Charles Sumner; his complete works; Volume 2 (of 20)

e. Here I might, perhaps, content myself with a bare enumeration of these systems, and ask the Society if they are so fully convinced with regard

e treated as at Auburn, and certain others as in Pennsylvania,-sometimes called the Mixed System, and sometimes that of Lausanne, from the circumstance that here, in Switzerland,-interesting to us as the place where Gibbon wrote his great history,-there is a prison of this character. Fourthly, there is still another system,-or, perhaps, absence of system,-which is followed at Munich,

ciety for a pledge of candor and impartiality, it will not be disguised that there are special reasons from its past course. Properly to appreciate this course, and to understand the unfortunate position o

lotted by continual guilt, and the youthful victim, who had just yielded to temptation, but whose countenance still mantled with the blush of virtue, and whose soul had not lost all its original brightness, were crowded together, without separation or classification, in one promiscuous, fermenting mass of wickedness, with scanty food and raiment, wit

the most to be deplored. This evil arrested general attention. In France it enkindled the burning eloquence of Mirabeau, as in England it inspired the heavenly chari

one in Maine, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Without referring particularly to other States, I ask you to follow the course of things in Pennsylvania. In 1818 a law was passed authorizing the building of a penitentiary at Pittsburg "on the principle of solitary con

ic. The terrors of the Bastile, whether revealed in the pictured page of Victor Hugo, or in the grave descriptions of dungeons where toads and rats made their home, contain nothing to fill us with such dread as the unbroken solitude which was the lot of many of its victims. Lafayette-whose own experience at Olmütz should not be forgotten-has furnished his testimony of its melancholy influence, as apparent in the condition of those who suddenly came forth

the thumb-screw, the iron glove, and other terrible instruments of a vengeance-loving government. It hardens, abases, or overthrows the intellect and character. Suc

to interest himself in Prison Discipline. He did not surrender himself merely to the blandishments of that unparalleled triumph,-a more than royal progress, forming one of the most touching incidents in history,-when in advanced years he received the gratitude of the giant republic whose feeble infancy he had helped to cradle and protect. From his correspondence it appears that he strove, by conversation in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and particularly in Pennsylvania, to influence public opinion on the subject of Prisons, and most especially against the system of so

shall "inspect the condition of each prisoner at least three times in every day,"-that "the physician shall visit every prisoner in the prison twice in every week"; and further provision is made for "visitors," among whom are "the acting committee of the Philadelphia Society for the Alleviation of the Miseries of Public Prisons." Here is the first legislative declaration of what has since been called, at home and abroad, the Pennsylvania System. As administered there and elsewhere, it is found to have, in greater or less degree, the

a prison of Holland,-also in one at Gloucester, in England; while it seems to be described with tolerable clearness in the preamble to the fifth section of an Act of Parliament drawn by Howard, in conjunction with Sir William Blackstone, as early as 1779. Whatever may be the claims of these

s to be consistent with health, all must admit that it is not the constant, unoccupied, cheerless solitude of the Bastile.

Separate System, as now explained

ns. I well remember the indignation of the late William Ellery Channing at an incident which occurred in our streets, where a stranger who had fallen under suspicion, but who proved to be innocent, was marched from the jail handcuffed, in

convicts for short terms. Here, it would seem, th

at Mettray, in France, both conducted on the social principle, we may well hesitate; though, on the other hand, the marked success of the institution of La Roquette, at Paris, u

proved the system, but at the close of her valuable life approved it, even for her own sex, also that of Mademoiselle J

f health and insanity, and many other considerations, on which much light is shed by the experience of Europe, as well as our own country, and

em, involving the several questions already stated, with candor and justice. The question is not whether this system is preferable in all cases to every oth

er to say that it had sworn against it "war to the knife." Early in its existence it gave its adhesion to the Auburn Prison, saying, "Here, then, is exhibited what Europe and America have been long waiting to see,-a prison which may be made a model for imitation." This adhesion was confirmed by the d

hat, in the zeal of devotion to Auburn, and in the frenzy of hostility to Pennsylvania, we have been betrayed into a course which no candid mind can hesitate to regret. I will not dwell on language that fell from our Secretary at th

r terms. "With the nature of framing recurring documents connected with public institutions we are not unacquainted," says Mr. Adshead, "and we believe a more flagrant instance of trickery has never come within the range of our experience."[179] I am unwilling to adopt thi

nia, on the principle of absolute solitude without labor, which, of course, were entirely inapplicable in the discussi

tled, in capitals, "Dr. [Mr.] Combe's Opinion of the Pennsylvania System." Under this head are extracts from his book of travels in America, where this eminent phrenological observer considers the character

nnsylvania, in so far as it allows of a little more stimulus to the social f

in Combe is

le more stimulus to the social faculties, and does not weaken the nervous system to so great an extent; but it has no su

mit the latter branch of a sentence, where the opinion is favorable to the system. And yet the Treasurer vouches for th

