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The business before them was laborious , but the necessity and importance of the work , encouraged them to exertions , which for a lime , were arduous , and attended with many unpleasant circumstances ; hut a steady perseverance overcame many longestablished injurious customs , and
produced the present agreeable change , an account of which I shall now , as briefly as possible , proceed to state . Judge Bradford then proceeds to state the alterations which , by the exertions of this society , were produced . —The prisons instead of being den $ of vice are converted
into congregations of our fellowereatures desiring to turn away from the wickedness , which they have committed : instead of riot and profanenefcs there is order and Regularity : instead of drunkenness and sensuality , there are the sacrifices of a broken spirit , of broken and contrite hearts .
"' In going through the prison , ' ' « ys TnrnbulT , in his visit to the Philadelphia prison , iC you are toot disgusted with , those scenes of filth and rtiisery which generally distinguish jails from other
places . On the contrary industry , cheerfulness , and cleanliness , meet the eye in every direction * By the laws of the prison , the house inust be swiept every day by some one of the convicts . The duty is taken in rotation . Independent
of the individual comfort naturally rising from a strict attention to cleanliness , and its powerful conduciveness to health , it is more absolutel y necessary among criminals , than with other persons . In * prison government , which con . templates the amendment of its ubjtcts , it cannot , with pro .
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priety be neglected . The convicts are called to their meals by the ringing of a bell * We saw the men sir down to supper , and I do not recollect a scene more interesting . At one view we beheld about ninety fellow-creatures , formerly lost , as it were , to their Country arid the world , now collected into one body , and
observing that air of composure and decency to each other , consequent only from a long and continued practice of moral habits . We witnessed no laughing , nor even an indecent gesture ; but a perfect and respectful silence reigned
along the benches . They remained seated , until all were ready to rise , of which notice was given by the attending keeper . They then immediately repaired to their respective employments . "
Most of the members of this society lived to see their exertions blessed by the abolition of capital punishment in Pennsylvania for all crimes except murder , and by the establishment of a system of prison-discipline which has reclaimed , and is
reclaiming , thousands of our misguided fellow-creatures . They lived to see the following Act , for the better preventing of crimes , and for abolishing the punishment of death in certain casts ^ p the legislature . ic
Whereas the design of all punishment is to prevent the commission of crimes , and to repair the injury that hath been done thereby to society , or the individual ,
and it hath been found by experience that these objects are better obtained by moderate , but certain penalties , than by severe and excessive punishments : And whereas it is the duty of every government
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On the Pun " ishment of Death . 389
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1811, page 389, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2418/page/5/
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