First, we have the
prison without the pardoning power, except in cases of
mal-administration of the law,--a receptacle of the bad and good, where
the former are not improved, and the latter are hurried rapidly on in
the path of degradation and crime. Then we have the prison under the
influence of the pardoning power, more or less wisely administered, but,
in its best form, able only to arrest and counteract partially the
tendencies to evil. Next, from the imperfections of this system an
advancing civilization has evoked the Reform School, which gathers in
the young criminals and viciously inclined youth, and prepares them, by
labor, and culture of the mind and heart, to resist the temptations of
life. But this institution seems to wait, though it may not always in
reality do so, until the candidate is actually a criminal.
Hence the necessity which calls us to-day to consider the means adopted
elsewhere, and the means now to be employed here, to save the young and
exposed from the dangers which surround them.
Passing, then, in review, ladies and gentlemen, the thoughts which have
been presented, I deduce from them for your assent and support, if so it
please you, the following propositions as the basis of what I have yet
to say:
I. Government, in the prevention and punishment of crime, should be
paternal.
II. The object of punishment should be reformation, and not revenge.
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