rbal accuracy of the quotation, but that it gave the substance of

that gentleman, dated Edinburgh, March 24, 1847, addressed to the author of the Minority Report to this Society [Dr. Howe], since publis

avor of the Pennsylvania System; but I do not object to it on this account. Such a pleading was called for in the circumstances mentioned in your preface; it was the thing nee

asurer, in opposition to this system; and the work is aided by

l extensively in the United States. From his publication on this subject, in 1827, our Eighteenth Report, in 1843, draws forth a passage, a

inion of the Pen

l, said, before the new

" "the duration of the punishment to be fixed," and "the whole term of the sentence to be exacted," except in cases whe

om such a mode of treatment, than will be executed through the whole State, for the perpetration of the most atrocious crimes; with this remarkable difference, that the law has provided for the heinous offender

uppresses the date of the extract, and the source whence it is drawn. In point of fact, it was written before the new penitentiary was built; but it is nevertheless entitled "Mr. Roscoe's Opinion of the Pennsylvania System," so that the reader unfamiliar with the subject would suppose it in reality his opinion of that system. 3. It omits an important passage after the word "charge," wi

oscoe; though this case is still stronger against that most discreditable E

Opinion of the P

and good feelings, as solitary confinement has never been considered but with a view to reformation, I believe our ideas will have their weight with men who have been discouraged by late failures of success in the reformation plan. It seems to me, two of the inconveniences most complained of might be obviated, in making use of the solitary cells to separate the prisoners at night, and multiplying the rooms of common labor, so

nefficacy of the system, and to revive and restore the cruel code of the most barbarous and unenlightened age. I hope my friends of Pennsylvania will consider the effect this system had on the poor prisoners of the Bastile. I repaired to the scene,' said he, 'on the second day of the demolition, and found that all the prisoners had been deranged by their solitary confinement, except

of the extract, and the source whence it is drawn, and does not in any way disclose to the uninformed reader that it was actually written before the origin of the Pennsylvania System. 3. The extract purports to be from a letter of Lafayette to Roscoe; whereas this is true only of the first paragraph. The second is from an anonymous letter from Paris, in the "National Intelligencer" of November 17, 1826, where the writer relates a conversation with Lafayette concerning the prison then building i

ngham, and Mr. Abdy, all of whom have expressed themselves with more or less distinctness in favor of that system. Nor does it make any allusion to authoritative opinions by different commissioners from foreign governments: as Crawford, from England, in 1834; Demetz and Blouet, from France, in 1837; Pringle, from England, in 1838; Julius, from Prussia, in 1836; and Neilson and Mondele

sider the actual facts: "What will be done in other countries is evidently suspended, in a great degree, on the results of more experience in regard to the effects of the system." Nothing mor

rinciples on which it is founded are developed with fulness and clearness. Parliament had passed a law authorizing the creation of a mod

to state the difference between the pr

me principle of separation, though that of Pentonville is probably administered with

hat had been done in 1843

ecided to adopt exclusively the Separate System in the maisons d'arrêt, or what may be called the county jails. In 1839 the grave question of the influence of this system on health, bodily and mental, was submitted to the highest living authority, the Academy of Medicine, who referred it to a committee consisting of MM. Pariset, Moré, Villermé, Louis, and Esquirol. Their report, drawn up by the last named distinguished authority, expressly declared that "separate imprisonment by day and night, with labor, and conversation with the overseers and inspectors, does not

The cells here are on a circumference, wh

re on a circumference, and in some on radii.

at an expense less than one hundred and seven millions of francs, or nearly twenty millions of dollars. At the same time it appeared that the extensive prison La Roquette, in Paris, had been for several years in most successful operation. Still further, in 1843, it was

ago as 1831, and has been in successful operation since 1835, while in 1843 app

ystem, and that all new constructions or reconstructions which the old prisons shall require shall be on this system, to prepare for its general adoption." Again, another ordina

lgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark. Its report was made in 1841. "Its unanimous and absolute advice was

new prisons on this system. Already before this time, the present King of Sweden, then Crown Prince, had secured a new honor for his throne by writin

he volume of Henry the Eighth, which has secured to his royal successors the unchangeable title of "Defender of the Faith"; not the "Counterblast to Tobacco," and other writings, teeming with pun, pedantry, vanity, Scripture, and prerogative, of James the First; not the ballads, songs, rondeaus, and poems of the four Jameses of Scotland. A work on "Punishments and Prisons" by a king, written in a spirit of simplicity and gentleness, with sympathy for the poor, the humble, the sinful, teaches us to appreciate forms of grandeur higher than any in the ordinary pursuits of royal ambitio

this," says one of the eminent authorities. Wherefore the States General ordered the system of separate imprisonment, as practised at Philadelphia, with the modifications which excluded sol

tem was adopted in 1842. I have here the atlas containing a full representati

hors of the Eighteenth Report were ignorant of the extensive adoption in Europe of the Pennsylvania System, their ignorance was reprehensible, and not to be vindicated by

ng the Pennsylvania System, was sent by our Society, as I have been credibly informed, to every member of the Legislature of that State. Surel