5 — Greeutibe and Reoislative Departments GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, ¥ a WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1, 1868. By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE. < i < Zot 2 . . \ # 7 ‘ ~ &. ‘ ‘ m ‘ - - i $ ne i NN Se - ad i = 3 ~ THE DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. DELIVERED BEFORE THE Geeeutioe and egislatibe DPepartments OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1, 1868. By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 Sprina LANE. 1868. 5 ii: ona i i Daag aes ode mT ire 7 We aa Seta Md er ay ies 4 ut} ; a ane aa 6 Wilerirad ray Ff ’ Y | a Mies B ete #11 rai sty ¥ pe one si pute hah . a : n 4 7 * i t . ‘ { K 7 ig ty 4 a iy E ‘ : aay 3 Jnoqind Yong bir : hey BOTT oh balaiogge ooaine : 5 AL ae * Be vee zs * . RRA ee ; ‘gt te . * rok iD as ; : es mira whl == | 4 ears Commontuerlt{h of Massachusetts. House or REPRESENTATIVES, January 9, 1868. ORDERED, That a Committee be appointed to present the thanks of the House the Rev- JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, for his able and eloquent Discourse before the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government, on the Ist inst., and to request a copy of the same for the press. And Messrs. WALKER, of Springfield, GAYLORD, of Boston, ABBOTT, of Middleborough, WORCESTER, of Clinton, and KING, of Boston, Are appointed. W. S. ROBINSON, . Clerk. HousE oF REPRESENTATIVES, January 29, 1868. The Committee appointed by Order of the House of January 9th, inst., to present the thanks of the House to the Reverend James Freeman Clarke, for his able and eloquent Discourse delivered before the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government on the Ist inst., and to request a copy of the same for publication, report that they have attended to that duty and herewith present a copy of Mr. Clarke’s Discourse and recommend that it be printed. Per order, GEORGE WALKER, Chairman. Houser or REPRESENTATIVES, January 30, 1868. Accepted. W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. ‘ Commonwenlth of Massachusetts. House or REPRESENTATIVES, February 7, 1868. ORDERED, That five thousand copies of the Election Discourse be printed, in ‘ addition to the number already printed. | | W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. " an? [Nork.—A few pages, omitted in the delivery, are v> hoes can | H | \ 2 ee a fee t's 4 eee 3 cet SHRMON. EcouestAstxs, ix. 14, 15, 16 and 18. THERE WAS A LITTLE CITY, AND FEW MEN WITHIN IT; AND THERE CAME A GREAT KING AGAINST IT, AND BESIEGED IT, AND. BUILT GREAT BULWARKS AGAINST IT. NOW THERE WAS FOUND IN IT A POOR WISE MAN, AND HE BY HIS WISDOM DELIVERED THE CITY. * * * * THEN SAID I, WISDOM IS BETTER THAN STRENGTH; * * * * WISDOM IS BETTER THAN WEAPONS OF WAR. I have taken this passage for my text to-day, it being my intention to speak to you of the Duties of Massachusetts,—since Massachusetts somewhat resembles the little city here spoken of, not being as large as some other States, or as populous as some other communities,—yet having in it perhaps a few wise men and wise women. I will also add a passage from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, chapter iii., verses 12 and 13. “¢ Not as though we had already attained, or were already perfect ; but forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark.”’ Massachusetts is a small State, the smallest but three in the Union. It is less populous than six 8 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. States, being already behind Indiana and Illinois in population, and probably at the next census it will be lower still. It is destined to be surpassed in this respect by Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, Lowa, Minnesota, and, before long, by the States of the Pacific ‘slope. In absolute increase of population to the square mile, it did mdeed stand first at the last census, having advanced 30.33 per cent. from 1850 to 1860. But this is owing partly to the fact that we have so small a territory to increase upon. The divisor being small, of course the quotient is larger. Massachusetts has only 7,800 square miles of area, while Texas, at the other end of the scale, has 237,000, and California 188,000. Yet while Texas has only two and one-half inhabitants to the mile, and California only two, Massachusetts, at the head of the list, supports on every mile of territory one hundred and fifty-seven persons. But she is not crowded; she has vast tracts of uninhabited surface which are yet to become musical with the hum of spindles, the lowing of cattle, and the murmur of the school-house. There are in Mas- sachusetts to-day more than a million of acres of unimproved lands. She is rich, and growing richer. In amount of property, real and personal, she stood, in 1860, the fifth State of the Union, DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 9 being only behind New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois; and in amount of personal property she was next to New York, and above the other three. In printing of all sorts, Massachusetts stands third. In the manufacture of cotton goods, woollen goods, boots and shoes, and in fisheries, she stands far before all the other thirty-seven States. Her banking capital is larger than that of any other, except New York. She issues more copies annually of periodical works than any, except New York and Pennsylvania. But the power, and, consequently, the duty of a State, are not to be measured by its area, its wealth, or its population. Ideas make a State; and as long as States have ideas, so long they live and are an influence in the world. Greece is a small spot on the map of EHurope,—hardly visible on the map of the globe. Yet how has Greece led the world, in liberty, knowledge, art, science, eloquence, poetry! The broken fragments of her statues, dug from out her ruins, are still the delight and despair of sculptors. Her worn and crumbling temples chal- lenge all the architects of the world to equal their exquisite proportions. Demosthenes still stands at the head of human eloquence; Plato and Aristotle are unrivalled in philosophy; Homer and Aiscyhlus 2 10 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. in poetry; Herodotus and Thucydides in history. In the great battles for freedom and human prog- ress, Marathon and Thermopyle remain unsur- passed. ‘The words of our Saviour and his apostles come down to us in the language of Greece. And when, after the long night of the middle ages, the corpse of intellectual Europe revived in Italy, it was by being touched by the dead fragments of the Greek literature, as the man whom the Moabites were burying revived and stood on his feet, as