It will not answer to wait for the commencement of the transporting system, until the effects of the entire solitary confinement, I recommend, shall have been tried upon the hardened rogues who at present infest the country, or who may be now in prison ; for they are so numerous, that prisons large enough to accommodate them, could not be built, unless at an expense not to be justified by any pro bable benefit to be derived to society from the measure. It should be distinctly understood, and expressly stated, that banishment will be the penalty of all these who may be in future convicted of crimes, after hal, ing been con fined in any prison in the United States ; and care must be taken to impress this upon the minds of the convicts, upon being discharged.
I have, as a general rule, confined transportation to second or repeated offences; but there are cases in which this punishment might with great propriety be inflicted for crimes committed for the first time ; such for instance, as shall be proved to be the result of deliberation, or of premeditated malice ; and the consequences of which are peculiarly injurious to society, or melancholy in their ef fects upon suffering individuals : These are, kidnapping, rape, arson, counterfeiting current coin or bank bills, forgery, perjury, subornation of perjury, malicious maiming, and fraudulent bankruptcy. \l ith respect to the first, 1 may observe, that it was a great oversight in the law* to make the punishment for so great a crime merely the fine of one hundred pounds, and twelve months servi tude, while the confinement for stealing a horse might ex tend to seven years. The least penalty for such a crime, should be something like the misfortune inflicted upon a fellow creature through the agency of the kidknapper4 Transportation, therefore, is a just punishment. So long as the foul and black stain of slavery upon the national escutcheon is permitted to remain, will the temptation to this crime continue ; and as it is frequently committed in the United States, it is time that measures should be taken to prevent or properly punish it. The reformation of a person capable of voluntarily and deliberately planning, and carrying into effect, the perpetual slavery of a free hu man being, is unworthy of the consideration of the legis lature ; for no subsequent sanctity of life can, in the smallest degree, compensate for the injury he inflicts on the enslaved individual. The same remark applies to rape, a crime that cannot be atoned for. Bigamy shows so much baseness of heart, and so total a disregard to the finest and most delicate feelings of which the human mind is susceptible, and the crime is so great—inflicted probably open two innocent and deserving females—that the wretch who is guilty of it, justly merits exclusion from that society, the peace of which he has so greatly outraged. Arson, in an adult, indicates such a deep malice, is attended with so much risk of life, and the loss of property by the crime is often so extensive, that it richly deserves to he punished by perpetual banishment. In the case of a girl or boy being the offender, a commu tation for imprisonment might be allowed ; for it cannot be supposed, that either would be aware of the probable extent of the damage clone ; and cases of arson have oc curred in Philadelphia, where no malignancy in the of fender against the owner of the property destroyed, was evinced. Counterfeiting the coin, or bank bills, cannot be done without much labour, implying premeditated guilt, and strikes at the roots of commerce and the daily business of mankind ; and spurious bank bills, like a destroying flood, are overrunning the land to a degree that requires immediate and powerful means to restrain the crime.' The forging of checks on banks is more easily effected, but the guilt of the act, and the danger to the community from it, arc equally as great as from counterfeiting bank hills. Perjury, where the life, liberty, or character of a citizen is sacrificed, ought to meet with no clemency from the laws. Subornation of perjury is a double crime: it offends against a person, who, if not tempted, might haw lived unstained; and also against the individual whose injury the oath is intended to effect. Malicious maiming equally merits perpetual banishment: those guilty of it ought to be deprived of a residence in a society, one of whose members they have irretrievably injured Fraudulent bankruptcy is becoming so frequent, and is so injurious in a commercial nation, that no person once detected in being guilty of it, should be permitted to have a chance of repeating his crime.§
The criminals convicted the second time, or oftener, with others for the first offences named, being sent away, the Penitentiaries now erected, should he properly divided into small apartments, and kept for a trial of the reform ing system upon those who shall be committed for a first offence, and a decisive experiment be made of its efficacy. If confinement does not reform the heart, it will at least deter from the future commission of crime.II It is essential that the transportation be for life. The infliction of banishment, for 7 or 14 years, has been one great cause why the punishment has failed to prevent crimes in England. From the testimony of Mr. Harmer, a gentleman who ‘, has been concerned during twenty years in constant trials at the Old Bailey, and who is equally distinguished by assiduity, acuteness, and hu manity in his profession, it appears, that if it is for seven years, the novelty of the thing. and the prospect of return ing to their friends and associates, reconciles offenders to it, so that in fact they consider it no punishment ; and. when this sentence is passed upon men, they frequently say, 'Thank you my Lord.' Indeed this is a common ex pression used every session by prisoners, when sentenced to seven years transportation." 91 The suggestion of the probability of a reformation taking place among the transported convicts, ought to have great Weight in favour of the proposed measure, it being con sistent with the principle upon which our penal code is founded, which is not revenge, (the basis of European ju risprudence) but a restoration of the vicious to the paths of virtue. The fact must never be lost sight of, that the present system is one of uninterrupted, increasing and awful demoralization ; and that a considerable number of those who have entered our penitentiaries half taught, or mere novices in wickedness, have been turned out from them, finished rogues. In a remote island, they will be cut off from the temptations to the commission of sins which every where assail them in society—the necessity of tilling the earth, and of working for their own existence and comfort, will prove the most powerful stimulus to in dustry, that can operate upon them ; and the severe police likely to be established among them, will prevent the commission of petty crimes Moral reflections and self reproach, under such circumstances, cannot, moreover, fail of taking place in the minds of the criminals, from the remembrance of the happiness they formerly enjoyed, and of which they have deprived themselves by their crimes. Every year that is added to their lives will in crease the force of these painful reminiscences, and from them the most salutary effects on their lives and conduct may be reasonably expected. The fact of the intire refor mation of Adams, one of the mutineers of the ship Bounty, is strong, and directly in point ; and authorises the belief, that other bad men placed under similar circumstances with him, will also be reformed.* At all events, with the proba bility of their becoming better, they will be stationary as to the actual commission of crimes ; whereas, if they re main in the United States, they will only sink deeper in sin, and their chance for reform be forever cut off. Con siderations derived from the probable good effects that will result to the posterity of those, who are destined to constitute the proposed colony, ought, also, to influence everyone in advocating the plan I recommend, for re lieving the country of impenitent offenders. It requires no depth of reflection to assure ourselves of the state of sin in which the children of those convicts, who, with in tervals of a few months, or a year or two after their libera tion from confinement, occupy our prisons for the 2d, 3d, 4th, or 5th time, will be educated, and of their future ca reer. They are destined to succeed to the hereditary vices of their parents, and become a new race of thieves : whereas, by the transportation of male convicts, their fur ther increase will be checked, and the children left by them may be snatched from destruction by the guardians of the poor, and bound to trades.