convict who has no employment, are the very beings who were instrumental in consigning him to this place, or persons of as bad character. In such company, all the inducements to crime are again spread before him, when he has no virtuous friends whose advice or example may shield him from temptation; and it is not matter of surprise if he yields to it. When we reflect that this is probably the situation of a majority of those discharged every year, we must consider it a remarkable fact that the number of recommitments is so small, and that it affords a strong proof of the good state of moral discipline in this institution. Still it is a subject deserving the most serious attention of the friends of humanity, to ascertain what can be done for the convict when he quits the penitentiary." On this subject something has been done by private benevolence; and many, it is believed, have been rescued from destruction by being taken by the hand, and provided with new clothes and a few dollars to pay the expense of their journey to the regions of the West. The good effect produced by this has led the directors of the prison since to adopt the practice of giving to each convict, when discharged, the means of presenting a decent appearance in apparel, and a few dollars to get them beyond the limits of the state; for, if they linger about Boston after their discharge, they are almost sure to fall into bad company, and get to the grogshop, and then their relapse into crime and recommitment are almost certain. A most striking instance was lately afforded of the convicts themselves being fully aware of the dangers to which they are subject on leaving the prison, as they communicated their wishes to the warden that a memorial should be sent up from the inmates of the prison to the State Legislature, praying them not to repeal the law recently passed, and just about to be put into operation, which forbids the retail sale of ardent spirits in any smaller quantities than 15 gallons, by which all dramshops would be annihilated, and the chief and most powerful of all the temptations to commit crime be removed from their path. The food of the prisoners is coarse, but wholesome and abundant, two pounds of bread and one of meat being allowed to each man per day, besides occasional supplies of coffee, molasses, &c. On this simple diet, with water only for their drink, they generally improve in health and strength, though the cost per man in food and clothing is only 11 cents, or less than sixpence sterling, daily. The notion that increase of education and exercise of intelligence lead to the increase of crime-which some few, even in America, and many more in England, have strangely entertained-receives no countenance from the experience of those who have the best opportunities of forming a judgment on this subject. The report of the superintendent of this prison says: "A well-educated person is seldom seen here. There is not a graduate of any college among the convicts, excepting one from England. Good education, self-respect, deference to public opinion, and regard for REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS. 389 the feelings of friends, are as close companions as ignorance, bad company, and intemperance. And the first as certainly secure obedience to the laws, as the last lead on to crime and ignominious punishment. This lesson is taught here by daily experience. It is undoubtedly so in all other prisons, and the fact shows the importance of our public schools, as the best defences against the vices and habits which lead so many to crime and the penitentiary." The following selection from the chaplain's report for 1837 speaks volumes as to the combination of ignorance and intemperance in the production of crime: 84 96 Habitual drinkers Habitually intemperate. ་ 104 190 156 Could not write Ignorant of arithmetic The prison-dress is a jacket, trousers, and cap of coarse cloth, which has the right half of each garment red, and the left half blue; and is so marked to cause those who may escape in it to be instantly recognised as convicts, and thus lead to their recapture. Great attention is nevertheless paid to the cleanliness of their apparel. Punishments of some kind or other are deemed indispensable; and there appeared, from all the conversation I enjoyed with the warden and officers, an evidently strong desire among them all to have recourse to this as seldom as possible, and never but in cases of extreme necessity. Perhaps the most interesting portion of all the information connected with this painful subject, is that which narrates the efforts made for the reformation of the criminals, and the degree of success which is believed to have attended it. On this the report of the chaplain is of course the highest authority; and from the personal intercourse which I had with this officer of the prison, I have every reason to believe that it is as correct in point of fact as it is honourable to himself and his co-labourers in this work of humanity. He says: "The Sunday-school of this prison is under the immediate superintendence of the chaplain, although either the warden or his deputy, and