From the Robertson Association. Read and Circulate. 
O N 
PRISON DISCIPLINE 
AND 
Penal Legislation; 
filttif) jgpfrial 3ftf£crnu.e to tt)f .State of ©JnnosjSto. 
Written for the July Number of the Theological Medium. In substance, 
preached in the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 
of Nashville, August 9 and 16, 1874. 
J. BERRIEN LIND SEE Yf M.D., D.D. 
NASHVILLE, TENN. : 
Printed at the Southern Methodist Publishing House for 
the Robertson Association. 
i874- ON PRISON DISCIPLINE 
AND 
PENAL LEGISLATION 
With Special Reference to the State of Tennessee. 
V 
J. BERRIEN LINDSLEY, M.D., D.D., NASHVILLE, TENN.* 
“ I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” 
"For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” 
"When Luther, about three and a half centuries before our 
clay, rescued the Bible from the fetters of the cloister and of 
an unspoken language, and boldly brought the deep questions 
of philosophy and theology to the tribunal of the intelligent 
masses of a central and dominating European nation, he be- 
came, perhaps unwittingly, the forerunner of the great demo- 
cratic movement which characterizes the modern era, and also 
of the humanitarian idea which, in so many channels, has 
found course and fertility within the current century. When 
all the people have the Bible, all the people maj" become in- 
telligent. An intelligent people is capable of self-govern- 
ment. Hence, democracy. As the multitude of individual 
Christians study, in his own works and words, the character 
of Christ, the more conspicuous and the more impressive be- 
comes the singularly man-loving nature of his earthly career. 
He who descended from heaven, that he might redeem man 
from the penalty of sin, went about doing good, and was con- 
stantly employed in alleviating the ills to which flesh is heir, 
because of the transgression of the law. All modern philan- 
* Reprinted by request of the Robertson Association, from the Theo- 
logical Medium, a Cumberland Presbyterian Quarterly, for July, 1874. The 
Association being in nowise responsible for individual opinions. 2 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
thropy really springs out of the spirit described in, and fostered 
by, his account—clear, simple, and sublime—of the final judg- 
ment: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne 
of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: 
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep 
on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the 
King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: for I was a hungered, and ye gave 
me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a 
stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I 
was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and 
gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took 
thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee 
sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall 
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it uiito me.” I need not transcribe the awful 
picture of neglect and condemnation which completes the 
great transaction. 
The topic now in hand has been suggested by chance con- 
versation with fellow-travelers, during a recent railroad ride 
through the romantic mountains of East Tennessee, and is 
worked up rather hastily, but not without much laborious in- 
vestigation, at the instance of the editor of the Medium, whose 
earnest endeavors to keep up a great and ill-paid exponent of 
the Church certainly claim the sympathy and cooperation of 
every Cumberland Presbyterian, from the Dominion to the 
Mexican Republic. Though a special application is made to 
the writer’s own locality, the subject is one of universal in- 
terest, and, it is hoped, will meet the attention of many 
thoughtful readers. Its rank and importance in the great 
field of Christian philanthropy may be well explained by the 
following summary, given by F. B. Sanborn, Secretary of the 
Board of State Charities, of Massachusetts, in the Second Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
3 
Annual Report, 1866, p. 114: “Since the days of Beccaria 
and of Howard, few subjects have been more carefully investi- 
gated than that of crime and its penalties. It has engaged, 
among others, the eccentric genius of Bentham, the consci- 
entious attention of Romilly, the keen analysis of Whately, 
the sympathizing consideration of Elizabeth Fry, Sarah Mar- 
tin, and Mary Carpenter, the patient research of Recorder 
Hill, and the practical sagacity of Captain Maconochie and 
Sir Walter Crofton—in Great Britain. In France, it caught 
the flash of Mirabeau’s rhetoric, claimed the interest of La 
Fayette and of FTapoleon, and has been made a study by Lucas, 
Tocqueville, Demetz, Berenger, and Bonneville de Marsangy. 
In Belgium it has enlisted the high abilities of Ducpetiaux; 
in Holland, those of Suringar, Van der Bruggheu, and Greve- 
link; in Denmark, of David; in Sweden, of the king himself. 
In the various states of Germany the names of Mittermaier, 
Julius, and Holtzendorff, of Iloyer, Varrentrapp, Fuesslin, 
and Obermaier, are a few of those who have discussed it; in 
Switzerland, Mooser and Vernet; in Italy, Peri, Vegezzi, 
and Cavour; in Spain, Montesinos; in Portugal, Jordao; in 
Greece, Costi—have done the same. In the United States, it 
was early considered by the Society of Friends in Philadel- 
phia; then anatyzed and illustrated by the learning and good 
sense of Edward Livingston, and subsequently discussed by 
Lieber and Dwight, by Sumner and Eliot, by Howe and Gray. 
In all countries it has been a constant subject for legislation, 
as it always must be.”* 
*In 1852 it was my good fortune so to time my movements as to be in 
Manchester on September 2d, the day appointed for the opening of a 
great free library for the working-classes. The morning assembly was for 
those who had made large donations to the cause. Upon stating to the 
door-keeper that I was from an interior State of the Great Republic, and 
much interested in education, he at once sent in my card. Word was im- 
mediately returned to assign me an excellent seat. To an utter stranger 
this was a pleasant recognition. Among the speakers were the noted 
philanthropist and statesman, the Earl of Shaftesbury; the great novel- 
ists, Bulwer Lytton, Dickens, and Thackeray; Sir James Stevens, the his- 
torian; Monckton Milnes and John Bright, of Parliamentary fame; 
Knight, the great publisher; and others of similar prominence. Time 
and again, by bishop, by lord, and by commoner, was America commended 4 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
As mad ambition has been symbolized by Alexander the 
Great, pure patriotism by Washington, genius by Homer, elo- 
quence by Demosthenes, so has philanthropy been identified 
with the name of John Howard. Born in 1726, the son of an 
humble but successful tradesman, he died.in 1790, remote 
from home, a martyr to zeal in visiting the sick, and lamented 
by a continent. He is a typical instance of England’s true 
greatness. Inheriting a large fortune, accumulated by the 
honest industry of his father’s life-work, under the protection 
of just laws, he devoted his own energies, through long years 
of travel, and toil, and danger, to alleviating the sufferings of 
the inmates of prisons and hospitals. To this subject his at- 
tention had been turned by the chances of travel. He took it 
up—persistently, patiently, with pertinacity, stuck to it. The 
pluck and the bull-dog of the Englishman were in him, and, it 
may be, something of the hobby and crotchet, also. No mat- 
ter. Truth and righteousness were also with him. The great 
British heart soon responded. The orator in Parliament, the 
poet of the fireside, made his name and his work reecho 
and cited as an example worthy of emulation for good works connected 
with the elevation of the masses. To an American this, also, was grate- 
ful ; and none the less so, though in each particular case it was some great 
achievement of Massachusetts which elicited applause. For years, as a 
member of the Nashville Board of Education, and hence a student of 
public-school systems, I found the Massachusetts State Reports recognized 
authorities, and Horace Mann the acknowledged master of the subject. 
At a later period, looking into the widely-ramified connections of life in- 
surance, the same is true of the Massachusetts Insurance Reports and 
Elizur Wright. For many years the Reports of the Prison Discipline So- 
ciety, of Boston, were the great instrumentalities in gathering and diffus- 
ing knowledge, at home and abroad. When a lad, they interested me 
almost as much as the “ Pilgrim’s Progress” and “ Robinson Crusoe.” And 
now, upon taking up this very difficult topic, the ten octavo volumes of Re- 
ports of the Board of State Charities, of Massachusetts, furnish an invalua- 
ble fund of theoretical and practical information. What has not the 
Church, the university, and the common school done for Massachusetts? 
Tennessee has the Church, and, through the remarkable combination 
of Churches, North and South, is destined soon to have the university, 
complete and full-appointed. Let the common school be added, and 
then may our children see this splendid State what it ought to be—in ed- 
ucation and manufactures, the Massachusetts; in agriculture and mines, 
the Pennsylvania of the South! Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
5 
throughout the wide realms of English-speaking people. All 
Christendom took up the refrain, and, with one accord, placed 
his name foremost among the benefactors of their race. Im- 
bued with a true Christian faith, he did a true Christian work. 
Millions of the poor, the disconsolate, the distressed, whose 
ears never listened to the praises of Cesar or of Napoleon, or 
even knew of the strains of Shakspeare or of Milton, have 
been raised from the depths of despair by timely aid adminis- 
tered or sent by hands near or remote, but all using the 
name of Howard as their common watch-word. Earth has no 
grander monument. 
As showing the deep-seated and ever-widening impression 
made by the self-sacrificing labors of Howard in behalf of the 
criminal and outcast, and as a relief to the necessarily dry 
and heavy character of this article, I cannot avoid giving to 
the reader the eloquent words of several master-minds of his 
own and later days. 
Robert Hall, the most celebrated British pulpit orator of his 
day, whose resplendent genius and lovely character will always 
adorn the annals of the Baptist Church, in reviewing the 
Essays of John Foster, that master of the English tongue, 
thus quotes and indorses his eulogium upon Howard, giving 
it the preference even over the portrait emblazoned by the 
gorgeous eloquence of Burke: “ In this distinction (decision 
of character) no man ever exceeded, for instance, or ever will 
exceed, the late illustrious Howard. The energy of his deter- 
mination was so great that if, instead of being habitual, it 
had been shown only for a short time on particular occa- 
sions, it would have appeared a vehement impetuosity; but, 
by being unintermitted, it had an equability of manner which 
scarcely appeared to exceed the tone of a calm constancy, it 
was so totally the reverse of any thing like turbulence or agi- 
tation. It was the calmness of an intensity kept uniform by 
the nature of the human mind forbidding it to be more, and 
by the character of the individual forbidding it to be less. 
The habitual passion of his mind was a measure of feeling 
almost equal to the temporary extremes and paroxysms of 
common minds—as a great river, in its customary state, is 
equal to a small or moderate one when swollen to a torrent. 6 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
The moment of finishing his plans in deliberation, and com- 
mencing them in action, was the same. I wonder what must 
have been the amount of that bribe, in emolument or pleasure, 
that would have detained him a week inactive after their final 
adjustment. The law which carries water down a declivity 
was not more unconquerable and invariable than the deter- 
mination of his feelings toward the main object. The im- 
portance of this object held his faculties in a state of excite- 
ment which was too rigid to be affected by lighter interests, 
and on which, therefore, the beauties of nature and of art had 
no power. He had no leisure feeling, which he could spare, 
to be diverted among the innumerable varieties of the ex- 
tensive scene which he traversed; all his subordinate feelings 
lost their separate existence and operation by falling into the 
grand one. There have not been wanting trivial minds to 
mark this as a fault in his character. But the mere men of 
taste ought to be silent respecting such a man as Howard; he 
is above their sphere of judgment. The invisible spirits who 
fulfill their commission of philanthropy among mortals do 
not care about pictures, statues, and sumptuous buildings; and 
no more did he, when the time in which he must have in- 
spected and admired them would have been taken from the 
work to which he had consecrated his life. The curiosity 
which he might feel was reduced to wait till the hour should 
arrive when its gratification should be presented by con- 
science, which kept a scrupulous charge of all his time, as the 
most sacred duty of that hour. If he was still, at every hour, 
when it came, fated to feel the attractions of the fine arts 
but the second claim, they might be sure of their revenge; 
for no other man will ever visit Rome under such a despotic 
consciousness of duty as to refuse himself time for surveying 
the magnificence of its ruins. Such a sin against taste is very 
far beyond the reach of common saintship to commit. It im- 
plied an inconceivable severity of conviction that he had one 
thing to do, and that he who would do some great thing in 
this short life must apply himself to the work with such a 
concentration of his forces as, to idle spectators who live 
only to amuse themselves, looks like insanity. His attention 
was so strongly and tenaciously fixed on his object that, even Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
7 
at the greatest distance, as the Egyptian Pyramid to travelers, 
it appeared to him with a luminous distinctness, as if it were 
nigh, and beguiled the toilsome length of labor and enterprise 
by which he was to reach it. It was so conspicuous before 
him that not a step deviated from the direction, and every 
movement and every day was an approximation. As his 
method referred every thing he did and thought to the end, 
and as his exertion did not relax for a moment, he made the 
trial so seldom made—what is the utmost effect which may 
be granted to the last possible efforts of a human agent; and, 
therefore, what he did not accomplish he might conclude to 
be placed beyond the sphere of mortal activity, and calmly 
leave to the immediate disposal of Providence.” 
The almost superhuman singleness of purpose so eloquently 
delineated above, and the constant self-sacrifice it demanded, 
will be the better appreciated when it is remembered that 
Howard was a cultivated man, and in art even an amateur. 
Robert Hall testifies that his house at Cardington was better 
filled with paintings and drawings than any other, on a small 
scale, that he ever saw. 
Erasmus Darwin, the philosopher-poet and physician, 
grandfather of the present eminent and famous poet-philoso- 
pher, was a contemporary of Howard. He was a man of 
highly original turn of mind—unusually well read in the sci- 
ence of his day. “ He had a singular aptitude for seizing and 
illustrating natural analogies, and, above all, he was fully im- 
pressed with a sense of the important truths of a universal 
simplicity and harmony of design throughout the whole crea- 
tion.” As a physician, he was a philanthropist, and hence 
hailed with enthusiastic delight the heaven-inspired career of 
his fellow-countryman. His poems were then widely read 
and extravagantly praised, though now fallen into undeserved 
neglect. In one of these is found the following tribute: 
From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crowned, 
Where’er mankind and misery are found, 
O’er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow, 
Mild Howard, journeying, seeks the house of woe. 
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank, 
Where anguish wails aloud, and fetters clank, 8 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
To eaves bestrewed with many a moldering bone, 
And cells whose echoes only learn to groan, 
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose, 
No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows; 
He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth, 
Profuse of toil, and prodigal of health; 
Leads stern-eyed justice to the dark domains, 
If not to sever, to relax the chains; 
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife, 
To her fond husband liberty and life— 
Onward he moves! disease and death retire, 
And murmuring demons hate him and admire! 
Jeremy Bentham, who, for nearly sixty years, almost un- 
aided and alone, fought the battle of law-reform in England— 
whose opinions were hut little known and honored until Du- 
mont put his ideas into French; and whose name, to-day, 
shines throughout Christendom as a light in the law second 
to none—was also an observer of Howard’s deeds, and a 
reader of his writings. In his “Panopticon,” published in 
1791, occurs the following critique and panegyric. The latter 
has been thought, even for eloquence, to challenge competition 
with that of Burke: “Mr. Howard's publications present no 
such work (a complete and regular system of prison manage- 
ment). They afford a rich fund of materials; but a quarry is 
not a house. Ho leading principles—no order—no connec- 
tion. Rules, or hints for rules, in places which, unless by 
reading the book through again, you can never find a second 
time; recommendations, of which the reason is not very ap- 
parent, and for which no reason is given; some, perhaps, for 
which no sufficient reason, if an}7, could be given. My ven- 
erable friend was much better employed than in arranging 
words and sentences. Instead of doing what so many could 
do if they would, what he did for the service of mankind was 
what scarce any man could have done, and no man would do 
but himself. In the scale of moral desert, the labors of the 
legislator and the writer are as far below his as earth is below 
heaven. His was the truly Christian choice—the lot in which 
is to be found the least of that which selfish nature covets, 
and the most of that which it shrinks from. Ilis kingdom 
was of a better world; he died a martyr, after living an 
apostle.” Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
9 
The Wesley brothers, his contemporaries, whose sermons 
and songs then turned old England upside-down, and whose 
names now fill two continents, also bade him God-speed. 
