The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-24
CRIME.
tlleCity.

TX-GDy. Seymour Oh Now lOrK, Contributes
o very valuable article on "Crime' to HT-
per's Maquzinc. His experience as tho Gov
ernor of New York for three terms eminently
qualities him TO spoak authoritatively upon
the demcrits Of The existing system OF crlml-
nal Jurisprudence in that State, at least. lhe
difference between our own system and that
of New York is not SO great as to render any
of his suggestions less worthy OF oonsidera-
tion here. In the event Of a constitutional
convention this will be one of tho first and
most important matters for consideration in
connection with the organization OF the courts
and the defining and location of the pardoniDg
power. Further than this the convention Will
not venture to exercise it's power, except to
Cnunciate and preserve certain old ana well
defined constitutional guarantees designed for
the protection Of personal freedom, such as
habcaa corpus. trial by jury and the forbid
ding of the exaction of excessive bail Or the
imposing Of cruel and unusual punishments.
Badly AS our criminal code needs revision,
and this Of the most sweeping kind, it would
not be safe for the convention to undertake to
oven indicate the theory upon which this re-
form should proceed All 1t can do is to leave
the Legislature untrammelled, to enact within
the bounds and according to the spirit OF the
great constitutional guarantees such code
as will meet tho requirements OF well Or
dered society.
Gov. Soymours poetulato is the very sim
plo but very comprehensive one that "crlme
should be punished with certainty and In o
way that will mako men shrink from its COM
mission, that will degrade them as little rs
possible and that will tend to make them
better" He adds that sour practice violates
each ono Of these rules" and this assertion
he emphasizes by saying that while there ''is
no perfect way of dealing with crime, there ls
no worse than the system of New York Of
jails. he says they arc common schools OF
vice" and he declares ii 80 great crime tc
send youthful offenders to those pest-houses
of vice-our iatls." For tho punishment o
all lesser crimes, as between the jail and the
whipping post, he inolincs decidedly to The
latter.
His cxprrjenCe as Governor has led him tt
tho conviction that, under tho existing sys
tenn tho real suffering for crime falls upol
tho families Of criminals rather than upol
themselves In this connection he uses thu
following strong language: "Ihis fact
learned while Governor; and when | look owe
our penal laws, to my mind their titles rea'
between their lines as acts to punish the wive
and children OF those who violate them Ihl
is rugged testimony from q man who ha!
served three terms as Governor OF New YORK
Tho remedies proposed by Gov. Seymour
may be summarized as follows:
u)"A careful study Of the causes Of the lowe
grades of olfenses;' (2) the working out o
those who are entering Mnon lives OF disorder
ly and criminal aspects go permlssiGGn TO on
Judges to impose tun,samenos oner tn anhoea e1no
VICE" (D binding out minors who do Wroni
or directing their chastisement" or, g per
that for those afflicted with dlsordered minds !;
(5J police supervision Of habitua, offenders
and (6) the abolition ''of technical rules an
hns uean mad" t % them valuable and blinded us to tn
fact that they make rather than check vice.
There is not ono of these suggestions tha
is not as applicable to the code of Louisian
as to that Of New York. or which is less va
uable to our lawmakers than to those I
whom it is specially addressed Indeed, the
anpear to have been made with particular re
oroncc to the evils and deficiencies OF tf
penal law Of Louisiana.
The most ilngrant 1ault OF our litW ID III VI
methods by which it deals with minor Q
fenders and the punishments meted out
them, The act known as the 'chaln-gan
law" passed by tho last Legislature, was
stem In the proper direction, and, as far as
goes. is a most admirable statute. BY tn
act a Judge may sentence a criminal eonvict'
of anv crime punishable with imprisonmel
at hard labor, but not necessarily so, to wol
within and for the benefit Of the paris
chorgeable with the costs Of prosecution al
in ease Of fine being imposed and not pa
the offender may be sentenced to WORK 1t o
at the rate Of 81 per day.
For all minor offenses, in the cases Oh
offenders. we believe in the whipplng-post
will save the people many dollar oeslo
furnishing 8 far more effective remedy
crime than the cumbersome and costly sy
tenn that now prevails. In the country pa
ishes it Is necessary to devise some cheap
and more summary way Of disposlns OF SUI
offenders, Under the present system II coy