The Portland daily press., 1874-01-30
Scientific "Sentimentalism. -

SclenCl1lc ''Sent1mental1Sm."
To the Editor Of the Press
The most effective thing SO far accomplished
by the friends of capital punishment is calling
their opponents ''sentimentalists'
Opposition to capital punishment is only a
part of a much wider creed. 1t is but single arti
Gle in the platform of large and rapidly increas-
ing class who believe that moral diseases are
curable, or, at least, susceptible of allevation.
The belief they cherish, that where even so des-
perate a moral disorder as that which impels to
murder may be subdued without resorting to
the ''heroic treatment" of breaking the pa
TENTS neck, is merely ancillary to the general
theory of the inutility of vengeance in peniten-
tiary discipline, and of the necessity of making
penalties remedial and curative, instead of
punitory.
Are the upholders of this theory sentimental
lists, or sickly sentimentalists? Are not their
opponents more justly obnoxious to this grave
charge? Let us see. Sentimentalsm is defn-
ed to be San excess of sensbility." The senti-
mentalist is he who. owing to this faulty ex
cess of feeling, takes leave of reason and judg-
ment in dealing with practical subjects, and de-
cdes every question presented to him according
to the dictates of either passion, prejudice or
morbid, unrefecting sympathy.
Sympathy, no doubt. has a legitimate and
important function. Certainly it occupies
large place in the system of Christian morals.
Through sympathy, men, and especially
women, often arrive at correct conclusions by
sort of olair7oyant intuition, while reason
gropes in doubt and darkness. But as sympa-
fbv ic drio In IN, ho
pecially liable to that excess which converts
it into sentimentalism, it should be stated
in the interest of historical accuracy, that the
supporters of the theory of reformatory prison
discipline, of which opposition to capital pun
ishment IS part, did not arrive at their conclu-
sions by this route. They were led to investi-
gate the whole subject and to experiment in
new directions, from perceiving the fact that
the old methods sgnally failed in their primary
protection of society. They found
that the very agencies employed to keep crime
in check, nourished it; that prisons and jails
were training schools for thieves, burglars and
forgers; that stripes unsupported by moral and
intellectual stimulants, were nnfailingly paid
back with interest ou the back of society;
that the gallows popularized and glorified hom-
iCiuc. Il IOn tuO pIoOIdCtcu duu SysttuldtiC
study and experiments for which these facts
guve occasion, has grown up pretty well de-
fined and coherent theory in regard to crime
and criminals. In few words it is this
Punishment for crime, as primary purpose,
is absurd and impossible. The power of so
searching the human heart, of so weighing all
the circumstances of external situation, mental
constitution and education, of so estimating
motives and provocations, as to assign to each
man the exact degree of punishment due to his
individual ill-desert, is among the very highest
and most amazing attributes ascribed to an ON
nipotent deity. Man cannot approach it even
by the clumsiest approximation. A man may
be more guilty and more worthy of punishment,
to the eye OF all-seeng intelligence. who has
committed no crime of which human courts
can take cognizance, than he who has stolon
his neighbors' property or even shed blood
The notion, then, of taking out of man so
much punishment for so much crime because
he deserves it and because ''it is good enough
for him" is wholly abandoned DR.. Prosper
Despine, a French specialist in this department
of modern inquiry, asserts that "the treatment
which aims to punish for the sake of furnishing
is dangerous both to society and the criminal;
it never improves the criminal, and often
makes him worse; it produces from 40 to 45 per
cent.o recidivists' In the annual report of the
executive committee of the National Prison
Reform Congress, presented last year by Dr.
Bellows, we find this authoritative statement:
1T was the crime-creating power of the gal
lows and of the vindctive punishments
of jails and PRISONS the dangers involved for
society and the little deterring power which
fear was discovered to have over brutal
natures that first drew attention to the fact
thaa, if only the interests of society were to be
considered, the reformation of the convict must
be placed first, and made the ground idea iu his
peual treatment. 1t was not a mawkish SYM
pathy for the criminal himself, nor chiefly
moral obligation to reform him that first OPEN
ed tho way to the new principle, but broader
view of what the safety of society itself requir-
ed''
Such were the views accepted without dissent
by body Ct which Horatio Seymour was Presi-
dent, James G Blaine one of the Vice-Presi-
dents DR.. E. G. Wines, one of the most care
full students and Intelligent and industrious in
vestigaters of criminal science iu the world,
Corresponding Secretary, and many of the most
prominent and learned men of the country
active members
The limits of a newspaper communication will
not permit detailed account of the exact agen-
cies winch the students of penitentury science
nave agreed upon as necessary to be employed in
curing moral diseases and deformities. But
those who place their reliance upon the gallows
and its companion tortues have so misrepresent-
ed prison reformers in this matter that few
words in explanation are necessary One would
suppose from reading the newspaper articles
published of late that to shield the criminal
from detection, to prolong his trial, to prevent
his conviction, if possible, to pamper and pet
him during his confinement and to secure an
executive pardon at the earliest practicable mo-
ment, were the main purposes of the opponents
OF capital punishment. Now this is the exact
reverse of the truth. Look at the facts. The
very first postulate in prison reform,-the one
thing on which there is almost universal agree
ment,-is that sentences should be greatly pro
tongeN Indeed, the penitentiary reformer
holds that in an ideally perfect system the sem
tence for any offeDse should be indeternainate.
that is, the offender should be Kept in prison
till he gets WELL 1t is held theoretically that
it is lust as absurd to send thief to iai for
ten days, three months or any given time, as it
would be to send man with broken leg or
the small pox, to the hospital for like period
Let him stay there in either case till he is cured
oaip +bo ,.r;,ox, ,o forroar insists 1oI,