But after all, the reader will doubtless agree with the uni- 
versal judgment of Anglo-Saxony, that the noblest eulogium 
upon Howard’s character and work was that pronounced early 
in his career by Edmund Burke, who, “in vastness of com- 
prehension, in depth of research, in extent of information, in 
exuberance of fancy, in vividness of imagination, in vigor of 
illustration, in fluency of language, in reach of mind, stands 
without a rival* 
“I cannot name this gentleman (Howard) without remark- 
ing that his labors and writings have done much to open the 
eyes and hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe—not 
to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of 
temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains 
of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of 
modern art; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts— 
but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the 
infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and 
pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, 
and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the 
neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate 
the distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original, 
and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a 
voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation of charity. Already 
the benefit of his labor is felt, more or less, in every country; 
I hope he will anticipate his final reward by seeing all its 
effects fully realized in his own. He will receive, not by de- 
tail, but in gross, the reward of those who visit the prisoner; 
and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of 
charity that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by such 
acts of benevolence hereafter.” 
These words cost the all-powerful orator but little effort as 
they poured from his eloquent tongue and sympathetic heart. 
Really, they were of more moment in putting forward Howard’s 
great plans in Europe and America than legislative decrees 
or imperial edicts. 
* John C. Burch—Robertson Association Lecture. Dec. 31, 1858. 10 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
It is very questionable whether the many volumes full or 
practical details, given to the world by the actively-working 
English philanthropist, would have inaugurated so great a 
movement, had not the accomplished moral and political phi- 
losopher of Italy, the Marquis of Beccaria, been his contem- 
porary. To Italy is conceded the lead in the fine arts; but in 
letters, philosophy, science, and history, her recent influence 
and ability have been much underrated. Many first-class 
names in these departments adorn her annals in the past 
century. High among them is that of the nobleman just 
mentioned, who was born at Milan in 1735, and died in the 
same city, after a long and distinguished professorate, in 
1793. In 1764 he published his great work, “ Dei delitti e 
delle pene.” A copy is now before me—a wonderful instance 
of the power of the pen! it being a little octodecimo book of 
eighty-one pages. Composed for a literary club, and sent 
forth with great hesitancy, it wrought miracles. Six editions 
were called for in Italy in less than two years. In three 
years it was translated into all the languages of Europe, and 
wTas known and approved by eminent publicists everywhere. 
It led to the speedy stop of that outrage upon humanity, in- 
quisitorial torture, and caused Joseph II., the benevolent em- 
peror, to remodel the jurisprudence of Austria. 
Since the time of Beccaria the principles of punishment 
have been much discussed, and much variety of opinion has 
prevailed, as, indeed, is the case with all fundamental sub- 
jects occupying man’s attention. The old idea was that the 
offender against law was an outcast—had no rights that needed 
respect, and, indeed, could not be too harshly dealt with. 
This feeling was, to a great degree, extended even to those 
charged with criminal offenses. Hence resulted a barbarism 
and cruelty which can be comprehended only by those who 
have read special narratives a century or two old. The his- 
tory of Urban Grandier, really a political victim of that 
great, bad man, Cardinal Richelieu, nominally condemned for 
witchcraft, in 1634; and of the Huguenots, sentenced to the 
galleys because they would not change their religion at the 
command of Louis XIV., falsely flattered as the great, are 
painful examples. Add to this untoward moral element the .Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
11 
gross ignorance of hygiene prevalent until Priestley’s time, 
and we need not wonder that Howard and his fellow-workers 
found their hands more than full. 
The new system of prison discipline does not ignore the evil 
of sin, nor does it seek to do away with the stern realities of 
nature. That the way of the transgressor is hard; that indig- 
nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, abide upon every 
soul of man that doeth evil; that the wages of sin is death— 
are terrible truths, recorded alike by the individual and col- 
lective experience of the human family, as well as in the 
pages of Holy Writ. The horrible decree, as Calvin would, 
in forcible Latin phrase, have termed it, is the existence of 
evil, moral and physical. This is the insurmountable rock 
which has compelled all Christian creeds and all Christian 
hymn-writers to take refuge, in one form or another, in the 
doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty. This is the prison-wall 
against which human reason, refusing the light of revelation, 
struggles in vain; or else, inverting her gaze, and attempting 
to ignore, saps all the nobler motives of man, and degrades 
him below the beast that perisheth. The great advocates and 
efficient promoters of prison reform have been, and are now, 
mainly to be found in the ranks of Christian philosophers. 
The distinction between the old and new may be briefly 
stated, thus: The new fully recognizes the rights of society, 
and the obligation of the individual wrong-doer to expiate his 
offense against the community. Hence, it makes full use of 
the two principles of secondary punishment solely relied upon 
by the old. “First, the application of pain, with the inten- 
tion of proving, to the sufferer and to all who may learn his 
fate, that the profits of crime are overbalanced by its losses. 
This is the deterrent principle in action. The second princi- 
ple is what Bentham calls that of incapacitation. So long as 
the criminal remains in jail, society is protected from his mis- 
conduct, not by the deterrent operation of fear, but because he 
has for the time lost the power of offending.” In conformity 
with these principles, prisons are not to be palatial hospitals, 
nor comfortable houses of refuge for the unthrifty criminal. 
On the contrary, the accommodations and comforts allowed in 
prisons of right are to be the worst possible, consistently with 12 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
proper seclusion, decency, and support of life; and, at the same 
time, hard and continuous labor is to be required. Confine- 
ment, hard labor, separation from family and friends, morti- 
fication and disgrace, are great calamities to most of men. 
These are inseparable from any system of prison discipline. 
But while the new, like the old, recognizes the rights of so- 
ciety, in marked contrast with the old, it makes equal recog- 
nition of the rights of the individual; and this, emphatically, 
under the twofold aspect, moral and physical. Hence the 
distinguishing and grand feature of modern prison discipline, 
to wit: the attempt to reform the malefactor himself, and thus 
permanently to protect society; and the endeavor to limit the 
punishment inflicted to that called for by the sentence of the 
law. The former brings within the prison-walls the clergyman 
and the teacher; the latter introduces the scientist and the 
physician. Thus the aim is to elevate the soul, while not de- 
stroying the body. 
The practical working out of these pregnant axioms has 
occupied the intense thought of the American and French 
authorities, especially. Less so of the English, because their 
system of penal colonies rendered imprisonment of minor 
importance. Perhaps, also, the democratic institutions of 
America and France would tend to this result. For, as any 
one, through sudden passion, or ordinary frailty of human 
nature, or by false witness, may become the inmate of a 
prison, and as this also may happen to those nearly connected 
to any one citizen, it is very natural that the individual sov- 
ereigns in a republic should take a more lively interest in the 
matter than the rulers in a monarchy or aristocracy. At all 
events, such is the fact. The great American republic took 
the lead, and at an early day attracted the notice of all civil- 
ized governments, because of the novel and successful ex- 
periments in this direction. As long ago as in 1837 Everett, 
reviewing ill-natured English criticisms upon American claims 
in this reform, justly boasted that to America alone had the 
most enlightened governments of Europe sent commissions 
to examine prisons. Among these commissions the two sent 
by France made studies and reports which, without exagger- 
ation, influenced the entire civilized world. Be Tocqueville Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
13 
and Beaumont were members of the first commission—two of 
the most eloquent French authors of their day—the former 
being without a rival as a profound thinker in political science. 
The second commission was composed of Blouet, the distin- 
guished architect, and of Demetz, who left high judicial posi- 
tion in Paris, and founded the reformatory for young crim- 
inals at Mettray, which Lord Brougham declared, in full 
Parliament, to be the “glory of France.” To enumerate the 
reports and treatises published in America, and the exhaustive 
octavos put forth in France by eminent jurists, economists, 
physicians, and philanthropists, during the past forty years, 
would require as much space as is assigned to this article. It 
would, however, prove the statement made at the Outset as to 
the importance and vitality of the question in hand. 
When we turn our attention to practical results, nothing 
arrests notice so strongly as the inadequate effect produced by 
Howard’s labors among his own countrymen, notwithstanding 
the speedy apotheosis accorded him. It was not until about 
1840, under the influence of America, as reflected by neigh- 
boring France, and the stimulating remonstrances of the rap- 
idly-growing Australian colonies, which positively refused 
any longer to be penal settlements, that the Imperial Parlia- 
ment fairly addressed itself to the difficult work. The model 
prison at Pentonville, London; the reformatory at Park- 
hurst, Isle of Wight; the Irish prison system, and other great 
establishments and reforms, attest the interest now taken in 
the subject. As showing how greatly needed such interest 
was, and also how very far behind backwoods Tennessee of 
1829 was our proud English mother in 1838, the following 
statements concerning certain prisons in or attached to their 
Australian Transportation System may be adduced. They 
are given from official documents mainly, in that most accu- 
rate work, the Penny Cyclopedia, vol. 25, p. 142: “The se- 
verity of the discipline which has been pursued at ISTorfolk 
Island has varied with the character and feelings of com- 
mandants, who are usually intrusted with a limited discretion; 
but its main features, in detail, have been the same as those 
of the system pursued at Macquarie Harbor and Port Arthur 
—a system of hard labor and degrading punishment. Many 14 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
instances are known of capital crimes having been committed 
at Norfolk Island for the sake of release from its severities, 
even by the sacrifice of life. In reply to a question put by 
the Transportation Committee, the Chief Justice of New 
South Wales said that ‘he would not hesitate to prefer death, 
under any form that it could be presented to him, rather than 
such a state of endurance as that of the convict transported 
to that island.’ Dr. Ullathorne, a Roman Catholic priest, who 
was sent from Sydney to perform the last services of religion 
to a number of men under sentence of death for mutiny at 
Norfolk Island, and who was likewise intrusted with the office 
of informing eleven of the condemned of their reprieve, has 
thus described his meeting with the objects of a mission so 
remarkable: ‘I said a few words to induce them to resigna- 
tion, and then stated the names of those who were to die; and 
it is a remarkable fact that, as I mentioned the names of those 
men who were to die, they, one after another, dropped on their 
knees and thanked God that they were to be delivered from 
that horrible place, whilst the others remained standing, mute 
and weeping. It was the most horrible scene I ever witnessed. 
Those who were condemned to death appeared to be rejoiced.’ 
Of the depravity of Norfolk Island Judge Burton (of the 
New South Wales Bench) has given this striking testimony, 
that ‘ it wrung his heart and drew tears from his eyes, when a 
Norfolk Island convict, brought before him for sentence, ob- 
served : “Let a man be what he will when he comes here, he 
is soon as bad as the rest; a man’s heart is taken from him, 
and there is given him the heart of a beast.” ’ ” 
As marking the contrast here alluded to between the impe- 
rial legislation at London and that of the then almost frontier 
State in Nashville, and also as proving how heartily and 
thoroughly the humane ideas of the modern period were, at 
that early day, adopted by the brilliant and able men whose 
names will always give luster to the annals of Tennessee, it 
would be well to transfer to our pages the entire Act of Octo- 
ber 28, 1829, and also the “Penitentiary Discipline,” as given 
in the statute laws of Tennessee—Haywood and Cobb’s, vol. 
1, 1831. Truly was it said, in the preface to this volume, that 
a great change was made in the penal laws of the State by the Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
15 
session of the Legislature in 1829. It is, indeed, an epoch in 
the history of Tennessee jurisprudence to which we may al- 
ways refer with honest pride. The “Act to provide for build- 
ing a public jail and penitentiary house” creates a board of 
inspectors, with full power and discretion to exercise perfect 
and efficient supervision. It ordains, as fundamental, that 
each male at night occupy a separate apartment; that there 
be no communication between the prisoners while at work, or 
at other times, and none with the outer world except through 
the agent; that each prisoner have a Bible; proscribes spirit- 
uous or fermented liquors; directs the employment to be 
adapted to age, sex, and health; that individual cleanliness, 
as well as that of the premises, be observed; that the diet be 
sound and wholesome; and, in two admirable sections worthy 
of being written in golden characters, authorizes moral dis- 
cipline and such steps as will improve the mind and meliorate 
the heart. Following this up in 1831, the commissioners 
were “required to procure from other States the best and 
most approved plans of building.” 
But, although Tennessee, some fifty years ago, with a popu- 
lation, mainly rural, of six hundred and eighty-two thousand, 
was vastly in advance of Britain, or France, or Germany, and 
quite up to her sister States, in this matter of prison reform, 
it does not follow that she has kept this relative position. 
Since then great changes have taken place within her own 
borders. Her population is now more than a million and a 
quarter, a large and rapidly-increasing proportion being urban. 
Hence, the number of offenders, especially juvenile, has greatly 
increased. Again, very many improvements, both moral and 
physical, have resulted from the extensive and often costly 
and futile experiments made by the various American State 
and European governments. These ought to be incorporated 
into our own system, and Tennessee restored to her old and 
true position in the van among the humane as well as the brave 
states. The force of these remarks will be best understood 
by a reference, necessarily very brief and imperfect, but, it is 
hoped, fair and impartial, to the penal institutions at the cap- 
ital, here in Nashville. 
And first, to the State Prison. When Tennessee gav.e the 16 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
name Penitentiary to this institution, she fairly and squarely 
committed herself to the new idea of prison reform. For, 
as Everett well remarked in an address before the Prison 
Discipline Society, in Boston, May 30, 1837, “in this single 
word 'penitentiary, applied to prisons, a great revolution—a 
physical and moral revolution—was effected. A physical rev- 
olution, because the idea of a reform in the character of the 
convict required that the place of confinement, instead of 
being, as it was formerly, a pestiferous den of guilt and shame, 
not more dangerous to morals than to life and health, should 
become a comfortable abode for a human being.” How far 
this idea has been carried out by the working of the Peniten- 
tiary can be seen only by an elaborate analysis of the reports 
and statistics since its opening in 1831. Such an analysis the 
Legislature owes to the people. It is upon the Auburn, or 
congregate and silent, system, where the convicts work to- 
gether, but are not allowed to communicate with each other 
by word or sign, and are confined in separate cells at night. 
This system has received most favor in the United States. It 
is especially commended for its economy, as was early shown 
by the success of the Hew York penitentiaries at Auburn and 
Sing Sing. The separate, or Pennsylvania*system seems to 
find most favor in Europe. It promotes the reform of the 
prisoner, it is said, far more than the congregate system; and, 
if more expensive per convict yearly, yet the term is short- 
ened, and thus the difference is more than made up. The 
relative merits and defects of these rival systems have fur- 
nished materials for very many able reports and volumes, and 
have tested the executive ability of not a few humane and 
skillful men in Europe and America for over fifty years. The 
conclusion beginning to be reached is that each presents pe- 
culiar advantages, which should be combined in a complete 
system. Much stress has also lately been placed upon what 
is called the Mark System, the ground notion in which has 
been long since anticipated in the Tennessee plan of dimin- 
ishing the term as a reward for good conduct. 
The administration of the wardens, superintendents, in- 
spectors, and directors has, in the main, been characterized by 
humanity, so far as I can learn from official reports and per- Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
17 
sonal inquiry. Some marked exceptions occurred during, and 
soon after, the war. In the report of the agent, dated October 
1, 1865 (Appendix, 1865-66, Senate Journal, p. 97), H. G. 
Scovel, Chairman of Inspectors, thus writes: 
“In December, 1864, at the ‘Hood’ siege of Nashville, 
twenty-four hundred prisoners permeated every portion of the 
prison, at which time utensils were burned, destroyed, and 
stolen. 
