Volume I Part 25 (1/2)
Look into your mirrors--perhaps you may find All villains are not in South Boston confined.
”I'm not a wild beast, to be seen for a penny; But a man, as well made and as proper as any; And what we most differ in is, well I wot, That I have my merits, and you have them not.
”I own I'm a drunkard, but much I incline To think that your elbow crooks as often as mine; Ay, breathe in my face, sir, as much as you will-- One blast of your breath is as good as a gill.
”How kind was our country to find us a home Where duns cannot plague us, or enemies come!
And you from the cup of her kindness may drain A _drop_ so sufficing, you'll not drink again.
”And now that by staring with mouth and eyes open, We have bruised the reeds that already were broken; Go home and, by dint of strict mental inspection, Let each make his own house a house of correction.
”This _morceau_ was signed 'Indignans.'”
The following muster-roll of crime, as he terms it, which he obtained from the master of the prison, is curious, as it exemplifies the excess of intemperance in the United States--bearing in mind that this is the _moral_ state of Ma.s.sachusetts.
”The whole number of males committed to the house of correction from the time it was opened--July 1st, 1833, to September 1st, 1837,--was 1477.
Of this number there were common drunkards 783, or more than one-half.
”The whole amount of females committed to this inst.i.tution from the time it was opened to Sept 1837, was 869. Of this number there were common drunkards 430, very nearly one-half.
”And of the whole number committed there were--”
+========================+====+===============+====+ Natives of Ma.s.sachusetts 720England 104 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New Hamps.h.i.+re 175Scotland 38 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Maine 130Ireland 839 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Vermont 17Provinces 69 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Rhode Island 35France 10 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Connecticut 28Spain 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New York 50Germany 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ New Jersey 3Holland 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Pennsylvania 28Poland 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Delaware 6Denmark 2 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Maryland 10Prussia 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Virginia 20Sweden 8 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ North Carolina 10West Indies 12 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ South Carolina 1Cape de Verde 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Georgia 5Island of Malta 1 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ District of Columbia 3At Sea 7 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Foreigners 1100 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ United States 1241Unknown 5 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ MORAL States 1905 +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Other States 236Total 2346 +========================+====+===============+====+
He sums up as follows:--
”I have nearly finished, but I should not do justice to my subject did I omit to advert to the beggarly catch-penny system on which the whole concern is conducted. The convicts raise pork and vegetables in plenty, but they must not eat thereof; these things must be sent to market to balance the debit side of the prison ledger. The prisoners must catch cold and suffer in the hospital, and the wool and stone shops, because it would cost something to erect comfortable buildings. They must not learn to read and write, lest a cent's worth of their precious time should be lost to the city. They may die and go to h.e.l.l, and be d.a.m.ned, for a resident physician and chaplain are expensive articles. They may be dirty; baths would cost money, and so would books. I believe the very Bibles and almanacks are the donation of the Bible and Temperance societies. Every thing is managed with an eye to money-making--the comfort or reformation, or salvation, of the prisoners are minor considerations. Whose fault is this?
”The fault, most frugal public, is your own. You like justice, but you do not like to pay for it. You like to see a clean, orderly, well conducted prison, and, as far as your parsimony will permit, such is the house of correction. With all its faults, it is still a valuable inst.i.tution. It holds all, it harms few, and reforms some. It looks well, for the most has been made of matters. If you would have it perfect you must untie your purse-strings, and you will lose nothing by it in the end.”
VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY.
REMARKS--ARMY.
Isolated as the officers are from the world, (for these forts are far removed from towns or cities,) they contrived to form a society within themselves, having most of them recourse to matrimony, which always gives a man something to do, and acts as a fillip upon his faculties, which might stagnate from such quiet monotony. The society, therefore, at these outposts is small, but very pleasant. All the officers being now educated at West Point, they are mostly very intelligent and well informed, and soldiers' wives are always agreeable women all over the world. The barracks turned out also a very fair show of children upon the green sward. The accommodations are, generally speaking, very good, and when supplies can be received, the living is equally so; when they cannot, it can't be helped, and there is so much money saved. A suttler's store is attached to each outpost, and the prices of the articles are regulated by a committee of officers, and a tax is also levied upon the suttler in proportion to the number of men in the garrison, the proceeds of which are appropriated to the education of the children of the soldiers and the provision of a library and news-room.
If the government were to permit officers to remain at any one station for a certain period, much more would be done; but the government is continually s.h.i.+fting them from post to post, and no one will take the trouble to sow when he has no chance of reaping the harvest. Indeed, many of the officers complained that they hardly had time to furnish their apartments in one fort when they were ordered off to another--not only a great inconvenience to them, but a great expense also.
The American army is not a favourite service, and this is not to be wondered at. It is ill-treated in every way; the people have a great dislike to them, which is natural enough in a Democracy; but what is worse, to curry favour with the people, the government very often do not support the officers in the execution of their duty. Their furloughs are very limited, and they have their choice of the outposts, where they live out of the world, or the Florida war, when they go out of it. But the greatest injustice is, that they have no half-pay: if not wis.h.i.+ng to be employed they must resign their commissions and live as they can. In this point there is a great partiality shown to the navy, who have such excellent half-pay, although to prevent remarks at such glaring injustice to the other service, another term is given to the naval half-pay, and the naval officers are supposed to be always on service.
The officers of the army are paid a certain sum, and allowed a certain number of rations per month; for instance, a major-general has two hundred dollars per month, and fifteen rations: According to the estimated value of the rations, as given to me by one of the officers, the annual pay of the different grades will be, in our money, nearly as follows:--
Army.
+==================+======+=========+======+ Army poundsNavy pounds +------------------+------+---------+------+ Major-General 850 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Brigadier-General 570Same rank 960 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Colonel 340Do. 830 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Lieutenant-Colonel 280 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Major 225Do. 525 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Captain 200Do. 380 +------------------+------+---------+------+ First Lieutenant 150 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Second Lieutenant 140 +------------------+------+---------+------+ Cadet 90Do. 156 +==================+======+=========+======+
The cavalry officers have a slight increase of pay.
The privates of the American regular army are not the most creditable soldiers in the world; they are chiefly composed of Irish emigrants, Germans, and deserters from the English regiments in Canada. Americans are very rare; only those who can find nothing else to do, and have to choose between enlistment and starvation, will enter into the American army. They do not, however, enlist for longer than three years. There is not much discipline, and occasionally a great deal of insolence, as might be expected from such a collection. Corporal punishment has been abolished in the American army except for desertion; and if ever there was a proof of the necessity of punishment to enforce discipline, it is the many subst.i.tutes in lieu of it, to which the officers are compelled to resort--all of them more severe than flogging. The most common is that of loading a man with thirty-six pounds of shot in his knapsack, and making him walk three hours out of four, day and night without intermission, with this weight on his shoulders, for six days and six nights; that is, he is compelled to walk three hours with the weight, and then is suffered to sit down _one_. Towards the close this punishment becomes very severe; the feet of the men are so sore and swelled, that they cannot move for some days afterwards. I inquired what would be the consequence if a man were to throw down his knapsack and refuse to walk. The commanding-officer of one of the forts replied, that he would be hung up by the thumbs till he fainted--a variety of piquetting. Surely these punishments savour quite as much of severity, and are quite as degrading as flogging.