soon as he touched the bones of the dead Hlisha. “When man would do a deed of worth, He points to Greece, and turns to tread So. sanctioned, on the tyrant’s head. He looks to her, and rushes on, Where life is lost, or freedom won.” And so too, in modern times, the small State of Saxe-Weimer, one of the least among the thou-: sands of Gerritiny, has become its intellectual leader by the constellation of genius, drawn together by the wisdom of its Grand Duke. Goethe, and Schiller, and Herder and Humboldt have made it memorable forever. Goethe, in one of his exquisite poems, says of his State and its Wnke DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. | 11 “Powerful or rich, owr Prince we cannot call— Among the German States, our State is small — But, working for the best, did each one choose Without, within, all faculties to use; Then, from this point of earth, as from a star, The purest ray of light would stream afar, And Germans join with Germans, “one and all, Thankful and proud, as at a festival.” The inhabitants of a State inherit ideas from their ancestors — when their ancestors had ideas, which is not always the case. Our ancestors had ideas. ‘They believed in God, in man, in freedom, in knowledge and society. Combining these ideas, they believed in a Christian Commonwealth, and set themselves to found it. They believed in God —therefore the whole community was to be a church, doing all things to His glory. They believed in man —therefore they would have no aristocracy, civil or religious, but the whole people were to decide all questions in town meeting and church meeting. They believed in knowledge — so they made education universal, and established Free Schools. They founded democracy on the Common School — for where the whole people are intelligent, the whole people will rule, and any class-aristocracy becomes impossible. 12 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. Our ancestors had ideas. They had Christian ideas. They also were Protestant Christians, believing in freedom — free thought, free speech. Moreover, they were Christian gentlemen, in the best sense of the word. It is often said that the first settlers of the Southern States were gentle-— men—but that the Puritans were not. All depends on what we mean by this word, Gentle- man. If it signifies outward polish, that is one thing —if inward refinement, it is another. Our ancestors were not polished, but they were refined. They were gentlemen, not on the surface, but through and through. We often find a man pol- ished outwardly, who is inwardly hard, cold and selfish. Externally he is gilded with fine gold — but, as the old play says — “touch him inwardly, he smells of copper.” Our ancestors were not polished or gilded; but they were refined, three times over. First, they were refined by religion, for a Christian experience by itself produces a degree of refinement, and every real Christian is, to some extent, a gentleman. Then they were refined by their stern lives, by enduring, hard trial, by doing hard work, by renouncing ease and home, and planting themselves on the borders of a wilderness. ‘’o do so much and bear so much DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 13 refines a man’s nature. It brings him close to great realities — takes away vanity, and silly ego- tism and self-conceit — all of which are ungentle- manly qualities. Planted by such men as these, it became inevi- table that Massachusetts should become prosperous and strong. Industry, economy and virtue inherit the earth, and these qualities came to our ancestors, not from their bitter climate and reluctant soil, (for the New England climate and soil did not make the Indians industrious,) but from their Christian ideas. It became the duty of this small State to lead the nation. She led the way in settling the country. She led in establishing free schools and free churches. She led the way, in rousing the land to resist the tyranny of the British Parliament. Her statesmen and soldiers led in the Revolution. That war being over, and the States independent, she led in commerce, in manufactures, in litera- ture, in science, in art, in invention. She has led in her charities. She has led in her reforms — the Temperance Reform, the movements in behalf of the blind and insane, for sailors on the sea, for neglected children. Her Normal Schools, her Board of Charities, her school ships, all were in advance of similar movements elsewhere. She was 14 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. the fanatical mother of Abolitionists, of Non- Resistants, of the Woman’s Rights movement. Tn her great brain and large human heart all good enterprises grow and ripen. She sent her emi- grants to Kansas, and saved that State for freedom. She struck the first blow at Lexington in the war for Independence, and the echoes of those guns went round the world. She sent her sons to die, first of all,in the bloody streets of Baltimore, m the war for human rights and universal freedom, and mankind shall always remember gratefully these protomartyrs in the greatest struggle ever waged on earth. These are the things which are behind. Behind us is a barren wilderness changed to a wealthy State. Behind is the first system of universal education ever carried out by a community. This is the history of Massachusetts in the Past. If the State has grown from a forest filled with savages into wealth, knowledge, comfort, power, it is no merit of ours. If Massachusetts to-day exports its ice and imports its paupers— if it gives to Europe the example of Law without a visible Police; of good Government without a standing army; of churches without an establish- ment; of schools for every child; and lastly, of DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 15 such wise provision by the State for its lunatics, its idiots, its blind, its poor, its deaf and dumb, its neglected children, its vicious, its criminals— this is due, almost wholly, to our ancestors, who founded the Commonwealth on such a basis of great ideas, and of the good Providence which has watched and blest its growth to this hour. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.” In saying all this, we are not boasting, as though our little State were better or wiser than the others. They, also, are descended from the same noble stock; they, also, inherit the same generous ideas. Illinois and Wisconsin are filled with the children of the Pilgrims, and are a younger New England—more enterprising, more hopeful, more energetic than we. Since the war has abolished slavery, all the States will become more alike in essentials, though each will differ from the rest, every one having its own special work and its peculiar character, as becomes the different mem- bers of one family. “ Facies non omnibus tna; Nec diversa tamen, qualis decet esse sororum.” 