“The convicts were suffering with scurvy and kindred dis- 
eases, for want of a sufficiency and variety of food; and, 
being without clothing, and in some cases entirely nude, 
could not be relieved from constant cell-confinement, and 
withal afflicted with the unmentionable annoyances arising 
from want of discipline and cleanliness. . . . Suffice it 
to say that to enter into a more minute detail of the lamenta- 
ble condition of this institution would shock the finer sensi- 
bilities, and arouse a feeling of astonishment that, in Tennessee, 
within one mile of the State capitol, such a condition of things 
should exist. The mystery, however, may all be solved in the 
word war!" 
The war! This has been a ready excuse for a vast deal of 
evil-doing, from 1861 to the present time—an excuse which 
will not avail with posterity, nor, reverently be it spoken, at 
the bar of God. 
In February, 1862, at the instance of Dr. David W. Yan- 
dell, then on General A. S. Johnston’s staff, the writer took 
charge of the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers and 
Federal prisoners just after the fall of Fort Donelson. It was 
the first great disaster on the one side, and triumph on the 
other—a time of panic and confusion. Two weeks afterward, 
he received the Federal medical director’s certificate that 
these sick and wounded were all well cared for. During the 
whole war-period it was his duty to watch the University of 
Yashville—all the large buildings, most of the time, being 
used as hospitals, or for camps. At the battle of Yashville, 
rifle-pits ran through its campus ; yet it lost not a specimen, a 
book, nor a dollar. Buildings and grounds were injured by 
use, not by abuse. The Tennessee Penitentiary, it may be 
safely said, need not have suffered during the war. Very 18 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
true it is that the war demonstrated the carelessness, stupidity, 
and incapacity of the American civilian, while showing in 
brilliant lines the endurance, patience, good-nature, and valor 
of the American soldier. 
In looking at the recent history of the penitentiary, one is 
painfully impressed with the fact that ift has fallen very far 
short of fulfilling the humane wishes of the statesmen of 
1829. All along, far too little provision has been made for the 
moral and intellectual improvement of its inmates. The fol- 
lowing graphic picture shows its condition in 1868: 
“ The great majority of the convicts are without any edu- 
cation or trade, merely grown-up children, ignorant, not to 
say stupid, formerly slaves; and are sentenced, in most cases, 
for taking, as they express it, some article of provision or 
clothing from their employer, who refuses to pay them; and 
perhaps, in many instances, with not much more idea of crim- 
inality on their part than a dumb beast has that helps himself 
from his master’s crib. It is plainly evident that a school of 
reformation, or instruction, is much more a fitting place for 
such uneducated unfortunates than a State’s prison. It is to be 
lamented that so little provision has been made for the proper 
enlightenment of, and inculcation of morality in, this pitiable 
class as has hitherto characterized the penitentiary. More 
than forty years have passed since its erection, and to this day 
no chapel-room invites to religious worship. No Sunday- 
school library, or other reading matter, save here and there, 
perhaps, a Testament or Bible, or occasional contributions from 
the charitable, can be found among the whole five hundred 
convicts. Such a missionary field is not to be found this side of 
Abyssinia. One sermon of a Sunday is like a dew-drop upon 
the Great Desert of Sahara. A chapel, books, papers, and 
moral teachers, would prove a cheap economy, and one would 
suppose, under the benign influences of a Christian civiliza- 
tion, would be classed with the necessities of food and 
raiment. “A. B. Shankland, 
“Wm. Mills, 
“ Directors. 
“Nashville, Tenn., January 14, 1864.” 
In the report dated Nov. IT, 1871, Chaplain W. D. F. Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
19 
Sawrie speaks encouragingly of moral improvement, but 
dwells on the want of a chapel, as "Wharton, Huntington, 
Cook, and others, have done. In truth, the commonwealth 
has done very little in this behalf, while individual benevo- 
lence and zeal have done perhaps all that was in their province. 
As to the five hundred “out” convicts, it does not appear 
that any etfort is made for their reformation. The very name 
of penitentiary convict, in their case, is a mockery. 
If the moral condition of the penitentiary is so utterly un- 
worthy a great Christian commonwealth, the physical is not 
less so. While the skill and attention of the various medical 
men who have successively been in charge of the health of its 
inmates is attested by the result, especially during recent epi- 
demics, yet so great have been the increased demands upon 
the capacity of the buildings during the last ten years, and so 
great have been the improvements in the character of prison 
buildings during the past half century, that it need excite no 
surprise when it is stated that the Tennessee Penitentiary is 
altogether behind the age, and requires a complete remodel- 
ing in order to become a fit abode for a human being. Let 
the reader bear in mind that only a hundred years ago, on 
August 1st, did Priestley discover oxygen—that sanitary sci- 
ence dates from that epoch—and he will readily perceive that 
this statement, radical as it is, involves blame to no one Ten- 
nesseean, but to all Tennessee. 
The penitentiary occupies ten acres, immediately adjoining 
the city limits on the wrest, in a localit}7 which is being fast 
built up by both industrious and wealthy citizens. This fact 
settles its original eligibility, and its present ineligibility. 
The main building, finished in 1832 at a cost of over fifty 
thousand dollars, besides a center for offices, hospitals, etc., 
consists of an east and west wing, each containing one 
hundred and twenty cells for lodging the convicts when not 
at work. Each of these is seven feet long by three feet ten 
inches wide, and six feet high, or a little less than one hun- 
dred and seventy feet, cubic measure. There is a new west 
wing, completed Jan. 1st, 1859, which contains one hundred 
and twenty cells, each fifty-eight inches wide by eight and a 
half feet long, and seven and a half feet high, or three hundred 20 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
and eighteen feet cubic, measure. These cells are all closed 
by a thick iron door, with a grating one foot by two feet, equal to 
half that space as an opening, which again opens into a corridor 
nearly eleven feet wide, bounded by an outer wall with thirty- 
six windows for each of the three wings, grated and admit- 
ting light and air from without. In the two old wings, these 
windows are two feet nine inches wide by five feet high; in 
the new wing, three feet wide b}7 five feet ten inches high. 
Thus each wing, or block of cells, will have three and a third 
cells to a window'. How grossly deficient these windows are 
in furnishing light and air is apparent from a comparison writh 
those of the Suffolk county jail, Boston, built in 1851, and 
regarded as one of the best prisons, in its construction, which 
can be found in New7 England. In this jail there is an ample 
number of great windows, each measuring ten feet in width 
and thirty-three feet six inches in height, beneath wdiich other 
windows, ten feet wide and six feet six inches in height, are 
placed, thus flooding the corridors in front of the cells with 
sunshine and fresh air. The ventilation of the cells in our 
penitentiary is altogether by the slow process of diffusion. There 
are practically no openings, or flues, in the cells for rapid or 
artificial ventilation. 
In the small cells one convict is lodged when off work 
—that is, for more than half the day. In the cells of the new7 
west wing usually twTo are lodged, in utter violation of a cardi- 
nal principle of the whole penitentiary system, which imper- 
atively forbids the convicts from communion wTith each other. 
This comes to pass from the over-crow7ded condition of the 
prison, which has four hundred and fifty-five inmates, and 
only three hundred and sixty cells.* 
It will thus appear that the occupants of the old cells have 
* Superintendent W. H. Johnson, in his report to the Legislature of 
1859-60, complains in strong terms of want of room as causing harm in 
more ways than one. He says: “We have been forced to an utter viola- 
lation of the law by sleeping two in a cell, which, I must say, is incom- 
patible with any proper system of discipline, and neither improves the 
moral condition nor health of the prisoners.” This was soon after the 
addition of one hundred and twenty cells by the new wing; then, as now, 
“crime was on the increase, keeping pace with the growth and prosperity 
of the country.” Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
21 
a room of about one hundred and seventy cubic feet, and 
most of those in the new only one hundred and fifty-nine 
cubic feet, of space—in each case very poorly ventilated at that. 
Now, by referring to the works of Tardieu and Levy on hy- 
giene, recognized authorities in France—a country notable, 
since the democratic era of 1789, for its admirable application 
of science to daily life—it will be seen that from eight hun- 
dred to one thousand cubic feet is considered full small for a 
well-ventilated cell upon the separate, or Pennsylvania, sys- 
tem. It follows that more than half of this room is required 
for a cell upon the Auburn, or Tennessee, plan. The Suffolk 
county jail allows a cell of eight hundred and eighty cubic 
feet to each prisoner. The reader will now see at a glance 
the deficiency in the Tennessee prison-house. The new cells 
should have but one inmate ; the old cells should be made one 
out of two. Then the whole should be furnished with the 
usual means of artificial ventilation. In this connection, let 
it be remembered that the sentence of the law contemplates 
confinement and labor, but never the deprivation of vital air, 
of healthy food, or in any way whatever the sapping of health 
and the shortening of life. 
The provision made for the sick is totally defective as to in- 
firmary or hospital, while in medical attendance excellent. 
Two rooms on the second and third floors of the center build- 
ing—the lower one thirty-three feet long by twenty-seven 
wide, and nine feet high; the upper ten feet high, seventeen 
wide, and thirty-three feet long. One has twelve beds, the 
other eight, and, if much sickness prevails, even more. This 
allows only about six hundred cubic feet to a patient, in a 
room badly ventilated by six small windows, each twenty-four 
by sixty-six inches; whereas, in perfectly-ventilated hospitals, 
twelve hundred is a minimum allowance, fifteen and eighteen 
hundred being more frequently provided. Not to be tedious, 
I will sum up this very important head in the strong but 
truthful words of the Inspectors’ Report, from March 1st, 
1870, to September 1st, 1871, which but reiterates what had 
been frequently urged upon the attention of the people’s rep- 
resentatives in the capital: “Our own hospital accommoda- 
tions are of the meanest and most despicable character; in 22 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
fact, taking in every thing found in modern prison hospitals, 
even those God-given blessings, light and air—the essential 
stimulants to vital action—are completely excluded.” 
The third defect, also a result of too much crowding of 
buildings, is the danger to the inmates in case of an extensive 
fire in the work-shops. These contain a large quantity of 
combustible material. A conflagration wrould inevitably stifle 
many of the convicts, or else force their untimely liberation. 
This may never happen; yet the recent catastrophe in the 
garden-valley of the Connecticut shows the wisdom, economy, 
and humanity of avoiding risks. Already two fires have oc- 
curred in the penitentiary—one very destructive and alarming, 
in 1865. One convict was suffocated, and, hut for the self- 
possession and bravery of another, who was rewarded by his 
freedom, many others would probably have shared the same 
fate. 
By properly rearranging, altering, and adding to the present 
buildings, at a cost of many thousand dollars, inadequate 
accommodations may be provided for some four hundred pris- 
oners. Repeated visits, however, and reference to recent 
authorities, have satisfied me, and will convince any one, that 
this would in the end prove a penny-wise and pound-foolish 
course. The true plan is to sell the present establishment, 
and build a new one commensurate with the present wants of 
the State, and capable of future extension. A heavy portion 
of the expense would be met by the sale of the ten acres, now 
valuable, and by that of the buildings and walls, which, as 
material, would bring a good price. The commercial value 
of the whole has been computed at one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. In no other way is it possible to provide a 
penitentiary worthy the goodly commonwealth of Tennessee, 
and in accord with the laws of hygiene, as now universally 
received. 
This statement will be much strengthened when we reflect 
that of the nine hundred and ten prisoners at present work- 
ing out their terms in the penitentiary, as it is called, more 
than half are really at coal-mines, upon railroads, and hired 
to individuals. The objections to this recent modification of 
our prison code are many. Any one, by carefully inspecting Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
23 
the tabular returns given in the “Report of the Superintend- 
ent of Prisons to the Thirty-eighth General Assembly,” will not 
fail to perceive some which are very cogent. Great tempta- 
tion is offered for attempts to regain liberty, and consequent 
liability to be killed or maimed by the guards. There is far 
greater exposure to all the causes of sickness, and the mor- 
tality at some of the stations, as on the Memphis and Paducah 
railroad, is worthy of note. There is not equal certainty of 
good food being furnished, nor are the lodgings as good, as at 
the Nashville prison. Of course the medical and moral treat- 
ment cannot be so well provided for in a half-dozen small and 
temporary, and frequently migrating, quarters as in the per- 
manent, central penitentiary. Taking it altogether, there 
must be much difference in spending a term of years in the 
State prison proper, or in one of these new extensions; yet 
the sentence of the law is in all cases alike. Just here is 
room for a whole chapter of inequalities and abuses. If these 
do not yet exist, time will infallibly bring the evil seed to perfec- 
tion. This new feature in the Tennessee prison administration 
should be swept away with an unsparing hand. All convicts, 
under the law, should be treated with a blind impartiality. 
No one should be mulcted of life, or impaired in health, con- 
trary to the spirit and the letter of the law. On this topic 
great dissatisfaction has been expressed in various portions of 
the State, and for various reasons, by no one perhaps more 
energetically than by Dr. ¥m. K. Bowling, the very distin- 
guished President of the American Medical Association: 
“ To Tennessee’s eternal shame, our convicts are sold for a 
price, and, as the ownership is not perpetual, it is the interest 
of the purchaser to get all he can out of the couvict; and to 
that end he hires him out, or resells him. Many of these 
poor devils were engaged on a railroad on Wolf River, at a 
point not far from Memphis. Wolf River is, in many respects, 
similar to the Chickahominy Yalley, made memorable, in 
1862, by scorbutic fever, ‘change of base,’ and the introduc- 
tion of a hybrid medical term for a hybrid fever—‘ typho- 
malarial.’ The convicts on Wolf River fared very much like 
the soldiers on the Chickahominy in 1862. The convicts were 
on Wolf River in the hot months of 1872, and I treated, in 24 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
the autumn of that year, a young man brought here from that 
place, where he was serving as a guard, in a miserable condi- 
tion from Chickahominy fever.” (See “Cholera in Nashville, 
1878,” p. 56.) The tyrannical governments of Europe have 
at times indulged in a custom of getting rid of the always 
detested class of criminals, political offenders, by sending 
them to unhealthy penal colonies, nominally to labor, really 
to die; but surely Christian and democratic Tennessee is 
guiltless of any such intention toward the poor, short-term 
convicts, who mainly fill up the “out-prisons.” 
In the sad category of evils admitting of ready remedy, to 
which personal visits to the penitentiary and examination of a 
series of its reports compel attention, perhaps the saddest is the 
mixing of juvenile offenders, of even so tender an age as 
twelve and under, with the great body of convicts. Again 
and again has legislative action been requested on this dis- 
graceful breach of public morality, but in vain. Well might 
the present resolute, but kind-hearted, warden say “that it 
grieved him to be compelled to receive bright-looking, ingen- 
uous boys, sentenced for some trivial offense, committed per- 
haps half in ignorance!” Well may the newspapers of the 
State copy and indorse the recent article, from the Knoxville 
Press and Herald, giving an account of a boy under thirteen 
being sentenced to a term of years, and calling for a reform ! 
In 1824 the first prison for juvenile offenders in the United 
States was established in New York city, and very soon 
thereafter other large cities followed the example ; and, under 
the names of houses of refuge, such prisons became well 
known. In 1833, John Henry Wichern, whose name will 
ever be associated with one of the most interesting edu- 
cational and reformatory movements of the age, opened 
his humble experiment at the Rauhe Ilaus, four miles from 
the great commercial emporium, Hamburg. His Christian 
labors caused a world-wide revolution in the treatment of 
juvenile offenders. All highly civilized communities now 
have reformatories for this class. These are made to resemble 
prisons as little as possible. They are conducted as Christian 
schools, work of various kinds, as well as the rudiments of 
letters, being taught. They are the very best class of reform Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation 
25 
and preventive measures. All testimony shows the great 
good they accomplish. 
