it
struck a criminal, as the hammer
shares the waste of the anvil. Every
one, however low in the scale of mo-
rality, has some vulnerable spot in his
heart that persistent sympathy will
finally pierce, and then civilization will
| Ioo ,h h. Id
not with severity, but with pity. The
j discourse abounded in apt illustra-
tions, and was what is usually called
spicy in style. The preacher concluded
by hoping that we should soon learn
to do just as God does-viz., all our.
selves to everybody"
We reject utterly the milk and water
sentimentaIism Of the above. We do
not accept any such theory in re
gard to human guilt. We believe that
sin is sin and crime is criminal. The
very instincts of our nature and the
intelligence of society are insulted by
teaching that those who are habitually
violating all wholesome laws, defying
; all authority, living by rapine, fraud
robbery, murder, and every other form
vi SICGe Ill Gt1S luIuSG vi ClNlllACANf COLA
munities, are to be regarded as mere
unfortnnates and petted as such phi
lanthropists are inclined to pet them
These mawkish sentiments are cor
r rupting our youth and hardening vet
u erans in crime. by Ignoring conscienc
/ and denying the fundamental princi
e piles of right and wrong. If CARRIE
n out to their legitimate end they woul'
s make our prisons mere boarding hous
s es for the elegant accommodation o
!, their inmates, who would be tenant
at will, ready to go when they pleased
c We are not advocating cruelt
a toward those who have been guilty @
II crime, or any degree of severity in
e consistent with the highest good o
n the criminal himself, but his reforma
n ton is far more likely to be accom-
II plished by punishment than by re
n warding him for his offences or treat
1t ing him simply as a diseased person
And society has claims which ar
higher and stronger than his. Th
community can be protected agains
d the increase of crime only by its actu
le al punishment The hospital treat
= ment instead of deterring evil doer;
, will only encourage them. A write
N in the Montreal Witness says of th
r prisons of that city: The provision
% made for the health and comfort {
l the prisoners is much superior to tha
le enjoyed outside by the honest, hard
is working poor;" and in discussing th
7, administration of justice in the cit
n courts, he says: 1.-The daily serio fal
1t cical exhibition in our courts of th
same offenders going through pre-
cess of trial, conviction and commi
oI ment to Jail twelve and even eightee
8 times in the course of twelve month
/; seems to involve not only the china
u of chronic folly, but also gross inju'
o tice to the Industrious members (
le the community, who have to pay fC
1e all the legal machinery employed
AZ the various stages of these sham pun
10 ishment, crime, fostering proceeding
l. The whole appears to be skilful, sy
NJ tematic and successful contrivance
Ia provide for the comfort and encou
agement of those who prefer the ta'
:. ern and brothel to honest labor. WhC
~ these votaries of pleasure b. come S
~ tiated and exhausted by sensual e
cesses, another eight or fifteen days
sT Jail is the reward which awai
" y" them This is just what they want
~ what they ofen ask for"
% We would by no means arrest Il
-, course of philanthropic efforts for t
"' moral benefit and the reasonable COZ
fort of those who have been cOnvict
Of viDlatinu the laws Of the land h