Governor
Washburn, in the Dedication Address, said, "We commend this school, with
its officers and inmates, to a generous and grateful public, with the
trust that the future lives of the young, who may be sent hither for
correction and reform, may prove the crowning glory of an enterprise so
auspiciously begun." Since these words were uttered, and this hope, the
hope of many hearts, was expressed, nearly two thousand boys, charged
with various offences,--many of them petty, and others serious or even
criminal,--have been admitted to the school; and the chaplain, in his
report for the year 1854, says that "the institution will be
instrumental in saving a majority of those who come under its fostering
care." This opinion, based, no doubt, upon the experience which the
chaplain and other officers of the institution had had, is to be taken
as possessing a substantial basis of truth; and it at once suggests
important reflections.
Massachusetts is relieved of the presence of a thousand criminal, or, at
best, viciously disposed persons. A thousand active, capable,
industrious, productive, full-grown men have been created; or, rather, a
thousand consumers of the wealth of others, enemies of the public order
and peace, have been transformed into intelligent supporters of social
life, into generous, faithful guardians of public virtue and
tranquillity. Nor would the influences of this degraded population, if
unreformed, have ceased with its own existence; every succeeding
generation must have gathered somewhat of a harvest of crime and woe.
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