M. D. Hill, Esq., Recorder of Birmingham, thus speaks of 
a visit to Mettray in 1848: “In the j’ear 1848 I made my way 
to Mettray, near Tours, in France. I was received with the 
utmost kindness, and admitted into the fullest confidence, by 
M. Demetz, the illustrious founder of the institution—a judge, 
who descended from the bench because he could not endure 
the pain of consigning children to a prison when he knew 
that their future wTould be made worse than their past. I ex- 
amined, or rather cross-examined, each department of the 
institution with all that unamiable incredulity which thirty 
years’ practice at the bar may be supposed to have generated; 
I began with a sort of prejudice—a determined suspicion— 
fighting my way backward, step by step, until, as proofs ad- 
vanced, the conclusion was forced upon me that my position 
was untenable. I found that at Mettray, where they possess 
and exercise the power of compulsory retention, and where, 
for desertion, a boy is sent back to the prison from which he 
had been withdrawn, the amount of reformation reached to 
vThat I at first thought the incredible proportion (but which 
I fully verified) of eighty-five per cent.” (See Barnard’s “Re- 
formatory Education,” p. 229.) The boys, though sent to 
Mettray as offenders, become as warmly and as gratefully at- 
tached to their school as does our genuine American college- 
boy to his alma mater. Years after leaving it, they revisit 
teachers and halls, to express a grateful sense of their obliga- 
tions to the one, and to awaken emotions made sacred by as- 
sociation with the other. 
lion. Horace Mann, in his “Educational Tour,” 1843, de- 
scribes his visit to the Raulie Haus : “ It was opened for the 
reception of abandoned children of the very lowest class— 
children brought up in the abodes of infamy, and taught not 
only by example, but by precept, the vices of sensuality, 
thieving, and vagabondry—children who had never known 
the family tie, or who had known it only to see it violated. 
Hamburg, having been for many years a commercial and free 
city, and, of course, open to adventurers and renegados from 
all parts of the world, has many more of this class of popula- 26 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
tion than its own institutions and manners would have bred. 
The thoughts of Mr. Wichern were strongly turned toward 
this subject while yet a student at the university; but want 
of means deterred him from engaging in it until a legacy, left 
by a Mr. Gercken, enabled him to make a beginning in 1833. 
He has since devoted his life and all his worldly goods to the 
work. It is his first aim that the abandoned children, whom 
lie seeks out on the highway and in the haunts of vice, shall 
know and feel the blessings of domestic life—that they shall 
be introduced into the bosom of a family; for this he regards 
as a divine institution, and, therefore, the birthright of every 
human being, and the only atmosphere in which the human 
affections can be adequately cultivated. Ilis house, then, 
must not be a prison, or a place of punishment or confine- 
ment. The site he had chosen for his experiment was one 
inclosed within high, strong walls and fences. His first act 
was to break down these barriers, and to take all the bolts 
and bars from the doors and windows. He began with three 
boys of the worst description, and within three months the 
number increased to twelve. They were taken into the bosom 
of Mr. Wichern’s family; his mother was their mother, and 
his sister their sister. They were not punished for any past 
offenses, but were told that all should be forgiven them if 
they tried to do well in future. The defenseless condition 
of the premises was referred to, and they were assured that 
no walls or bolts were to detain them; that one cord only 
should bind them, and that the cord of love. The effect at- 
tested the all but omnipotent power of generosity and affec- 
tion. Children, from seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen years 
of age, in many of whom early and loathsome vices had 
nearly obliterated the stamp of humanity, were transformed 
not only into useful members of society, but into characters 
that endeared themselves to all within their sphere of ac- 
quaintance.” (See Barnard, as above, p. 130.) 
It would be an easy matter to fill a volume with testimony 
corroborating that of the eminent English jurist, and of the 
renowned American educator, extending from the beginning 
of the Ilauhe Ilaus to the present day. The truth is that 
Wichern effected a change in the treatment of juvenile offend- Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
27 
ers analogous to that brought about by Pestalozzi, of beloved 
and revered memory, in the management of schools. The 
illustrious Swiss teacher changed school-houses throughout 
most Christian nations from being abodes of torment and 
terror to dwellings of joyous growth in knowledge, and 
thus conferred a greater boon of happiness, where before mis- 
ery existed, than ever did any other one man upon the human 
family, not even Howard himself excepted. 
The best testimony to the value of the humble and pious 
Wichern’s labors is the fact that year after year chronicles 
the foundation of one or more similar establishments by city, 
State, or nation. A very recent one is that of the rapidly- 
growing city of Louisville. Its beautiful chapel was dedi- 
cated on Sabbath, July 26, 1874; and, from the sermon 
delivered on that occasion by Stuart Hobinson, D.D., the 
sledge-hammer controversialist, the evangelical preacher, and 
active worker for his neighbors’ good, I quote the following 
account of its scope and design: 
“The theory of the institution, as enunciated in the first 
report, has ever been, ‘Hot a work-house, though we demand 
diligence in business ; not a juvenile-convict penal institution, 
though we punish for crime and wrong-doing to save and re- 
claim the child.’ ‘We do not allow ourselves to look upon 
the child committed to our care as a bundle of falsehoods and 
dishonesty, a doomed felon, or a law-sentenced vagabond; 
but as a being whom God has created with tastes, habits, 
weaknesses, and temptations peculiar to himself, and which, 
if properly watched, governed, and controlled, may redound 
to the good of the child and the glory of the Creator. These 
boys are sent to us not so much for punishment, but for a 
home.’ 
“And who will dare say that this is a mere sentimental 
dream, a utopian abstraction, after the result of eight years of 
experiment? We point such to the figures and the facts. 
The whole cost to the city, since the first organization in 1860 
to January, 1874, has been, in round numbers, $333,000, in- 
cluding all building improvements and expenses, for eight 
years’ support of the institution. And what has the city to 
show for this expenditure aside from these excellent buildings 28 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
and beautiful grounds? Why, since the opening in July, 
1865 (it was taken by the government during the war), some 
650 boys have found here a refuge from the temptations to 
crime that seemed too strong for them. Of these, 500 have 
been sent back into society; and of these 500 again, one-half, 
fully reformed in the judgment of the directors, have gone 
either, those who had them, to their old homes, or, those who 
had them not, to good homes found for them—to become useful 
and honored members of society. And that the reformation 
has been thorough, and the homes found good and pleasant, 
let the three or four hundred letters published in the annual 
reports testify. No good man can read those letters without 
thanksgiving to God, and sometimes tearful joy. While one- 
half have thus gone forth with the honorable testimony of the 
institution, I find that one-third have been released simply at 
the solicitation of parents and friends—a policy which, unless 
in exceptional cases, I think of very doubtful propriety. Of 
the other one-sixth of the whole number, no information is 
given, except the very significant negative information that 
none who have been regular inmates of this institution have 
ever been heard of at the penitentiary. But why need I, on 
this occasion, go around to gather the evidence of the excel- 
lent fruit of this work, when here around }tou to-day you see 
these numbers of reformed youth gathering in here as to their 
old home ? You may well say, with the inscription on Sir 
Christopher Wren’s monument in St. Paul’s, ‘Si monumentum 
quaeris circumspice ’—1 If you ask for his monument, look 
around you.’ What nobler or more practical testimony to 
the greatness of this work than the return of this large com- 
pany of youth to join in the congratulation at this new 
step in advance of the House of Refuge that sheltered them 
and trained them for their present honorable position in 
society ? 
“ Come on, then, man of the day-book and ledger, and take 
account of what we have to show for this $333,000, besides 
this noble property and its present care of some 150 in the 
male and 30 in the female department. Make some estimate, 
if you can, of the positive value of these four or five hundred 
young men, reclaimed from the ways of temptation and re- Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
29 
stored to honor and usefulness in society. Then count the 
amount saved, on a fair estimate, in catching, trying, and im- 
prisoning, say even half this number, had there been no 
such method of prevention or reformation used. 
“ But who will undertake to play the accountant to make 
up this balance-sheet for the city of Louisville ? ” (For entire 
sermon, see Louisville Courier-Journal, Monday, July 27,1874.) 
It was my plan, after calling attention to the great deficien- 
cies of the Tennessee Penitentiary, which has not inaptly 
been styled the “ State University ”—because, strange to say, 
it is the only higher institution of learning upon which this 
proud commonwealth has ever expended a dollar—to have 
briefly noticed the lower grade from which it is supplied— 
namely, the county jails. Space allows me only to ask my 
readers to take up this study, each in his own county, being 
satisfied that all who do this will be perfectly amazed that so 
much needless suffering should be allowed to exist in Chris- 
tian communities, just one hundred years after Howard first 
laid before the British Parliament the results of his inquiries 
into the condition of the jails in England. Two or three 
curious facts will show how much room for amendment is fur- 
nished .under this head. In Shelbyville, the county-seat of 
Bedford—a beautiful, intelligent town, center of a rural pop- 
ulation, inferior to none on the globe, type of that in which 
Tennessee has just cause of honest pride—a handsome jail 
was recently erected, at a cost of forty thousand dollars. So 
little use of science was made that the prisoners would have 
been frosted but for the employment of stoves, which again 
made escape quite easy. 
In Louisville, Kentucky, a great medical center, the abode 
of wealth and of science, a few years since, about fifty thou- 
sand dollars was expended in building some forty-four escape- 
proof cells, of wrought-iron. As soon as used, it was found 
that the inmates would suffocate. Scientists were then called 
in, and the whole new tiers of iron cells condemned and disused. 
It is impossible to study any subject like the one now in 
hand without being impressed with the gross and ruinously 
expensive ignorance manifested by the different governments 
which direct the affairs of the American people. There must 30 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
be a root-evil somewhere to account for such stupendous stu- 
pidity. It may result from the conceit of officials, who have 
not candor enough to confess ignorance and call in experts. 
It may result from sheer blindness. In either case, the public 
school systems of the States should furnish the remedy by ini- 
tiating the masses into the wide-touching and far-reaching 
results of the knowledge of nature. Less grammar, less arith- 
metic, more catechisms of science, will, in the next few dec- 
ades, save enough waste to pay the public debt. 
The Republican Banner’oi Nashville, and other papers, have, 
within a few years, called attention to the horrible condition of 
the jails and poor-houses. Their complaints have been un- 
heeded. How well-grounded, is demonstrated by these three 
brief but powerful statements. In 1860, Felix Robertson, one 
of the foremost medical men in the West, at that time physician 
to the penitentiary, complains of the many who are sent there 
with broken-down constitutions. lie sa}rs: “It would almost 
seem that some are sent there for the sole purpose of being 
nursed and buried.” In 1869, physician J. M. Kereheval, 
M.D., calls attention to the large per cent, of chronic cases on 
admittance, as the result of “long confinement and neglect 
while in the county jails.” The present efficient physician, 
G. P. Henry, M.D., in his report of January 6,1873, pointedly 
remarks: “It is due to myself to say that prisoners frequently 
arrive at this institution in an utterly broken-down condition, 
produced by long confinement in badly-ventilated and crowded 
jails, superinducing, in many instances, incurable diseases, 
such as scrofula and phthisis, and this is particularly the case 
with the colored prisoners.” There are ninety-three county 
jails in Tennessee, all crowded with prisoners, who often re- 
main four, eight, or twelve months before trial. These jails 
are becoming every day more and more crowded, and must 
annually destroy the health of hundreds. 
It is impossible to discuss, even in the most cursory way, 
the subject of prison discipline without at the same time 
trenching upon that of penal law. The two are inseparable. 
Reforms and improvements cannot be made in the one unless 
the other is suitably adjusted. If, in 1829, the eminent jurists 
and statesmen then guiding the destinies of Tennessee felt Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
31 
called upon to inaugurate a new era in our penal code, much 
greater necessity is placed upon those of to-day to undertake 
the like task. A great social revolution has taken place; 
population, wealth, and crime have greatly increased; and we 
have the experience and wisdom of many more sister com- 
monwealths to give us light in the difficult path. Many im- 
provements may be made upon the existing code. One is 
upon the tongues of individuals in all parts of the State. It 
looks to the change of the law on petit larceny, and would 
result in something like the Massachusetts plan of houses of 
correction in connection with the principal county jails, other 
counties sending their offenders to these. 
In the Report on the Penitentiary, session of 1859-60,1 find 
the following terse statement from William II. Wharton, the 
well-known physician, divine, and philanthropist, who for sev- 
eral years gave his services to the prison as chaplain: 
“Having seen the evil effects of an opposite course, I can- 
not forbear alluding to the more humane and enlightened 
policy of other States, regretting that we have not adopted it 
—the policy of excluding from confinement in the State 
prisons those who have been guilty, simply, of petit larceny. 
hTeither the offender nor the State is benefited by this mode of 
punishment; he stays but a short time in prison; his labor is, 
consequently, unprofitable, while the State incurs a heavy ex- 
pense in his transportation and in the additional guards re- 
quired for the safety of the prisoners. The morals of the 
unfortunate culprit, from the contamination of daily contact 
with worse criminals, are unavoidably deteriorated and per- 
manently injured, and he is turned out to prey upon society— 
a worse, instead of being made a better, man.” 
In the report dated January 14, 1868,* the conclusive argu- 
ment given below is found, written by Judge William Mills, 
one of the directors, a man well known, both in Tennessee 
and Ohio, as eminently able and trustworthy: 
“After a careful analysis, examining each individual case of 
the five hundred and ten convicts now in the prison, the facts 
and figures show that two hundred and thirty-two commit- 
* Appendix House Journal, 1867-8, p. 307. 32 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
merits were for petit larceny, not averaging in the aggregate, 
five dollars in each separate case, making the sum total but a 
fraction over one thousand dollars, for which accommodation 
must be made for two hundred and thirty-two convicts in 
penitentiary walls and cells. It is a matter of documentary 
proof that many criminals are sent here for offenses ranging 
from eight cents, the value of a fence-rail, to all intermediate 
sums not reaching five dollars, from remote counties of the 
State, entailing directly an expense of over two hundred dol- 
lars for the delivery of the prisoner at the penitentiary—as 
in a recent case, where the offense was stealing an old pair of 
shoes worth, perhaps, fifty cents, and resulting indirectly in a 
loss of from three hundred to four hundred dollars to the 
State before the expiration of his term of service. In the ag- 
gregate, then, we are justified in stating that, for the pe- 
cuniary loss or damage of one thousand dollars in amount, 
the State incurs a cash liability, in advance, of between fifty 
thousand and sixty thousand dollars, to be abated only by 
whatever of profit she can realize out of the labor of the con- 
vict; and all past experience has proven the unreliability 
from that source. As a general fact, it may be stated that, 
from a close investigation, it is found that all cases, of both 
petit and grand larceny, out of the whole number of five hun- 
dred and ten convicts, will not foot up to exceed six thousand 
dollars. That some three hundred and fifty men should be 
sentenced to the penitentiary, with a life-long disgrace at- 
tached to such punishment, for so small a sum in the aggre- 
gate, is a marvel upon the justice and wisdom of society, when 
every man’s consciousness tells him that the whole country is 
teeming with individual thefts and robberies that dwarf the 
six thousand dollars to an insignificant sum. From the above 
facts, without going into any further detail, we suggest to 
your honorable body, whether all cases of petit larceny, or cases 
involving simple theft, not exceeding say thirty dollars, more 
or less, shall not be atoned for in the county where the offense 
shall have originated. If such had been the case, the State 
would have been saved the constant drain upon her resources 
for the costly accommodations of some four hundred convicts. 
