Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-01-31
No Reformation in Degradation.

The following are tue closing sentences
of Col. Ingersoll's remarkable address to
the Bar Association of New York, at its
late meeting in Albany.
There is no reformation III degradation.
TO mutilate a criminal is to say to all the
world that he is a criminal and to render
his reformation substantially impossible
Whoever is degraded by society become:
its enemy. The seeds of malice are sowI
in his heart and to the day of his death he
will hate the hand that sowed the seeds
There is also another side to this ques-
tion. \ punishment that degrades the
punished will degrade the man who in
iiicts the punishment, and Will degrade
the government that procme8 the inilie
tion The whipping post pollutes not on
~ the whipped but the whipper, aud not
only the whipper, but the community al
large Wherever its shadow falls it de
grades.
L. there any remedy Can anything be
done for the reformation of the criminals
IL should be treated with kindness. Ev-
cry right should be given him, consistent
with the safety of society. lie should
neither he degraded nor robbed The
State should set the highest aud noblest
example. The powerful should never be
cruel, and Ia the breast ot the supreme
there should be no desire for revenge
Every execution tends Ia harden the
public heart tends to lessen the sacred
ness Of human life. In many States of fthi
Union the mob is supreme. For cert air
offences the mob is expected to lynch the
supposed criminal 1t is the duty of every
citizen-and as it seems to me, especially
of every lawyer--tO do what he can to de
stroy the mob spirit. One would thinl
that men would be afraid to commit any
crime in community where the mob is il
the asoenjancy, and yet such are the con
tradictious and subleties OF human nature
that 1t is exactly the opposite And there
is another thing in this connection, the
men who constitute the mob are as IA rule
among the worst, the lowest aud the mos
| depraved.
! As long as children are faised in the
| t1nement and gutter the prisons will be
full The gulf between the rich and poo
will grow wider and wider one vii
| depend ON cunning, the other on force. Il
| is a great question whether those who live
in luxury can afford 10 ALLOW Others to ex-
ist in want The value of property de
pends, not on the prosperity of the lew
bat on the prosperity of very large ma
| jority. Life aud property must be secure
or that subtle thing called value take:
its leave. The poverty OF the many is I
perpetual menace. If We expect pros
porous aud peaceful country the oitizen
must have homes. The more homes th
more patriots, the more virtue the NOR
security for all that gives worth to life.
The more real education the less crime
and the more homes the fewer prisons.
We do not know where the wild storm
are born that wreck and rend Neither d.
we know in what strange realm the mist
aud clouds are formed that dim and darker
all the heaYen of the mind, nor whenc
comes the tempest of the brain i'll whiol
the will to do, sudden as the lightning
fash seizes and holds the man until tn
dreadful deed is done that leaves ours,
upon the soul We do not know. Our ig
norance shoald make us hesitate. Gu
weakness should make us merciiul
cannot more fittingly close this addreS
than by quoting the prayer of the Budd
hist; II pray thee to have pity on the vic
ious; thou hast already had pity on tn
virtuous by making them So"