16 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. And now, forgetting the things behind, let us reach out to those which are before. Before us, in the future, is the great work which our Common- wealth has still to do. Her power is not exhausted; itis at its height. Her duty, therefore, is greater than ever. In the future, as in the past, she is to lead the way in applying Christian ideas to human affairs, in initiating needed reforms, in making to-morrow better than to-day. Yet these reforms ought to be in the spirit of her founders, in accordance with her traditions, in order to make the State more fully than it is now, a Christian Commonwealth. We ask nothing but that she should go forward in the direction in which she has been moving from the first—to a more full, complete, perfect application of Christian ideas to practical life. I am well aware, gentlemen of the General Court, that many think Christianity has nothing to do with legislation. Religion, they say, is very well everywhere except in politics or business. Nor do J believe that men can be legislated into Christianity. I believe moral means must always precede all legislation. Solon, being asked if he had given the best laws to the Athenians, said, “No! but as good as they were able to bear.” DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 17 Moses, we are told, in some of his enactments, fell short of the Christian standard, and allowed for the hardness of their hearts what was not right, but what he could not help. No one not a fanatic would expect to drive a community by force into religion or virtue. But laws for moral ends, though they are not armies to overrun and conquer a country, may do the work of forts—to hold it after it has been conquered. When public opinion has once been brought right on any sub- ject, a judicious law may hold it right. Argument, addressed to the reason and conscience, drives the nail in, then the law comes and clinches it. In this sense, then, let us consider some of the Reforms which lie before us in the immediate future, for which the public mind is more or less prepared, and which may, therefore, soon become proper subjects for constitutional amendments or legislative enactments. First, then, Massachusetts is the State where the whole subject of prison discipline and criminal legislation may be thoroughly revised, and carried to perfection. Already, we have taken important steps in the right treatment of the dangerous classes,—of those who are either already criminals, or rapidly becoming so. But a Christian Common- 8 18 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. wealth must. go further. As the chief object of Christ was to seek and save the lost,—as He cared more for the one lost sheep, than the ninety and nine who had not gone astray,—so a Christian State should devote especial care to its lost sheep. The tendency of legislation in this State is to change penal legislation into that which is preven- tive and reformatory. We have learned that it is not the business of the State to punish crime,— since it is wholly unable to do so. No one but God can punish,—for no one but God can tell the degree of guilt which goes into any wrong action. “ Vengeance 1s mine, Iwill repay, saith the Lord.” The attempts of the law, and the courts, to dis- criminate degrees of guilt by degrees of punish- ment, lead to great difficulties and evils. The basis of all criminal legislation should be the duty of every State to protect the community. A man steals a pocket-book, and we send him to the house of correction, or to jail, for three months, and then let him go out worse than before, to commit another crime, and go to jail for six months. Suppose, instead, the law should say,—‘ Such an act shows that you are not fit to enjoy freedom. The State must take you, and restrain you until you prove yourself a safe man to go abroad.” DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 19 Instead of fixing an absolute period, sentence him conditionally. Have a series of houses of reforma- tion, graded, not according to guilt, but according to the moral condition. Treat the criminal as a sick man, who is to stay in the hospital till he is cured. ‘Say to him,—‘ When you are well, sir, you can go out, but not sooner. As you improve, we will give less severe discipline. We will grad- ually take away restraint, and give you more freedom, more of privileges, as you are able to bear them. When you go out, you will take our Bill of Health, certifymg to your perfect recovery. We shall be able to assure the community that you ean be trusted,—because we shall have deen trust- ing you during the latter part of your stay.” Thus you bring the greatest of all motives, Hope, to bear on the criminal. You take away the great weight which keeps him down, the sense of his hopeless degradation. So far as this principle has been applied in our State Prison, it has accomplished wonders. You now promise the prisoners that good behavior shall take off five days every month from the term of their stay. ven this little pros- pect has made different men of them. Before, they had nothing to gain by good behavior, and . 20 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. little to lose by bad. Your prison this year, for the first time, pays its own expenses. Some may say,—these men are too bad to be improved,—you can do nothing with them. Not so; they are not so much worse than people out- side the prison. Most of them are undisciplined, reckless, passionate, with little power of self-con- trol,—that is their difficulty. But consider, — you have complete control over them there. No parents, no teachers have such entire influence as you have. The moment a man goes into one of your prisons, you can decide just what influences he shall be under, and what not. You can shut out* what you will, and let in what you will. Now the old plan of a prison was to shut out all good influ- ences, and to let in all bad ones. Bad men, and weak men, and boys, hardened sinners and young offenders, were all put together, with full freedom to corrupt each other. That was the old plan,— and it made every prison a hell on earth. The common improved plan is better. J¢ is to shut out both classes of influence, good and bad. The crim- nals are left, each in his own cell, alone. But how little help is given him, to enable him to do better. He has himself for society,—but that is usually pretty poor society. There is a better plan DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. mal still. It is to shut out the bad influences, and to let an the good ones. Shut out temptation, idleness, bad companions, liquor, gambling, profanity, anger, strife, licentiousness,—but let in kindness, brotherly love, hope of improvement, opportunity of ele- vating his condition, good books, lectures, occa- sional recreation. If you wish to improve his heart, give him something for his heart to work upon. For, says Martin Luther,—with his usual admirable sagacity,—* The heart of a human being is like the two stones of a mill. Put in corn, and the stone, running round and round, grinds it into good flour; but put in nothing, and the stone, still running round, wears zéself away.” You can per- haps keep aman from growing worse by shutting out bad influences; but if you wish to make him better, you must ‘give him something to love. “A person, passing through a prison, heard a convict using profane language: ‘ Why do you not have better thoughts?’ said he. ‘Better thoughts!’ was the forlorn response, ‘where shall I get them?’” Do not be afraid, lest, by these improve- ments you make the prison a desirable place to go to. Mr. Haynes, the Warden, will tell you that no amount of money will hire a man whose term has expired, to remain there a single day longer. uY, DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. Restraint is the one thing we all hate,—freedom that which we all love. A prison may be made a very good place for a man to be in, but never a place he will wesh to go to. In saying that it is not the business of the State to punish, I do not mtend that severe coercive measures, causing suffering, may not be an impor- tant part of prison discipline. This is especially necessary at the beginning, and should consist in a period of solitary confinement, with few privileges. The best writers insist on this, and the famous Irish system commences with eight months’ con- finement in a cellular prison, where the convict, completely separated from all companions, works in his own cell. But this ought to be considered as done for the purpose of laying a sufficient foun- dation for a genuine reform. I oppose the idea of punishment, as one that ought not to be in the minds of legislators or of prison officers. They should feel that the punishment of a man is too difficult and solemn a matter for human powers. We are to restrain, and confine and prevent the unhappy man from doing harm to others or to him- self. Let him see and feel that we are taking care of him, not punishing him,—that we are watching him for his good, not in anger, not in judgment, DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 93 but to save him from his own wild and deprayed will. The moment the State rids itself of the notion that it is its duty to punish offenders, and per- celves that its office is to protect society by restraining and reforming them, we shall witness a vast improvement. Criminals now form a class by themselves, associated for the purpose of preying on society. They have their own public opinion, their own education, by which they acquire more skill in inflicting injury on the community. They regard themselves as outlaws, and are so regarded. What State prison convict, who has served his time, can get a place and opportunity to support himself by honest labor? Formerly none,—now some. Boys who leave the school ships of Massa- chusetts, are sought for by merchants as sailors,— for they have been kept in those ships, not as a punishment, but to be educated. Sent there for crime, they are retained for education. They enter the ship, just beginning a career of evil, members of the dangerous class; they leave it well-disposed citizens. Let all our prisons become schools like these, and we should have to import all our crimi- nals from abroad,—we could not manufacture them at home. Q4 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. ~ I know that many good men will dissent from this position, that the State ought not to punish. They believe themselves directed to another belief by those passages of Scripture which tell us that the magistrate “does not bear the sword in vain,” and that he is “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” No doubt he is. No doubt the criminal suffers punishment, when he is sent to prison. Man is God’s instrument, but it is God who punishes through man. While man is doing his part to protect society, he is obliged to inflict that restraint, which is also punishment. But it should not be the object of man to punish. Pun- ishment will come, incidentally, while he is doing his work,—but it is no part of his work to punish. The effect of substituting the principle of kind-— ness and encouragement for that of severity, has, wherever it has been tried, been to diminish crime. If, every year, you can change a certain number of reckless criminals into good citizens, you are cutting up crime by its roots. Such has been the result of the Irish Prison system, by: which for all good behavior and improvement some reward is given; until at last nearly all restraint is removed. During the last year of stay in these prisons, the imprisonment is nominal, and any con- DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 25 vict who chose might escape,—but none do escape. They prefer to remain. Why? Because they know that they will go out, at the end of the year, with a character which will give them at once the means of support. For man is not a wild beast, who can only be held with stone and iron. It is much easier to hold him by his hopes, and his convictions, than by a chain and ball. The principle now adopted in our State Prison is that while the conviction is for a definite period, a certain time may be taken from it by good behavior. On the principle proposed, the sentence must still be for a definite period, which may be indefinitely lengthened or shortened by good or bad behavior. Some crimes are prima facie evi- dence that a man is a wery dangerous character. A man who has: committed arson, or assault with attempt to murder, must understand when he enters the prison, that he has forfeited, for a long period, all claim to liberty. But then he may also understand that there are degrees of privilege within the walls, more or less of which may be secured by improved conduct and character. He goes, we will suppose, into the lowest department, beginning his prison life with the hardest work, and the fewest privileges. But let him be told 26 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. that good behavior, steadily continued, will pro- cure him one alleviation after another,—while bad behavior will take away again these privileges. Thus, from time to time, he may earn the use of books, an occasional hour of leisure, greater free- dom to receive his friends, pleasanter kinds of occupation, occasional open air