of the
convicts thus discharged have conducted themselves well. If the
prisoner's conduct has not been, upon the whole, reasonably good, and
for a long time irreproachable, he has no chance for clemency; and,
whatever may be his conduct, and whatever may be the hopes inspired, he
should not be allowed to pass without the prison walls until a friend,
labor, and a home, are secured for him. And the exercise of the
pardoning power, if it anticipate the expiration of the legal sentence
but a month, a week, or a day even, may change the whole subsequent
life. Men, criminals, convicts, are not insensible to kindness; and when
the government shortens the legal sentence, which is usually their
measure of justice, they feel an additional obligation to so behave as
to bring no discredit upon a power which has been a source of
inestimable joy to them. And prisoners thus discharged have often gone
forth with a feeling that the hopes of many whom they had left behind
were centred in them.
Mr. Charles Forster, of Charlestown, says, in a letter to me: "I have
been connected with the Massachusetts State Prison for a period of
thirty-eight years, and have always felt a strong interest in the
improvement, welfare, and happiness, of the unfortunate men confined
within its walls. I am conversant with many touching cases of deep and
heartfelt gratitude for kindly acts and sympathy bestowed upon them,
both during and subsequent to their imprisonment.
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