Under the present state of affairs, this drain must continue. Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
33 
Daring the last twelve months, the number of admissions into 
the prison have increased two hundred over all releases, either 
by Executive clemency, expiration of service, death, or escapes. 
The present commitments average nearly one per day, so that 
the future numbers are alarming to any arithmetical calcula- 
tion or economy, unless there shall be some organic change in 
the minimum amount or character of the offense, for which 
the State, instead of the county, shall be held responsible for 
the safe keeping of the criminal.” 
Judge Mills’s view holds with redoubled force to-day, as the 
number of convicts has doubled since 1868. It is true that 
the expense has been much decreased, as far as the State is 
concerned, but it does not follow that the people have been 
relieved; for this whole system subjects them to an enormous 
expense before the State Prison seizes its victim. This is a 
most important consideration, and is best shown by a fact or 
two—instances of hundreds—taken from a most timely and 
able address by Gen. W. H. Jackson, President of the Na- 
tional Agricultural Congress, published in the Nashville Union 
and American of July 5, 1874: “It cost the county (Davidson) 
six hundred dollars to decide the ownership of a sow, valued 
at twelve dollars, in the case of Martha Reese v. W. A. Mathes; 
and Judge Ferriss, of the County Court, informs me that he 
watched the case of a negro, charged with stealing a hat worth, 
probably, two dollars and fifty cents, which cost the count}7 
three hundred dollars. When the present law was framed for 
trial of criminals the negroes were not freed. Now, the pro- 
portion of blacks to whites, in such case, is five to one. The 
law should be so amended as to try all cases of petit larceny, 
from one to fifty dollars before magistrates; and, upon con- 
viction, they should be sent to a work-house (provided by each 
county) to work out their fines.” 
Hon. Nathan Green, Chancellor of Cumberland University, 
who has, perhaps, trained more legal men than any other per- 
son of his years in America, in a letter of July 6, 1874, says: 
“If each county could, in some way, punish its own offenders, 
it would be a great relief. Suppose the sheriff, or some other 
officer, were required to take charge of all convicts, and re- 
quire them to work on the roads or public works of any kind— 34 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
they would be paying the county back for the expenses ot 
their conviction. Instead of being sent off, we would have 
before our eyes, constantly, the warning and the disgrace of 
evil-doing; and it would be much severer on the convict to 
be forced to work out his wicked act in the face of his old ac- 
quaintances. Besides, this plan would be requiring each 
county to support its own criminals, instead of taxing innocent 
counties.” 
This is a topic on which I give no opinion, wishing chiefly 
to get public attention to the whole wide field, and, if possible, 
to get our sluggish legislators to awake, and then to realize 
that they are appointed for far higher and weightier work 
than that of electing Speakers and Federal Senators. Tennes- 
see, a great community of a million and a quarter of Christian 
people, demands that the stain of blood-guiltiness should no 
longer remain upon her escutcheon. Hereafter, mercy must 
be shown and justice done, in her august and noble name, to 
the poorest, the meanest, the most humble of her citizens. 
The State Prison and the county jails may safely be taken 
as correct indexes of prison discipline in Tennessee. In the 
administration of the penal code, in the code itself; in our 
management of convict labor, and in our treatment, physical 
and moral, of the convicts; in our ninety or more county 
jails, and in our work-houses, hospitals, and poor-houses—there 
is much room for improvement. In some points, as we have 
seen, reform is imperatively demanded. Shall proud, high- 
minded Tennessee turn a deaf ear to its own helpless, even 
though erring, children? To whom shall the poor, depraved 
convict, often as much sinned against as sinning, look for re- 
lief from oppressive tyranny and inflictions not contemplated 
by the law, unless it be to the whole commonwealth, as rep- 
resented in the General Assembly? Shall Tennesseeans, here- 
tofore noted for braveiy, show themselves devoid of the attri- 
bute, humanity, which has ever characterized the truly brave? 
Let it not so be! When the next Assembly meets, let a com- 
mission of three or five be appointed to review our penal 
code and discipline, and to report amendments where needed. 
Let this commission report in time for the Legislature to take 
action before it adjourns. Or, if more time is needed, this Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
35 
can be provided as the Constitution allows. The Tennessee 
Bar, made illustrious by the lives and labors of its Catrons, 
Turleys, Greens, and Reeses, and specially noted for the 
Christian character and influence of so many eminent names, 
presents ample material for such a commission. Indeed, in 
either division of our ribbon-shaped State, it would be very 
easy to select jurists who, actuated by the spirit of a Demetz, 
of France, would bring to the work the ability of a Livingston, 
of Louisiana, and whose labors would speedily place Tennes- 
see preeminent in what, by universal consent, is rightly re- 
garded as the chief and distinguishing function of govern- 
ment—the administration of justice. 
It should not be forgotten by a people wdio, with just cause, 
honor their ancestors, and who hope to be respected by their 
children, that Tennessee has hitherto occupied an illustrious 
position in the sisterhood of States. Among the very first to 
apply science to the development of natural resources, she 
became the patron of Troost and of Safford, thus securing to 
her history two of the most eminent among the State geolo- 
gists. Very early adopting the then novel and humane mode 
of treating the insane, she afterward heartily and promptly 
responded to the appeals of the philanthropic Miss Dix, threw 
away her old Asylum, and erected a new and costly one, fully 
equal to any in the land. To this very large additions have 
been made; and now two new ones are added in different 
parts of the State. Tennesseeans, unite in commending this 
humane legislation ! The blind, the deaf, and the dumb, are 
equally well provided with State help. Higher education is 
coeval with the origin of Tennessee, and, though dependent 
entirely upon Federal and voluntary support, has been so en- 
ergetically and admirably sustained as to have secured to this 
Keystone of the Valley the educational preeminence in a vast 
region. To-day, the Cumberland Presbyterians of more than 
one State, the Baptists of a great section, the Episcopalians of 
the South, the Presbyterians of the South-west, the Methodist 
Church, South, the Congregational Churches of the East and 
North, the Friends, the Baptists and the Methodists, North, 
are all actively engaged in building up great universities in 
this heaven-gifted land. In clear donations and in patronage,. 36 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
millions will be poured into our limits as every decade rolls 
around. Absolutely without excuse is this commonwealth if, 
in any good work, it now lags behind. Let it study the pat- 
tern furnished by the small but grand old democracy of 
Switzerland, and also the examples set by the six prosperous 
democracies of New England, and rise to the level of the 
high estate now within reach. Tennessee is amply able to do 
her duty to all the ignorant, and helpless, and degraded ones 
within her borders. Money will be saved, hand over hand, 
by so doing. Educate the masses. Prevent crime. Reform 
the criminal. These are truly economical measures. Re- 
trenchment and reform, thorough and unflinching, in every 
department of the State government will enable it to redeem 
all obligations to the stranger, and to fulfill all it owes to the 
citizen. 
From the brief outline of principles involved, and from the 
facts herein given, which could readily be expanded into vol- 
umes, it is evident that this subject is one calculated to enlist 
the attention and sympathy of the Christian pastor; for the 
work undertaken is peculiarly humane and redeeming in its 
character. Its great aim is to restore fallen men; its chief 
instrumentality, the gospel of Christ. Wherever prisons exist 
their inmates should be systematically and carefully looked 
after by the pastors in the vicinity. The officers are always 
ready, in this region of universal suffrage, to extend every 
facility to the ministry; and persons awaiting trial in jail, or 
serving out a term in the penitentiary, are sometimes specially 
desirous of religious instruction and consolation. At all 
times they come within the gospel field. I know full well 
how busily employed, intellectually and otherwise, are the 
pastors in city and town; but that this work of personal visits 
to the convict’s cell has strong claims upon them is apparent 
from the experience of successful pastors, whose names could 
be readily given; and also from the fact that what the accused 
or the criminal needs is the instruction and sympathy of the 
kind-hearted analyst of human character, who brings the con- 
solations of Christ’s gospel. 
Prison discipline reform appeals to all Christians for sym- 
pathy and countenance, upon the broad principle stated at the Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
37 
outset: that it is a part of His work who came to seek and to 
save the lost. Christianity is sometimes, as by Levy in his 
work on hj’giene, reproached for its indifference to man’s 
every-day wants, and unfavorably contrasted with the Mosaic 
code. But this is a mistake. For the whole Bible belongs to 
us, and while under Christ the spiritual and eternal are more 
clearly made known, yet are the temporal and material fully 
retained in due proportion. He who, as a private citizen, un- 
awed and unabashed, entered the gorgeous temple, and in the 
midst of titled dignitaries, resplendent in the robes of office, 
scourged the money-changers because they profaned God’s 
holy temple, also, on the hill-side slope, and with a prophet’s 
authorityy gave the common people precepts which underlie 
all morality and all civilization—precepts which, to-day, give 
Europe and America precedence on the earth. Ho, no! 
Christianity is not merely for the Sabbath, nor the church 
for the steeple. Often, of late, in passing the beautiful First 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in Nashville, have I been 
impressed with the truthfulness of the Gothic architecture as 
the material symbol of a great spiritual truth. High upward, 
toward heaven, points the graceful, symmetrical spire. Strong, 
broad, and wide do the walls of the edifice clasp the solid 
earth. So the Christian religion takes hold of the individual, 
and leads him to God and immortality. It also binds him to 
his family and his State by sacred ties, lasting as life and 
wide-reaching as human nature. It is a religion for every day, 
while the Sabbath is its bouquet. It makes pure the body, 
giving health and long life. It enlarges and cultivates the 
mind. For the soul, it brings life and immortality to light. 
It is the only religion which comprehends man as a whole; 
and not until man fully comprehends it will it reach that high 
perfection after which mere philosophy vainly seeks, and to 
which God’s sacred word unerringly leads. 38 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
NOTE A.—STATISTICS OF TENNESSEE STATE PRISONS, 
AUGUST 1, 1874. 
Crimes of Convicts and Number of Each. 
Horse-stealing . ... 83 
House-breaking ... 28 
Larceny (chiefly petit) . . 500 
Robbery 25 
Murder 80 
Against nature ... 1 
Felonious assault ... 5 
Arson 8 • 
Rape 11 
Obstructing railroad . . 2 
Burglary . . . . .20 
Malicious stabbing. . . 10 
Malicious shooting . . .11 
Attempt to rape ... 3 
Larceny from person . .15 
Receiving stolen goods . . 6 
Mule-stealing . . . .12 
Killing a horse ... 1 
False pretense . . . .12 
Attempt to rob ... 4 
Perjury 2 
Manslaughter ... 3 
Attempt to kill. . . .14 
Buggery with a man . . 1 
Incest ..... 1 
Abduction .... 1 
Bigamy 3 
Mayhem .... 2 
Attempt at arson ... 1 
Intermarriage of negro with 
white woman • 1 
House-breaking and mayhem . 1 
Assault to ravish ... 1 
Miscegenation 1 
Felony . . . . .. 1 
Breach of trust .... 3 
Counterfeiting ... 8 
Being masked . . 1 
Embezzlement ... 1 
Violating revenue law . . 1 
Total 897 
Of the above number about two-thirds are colored. 
Term of Sentence and Number of Each. 
Life 21 
21 years .... 22 
20 “ 22 
19 “ .... 1 
18 “ 8 
15 “ .... 30 
13 “ 6 
121 “ .... 1 
12 “ 17 
10 “ .... 159 
9 “ 5 
14 “ .... 1 
Ilf “ 1 
8 “ .... 12 
11 “ 4 
7 years .... 12 
6 “ 28 
5 “ .... 115 
4 “ 55 
3£ “ .... 2 
3 “ 204 
2i “ .... 2 
2 “ 74 
1* “ • . 6 
li “ . . . . . 1 
1 “ .... 92 
26 “ 1 
4£ “ .... 1 
t “ 1 
Total ..... 897 
Ages of Prisoners, from Eighteen Years and Under. 
18 years of age. . . .46 
17 “ “ “ . . . 33 
16 “ “ “ . . . . 17 
15 “ “ » . . . 12 
14 “ " “ . . . . 5 
13 years of age ... 6 
12 “ “ “ . . . 3 
10 1 
Total 123 Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
39 
Number of Prisoners Received Each Year since Commencement, and 
Yearly Average. 
1831 36 
1832 ..... 42 
1833 .33 
1834 50 
1835 44 
1836 52 
1837 63 
1838 49 
1839 36 
1840 79 
1841 63 
1842 66 
1843 82 
1844 55 
1845 83 
1846 72 
1847 • . 68 
1848 59 
1849 77 
1850 67 
1851 87 
1852 75 
1853 92 
1854 ..... 74 
1855 103 
1856 90 
1857 121 
1858 140 
1859 147 
1860 132 
1861 122 
Total .... 2,359 
Average number yearly . 76 
Prisoners Working at Branch Prisons. 
Sewanee Coal Mines (col.) . . 142 
Battle Creek Mines “ . 49 
Vulcan Coal Mines “ . .44 
Paducah Railroad . . . 59 
Cumberland & Ohio Railroad . 80 
Total 374 
About two-thirds of the entire number now in prisons are colored. 
NOTE B.—HISTORICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA. 
1756. Howard captured by a French privateer; becomes ac- 
quainted with prisons. 
1764. Beccaria published his work, “On Crimes and Pun- 
ishments.” 4 
1771-75. The Maison de Force erected at Ghent, Belgium, 
notv the most celebrated prison in Europe. 
1773. Howard, as sheriff of Bedfordshire, has charge of the 
prisons of the county. 
1774, March. Howard gave evidence on the state of English 
prisons before the House of Commons, which led to amend- 
ments by law. 
1776. The plan of confining offenders on board hulks was 
adopted in England when the disturbances in America inter- 
rupted the transportation system; as an intermediate stage, 
still continues; a blot upon English prison discipline. 
1777. Howard’s first work, “ The State of the Prisons in 40 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
England and Wales, with some Preliminary Observations, and 
an Account of some Foreign Prisons,” 4to, published. 
1780. Howard’s second work, “An Appendix to the State 
of the Prisons in England,” etc. Burke’s Address to the 
people of Bristol, previous to the election; considered his 
finest effort; eulogizes Howard. 
1781. Robert Raikes, in visiting the bridewell of Glouces- 
ter, England, was impressed with number and condition of 
juvenile offenders, and yet more so upon inspecting the streets, 
and so conceived the idea of Sunday-schools, which may be 
regarded as the first great step in the reformatory and pre- 
ventive direction. 
1781. Howard’s “Second Appendix,” etc. 
1786, Dec. 6. By two orders in Council, the British Govern- 
ment fixes upon the eastern coast of Australia and the adja- 
cent islands as penal colonies. Transportation to America, 
under the statutes of George I., lasted from 1718 till the com- 
mencement of the War of Independence, 1775. The unpre- 
cedented accumulation of prisoners in the common jails of 
the kingdom during the American war forced upon public at- 
tention the question of an improved penal system. 