one subordinate officer of the prison, are always present, to see that perfect order is maintained, and that nothing takes place inconsistent with the sacredness of the day or of the occasion. The school is instructed by from twenty to thirty suitably qualified individuals, who from Sabbath to Sabbath, according to previous engagement, attend for that purpose. These teachers uniformly seem to feel a very deep interest in this school, and there is no service in which they engage with more apparent delight, although many of them travel the distance of several miles, and not unfrequently when the weather is unpleasant and severe. The convicts, also, who compose this school, with very few exceptions, seem to value it highly, and to feel a lively interest in the instructions they there receive; and no doubt can be rationally cherished but this school is constantly exerting an influence to enlighten, to improve, and to bless those who receive its instructions." It is impossible to appreciate too highly the disinterested benevolence of those teachers who, without fee or reward, and without hope of worldly fame or gain, but animated solely by compassion for the unfortunate, undertake the weekly task of giving instruction to those who have chiefly fallen into crime because they were not sufficiently fortified by education and religion to resist its temptations; and, accordingly, the report speaks of their pure and holy labours in terms that will find a response in every just and humane heart. We quitted the prison, after devoting several hours to its examination, with heavy hearts and depressed spirits at the scenes we had witnessed there, though not without a feeling of satisfaction at the assurance that everything which reason and humanity could dictate, so as to unite the requisite protection of society with the necessary restraint and ultimate improvement of the prisoner, was here adopted. Of the superiority of this system of prison discipline over that which prevailed in England up to a very recent period, and over that which is in practice throughout the greatest portion of Europe now, there can be no doubt; and all benevolent minds must hail this improvement as a great triumph of reason and morality over passion and vindictiveness, which held almost supreme sway in the treatment of condemned criminals heretofore. At the same time, while admitting this improvement over the old systems of treatment to the fullest extent, my convictions were unchanged by anything I saw or heard here as to the decided superiority of the Solitary System of Pennsylvania over the Silent System of NewYork and Massachusetts. The reasons of this preference are stated so much at large in my descriptions of the Penitentiary at Philadelphia and the State-prison at Auburn, that they need not be repeated here. They have gathered strength by deliberation and comparison; and I cannot but indulge the hope that their force will soon become sufficiently apparent to lead to the general adoption of the Pennsylvania system in all the prisons of America, of England, and of Europe at large. CHAPTER XL. State Elections.-Specimens of partisan Exultation.-Local and general Election at Boston.-Statistics of Intemperance.-Silent Progress of the Abolition Question.Denunciations of the Whig Newspapers.-Letter of an invited Candidate.-Address of the Ex-president, John Quincy Adams.-Speech on Slavery by Dr. Duncan, of Ohio. DURING our stay in Boston, the second general election since we had been in the country took place, and I felt great interest in watching its progress. The election commenced first in New York, where it was held on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of November; it was followed up in Boston on the 13th of November, occupying three days in the former, and only one day in the latter city. In New-York the contest was extremely severe, each party, the Conservative and the Democratic, using its utmost exertions, and devoting all its time and energies to the polls. Everything, however, went off quietly, and not a single breach of the peace appears to have occurred in any quarter. The Conservatives, or Whigs, as they call themselves, though they correspond in general principles with our Tories in England, were victorious over the Democrats, their opponents, whom they often call Tories, though these correspond with the Radicals of Great Britain, and their joy was excessive. The language of the New-York papers on this occasion gives so accurate a picture of the bombastic and extravagant manner in which such matters are viewed and described by political partisans, that a few specimens of them may be given, as they were repeated in the Boston papers of the same week: "FROM THE NEW-YORK COURIER AND ENQUIRER. GREAT AND GLORIOUS VICTORY!-NEW-YORK TRIUMPHANT!