exercise, better food ; and, above all, a gradual relaxation of restraint. Just so far as this great motive of Hope has been called in, have the state of our prisons and prisoners been improved. Where it has been reduced to a system, as in the Irish prisons, and those on Norfolk Island, under Capt. Machonochie, the good result has been very apparent. ‘The latter gentleman, a man of extra- ordinary insight into this whole subject of prison discipline, established a system of marks, given as rewards for industry, improvement and good con- duct, which marks had a money value, and served to purchase food, clothes, and other comforts, and the surplus laid up, went toward the prisoner’s earlier liberation. The result of this system was marvellous. The penal colony on Norfolk Island contained the most depraved of the transported convicts. Yet at the end of four years, he could DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. oT say with truth: “I found the island a turbulent, brutal hell; I left it a peaceful, well-ordered com- munity. ‘The most complete security alike of per- son and property prevailed. Officers, women and children, traversed the island everywhere without fear; and huts, gardens, stock-yards and growing crops, many of them, as of fruit, most tempting, were scattered in every corner without moles- tation.” * Messrs. Wines and Dwight, in their able and exhaustive Report on the subject of Prison Dis- -cipline in the United States and Canada, published last year, confirm these views. ‘They speak indeed of penalty, but they declare that Reform is the great object of the prison, and that Hope should be one of its chief means. [Especially they praise our Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown, and the wise and kind measures introduced there by our faithful Warden, Mr. Haynes. They regard it as one of the very best in the country, and chiefly because so much use is made of rewards, of hope, of kindness, of educational influences. In all these things, our Massachusetts is, as it ought to be, at the head of all. But much remains to be done. We are far behind the regularly system- * Wines and Dwight’s Report. Albany, 1867. 28 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. atized discipline of the Irish system, where every convict can advance his condition step by step, from the hardest confinement up to a nominal restraint, from which he passes into freedom with a character which makes his labor sought for, and secures him occupation and good will. Second. Passing on to another of the things which are before us, the period seems to have arrived to consider and decide the great question of woman’s right to a share in the government of the State in which she lives. Movements all over the world indicate that this is the next reform before us. It is everywhere in the air. Public opinion is already far in advance of legislation. In England and in Kansas the tendency is toward this end. But here, in Massachusetts, where woman has been educated by the side of man in all our schools — where, in education, we have constantly proceeded on the principle of her great capacity — where, in all our churches, her influence is so important — where, in our public schools, we have seven female teachers to one male teacher — where women are already engaged in nearly every: profession and occupation which men _ practice — where women hold so much property, and are not excused from taxation because they are women, DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 29 nor from being punished for crime because they are women — here, in Massachusetts, which has led the way for so many other reforms, seems to be the place to initiate this. Ido not wish Eng- land or Kansas to take the lead of us in this move- ment. Asa question of right, all the argument is on one side. The republican principle assumes as an axiom that every one shall take part in making the laws, who is to be governed by those laws — that there shall be no taxation without representation — that the power to vote for rep- resentatives is the best political education and the only adequate protection. For this reason we very properly give the right of voting to every foreigner soon after he lands on our shores, and he is hardly acclimated before he is a citizen. ‘When woman is not represented, she either takes no part in public affairs, and then we lose all the benefit of her intel- lect, heart and thought — or she takes part in them indirectly and by hidden influence, and so exercises power without proper responsibility for the use of it. God made woman to be the companion and helpmate of man in all that he does—and wherever he shuts her out of that companionship, he loses the help God meant him to have. The moment that we remove from the Constitution the word 30 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. “ male,” and the masculine pronouns corresponding therewith, and invite women to take part in public affairs, we shall add to the State just so much more moral and intellectual power. If the intellect of woman differs from that of man, by being more quick and subtle, then she will help us to escape many of the stupidities of our average legislation. If she has a purer moral tone than that of man, she will aid in purifying politics from some of its baseness and selfishness, and will impart to it a higher quality. Is it said, that her nature will become masculine by doing the work hitherto per- formed by men? But men do not grow effeminate by performing the work commonly done by women. To cook, to sew, to mend clothes, and to wash them, has usually been women’s work.: But the classes of men who have to do this woman’s work; namely, hunters, soldiers, sailors, and lumbermen — are not made very effeminate, in consequence. It is said that women do not wish to vote or be voted for. Very well, then they will not do it, and so no © harm will be done. The proposition is not to com- pel women to vote, but to allow them to vote. It is said they will be insulted, if they go to the polls with all sorts of men. But they walk through Washington Street with all sorts of men — they DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 31 travel, unattended, in street cars and railroad trains with all sorts of men—and he understands the American people very poorly, who does not see that every man at the polls would constitute him- self the protector of every woman, and that the effect would be to elevate and purify the polls, not to degrade the women voting at them. Is it said that something of the bloom and charm of the fem- inine nature would be brushed away by the coarse contact of politics and politicians. But the true charm of woman’s nature is just in that which can- not