The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-02-03
WHIPPING IN MARYLAND.

Il may all sound very well to charge
that Delaware clings to balbarism III re- |
fusinc to abolish hogging, but it doesn't
sound one-lialf so pleasant to our ear, as
the fall of the rawhide on the back of
some big brutal rascal who, under the
inspiration Of bad whisky. las cruelty
beaten and abused some defenceless wo
man, whom, as his wife, he has selemnly
vowed to protect and defend The law,
enacted by the last Legislature Of Mary
land, making whipping the penalty FOR
| wife beating in Baltimore City, is a good
one, and might, with eminent propriety
and good results, be maize general in the
State. Not that whippings need become
public exhibitions of brutality, but that
| the lashes being laid on with reasonable
severity, thc disgrace ci their intiiction
MAJ act as 4 wholesome restraint upon a
class Of men, to whom few days con-
fnemcnt in a warm and comfortable
prison does not deter from TIE too fire.
quent amusement Of knocking down and
otherwise maltreatiDg their wives. The
local law HOW in force in Baltimore City,
and which the Court O: Appeals has just
affirmed the constitutionalitr Of, does
not re erect OF the sacret(?) sell of Mary
land that much abused relic of barbar-
ism, the whipping pest, over which so
much mauGlin sentimentalism has been
INDUCED; but simply imposes whipping
as a penalty for wife beating. The Bal |
timore SIN recalls, instructively, the rec
ord Of the whipping post in Maryland, |
in connection with the t!ogging of a wife
heater named Foote who, ON Monday. !
figured as the first subject under the
new law:
The whipping post figured prominently
in the early administration OF justice in
Maryland. BY a law Of 1115 any one
convicted of thieving and stealing goods |
not above the value of one thousand
pounds of tobacco. which was not COM
mtted il the course of any robbery, bur-
glary or house breaking, was punished
by putting him in the pi!iory and whip
ping him witt! not over forty stripes.
In 1910 all breaches of military discipline
in the province were punished in the |
same way. When the Old court house !
stoed, i'll 1874. on an arch over Calvert
street, very nearly on the site now occu- !
pied by the Battle monument, the whip /
ping-post. piilory and stocks stood in |
front OF the arch. iIere it WAS that the
public whlpper laid ON the lash. In 1909
the law was repealed, and from then till
Monday last no free person has been
whipped by order Of court. From 1869 |
to 1861, however, people had authority
to lash their slaves. COnstahleS had the !
right to repair to all suspected places /
within their districts where they might
| think slaves congregated with rebeiiious
intentions, and whip every negro with |
not more than thirty lashes. Al
the station houses in the city negroes
were whipped for ordinary otfeuses. The |
constitutional convention of 1864 abo. ISL |
ed the entire law OF punishment by the
whipping post, and it remained dead till |
the Legislature Of 1SS2 resurrec;ed it
and applied it solely to wife beaterS
The principal resemblance to the old law
is the number OF lashes To be received
by the prisoner, which shall not exceed
forty.
No man Of humanity can deny the dis
grace of the old "Black Code" that in
Maryland conferred upon every con-
scieuceleSs constable the right to cut and
slash suspected slaves wherever he might
happen to find them. With the abolition
Of slavery followed also the abolition
of its contemporary inhumanities. and in
the light of the advanced sentiment of
the times in which We live, we look back
with modification and humility upon the
inhumanites Of which human slavery
was the prolific parent With the highest
respect Tor the humanitarian tendency of
the day, and aware of the offence to many
sincere doubters of the eXpediency of the
iutlicti0n Of corporal punishment IN any
case, that the ge-erection Of the whipping
post as y permanent institution in Mary-
land would he, we are inclined to believe,
that its retention in Delaware acts as
preventive Of crime. In Il nu;uber of
Northern States, where the highest in
teiligence and humanity revaiI, there
has been recently 4 very marked dispo-
sition to discuss the cXpedicrcy of resort
ing again to publiy whipping in certain
classes Of crimes. l. is true that the
stigma %! slavery attaches IL it: that it
has been disgraced by the inhunlanities
| Of It's history. Bat still As 4 preventive,
il not u reforma'ory means of punish
ment, We think il not by any means as
black as IL has been painted. Certain it
is that in spite OF ptnitcutiaries and
prison houses there are all over the coun-
| try tbe uLvccomc evidences of a start
ling increase i'll crime. Prejudice as to
| the means Of c!lectual remedies for it,
| should not stand in the way of the
remedy itself. We are not to be consid-
cred as in any seu&a advocating the re-
establishment of the whipping post in
| this State, but rather as suggesting that
/ in certain classes of crimes, where con
/ iinement in .jai5 seems inadequate as 4
! penalty, ;'hiPping combined with impris-
/ onment might prove more effective than
/ incarceration alone.
! Advice TO Consumptves.
/ Ga the appearance OF the first symp-
toms, as general debility, loss OF apps tite
/ pallor, chilly EensatioGS, followed by