1787. The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries 
of Public Prisons was organized. A society contemplating 
similar purposes was formed just before the revolutionary 
war; but its operations were interrupted by the struggle for 
independence. Its title would imply only the employment of 
benevolent offices toward the suffering inmates of prisons; 
but, whilst it has always extended relief to offenders against 
the laws, this society enjoys the honorable distinction of hav- 
ing successfully labored until it witnessed a reformation in 
the penal code of Pennsylvania. When it began its work of 
beneficence, the jails of Pennsylvania presented a melancholy 
spectacle. Prisoners of both sexes and of all ages—the long- 
transgressing culprit and the novice in crime, the accused and 
the convicted—promiscuously associated together. The pil- 
lory and whipping-post were resorted to, to degrade rather 
than to reform offenders found guilty of minor offenses; 
whilst the awful punishment of death was the penalty of all 
the higher order of crimes. The reverse of this now distin- Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
41 
guishes Pennsylvania. This society has had many eminent 
men in its official positions. The truly apostolic Bishop 
White was president in 1835. It has been second to none in 
the world for the value and influence of the reports and pub- 
lications made under its auspices. 
1788. The Philanthropic Society (England) was founded by 
Arthur Young, and incorporated in 1806, for the prevention 
of crime, by the reformation of juvenile offenders, and by the 
industrial education of the destitute offspring of convicted 
felons. 
1789. Howard’s last work, “An Account of the Principal 
Lazarettos in Europe,” etc., 4to, published. 
1791. Bentham’s “Panopticon,” an admirable work on 
prison discipline, published. 
1800. John Borgia, an unlettered laboring mason, estab- 
lished a “ragged school,” toward the close of the last century, 
composed of thievish and vagrant children, gathered from the 
streets and by-ways of Rome. A few years later, John 
Pounds, an uneducated cobbler, for twenty years, till his 
death in 1829, gathered into his shop the most destitute and 
degraded children of Portsmouth, and thus instituted the first 
ragged school in England. Both wrought miracles among 
the gamins of the street. Great attention has been given these 
schools by the benevolent. Parliamentary aid is now extended 
them. (See Chambers’s Encyclopedia.) 
1805. John Foster’s famous “Essays,” published; Howard 
eulogized. 
1813. Benjamin Rush died, in the 69th year of his age, the 
Hippocrates of America. He advocated the abolition of the 
death-penalty. 
1815. Prison Discipline Society owes its existence to the phi- 
lanthropic labors of Sir T. V. Buxton, M.P., and others; held 
its first public meeting in 1820. Its objects are the ameliora- 
tion of jails by the diffusion of information respecting their 
management, the classification and employment of the pris- 
oners, and the prevention of crime by inspiring a dread of 
punishment, and by inducing the criminal, on his discharge, to 
abandon his vicious pursuits. 
1817. Convicts first sent to the penitentiary at Auburn, 42 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
New York—one of tlie world-renowned prisons. It was com- 
menced in 1816; occupies the four sides of a hollow square, 
inclosed by a wall of five hundred feet on each side, and 
thirty feet high. 
1818. Buxton published “An Inquiry whether Crime and 
Misery are Produced or Prevented by our Present System of 
Prison Discipline.” 8vo. Several editions. Sir Samuel Ro- 
milly died, aged 61; eminent for the reform of English crim- 
inal law. 
1819. Mittermaier published his important work, “Tiber 
die Grundfehler der Behandlung des Criminal-rechts;” com- 
pleted by three others, 1841-43; also, in 1851, “Das Engliselie, 
Schottische, und Nord Americauische Strafvenfahren.” 
1822. Josiah Quiucy, jurist, orator, senator, college-presi- 
dent, historian, delivers a charge to the grand jury of Suffolk, 
Mass., on the condition of the county and State prisons; pro- 
duces marked results. 
Edward Livingston, the father of legal and penitentiary re- 
form in this country, published “Report made to the General 
Assembly of the State of Louisiana of the Plan of the Penal 
Code for the said State;” also, in 1826, “A System of Penal 
Law for the State of Louisiana.” These works are most 
highly commended and quoted from by the greatest authori- 
ties, in Europe as well as in America. In 1803, when mayor 
of the city of New York, he was deeply impressed with the 
helpless condition of young offenders. 
1825, Jan. 1. The New York House of Refuge, the first 
public reformatory on a large scale in America, opened. Com- 
mencing with nine inmates, it has now about one thousand. 
It was the work of the “Society for the Reformation of Ju- 
venile Delinquents.” Boston was the first, in 1826, to follow 
its example, and Philadelphia, in 1828. Until 1850, but few 
houses of refuge were opened in the United States. Since 
then the number has rapidly increased. 
]826. The Boston Prison Discipline Society held its first 
annual meeting in the vestry of Hanover Church, June 2d— 
William Jenks, D.D., Francis Wayland, Gerard Ilallock, He- 
man Humphrey, and similar men, acting. The society was 
organized June 30,1825. Louis Dwight was its eminent sec- Prison Discipline and Pencd Legislation. 
43 
retary. It published annual reports from 1826 to 1854, which 
are still of great interest and value. The Board of State 
Charities seems to have taken its place. In 1855 the reports 
were collected in three volumes, octavo, by T. R. Marvin, 
Boston. The third volume contains Francis C. Grey’s “Essay 
on Prison Discipline in America.” 
1829. The noted Eastern Penitentiary, of Pennsylvania, es- 
tablished at Cherry Hill, Philadelphia. John Haviland, a 
celebrated architect, who developed, upon an extended scale, 
the principle first carried out under the orders of Pope Clem- 
ent XI., from 1703 to 1735, to wit: that in each cell every 
thing is arranged for the constant habitation of prisoners en- 
tirely separate, and under efficient supervision of inspectors. 
The prison is constructed on the radiating form. Commis- 
sioners from the governments of England, Russia, France, 
and Prussia highly commended its plan and details. 
Oct. 28. “An act to provide for building a public jail and 
penitentiary house in this State” passed the General Assem- 
bly of Tennessee—Eph. II. Foster, Speaker of the House; 
Joel Walker, Speaker of the Senate, and Gen. William Car- 
roll, Governor; John Bell, John Blair, David Crockett, Robert 
Desha, Jacob C. Isaacs, Cave Johnson, Pryor Lea, James K. 
Polk, James Stanclifer, Congressmen; Hugh L. White, Felix 
Grundy, Senators; Robert Whyte, John Catron, Jacob Peck, 
Supreme Judges; Andrew Jackson and John II. Eaton, of Ten- 
nessee, President and Secretary of War, of the United States. 
Dec. 14. “An act to reform and amend the penal laws of 
the State of Tennessee ” passed. 
1830. Lucas published “Du Systeme Penitentiare en Eu- 
rope et aux Etats-Unis:” 3 vols., 8vo.; also, in 1848, “De la 
reforme des Prisons:” 3 vols., 8vo.; and in 1848, “D’une re- 
forme Penitentiare en France;” also, treatises on the death- 
penalty, in 1827 and 1830. 
Boloni Farkas, a Hungarian traveler, published accounts of 
the United States penitentiaries, which led to a reform in 
Hungary. 
1831. Richard Whately, one of the most public-spirited of 
the English Church dignitaries, eminent as a logician, pub- 
lished an “Introduction to Political Economy.” From 1831 44 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
to 1863, as Archbishop of Dublin, he fostered ragged schools 
and refuges. 
Jan. 21. First convict received into the penitentiary at 
Nashville, Tennessee. He was a tailor, from Madison county, 
sentenced for stabbing; term, two }7ears. 
Matthew Carey, noted as publicist, philanthropist, and pub- 
lisher, put forth his influential work, “Thoughts on Peniten- 
tiaries and Prison Discipline.” 8vo. Philadelphia. 
1832. Jeremy Beutham died in his 85th year. Of his 
works, in 1835 it was computed that not fewer than eighty 
thousand volumes, chiefly on legislation, had been sold in Eu- 
rope and America, in the French, Spanish, Italian, German, 
and Polish languages. 
Quetelet, the most eminent publicist of the century, gave 
to the public his “ Statisque criminelle de Belgique.” In 1848, 
his “Sur la statisque morale et les principes qui doivent en 
former la base.” 
Tocqueville and Beaumont accepted a commission from the 
French government to America, to report on the working of 
the penitentiary system. After remaining a year and a half, 
they returned. Their report (Du Systeme Penitentiaire aux 
Etats-Unis) modified all the ideas previously entertained in 
France regarding prison discipline. 
Aaron Y. Brown, subsequently Governor of Tennessee, 
and Postmaster-general, published “An Argument against 
Capital Punishments,” 8vo., 56 pp., by order of the Judiciary 
Committee of the House ot Representatives, of which he was 
Chairman — Dixon T. Allen, Richard Cheatham, Thomas 
Claiborne, John H. Dew, David W. Dickinson, Samuel Tur- 
ney, William M. Inge, Richard G. Dunlap, Spearman Hol- 
land, being members. 
1833. On Michaelmas, Wichern opens the Rauhe Ilaus, ju- 
venile reformatory, at Horn, near Hamburg. 
A Patronage Society, at Paris, for juvenile offenders estab- 
lished under the direction of Berenger. The idea was from 
Lucas, Inspector-general of Prisons. 
1834. Dr. Julius was dispatched to the United States by the 
government of Prussia, to inquire into and report upon the 
state of the American prisons. Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
45 
1835. Col. Montesinos, of the Spanish army, was made 
governor of the great prison of Valencia, averaging from one 
thousand to twelve hundred prisoners. The discipline had 
been one of stern coercion. He governed by humanity in- 
stead of cruelty, and, for the fifteen years of his administra- 
tion, with results cheering and remarkable. 
1836. Berenger published his “Rapport sur le Systeme 
Penitentiare.” , 
1837-51. Moreau-Christophe published some fifteen works 
on prison reform, as applied to France. In these he describes 
the prison systems of Great Britain, of Holland, of Belgium, 
Switzerland, and the United States. He advocates the sep- 
arate plan. 
1838. Ducpetiauxpublished “Du Progres et cle l’etat actuel 
de la reforme Penitentiaire3 vols., 18mo.; also, in 1848, 
“Des Ecoles de Reforme.” He was inspector-general of the 
prisons of Belgium. 
Lieber, the famous professor, of Columbia, S. C., and of 
Columbia College, New York, wrote “An essay on Penal Law 
and Solitary Confinement at Labor:” 8vo.; published by the 
Philadelphia Prison Discipline Society. 
1840. Jan. 22. The agricultural and penitentiary colony of 
Mettray opened under Demetz and De Courtailles. 
Parkhurst Reformatory, Isle of Wight, opened. 
Captain Alexander Machonoehie took charge of Norfolk 
Island. It was celebrated as the worst of the prisons under 
British rule. Captain Machonoehie remained four years. He 
literally wrought wonders in government and reformation. 
These noble results were accomplished through the judicious 
use of kindness. He surrounded the prisoners with motives 
as well as walls. Hence the Mark system. From 1839 to 
1859, Captain Machonoehie published some fourteen octavo 
pamphlets, all of high authority. 
1842. Professor A. B. Dod, D.D., of Princeton College, in 
the Biblical Repertory for April, published an article in vin- 
dication of capital punishment, which was thought to be so 
conclusive a reply to the popular objections that the entire 
paper was republished by the Legislature of New York as a 
public document. 46 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
1842. Pentonville (London) model prison completed. 
1848, March 11. Mr. Barrett, on a prison-inspecting tour for 
the Prison Discipline Society, of Boston, says: “At Nashville, 
Tennessee. Visited the penitentiary. First cost, including 
land, yard-wall, shops, keeper’s house, and two hundred cells, 
etc., about seventy thousand dollars. Health of prisoners 
good. Earnings, above expenses, more than enough to meet 
first cost of the penitentiary. In th§ hospital saw Murrel, 
the noted ‘land-pirate,’ as he is called. When he told me he 
did not think he had repented of his sins, I remarked to him, 
‘Then you are in bondage in a double sense?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ 
said he, ‘in a threefold sense.’ ‘ How so ? ’ ‘ From sin, from 
sickness, and from imprisonment.’ This prison seems to be 
well managed ; no punishment by stripes; defective in regard 
to moral and religious instruction. Examination of one hun- 
dred and seventy-seven convicts here shows a close connection 
between ignorance, intemperance, bad bringing up, and acts 
of crime. But twTo individuals, out of the one hundred and 
seventy-seven, that were temperate, morally brought up, and 
had good education.” At this date, Col. Harry I. Anderson 
was keeper of the penitentiary. 
Sarah Martin died, aged 52; noted for successful efforts in 
behalf of the prisoners in Yarmouth jail, England. 
1845. Mrs. Elizabeth Fry died, aged 65; mother of a large 
family; author of “Observations on visiting Female Pris- 
oners.” Famous for labors in Newgate and other jails. 
Miss I). L. Dix, so distinguished by her efforts in behalf of 
the insane, published “ Remarks on Prisons and Prison Disci- 
pline.” 
1845-66. The “Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline 
and Philanthropy.” 11 vols., 8vo. Philadelphia. 
1846, May 9. The Prison Association, of New York, incor- 
porated. The annual reports of its executive committee are 
published by the Legislature—voluminous and valuable. The 
twenty-second (1867) has been specially commended. Contri- 
butions from life and honorary members, until 1870, amounted 
to some fourteen thousand dollars. It has three distinct de- 
partments in its benevolent labors—viz.: 1. To visit and aid, 
as there may be occasion, persons arrested on a charge of Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
47 
crime, and held for trial or examination—detention depart- 
ment. 2. To encourage and assist released prisoners, who 
have reformed, or desire to reform—discharged convict de- 
partment. 3. To suggest modifications in prisons and prison 
systems—prison discipline department. 
Kay’s “Education of the Poor in England and Europe,” 
published in London. 
1848. The noted Belgian reformatary at Ruysselede estab- 
lished. 
1849, April. Reform school and farm (one hundred and 
forty acres) for juvenile criminals, at Red Hill, near Reigate, 
opened under direction of the Prison Society. (See 1788.) 
William Hepworth Dixon’s very popular “Howard and the 
Prison-world of Europe ” appeared. Aikin, Taylor, Brown, 
and Field, have also written biographies. 
1851, Dec. 9, 10—1853, Dec. 20. The reformatory move- 
ment in Great Britain received a powerful impulse by the two 
conferences held in Birmingham.. 
The Children’s Aid Society, of Hew York, was founded 
by Rev. Charles L. Brace. Such societies valuable as pre- 
ventive measures. 
Miss Carpenter on “Reformatory Schools” published. 
1852, 1853. Two folio volumes, containing 1,093 pages of 
Reports from the Select Committee (House of Commons) on 
Criminal and Destitute Juveniles, published. It has been a 
store-house of information to many writers. 
1852—54. Tardieu published his “Dictionnaire d’hygiene 
publique et de salubrite,” 3 vols., 8vo. Subsequent editions 
in 4 vols. Many valuable articles on topics connected with 
prison reform. 
1853. Samuel Eliot, of Boston, published his remarkable 
work, “The History of Liberty.” 4 vols., 12mo. 
1854. Sir Walter Crofton, an English gentleman, who, by 
universal acclaim, is facile prince.ps of the theory and practice 
of the most difficult of all arts—that of reforming criminals— 
was appointed chairman of the directors of convict prisons in 
Ireland. The state of these prisons was most deplorable. 