be brushed away —it is part of herself, given her by God. When woman is degraded, it is not by going into low and degraded scenes to do her duty there, but it is by being corrupted and made vicious. Not contact, but corruption, degrades woman. Not her honest work, no matter where it takes her — but her idleness, her vanity, and love of show often degrades her, when in places where outwardly all seems refined, where the surface is all fair and polished. The nature of woman, if it be made different from that of man by God, as I believe it is, will remain different. Letting her vote will not make a man of her; except as manly strength is an added charm to feminine sweetness, just as feminine sweetness gives an added charm 32 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. to the strength of aman. A man who is modest, as well as brave, is more of a man than before — a woman who is brave as well as modest is more of a woman. Is it said, that if a woman votes, she must also be voted for; and then we may have the shocking sight of a woman as legislator, judge, or Governor of the State. Very possibly — but not till we wish it, and when we wish it, we shall no longer be shocked by it. For myself, I should like immediately to have women chosen as mem- bers of the School Committee in every town in the State. Jam satisfied that nothing would help our. schools more. It is always hard to find good men for that office. The best men are too busy — and those not busy, are not always the best. But in every town, there are at least half-a-dozen women, well educated, deeply interested in chil- dren and their education, with ample time to devote to it, and much more capable of observing, than men are, the tone and temper of a teacher or a school. I hope this very Legislature will enact a law, distinctly authorizing towns, to choose women on the School Committee. They have been so chosen, I know, already, in some towns — but its legality is doubtful, and ought to be settled definitely. I should also like to have the manage- DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 3) ment of the State and town hospitals, poor-houses, and asylums of all sorts confided to the superin- tendence of women. During six hundred years, and under thirty-two abbesses, the Convent of Fontevrault, in France, was wholly governed by women. A woman had the title of General of the Order; a woman administered the finances; women chose confessors, inflicted punishments, and con- centrated in their own hands all administrative power. No congregation was more prosperous or famous than this. And this is only one example among hundreds, of the natural faculty possessed by women, to manage the numerous details of institutions of this character. I know, Gentlemen of the Legislature, that this proposed change in the basis of suffrage is a great one; and, at first sight, shocks many prejudices. There are those who look on woman not as the companion of man, but as his servant, thinking it her duty not to help, but to obey him, and who fortify this opmion by the supposed authority of the Bible. ‘They will naturally oppose any change in her position which gives her equal rights with man before the law. But the Bible, rightly under- stood, has steadily operated to lift woman to the same plane as inan. Paganism, everywhere, makes 5 a, 34 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. of woman either a slave, a toy, or a luxury. Only under Christian institutions is woman educated, and made the equal partner of man, in all his work, knowledge, culture and duty. The Apostle Paul has usually been supposed to place woman ona lower level than man} but it is Paul who uttered the memorable eee which declare that: in Christ Jesus there is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female.” "Why should those who claim’ for Christianity as one of its highest blessings to the world, that it has ele- vated the position of woman in all other ways, place a barrier just at this point? They make it the glory of the Gospel to have emancipated woman and enfranchised her, by a steady process, never intermitted during eighteen centuries; but the movement, they say, must stop here. Why? Because for a woman to vote is something strange? But every step in her elevation has, at first, seemed equally strange. Among the Jews it was just as strange, when woman ceased to be a chattel, or when a father could no longer sell his daughter, | being a minor, or when the father, or the oldest brother, lost the right of giving her in marriage to whom they pleased.. When she came to inherit her share of her father’s estate, that was very odd. DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. B23) So, among the Greeks, when Christianity took the wife out of her retirement, and from the society of slaves,—it was a singular departure from usage. Every movement made in this direction has shocked some prejudice, and excited some fear; and that we fear the consequences of female suffrages is no argument that there is any danger therein. What would be the probable consequences of universal suffrage? Simply this, —that woman’s rights would be considered in legislation, and her wishes, sentiments, needs, would come by degrees to be embodied in our laws. All politicians, all legislators, consult the claims and desires of great bodies of voters; and so it would be here. ‘The womanly element would thus be gradually intro- duced into our institutions. Better men would be chosen to office; for the feminine instinct is quicker than that of man to understand character. If woman is more susceptible to moral and religious influences, these qualities would elevate the tone of our government. The first effect of female suffrage would probably be to increase the major- ities now existing in every State,—since, at first, woman would generally vote as their husbands and fathers do now. Wherever Republican majorities now exist, they would be increased; where the 36 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. Democrats have the majority, they. would have a larger majority. | But, by degrees, female voting would become more independent. When dissat- ‘isfied with the nominations, women, would stay at home; and that would be voting. To lose ten thousand female votes by putting up a candidate with a bad character, would be a warning which no party could afford to neglect. So, probably quite gradually, a change would come over politics, greatly tostheir advantage. If women had voted during the last thirty years, it is likely that slavery would have been abolished, and the. great war, with all its woes, made unnecessary. In whatever town or city women vote, license laws will be so arranged, as to prevent much of the ills of