The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-02-21
IN BEHALF OF CONVICTS,

/. II all the scOundrels were in our iails
and peniientari"s legislation would be
easy. \ remedy, "short, sharp, and de
cisive," could purgs the world OF the nui-
sance. But experience shows that the
world has always growing crop, in va
riOus stages of maturity, from the little
thief and liar to the full-bOwn robber
and murderer. Legislators can never be
sure that their laws may not inv olive the
failure status and comfort Of some or
their own members OF leading citizens.
?. Severity to the guilty is no proof of
| innocence Who ever saw an inebriate
that was not bitter and relentless against
drunkard Who ever saw woman
of doubtful character that was not cruel
to fallen sister, Witness the char
acters of Angelo in Measure for Measure
Lords Scroop, Grey, and Cambridge in
Henry Y.
Per GStro He, who alone in the
worlds history was sinless, had
words of condemnation only for
selfish and pretentious hypocrites. Be
fore the searcher of hearts the CON
viCted cGlprit escaped punishment be
cause Of the conscious guilt OF his
acCuscIs
3 Society metes ont punishments just
and pIOpOrtiOnate to offenses, To ylndl.
cate law, make manifest the purpose and
power of government, and to deter
offenders Niudictveness, animosity,
Aate to offenders does not belong to gov
ernment, but mercy, the welfare of
| the whole and each particular citizen.
When society or the rahblc persecutes
the criminal beyond justice and the pur-
poses of law, itself becomes an offender,
answerablc to natural juslice-whlch
tries all offenders.
4. The interest of society is to restore
criminals To return them To the walks
better disposed and better qualified for
honest living Reformation and restora
ton are the purpose of penitentiaries.
3. Persecution, injustice, cruelty, hard
and inhuman treatment stir the depths
of the soul of every human being; EN-
bitter, enyenOm, and harden criminals ;
arouse, strengthen, organize criminals
their kin, their friends, their sympa
thizers against authority, make them
hate government and good order as their
enemy.
g. To deprive man of skill in his
trade, TO degrade and disable him in mind
and body, is against natural justice,
against the first principles Of society, un-
wise and inhuman. And society pays
for its sins.
Z. Competition of convict labor against
outside work is small fraction-a hardly
interference, If any at all, with outside
business Men in the penitentiary man
ufacture and produce about the same as
outside So that trade cannot be per-
ceptibly influenced.
3. Convicts working in mines or on
roads interfere more with honest, needy
deserving labor tnan in penitentiaries, at
their benches or on their seats.
9. ldleness means loss To the State,
the cultivation of vice, depravity, misery
and insanity; intense and persistent and
ingenious effort to escape.
10 A pretense on the part of poll
ticians that the cessation of convict labor
is unwise, shallow, cruel, and fragrant
sacrifice of the best interests of the State,
and of her very poorest and most help
less to party consideration.
IL. The most helpless and hopeless man
on earth is one who is turned out of prison
disabled in body and mind from working
at his trade-haed and prosecuted by
society and stunned by his old as.
sociates. What can he do but go back
to crime How else can he keep
from starving And if government
has deprived him of all hope, what does
he owe TO government When dema.
goguery is sacrificing the most helpless
and hopeless TO its purposes, it becomes
brutal and despicable The tears of the
poor are far more to be feared than the
frowns OF the powerful or the clamor of
the crowd. A CITIZEN.