Year: 1874




NUMBER %.


WE clip these pertinent remarks from the
Baltimore SAN. They expose great wrong
which is coming into general practice all over
this country, and for which there is neither
reason nor excuse:


There has been some discussion in the New
York papers as to an allegation which has been
made that Tweed, the !" statesman convict 10
treated with too much indulgence in the Black
wells Island prison. The board of charities
and correction has been considering the sub
jectand adopting resolutions, one Of which In
dicates that additional precautions are neces-
sary to prevent his escape if he should feel 30
inclined, and another directs that he shall be
confined to the penitentiary hospital, in which
he is employed as an orderly. One of the COM
missioners, Mr.. Meyer Stern, has written
long letter, in which he gives his reasons why
Tweed deserves better treatment than his fell
low convicts Incidentally he goes into the
general theory Of prison management, and
some Of his views are utterly indefensible. He
says:


Whatever opinions people may entertain of
the culpability of Tweed, with which we, how
ever, who are simply charged with the execu-
tion of law, have nothing to do, it must be
conceded that he is an exception to the ordi-
nary class of criminals consigned to us. his
advanced age, the habits acquired during many
years of life of comfort, ease and opuience,
his delicate condition, that required for years
previous to his imprisonment the constant care
and supervision of a physician, would not per-
NIT his exposure to the same rigor and disci-
pline which the other prisoners are necessarily
subjected to without endangering his life and
making hero of him, placing a crown ofmar-
tyrdom upon that very class Of persons which
the law intended to degrade"


Again Mr.. Stern quotes with approval from
DR.. Macdonald, one of the physicians attached
to the prison, the following passage:


"Your next question was in regard to Mr.:
Tweed's performance of his duties as hospital
orderly. I state that there were two orderlies
on duty, Mr.. Tweed and another inmate,
physician by education, who was assigned to
this relatively desirable position on account OF
his former condition OF life and his superior in
telligence, Just as Mr.. Tweed was 80 assigned,
and Just as it is customary in this and all pris-
ons to give the easier berth to prisoners of the
better class"


We hesitate not to condemn the sentiments
in these two extracts, taken together. as false
ana SCdU0dlOuS. IL - GIuC CuOuSu UuOU " CuO-
icct weak and sickly prisoner, whatever his
social condition, TO physical toll which he can
not perform except at the risk of his life, would
be inhuman and unjust, because it tends to In
f1ict the punishment of death upon the convict
instead of imprisonment, to which he was SEN
fenced This is a very different thing from
giving "the easier berth to prisoners because
lhey are of what Dr. Macdonald foolishly calls
.'t6e better class" This cant phrase is often
applied to those who live what Mr.. Stern in his
portraiture of Tweed calls "a life of comfort.
ease and opulence." It is about as vicious
perversion of English words as ever was made.
The only better class !" in this country or any
other are those who lead virtuous and honest
lives, no matter what their condition OF fortune.


If there is any distinction to be made in the
criminalty of actions, on account of the social
station of the perpetrators it is not in favor OF
those who had all the means of knowing what
was right, and no pretext of necessity for doing
evil In England, which we are accustomed
to regard as an aristocratic country, the lnf1u-
ence of caste loses all it's power when men IN
the highest stations are convicted OF crime.
The general sentiment is that they are less ex-
cusable than if they had possessed few oppor-
tunities of intelligence or moral improvements,
and they are treated accordingly. To "give
the easier berth " to weak and delicate con-
victs, whether they be unhappy Paupers or
pampered plunderers, is right and merclful;
but to make some an exception to the ordinary
class of criminals because they had been accus-
toned to faring sumptuously and being clothed
in fine linen, is subversive of the ends of JUS
tice and punishment, and tends directly and
powerfully to the increase of crime by holding
out an easier berth " to one class of crimi-
nails and goading another by the sense of wrong
and inequality in the distribution of penalties
to recklessness and desperation.