mtem- perance. It is said that coarse and ignorant women would vote, but intelligent and refined women would not. But women have a good deal of conscience, and many would vote as a duty, who would not vote from choice. It is probable that having more leisure, more activity of intellect, and quicker sym- | pathies, good women would take more interest in elections than their husbands and fathers do now. Instead of talking together when they met, about dress, visits and parties, they would often discuss DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 37 public questions. They would ask and find out the bearing of those matters of finance, tariff, excise, which are now supposed:to be beyond their comprehension. I cannot but believe that we should be saved from many, stupid and some wicked acts of legislation by the intuitive percep- tions of woman being directed to public questions. M. Ernest Legouvé, of the French Academy, in his excellent work on “The Moral History of Women,” after speaking of their exclusion from | so many departments of human life, asks, “ Have we the right to say to one-half of the human race, ©You shall take no part in the State or its life?’ Does not this disinherit the State itself? Who can certify us that society, like the family, does not need, in order to reach its aims, the co-operation of these two thoughts and two creations of the Almighty? Who can say that a large propor- tion of the evils which afflict the race, and of tlie insoluble problems which disturb our repose, do not take their origin from this absence of the equilibrium of creation, by our shutting out the feminine, genius from taking its equal share in all our labor? ” It is said that woman is inferior to man, and the proof is that she has never discovered America, 38 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. written an Iliad, rivalled. Rafaelle in painting, equalled Mozart in music, invented a steam-engine, or composed novels equal to those of Walter Scott. Let us grant, in these respects, her possible but not demonstrated inferiority. Until we exclude from the ballot-box all. the men who have not writ- ten a story equal to Ivanhoe, or rivalled Michael Angelo in sculpture; this would appear no good.. reason for denying suffrage to woman. ‘here seems not much logic, either feminine or masculine, in saying to one-half the race, “A hundred men or so have excelled you in genius — therefore you must obey the laws without making them, you must pay taxes without voting them, you must be punished by rules to which you have never con- sented. Because you cannot do what nine hun- dred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand cannot do, you must join the children, the insane and the criminals in their exclusion from all share in government.” The man who uses this kind of logic is allowed to vote; but the woman who exposes its fallacy and makes it ridiculous, is judged his inferior, and is disfranchised. ‘Woman As no doubt different from man, but difference is not inequality. Inferior in some DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 39 regards, she is superior in others — made therefore for co-operation, companionship, alliance in all things. Such difference, without discord, makes the sweetest music of mortal life. As long as we. refuse to allow this companionship to enter the | State, so long discord and not harmony will prevail in politics. Legouvé, in comparing men and women, says that the masculine body is stronger, but less expressive; has more energy, but less variety than that of woman. He speaks in one voice, she in many. He has ten varieties of expression in his face, she a hundred. He has ne smile, she a thousand. Her voice, which in man’'is_ harsh, | abounds in demi-tones, in quarters of tones, which represent, like echoes, all the .varieties of her thought and heart. To describe. that practical judgment which consists in arrangement, order, adaptation in the economy of life, is to admit that woman excels therein. If she had a suitable edu- cation, how much prudence and minute accuracy in details. might she not introduce into the admin- istration of the State. If man is a better specu- lator, she is a better financier — if he understands best the acquisition of fortune, she is better able to keep it. 40 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. Man acts by calculation and by interest-—woman by instinct and sentiment. He sees the truth, she feels it. He reflects, and so forms his judgment — she judges by intuition. Feminine penetration, especially, excels in judging character. ‘The most hidden movements of the heart, the most carefully concealed intentions, she sees at once as if they were outward facts. She is all-powerful in this inborn science, in this electric sensibility. Lately, in England, it was found that some of the workhouses were horribly mismanaged. The commonest wants of the inmates were cruelly neglected. ‘The reporter of a London newspaper made the discovery of these evils in a visit of a few hours, which had escaped the notice of inspeetors, guardians, physicians, overseers, during a long period. ‘he worst of it, said the London journals, was the fact that the system seemed perfect. There was a regular inspector to examine the workhouse, a board-of overseers to watch the inspector,.a phy- sician to see that the sick were duly cared for, and a supreme body to overlook the whole. With all these duly appointed watchers, no ‘one watched. Why? Because they were men, with other busi- ness, with feeble sympathies, with no knowledge of house-keeping, with no taste for detail. They DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. A] could not see when a bed was well made, when linen was sufficient and in order, when the food was good and well cooked. What do bankers, merchants, lawyers know of these things? But if the inspectors had been-women, and the Board of Overseers women, and the physician a woman — these abuses would never have come. | Third. There is yet another Reform needed in this country, which it is high time that Massachu- setts should initiate. We have abolished the whip- ping-post for criminals, which once stood in all our towns; we no longer whip the convicts in our prison; sailors are no longer whipped on our men- of-war, nor soldiers in our armies; we have stopped the wholesale whipping of men and women at the South, by abolishing slavery. But we still allow our little children to be whipped in school at the discretion of any teacher who may be placed over them. Is it that children are so much harder to manage than sailors and convicts? What a system of terror, force, arbitrary will, exists in thousands of our schools to-day, by our allowing this brutal system