-THE COUNTRY SAVED! We have met the enemy, and they are ours.' New-York was called upon to save the country; and promptly, fearlessly, and nobly has she done her duty! Her sister states invoked her to come to the rescue; she heard, and she obeyed! Van Burenism lies prostrate in the dust. Toryism stands rebuked. Loco Focoism, Agrarianism, and the Sub-Treasury, together with all experiments upon the currency, are prostrated, never again to raise their hideous heads, and threaten the subversion of our free institutions! Against the entire moneyed force of the government; against fraud and corruption in every form they could assume; and against the people's money, employed to enslave the people, have the Whigs of New-York contended and triumphed. "For three days have we met the enemy at the polls; and the three days in Paris in 1830 were not more signally destructive to the white flag of the Bourbons, than has been our three days to the piratical flag of the Custom-house; the black insignia under which the enemies of free institutions rallied in the city! Our enemies have met with a Waterloo defeat; and with the disappearance of the lights at Tammany Hall, which were struck at an early hour last night, the miserable minions of power skulked into their hiding-places, and are now repenting in sackcloth and ashes their folly in supposing that a free people could be made to surrender their birthright without a struggle. · "The sceptre has departed from them; the people have spoken in a voice of thunder to their oppressors; and when that voice reaches the recesses of the palace where Van Buren, solitary and alone,' will receive it, his coward soul will shrink within itself; and conscience, if he has any, will whisper in her still small voice, 'Thus are demagogues and tyrants ever rebuked when they aim to subvert the liberties of the people.' The language here used would induce any stranger to suppose that the party in power were absolute tyrants, ruling by virtue of Divine right, and in no way responsible to the people, and that the rebuking parties were Democrats, and friends of liberty and free institutions. But the fact is just the reverse of this. Mr. Van Buren is president of the United States by no other title than his election to that office by a large majority of the citizens, whose votes alone elevated him to that dignity; and the only manner in which he has attempted "to subvert the liberties of the people," as is alleged, has been to oppose himself to what he deemed the monopoly of chartered banks, to lending out the surplus revenue of the country as deposites for these banks to use as capital in trade, he preferring a National Treasury for the safe custody of the people's money. If it be thus that men are tyrants and aim to subvert the liberties of the people, the same words must have such opposite meanings for different persons, that language ceases to be a safe medium for conveying accurate ideas. But once more for a specimen of exultation: "FROM THE EVENING STAR. BATTLE OF WATERLOO!-ROUT OF THE Loco Focos!-THE COUNTRY SAVED!-We have fought the great fight, and have conquered. For the last six months the administration has been gathering its clans and preparing for the onslaught, and never were preparations more formidable. Every aid that money could procure, that office could control, were brought to bear on this election, but all to no purpose. The Whigs, animated by a just sense of the wrongs under which our country has suffered, came forth to the rescue in all their force and power, and succeeded. We cannot at this time go into details: some of the wards have not yet been canvassed; some are estimated; there are an immense number of split tickets, and tickets of all colours and complexions, which will require several days to count. Let us come to results. The whole Whig ticket, Governor, Lieutenant-governor, Congress, and Assembly, is elected by at least 1500 majority, as we predicted yesterday. 'Glory enough for one day.'” FROM THE NEW-YORK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER. THE VICTORY.'We have met the enemy, and they are ours.' 'Let the kettle to the trumpet speak! By the subjoined table and statements, our friends at home and abroad will perceive that we have not deceived them in the flattering accounts we have given of the progress of the election during the last three days. The Whigs of this city went into the contest under every possible disadvantage, save only that their cause was just, and that in the character, activity, and energy of an excellent mayor they had a strong guarantee that the peace of the city would be preserved, and that the electors would be enabled to visit the polls without jeoparding life or limb." Here is a distinct admission that the freedom of election is so perfect, that though 40,000 votes were polled in three days, not the least interruption had taken place, and no jeopardy of life or limb had been incurred by those visiting the polls. This is enough to satisfy any impartial stranger that the government of the country took no more pains to interfere with the elections of New-York than with those of Liverpool or Manchester; and that all the rhodomontade" of money being poured out like water," and "armies of office-holders" and "bands of foreign mercenaries" being employed to obstruct the freedom of election-which was asserted by the New-York Express-is, like the allusions to "the battle of Waterloo," the "glorious three days of Paris," and other images of |