Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-12-21

the o1ender was obliged to wear the letter /
in the same way and to suffer the inevitable
whipping. Horse stealing ana counterfeit
ing were punished with branding and the
loss OF both cars and blasphemy and some
other crimes now calling only for imprison-
ment were punishable with death. But while
the early laws were thus written with blood, it
was apparent to the founders of this CON-
monwealth that there was better
way, and the Constitution contains this declar-
alton: ITO deter more efTectuay from the
commission of crimes by continued visible
punishments of long duration, and to make
sanguinary .punshments less necessary,
means ought to be provided for Furnishing by
hard labor those who shall be convicted of
crimes not capital and all persons at
proper times, ought to be permitted to sec
them at their labor"
Here is the whole theory of punishment
in nutshell. The punishment must be con.
tinued and visible; the labor connected with
it ought to be hard; and the public should be
permitted to see the convicts at their labor.
And one object of such punishment was
to make corporal punishment less necessary.
The views of the fathers were long ago car
ried into effect and more than two genera.
tons have passed away since the last Yer
mont whipping post disappeared. To the
revival of this once familiar landscape adorn-
ment we object, first, because it would do no
good. In England, when the commonest
offences were punished with death-and they
were 50 punished within the memory of men
now livlng-the result was by no means to
diminish crime; and neither in this case would
The penalty of floggng discourage gar.
rioters or otlcr criminals from the commits
sion OF their crimes. In the second place.
logging is an altogether inadequate punish
ment Tor crimes which like garroting almost
necessarily imply murder. For such of
fences there is nothing Pike good long term
In penal institution where the criminal is
really punished-not one where he is treated
merely as an unfortunate and fares better
than the majority of honest workingmcn.
we have no sort of patlence,with the modern
sentinentalities about prisons. A prison is a
place where bad man is sent to be punish
ed and that man ought to be made to work
hard, to live on hard farcand sleep on hard
bed, and be made to realize that he is there
for punishment. The prison ought not to be
regarded by him, as some scamps regard the
House OF Correction, merely as a plcasan,
place in which to spend a cold Winter.
Finally and chiefly we object to the rcstor.
alton Of the whipping post because logging
is brutazing in the extreme not only those
Immediately connected with it but to the en-.
tire community. Recorder Smyth Of New
ork well says THE very thought of i,
con1ures up brutal and inhuman practice
that is happily relegated to the past. If II
were subjected to the lash should become
an open foe of law and order 1t is n snc-
cics of punishment altogether antaropis,ic 70
the spirit OF the age, Brute beasts arc not
allowed to be SO punished in this era of en-
llghtenment, and why should man, the image
oil his Maker, be subjected to it: 1t has
that men who have been whinped
with cat-of-nine-tails in the British army
have, In spirit of desperate revenge, taken
the lives OF those who gave the orders. show
ing how deep is the sense of exsspclalion in
the human breast at being beaten like dog.
Garroters are sufficiently punished by ten to
hfteen years imprisonment. What is wanted
chiefly to make the law feared and respccted
is speedy trials and prompt punishment.