of torture to remain,—after it has been swept away everywhere else. “Schools cannot be governed without the rod;” that is the only argu- ment. “The negro will not work unless compelled A » 4 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. to by the rod;” that was the ereat argument of the slave-holder. Whipping children is defended by the majority of teachers on this ground. Good teachers as well as bad argue in defence of whip- ping. Just so, good slave-holders as well as bad, argued in defence of slavery. T never’ whip a child,” sayg the good teacher; “ / can govern with- - out the.rod; but there are many who cannot.” It is the bad teacher, then, who must use the rod; that is, we allow the rod that it may be used on our children by ignorant, Incompetent teachers, who are sure to use it badly. “It may, in most cases, be dispensed with,” says another; “but sometimes there is a boy who is better for being whipped,— who can feel no other motive,—so we must retain the whip for his sake.” I grant that there may be such boys,—boys who may really be the better for a good whipping. And so I think there are men who would be better for a good whipping. When a brutal fellow beats his wife half to death, I have no doubt that the best thing for him would be thirty-nine lashes, well laid on. . But shall we restore the horror of a whipping-post in our towns, for the sake of a few such men? Shall we fill the air of our villages with the sound of stripes, and the yells of the victim? Shall we brutalize our DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 43 people by such spectacles, for the sake of one or two who may need it? Neyer! Yet we brutalize the teachers who inflict these punishments, and the children who witness their infliction, for the sake of the one boy, here and there, who may perhaps require it. The pavn inflicted is not the chief evil; but the injustice, and the immorality. It is brute force in the man appealing to brute feelings in the boy. It is twice cursed; it has a bad effect on the child, and a worse effect on the teacher.. It is not necessary, for the worst schools have often been taken, and changed into the best schools, by teach- ers who refused to use the rod. It is the refuge of indolence and imbecility. It is the easiest way of governing a school, and so is resorted to by those who, if this were forbidden, would soon have to find a better way, and acquire a moral imfluence. Prohibit it by law, and a wholly different spirit will take possession of these little communities. The teachers will all learn to govern, as so many already govern, by reason, by moral power, by the natural ascendency of knowledge over ignorance, by cre- ating a public opinion in the school favorable to - good discipline. This system has already been abandoned, and prohibited by law, in the most Ad DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. enlightened parts.of Hurope.* It must be pro- hibited by law here. No class of men willmgly relinquish power. ‘The school-teachers are men, and will cling to the right to use the rod, whether they actually use it or not. I have been deeply. pained, I confess, to see the tone in which some have recently argued for the right of whipping. They speak of beating children, in a tone of levity, in a hard and cruel spirit, which has excited my orief. It shows how much some of them have been demoralized. by the practice, and how unfit they are to be trusted with this irresponsible power. The progress of Reform, Gentlemen of the Legis- lature, is like gomg up a lofty mountain. We * A friend in Paris, who was for several years a valuable teacher in one of our chief public schools in Boston, writes, that attending a lecture in the Imperial Lyceum, from Professor Méliot, on the English language, the Professor, in translating a passage from Bulwer’s Caxtons on the anti-birchen ideas of Dr. Herman, explained that it was still the custom in English schools to whip the children, which information was received with astonishment by his French auditors. After the lecture, he informed eur Boston teacher, that “corporal punishment had not been used in France in either public or private schools since the Revolution of 1789 ; and that if a teacher ever forgets himself so far as to strike a pupil, he is obliged to resign his situation.” It appears, therefore, that French boys and girls can be governed without the rod. Cannot ours be kept in order as easily ? DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 45 surmount one steep after another, and as each new ascent opens before us, we imagine it is to be the ‘last. But when we have conquered it, another rises, higher and+more difficult, and the summit seems ever to recede as we climb. So, one reform accomplished, another begins. No generation may repose on the labors of the preceding one; its own ' work is waiting for it. Let us do the work of to-day, while it is called to-day, that so much may be spared our children, and that we may be so much nearer the end. For we shall reach the sum- mit of the mountain at.least, and from that lofty height, survey as Moses from Pisgah, a fairer sight than met his prophetic eye. For here, in this western world, by the labors of our ancestors, our own, and those of our children, is to be realized at Jast their fair dream of a Christian Commonwealth. When we shall have absorbed and assimilated many races, when we shall have learned how to treat the poor, the wicked and the unfortunate, when our churches shall become one, in Christian . faith and Christian works, and so be able to stand shoulder to shoulder in lifting man out of his degradation and sin, then the old prophetic hopes may be at last fulfilled on these shores, the sword ‘be beaten into a ploughshare, tears be wiped from ‘46 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. off all faces, judgment dwell in the wilderness, they that erred in spirit come to understanding, the work of righteousness be peace, death be swallowed up in victory, and the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. But for this end, we must forget the things behind, and reach out to those before. We must be ready to take up owr cross, and do our work, as our fathers did theirs. ‘We must: not. think to say to ourselves, self- | contented, “ We have the Pilgrims to our fathers,” for God is able to raise up out of the sands of Florida, or the soil of Illinois, children unto the Pilgrims. “To-day,” says the proverb, “is the scholar of yesterday.” * (“New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, : Nor attempt the Future’s portal, with the Past’s blood-rusted key.” errs: ‘ SUIaLPEAM. FO BME. ~~ A 7 3 q e. hd on Taw Fe: dorset : Mee RM Enintei ire es} out > if es - ; HyeIC] ;