The wonderful character, as well as extraordinary extent, of 
the change wrought is shown by the fact that on Jan. 1, 1865, 48 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
the total number of convicted criminals in the government 
prisons was only 1,637, an immense decrease since 1854, when 
their number was 3,933. The germ of the Irish convict sys- 
tem is found in the mark system of Capt. Maconochie. It 
rests upon two simple principles—the subjection of the con- 
vict to adequate tests, prior to his discharge, whereby his ref- 
ormation can be determined with a reasonable degree of cer- 
tainty; and the principle of individualization, by which each 
man’s case is separately handled with reference to his antece- 
dents, character, actual state of mind, and the necessities re- 
sulting from a combination of all these elements. Hence a 
progressive classification of three stages. The first has a 
strongly punitive character; the second is also in a high 
degree penal; while the third, which affords the principal 
theater for the reformatory tests, loses the penal element 
almost wholly. There is a fourth stage, which precedes com- 
plete liberation from the grasp of the law, viz.: release on 
ticket-of-leave—a conditional pardon to those who prove them- 
selves worthy of it—in which there is an entire absence of the 
punitive element. A full description of the practical work- 
ings of this scheme, with the opinions of prison reformers, 
will be found in Miss Carpenter’s work, “Our Convicts.” 
Lady Byron founds the Red Lodge Girls’ Reformatory 
School at Bristol, under the control of Miss Carpenter. 
I). S. G. Ilowe, of Massachusetts, eminent for philanthropic 
efforts in many directions, in a “Letter,” 36 pp., 8vo., urges the 
establishment of a “State Reform School for Girls.” 
1855. At the annual meeting of the Ohio Teachers’ Asso- 
ciation in Columbus, resolutions demanding legislative action 
with reference to truancy and vagrancy, and the proper care 
of juvenile criminals. The legislature in 1856 took steps 
which led to the establishment of a reform farm and school 
at Lancaster in 1857. 
1856. Henry Barnard, of Hartford, Conn., begins the pub- 
lication of his American Journal of Education. This work 
is without its equal in the English language. The successive 
stout octavo volumes constitute an encyclopedia of educational 
information. Many valuable papers on reformatories are scat- 
tered through its numbers. In 1857, a volume was made up Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
49 
from these as “ Papers on Preventive, Correctional, and Re- 
formatory Institutions and Agencies in Different Countries.” 
361 pp., 8vo. A very convenient manual. 
Oct. IT. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poet of the nine- 
teenth century, gave to the world her chef d'oeuvre, “Aurora 
Leigh,” the most powerful vindication of the Christian spirit 
of reform, as contrasted with the “crushing” theory of Car- 
lyle, to be found in any language. 
1860. Sneed’s History of the Kentucky Penitentiary, 1798- 
1860, published at Frankfort: John B. Major. 
1862. Victor Hugo published his remarkable and popular 
novel, “Les Miserables,” which is in fact a powerful plea 
against society for the victim of the law. 
1863, Oct. 1. Massachusetts commissions the Board of State 
Charities. In 1867, the total valuation of the ten establish- 
ments, not including the Charlestown State prison, under 
their care, to wit: three lunatic hospitals, three pauper 
establishments, and three juvenile reformatories, was nearly 
two million of dollars. 1869. State Visiting Agency estab- 
lished to watch over interests of children apprenticed from the 
reformatories. 1871. It is estimated that during a year there 
are within the commonwealth about 10,000 paupers fully sup- 
ported ; not less than 4,000 lunatics and idiots, of whom about 
one-half are found among the paupers ; 11,000 convicts under 
sentence; 2,000 youths subjected to reformatory discipline; 
2,500 children to whom the public stands in loco parentis, 
either through State or municipal authorities or benevolent 
organizations. In 1873, about thirteen hundred children and 
youth scattered abroad among the people of the common- 
wealth, each in a house which he calls home, each in a family 
of which he is a member, each subject to ordinary social inr 
fluences, each apparently as free from restraint as ordinary 
children are; and yet all are carefully supervised, their wants 
are attended to, and their interests guarded by a central board, 
in an office in the State-house. From 1865 to 1872-3, ten vol- 
umes of Annual Reports, containing 5,233 octavo pages have 
been published. These give a great variety of recent and 
practical information upon penitentiaries, jails, alms-houses, 
reformatories, lunatic asylums, and all the questions connected 50 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
with crime, pauperism, insanity, and kindred topics. Within 
six years (1863 to 1869) six other States—New York, Ohio, Illi- 
nois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Rhode Island—estab- 
lished systems substantially like that of Massachusetts; the 
seven States containing fifteen millions of people. Recently, 
Wisconsin and Michigan, also, have organized State Boards 
of Public Charities. 
1864. Miss Carpenter published “Suggestions on the Man- 
agement of Reformatories and Industrial Schools.” 
1865, October. The formation of an American Association 
for the Promotion of Social Science, on the model of the one 
in Great Britain, whose annual transactions, made up of essays 
and discussions on all the great problems belonging to the 
progress of man in society, form a series of volumes which 
have made themselves felt as a power for good throughout 
the civilized world, took place. A special meeting wTas held 
in Boston in December. The first annual meeting was held 
in New Ilaven, Oct. 9, 10, 1866. 
1866, June 5, 6, 7. Reform School Conference held in 
Boston. Some forty public reformatories now in Canada 
and the United States. Twenty-three of these have an aver- 
age number of upward of 6,000 pupils, supported and in- 
structed at about $2 40 per week. These reformatories are 
very diverse in extent and character, but most are supported 
by the public treasury of a State or a large city. The one at 
Louisville, Ky., in process of establishment. Experts hold 
that at a boys’ reformatory, well organized, the earnings 
ought to be half as great as the expenses. 
Sept. 3. The primary school at Monson, Mass., opened. 
A State institution for orphans, abandoned children, children 
of vicious parents. In 1873 pupils were 419. 
1867. The special report on the Prisons and Reformatories 
of the United State and Canada, made to the Legislature of 
New York, in January, by Messrs. E. C. Wines and T. W. 
Dwight, is quoted from in the Seventh Massachusetts Report, 
1870, as “probably the most comprehensive, as well as the 
most valuable contribution which has been made in this coun- 
try to the science of prison discipline.” The commissioners 
visited seventeen States and Canada. The citizens of New Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
51 
York raised the funds to secure this inquiry, after the Legisla- 
ture had refused a special grant. 
State prison at Charlestown, Mass., nearly self-supporting. 
1871, 1872, 1873, more than self-supporting. 1873. Pressure 
of population and business, etc., induce Gov. Washburn to 
recommend its removal. The head of this prison, Gideon 
Haynes, has acquired high reputation, and has held his posi- 
sition for many years. 
1868, Jan. 1. The Indiana House of Refuge opened, on a 
farm of 225 acres, 14 miles from Indianapolis. It illustrates 
Hr. Wichern’s paradox, “The strongest wall is no wall,” 
most successfully. 
“Psychologie Naturelle,” par Hr. Prosper Hespine (of 
Marseilles), Paris: F. Savy. 3 vols. “This comprehensive 
work of almost 2,000 pages, contains a mass of most interest- 
ing observations on criminals and insane persons. It treats 
of the general questions of criminal lunacy, moral responsi- 
bility, intemperance, dishonesty, prostitution, infanticide, mur- 
der, suicide, prison discipline, etc., and enters upon a consid- 
eration of the difficult problems affecting these departments 
of human evil.” Tallack, p. 613., Trans. N. C. Cincinnati 
meeting. 
June 2. Was submitted to Congress the first “Report of the 
Commissioner of Education,” being for the years 1867-8; 
volumes for 1870, 1871, 1872 have also appeared; in all 3,168 
octavo pages. Much late and useful knowledge on Reforma- 
tories and all other topics connected with education. 
Henry (Lord) Brougham died, in his 90th year. He will be 
best remembered as a law-reformer. He took up Romilly’s 
uncompleted task of carrying into practice the ameliorations 
suggested by Bentham. 
1869. “ Pictures from Prison Life: an Historical Sketch of 
the Massachusetts State Prison, with Narratives, Incidents 
and Suggestions on Biscipline,” by Gideon Haynes, Warden: 
published by Lee & Shepard. 
Rev. B. K. Pierce, H.H., a veteran in the New York and 
Massachusetts reformatories, publishes his interesting and 
instructive work: “A half Century with Juvenile Belin- 
quents.” 52 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
1870. Miss Florence Nightingale, the personification of 
womanly loveliness and unselfish devotion, endeared to the 
millions of Christendom by her labors amid the sick and the 
dying, has long given the weight of her great influence to the 
cause of prison reform. 
Oct. 12. The National Congress on Penitentiary and Re- 
formatory Discipline, met at Cincinnati. T. A. Atchison, 
M.D., member Board State Prison Inspectors, represented 
Tennessee. Its transactions were published, appended to the 
26th Annual Report of the Prison Association of New York, 
an 8vo volume of 642 pages, embracing 49 articles. E. C. 
Wines, D.D., so distinguished in connection with prison 
reform in New York, in a paper on “The Present Outlook of 
Prison Discipline in the United States,” gives the following 
graphic summary: “The first point to which I would 
ask the attention of this congress is the revived interest 
felt in the question of prison discipline and prison re- 
form, not only in every State of the American Union, 
but, I think it may be said with truth, in every country 
of the civilized world. Let me touch upon two or three 
proofs of such revival: 1. It is seen in the messages an- 
nually communicated by the chief magistrates of our States 
to their several legislatures. I have had occasion to examine 
the more recent of these documents, and have been struck 
with the fact that there is scarcely an American governor who 
has not referred to the subject, not simply in an incidental and 
perfunctory way, but with a good will and heartiness, which 
show a real interest in the subject, either recounting or sug- 
gesting reforms inaugurated or contemplated in relation to 
this important interest of society. 2. The correspondence of 
the Prison Association of New York affords unmistakable evi- 
dence of the newly-awakened interest in prison reform. The 
area covered by this correspondence has become almost co- 
extensive with the globe; embracing not only every State in 
our Union, but nearty every country in Europe, several of the 
republics of North and South America, the British East Indian 
Empire, Australia, New Zealand, etc. 3. The wide and 
increasing demand for the annual reports of the association is 
a testimony in the same direction. About a thousand copies Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
53 
are regularly distributed as soon as issued, and within the 
past year applications for at least five hundred additional cop- 
ies have been received and answered, many of them from dis- 
tant continents and islands. 4. The encouragement given to 
the propositions recently made for both a national and inter- 
national congress on penitentiary and reformatory discipline 
is another decisive proof of the interest felt in this subject. 
5. The formation Of societies looking to the improvement of 
prison discipline and the care of prisoners, both during their 
incarceration and after their discharge, is to the same effect. 
Besides the older organizations of this sort in Philadelphia, 
Yew York, and Boston, such societies have been recently 
formed in California, Maryland, Western Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Iowa, Yew Hampshire, and other States. 6. State gov- 
ernments, as well as individuals, are moving in the same di- 
rection. Within the past four years, commissions charged 
with the duty of studying closely the whole prison ques- 
tion, and of reporting improved prison systems, should 
such be found to be needed, have been created in Penn- 
sylvania, Yew Jersey, Yorth Carolina, Maine, Michigan, and 
Kentucky; and much good has resulted, and more is likely 
to result, from these measures. 7. A striking proof of the 
extent and earnestness with which questions connected with 
penitentiary science are now studied is the creation, by the 
late Emperor of France, on the report and recommendation of 
his Minister of the Interior, of a commission of twenty-one 
citizens, instructed to investigate and report upon the question, 
‘What duties does society owe to liberated prisoners, and how 
can these best be secured against a relapse into crime ?’ In 
their study of this question, the commission are seeking light 
from other countries, and have applied to the Prison Associa- 
tion for information as to the principles and practice of Amer- 
ica in reference to this grave matter. 8. An additional evi- 
dence of the newly-awakened and growing interest in prison 
reform is found in the public press, that sure index, as well as 
powerful molder and guide, of public opinion. More has 
been published in the quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily 
journals of the country within the last two years than during 
the ten years preceding. Yor has what has emanated from 54 
Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
the press on this subject gained more in breadth than it has in 
quality. Papers of remarkable grasp and thoroughness have 
appeared in all classes of our journals, from the ponderous 
quarterly that graces the scholar’s table to the lighter and 
more evanescent daily and weekly that visit every fireside and 
hearthstone in the land. 9. But what further proof do we 
need of the profound interest felt in penitentiary and reform- 
atory discipline than this great congress, gathered from Can- 
ada, from South America, and from twenty-five States of our 
own Union; representing fifty-odd prisons and reformatories, 
and some twenty philanthropic organizations; and numbering 
between 200 and 300 earnest workers in this cause, more than 
seventy of whom are officers of penal and reformatory insti- 
tutions ? ” 
1871, Yew York system of penal administration very de- 
fective. Yearly 3,000 convicts in the three State prisons; 
2,500, and upward, in the six county penitentiaries; and in 
the county and police jails, during the year, nearly 70,000 
persons imprisoned. The cost has become burdensome. 
Even the three State prisons have long since ceased to pay 
expenses, and cost the State nearly half a million of dollars 
yearly. 
The Albany Penitentiary, under the exclusive jurisdiction 
of the city and county. It is self-supporting and, in all re- 
spects, first-class, owing to the remarkable tact of its veteran 
and distinguished superindendent, General Amos Pilsbury. 
1872, July 3-11. Prison Congress held in London. Trans- 
actions printed by United States Congress, as a public docu- 
ment, with those of the second [1873] session (Baltimore) of 
the Y. P. A. 
Miss Dorothea Lynde Dix died. Born 1794, in Massachu- 
setts. She devoted much time to the work of ameliorating 
the condition and treatment of prisoners, lunatics, and pau- 
pers, for which purpose she visited nearly every State of the 
Union. 
1873, Jan. 6. The State Prison system of Tennessee, fully 
committed to the humane ideas of prison reformers, by lion. 
Wm. M. Wright, M.D., Superintendent of Prisons. “The duty 
of a State to her convicts (the ends of justice having been met) Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation, 
55 
cannot be too carefully studied. The interest manifested 
throughout the world on this subject, arresting the attention 
of every Christian people, cannot fail to meet with hearty 
approval in our own State; and we will surely be among the 
foremost to ameliorate, as far as possible, the condition of the 
unfortunate convict; punish him as the law directs, but try 
to teach and educate him for reform; if possible, let him 
come from the prison-cell a better, not a worse, man.” Report 
to 38th General Assembly. 
Jan. 21-24. The Rational Prison Association of the United 
States held its second congress at Baltimore. Its transactions, 
and those of the International Penitentiary Congress held at 
London in July 3-11, 1872, have been printed by order of 
Congress as a public document. 
Miss Mary Carpenter visited Canada and the United States, 
as she had previously India, in behalf of better systems of 
prisons. 
In England and Scotland there are reformatory and indus- 
trial schools, 65 of the former and 100 of the latter. 
Miss Mary Carpenter, one of the founders of the Kingswood 
Reformatory School for boys, at Bristol. 
1874. May 13-16. The third Prison Reform Congress met 
at St. Louis, called by the Rational Prison Association—the 
title assumed by the body which grew out of the Cincinnati 
Congress, 1870. Of this body Horatio Seymour, of Rew 
York, is president. Reports were read from the standing 
committees—on Criminal Law Reform, prepared by Judge 
Walker; on Police, by Dr. Woolsey, ex-president of Yale Col- 
lege; on Prevention of Crime and Juvenile Reformation, by 
Messrs. C. L. Brace and B. K. Pierce; on Prison Discipline, by 
Mr. ¥. B. Sanborn; and on the Care of Discharged Prisoners, 
by ex-Gov. Haynes, of Rew Jersey. Dr. E. C. Wines gave, 
in his annual report, a comprehensive review of the progress 
and condition of penal and reformatory discipline in the 
United States and in foreign countries. 
Thomas Carlyle, born in 1795, for many years one of the 
most celebrated writers of England, has been, doubtless, the 
most influential adversary of the prison, as well as other, re- 
formers. He is one of those who pull down, but never build Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
56 
up. Ilis teaching has thus been summarized by a great ora- 
tor: “The strongest, the educated, the powerful, have the 
right to have the world to themselves, and to absorb the less 
privileged in their enjoyable career. Carlyle represents that 
element in modern literature. Christianity ignores it in its 
central principle.” 
The International Prison Congress of 1872 was but a con- 
tinuation, on a larger scale, of the Cincinnati meeting; and 
the St. Louis Congress is to be followed, in 1876, by another 
international meeting at Geneva. 
Indiana has no less than three separate prisons for women. 
Hew York is the only Eastern State which has even one female 
prison. 
Among recent publications of interest, the following deserve 
special notice: Miss Florence Hill’s “Children of the State;” 
“Our Criminals,” by Miss Carpenter; Leifde’s “Romance of 
Charity;” W. R. Laurence’s “Charities of France;” Low’s 
“Charities of London;” Dr. Joseph Parrish, of Philadelphia, 
“OnProfessional Criminals;” “The Life of Rev. John Clay, 
of Preston, England;” Die Strafreclits Zeitung, a periodical 
published at Berlin, edited by Prof. Yon Iloltzendorff. A. 
O. Abbott’s “Prison Life in the South:” 12mo. Hew York. 
1865. 
There is a very large number of reports annually published 
by States, cities, and institutions, in which much recent and 
useful information may be found. Most of my readers will 
find the readiest way of getting a practical insight into this 
subject the procuring of such reports from neighboring insti- 
tutions, and the study of one or more of the late standard au- 
thorities above pointed out. 
The above are, of course, but a few of the interesting dates 
and instructive publications that could be given. A selection 
has been made rather with the view of showing the richness 
and variety of the field, and inviting the reader to explore it 
for himself, than with the design of logical connection and 
thorough completeness. The history of this great movement 
demands more than a volume, and is worthy the descriptive 
powers of a Prescott, united with the depth of a Ilallam. Prison Discipline and Penal Legislation. 
57 
How much more glorious a subject than the achievements of 
brigands, or even the deeds of authors and legislators! The 
dark side of humanity turned to the sunlight, and made bright! 
The time is in the not far distant future when the highest 
talents and the most brilliant imaginations will be devoted to 
the working up these pages of man’s history. “Aurora 
Leigh ” is but a harbinger. 
To Professor D. Humphreys Storer, M.D., of Harvard Uni- 
versity; to the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, LL.D., and to the Hon. 
F. E. Parker, of Boston; to the Hon. Sidney Andrews, Sec- 
retary of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities; to F. 
W. Christern, Esq., of Hew York; to Professor John B. Biddle, 
M.D., of Jeflerson Medical College, and to Caspar Wister, 
M.D., of Philadelphia; and also to the Rev. Dr. Thomas O. 
Summers, of the Hashville Christian Advocate, due acknowl- 
edgment is hereby made for valuable publications furnished 
me. To Gen. Basil W. Duke, of Louisville, and to Professor 
Van S. Lindsley, of the Hashville and Vanderbilt Universi- 
ties, I am under obligations for assistance in inspecting prisons. 
To Mrs. Paralee Haskell, State Librarian, at Hashville, and to 
W. Matt. Brown, Warden of the Tennessee Penitentiary, I 
am also very much indebted for facilities afforded in getting 
up statistics, details, and references. CHARTER 
OF THE 
ROBERTSON ASSOCIATION.' 
NASHVILLE, 22d FEBRUARY, 1856. 
Be it farther enacted, That Randal W. McGavock, Joseph 
W. Walker, B. Frank Cheatham, H. L. Claiborne, Eugene 
Underwood, J. M. Hawkins, William Stockell, Thomas J. 
Hough, M. Cheatham, William Cox, John G. Ferguson, G. 
W. Donigan, James McLaughlin, D. G. Rurnsey, Joseph 
Hutchinson, R. O’Kane, William L. Nance, and F. II. Mc- 
Nairy, and their successors, be, and they are hereby, con- 
stituted a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of 
the “Robertson Association,” of the city of Nashville, in 
honor of the late DUNCAN ROBERTSON, the Howard of 
Nashville, for the purpose of visiting, taking care of, and pro- 
viding for, the afflicted and destitute: which, after organiza- 
tion, may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; to hold, 
by purchase or otherwise, and convey and dispose of the 
same, any real or personal estate which may come into their 
possession for the purposes of carrying out the objects of its 
organization; shall have succession of membership; have and 
use a common seal, alter and destroy the same at pleasure; 
adopt a constitution, and make by-laws not inconsistent with 
existing laws; and do and transact all and every business, the 
object of its creation, as other bodies corporate and politic are 
empowered to do by the existing laws of the State of Ten- 
nessee. 
Sec. 2. Be it enacted, That said Association shall be organ- 
ized by the election of a President, Vice-president, Secretary, 60 
The Robertson Association. 
and Treasurer—said election to be held annually, on the 22d 
day of February, by ballot, and the officers to continue in the 
discharge of their official functions until their successors are 
duly installed. 
Sec. 3. Be it enacted, That said Association may hold prop- 
erty of every description whatever, in trust, for the charitable 
objects for which the corporation is formed; that the above 
specified property, and all other character of property the cor- 
poration are authorized to hold, shall be under the manage- 
ment and control of its officers, as directed by the Association. 
Sec. 4. Be it enacted, That, in the event of a dissolution of 
the corporation, the funds on hand, after settlement of all 
debts due by the Association, and the property owned in fee 
simple, shall be paid over to the orphan asylums of the city of 
Nashville. 
Sec. 5. Be it enacted, That said Association shall have power, 
under existing laws, and with the sanction of the County 
Court, to receive orphans, male and female, and bind them 
out to suitable trades, to see that the indentures are faithfully 
complied with in detail. 
[Extract from the Constitution.] 
ARTICLE V. 
Sec. 1. The admission fee of this Association shall he five 
dollars, which sum must be paid to the Secretary before initi- 
ation, and subsequently fifty cents in each month, so long as 
he •shall remain a member. The monthly dues may be dis- 
charged by paying ten dollars at the time of initiation, and 
five dollars on the 22d day of February every year thereafter. 
Sec. 2. Those admitted into this Association as honorary 
members shall be required to pay the sum of twenty-five dol- 
lars initiation fee, and afterward the sum of ten dollars an- 
nually, so long as they remain members. 
Sec. 3. Those admitted into the Association as life-members 
shall be required to pay the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) 
upon initiation, and be released forever afterward from all 
charge. OFFiCERS-1874. 
Dr. J. B. LINDSLEY, ----- President. 
Major J. M. HAWKINS, - - - - Vice-President. 
THOMAS S. MARR, Treasurer. 
T. M. BRENNAN, ----- Secretary. 
REMINISCENCES. 
The Robertson Association of the city of Nashville—so 
called in honor of the late Duncan Robertson, the Howard of 
Nashville—was chartered “for the purpose of visiting, taking 
care of, and providing for, the afflicted and destitute.” On 
June 19, 1873, when “the cold gripe of death” was upon the 
heart of the city, a call was issued in the dailies upon its 
members, and citizens generally. Three, and one citizen, met 
that afternoon. On the next afternoon the ma}’or and other 
citizens responded by their presence. The president was di- 
rected to make an appeal to the citizens for material assist- 
ance. This appeared in the Union and American and the 
lie-publican Banner, of Saturday, June 21. On Sunday, June 
29, in the same papers, appeared an advertisement from the 
secretary, requesting the people to make no farther donations 
of money, clothing, or provisions, until notified. No more 
has yet been called for; but a token of sympathy was soon 
afterward sent from this fund to our more deeply-stricken 
neighbors at Shreveport and Memphis. The Robertson Asso- 
ciation had then scarce ten working members. It has now 
nearly one hundred. 
Among the very first and heartiest responses to their call 
was fifty dollars, sent by the prison-workers in the Sewanee 62 
The Robertson Association. 
coal-mines, from their scanty savings, and proffering more, 
should the epidemic continue. Most beautiful, therefore, is 
the providence that guides the first effort of the Robertson 
Association, since the epidemic of 1873, in the direction it now 
takes—that of calling the attention of a great commonwealth 
to the afflictions and destitutions of those of its citizens con- 
fined in prisons. 
On returning from a week’s educational tour, during which 
it was my privilege to give the substance of this paper to the 
piety and intellect of Winchester, Tennessee, on Sabbath, 
August 23d, I find the next two pages filled by matter which 
has already met the attentive reader’s eye. It is so very ap- 
propriate, however, as enforcing the appeal made to the benev- 
olent in Tennessee and elsewhere, in the four closing lines of 
this pamphlet, that it is allowed to remain. The Robertson 
Association desires only free-will offerings; and what nobler 
contribution to education, philanthropy, and religion, could 
possibly be made than the establishment, by State or by indi- 
viduals, of a Juvenile Reformatory and Farm School, in the 
vicinity of beautiful Winchester, so admirably situated on 
plateau, so romantically begirt by mountain-ridge, so widely 
and so favorably known for moral and educational worth? 
E. C. Wines, D.D., the distinguished Corresponding Secre- 
tary of the Prison Association of New York, stated to the Na- 
tional Congress the revived interest felt in the question of 
prison reform, thus: 
“Proofs of such Revival.—(1.) It is seen in the messages an- 
nually communicated by the chief magistrates of our States 
to their several Legislatures. I have had occasion to examine 
the more recent of these documents, and have been struck 
with the fact that there is scarcely an American Governor 
who has not referred to the subject, not simply in an inci- 
dental and perfunctory way, but with a good will and hearti- 
ness which show a real interest in the subject, either recount- 
ing or suggesting reforms, inaugurated or contemplated, in 
relation to this important interest of society. (2.) The corre- 
spondence of the Prison Association, of New York, affords 
unmistakable evidence of the newly-awakened interest in 
prison reform. The area covered by this correspondence has The Robertson Association, 
63 
become almost coextensive with the globe — embracing not 
only every (State in our Union, but nearly every country in 
Europe, several of the republics of North and South America, 
the British East Indian empire, Australia, New Zealand, etc. 
(3.) The wide and increasing demand for the annual reports 
of the association is a testimony in the same direction. About 
a thousand copies are regularly distributed as soon as issued, 
and within the past year applications for at least five hundred 
additional copies have been received and answered—many of 
them from distant continents and islands. (4.) The encour- 
agement given to the propositions recently made for both a 
national and international congress on penitentiary and re- 
formatory discipline is another decisive proof of the interest 
felt in this subject. (5.) The formation of societies looking to 
the improvement of prison discipline and the care of pris- 
oners, both during their incarceration and after their dis- 
charge, is to the same effect. Besides the older organizations 
of this sort in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, such so- 
cieties have been recently formed in California, Maryland, 
Western Pennsylvania, Delaware, Iowa, New Hampshire, and 
other States. (6.) State governments, as well as individuals, 
are moving in the same direction. Within the past four 
years commissions charged with the duty of studying closely 
the whole prison question, and of reporting improved prison 
systems, should such be found to be needed, have been created 
in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maine, Michi- 
gan, and Kentucky; and much good has resulted, and more is 
likely to result, from these measures. (7.) A striking proof 
of the extent and earnestness with which questions con- 
nected with penitentiary science ar$ now studied is the crea- 
tion by the late Emperor of France, on the report and recom- 
mendation of his minister-of-the-interior, of a commission of 
twenty-one citizens, instructed to investigate and report upon 
the question, ‘What duties does society owe to liberated pris- 
oners, and how can these best be secured against a relapse 
into crime?’ In their study of this question, the commission 
are seeking light from other countries, and have applied to the 
and the Prison Association for information as to the principles 
practice of America in reference to this grave matter. (8.) An 64 
The Robertson Association. 
additional evidence of the newly-awakened and growing in- 
terest in prison reform is found in the public press—that sure 
index, as well as powerful molder and guide, of public opinion. 
More has been published in the quarterly, monthly, weekly, 
and daily journals of the country within the last two years 
than during the ten years preceding. Nor has what has em- 
anated from the press on this subject gained more in breadth 
than it has in quality. Papers of remarkable grasp and thor- 
oughness have appeared in all classes of our journals, from 
the ponderous quarterly that graces the scholar’s table to the 
lighter and more evanescent daily and weekly that visit every 
fireside and hearth-stone in the land. (9.) But what farther 
proof do we need of the profound interest felt in penitentiary 
and reformatory discipline than this great congress, gathered 
from Canada, from South America, and from twenty-five 
States of our own Union, representing fifty-odd prisons and 
reformatories, and some twenty philanthropic organizations, 
and numbering between two hundred and three hundred 
earnest workers in this cause, more than seventy of whom are 
officers of penal and reformatory institutions?” (See Trans- 
actions, pp. 15, 16.) 
The truth is that since 1860 the United States of America 
has aged at least five centuries. Hence the need of the re- 
vival above graphically pictured; hence the duty of all Chris- 
tians and patriots to be alive and diligent, so that the decrep- 
itude and wretchedness of premature age may not overtake us 
and our children. 
All persons wishing to aid the cause of prison reform in 
Tennessee are invited to send their contributions to the care 
of “Thomas S. Mark, Cashier of the Nashville Savings Bank, 
corner of College and Union streets, Nashville, Tennessee.” Eobertson Association Lectures, 
WINTER 1874-75. 
Commencing Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 8 P. M., in 
Masonic Hall. 
Season Ticket, Family, for 12 Lectures, one in each week 85 00 
Season Ticket, Lady and Gentleman, for 12 Lectures, one in each 
week...' 3 00 
Season Ticket, Gentleman, for 12 Lectures, one in each week 2 00 
Single Ticket 25 
Each Lecture will be preceded by a Musical Entertainment. 
Order of* tlie Lecture-Course. 
tii:v. R. A. YOUNG.—Opening Lecture. Subject : “ The Gold and 
the Gilt of Young America.” 
I. Prof. FRANK SCHALLER, A.M., University of the South.— 
Subject: ‘‘ The Tragedy of Faust by Goethe 
II. Prof. HUNTER NICHOLSON, East Tennessee University.— 
Subject: “Law of Growth in Cities.” 
III. Rev. T. G. JONES.—Subject : “John Howard.” 
IV. Ur. VAN S. LINDSLEY.—Subject: “ The Ear, Hearing, and 
Phenomena of Sound.” t Illustrated.) 
• V. Judge J. D. PHELAN.—Subject: “Robert Burns.” 
VI. Prof. T. H. HAMILTON.—Subject: "Woman's Rights.” 
VII. Rev. T. A. HOYT.—Subject: "Thoughts on Shakspeare” 
VIII. THOMAS O. SUMMERS, Jr., M D.—Subject : "Combustion.” 
(Illustrated.) 
IX. Hon. EDWIN H. EWING.—Subject: “Rambles in the East and 
Europe.” 
X. Prof. JAMES M. SAFFORD, Ph. D., M.D.—Subject: “The 
Great Topographical Features of Tennessee; or, A Bird's-eye View 
of the State” (Illustrated.) 
XI. Rev. WILLIAM GRAHAM.—Subject: "Tennyson.” 
XII. Gen. E. KIRBY SMI TH, Chancellor of the University of 
Nashville.—Subject: “Reminiscences of Frontier Life” 
Form of Bequest to the Robertson Association. 
I, A. B., of the county of , State of , having a high 
appreciation of the objects and services of the Robertson Association of 
Nashville, Tenn., do hereby give and bequeath (or devise) unto said 
Association the following property, to wit: 
(Here state the sum of money, or if it be other property, give such 
description of it as will surely identify it.) 
N. B.—Association in no wise responsible for sentiments of individuals.