Part 2 (2/2)

The means of education have been the possession of all; and the enjoyment of these means, often inadequate and huratified in higher institutions; and thus continually have the resources of the state been nified, and its influence in the land has been efficient in all that concerns the welfare of the human race on the American continent

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Repression of Crime By M D Hill

[2] The Repression of Crime, pp 358, 359

REFORMATION OF CHILDREN

[Address at the Inauguration of WILLIAM E STARR, Superintendent of the State Reforh]

Neither the invitation of the Trustees nor my own convenience will permit a detailed exaests; and it is my purpose to address myself to those who are asse to familiar and unobserved visits for other and better opportunities for conference with the inh cheered by genial winds and canopied by cloudless skies, tests and marks his position and course by repeated observations, sodesire to note the progress of this hue over an uncertain sea, yet, as we trust, toward lands of perpetual security and peace All are voyagers on the sea of life Sorope their way by headlands, or trust theuidance of the sun or the stars; while others, with the chart and compass of the Christian era, move confidently on their course, attracted by the Source and Centre of all good And it is a blessing of this state of existence, though it ood and evil yet reht choice is here manifested in the benevolence of this foundation

The State Reforht full years of life and progress; and, though we cannot estiood it h of its history and results is known to justify the course of its patrons, both public and private, and to warrant the ultimate realization of their early cherished hopes The state is most honored in the honor awarded to its sons; and the name of LYMAN, now and evermore associated with a work of benevolence and reform, will always command the admiration of the citizens of the commonwealth, and stimulate the youth of the school to acquire and practise those virtues which their generous patron cherished in his own life and honored in others Governor Washburn, in the Dedication Address, said, ”We coenerous and grateful public, with the trust that the future lives of the young, who may be sent hither for correction and reforlory of an enterprise so auspiciously begun” Since these words were uttered, and this hope, the hope of ed with various offences,--many of them petty, and others serious or even criminal,--have been admitted to the school; and the chaplain, in his report for the year 1854, says that ”the institution will be instru acare” This opinion, based, no doubt, upon the experience which the chaplain and other officers of the institution had had, is to be taken as possessing a substantial basis of truth; and it at once suggests important reflections

Massachusetts is relieved of the presence of a thousand criminal, or, at best, viciously disposed persons A thousand active, capable, industrious, productive, full-grown men have been created; or, rather, a thousand consumers of the wealth of others, enemies of the public order and peace, have been transforenerous, faithful guardians of public virtue and tranquillity Nor would the influences of this degraded population, if unreforeneration athered somewhat of a harvest of crilect, educated in vice, and shunned by the virtuous, would, as , and crime And who shall estimate how much their reform adds, in its results, to the wealth, the intellectual, ious character, of the state? The cri class; and the labor of a thousand men here reclaimed, if estimated for the period of twenty years only, is equal to the labor of twenty thousand men for one year, which, at a hundred dollars each, yields two es of this school, as of all schools, we her considerations, in the elevated intellectual, ious life of the state, that are too pure, too ethereal, to be weighed in the balance against the grosser possessions and acquisitions of society We thus get glimpses of the prophetic wisdom which led Mr Lyman to say, ”I do not look on this school as an experiment; on the contrary, it strikes me that it is an institution which will produce decidedly beneficial results, not only for the present day, but for many years to come I do not, therefore, think that it should, even now, be treated in any respect in the light of an experiment, to be abandoned if not successful; for, if the school is introduced to public notice on no better footing and with no more preparation than usually attend trial-schemes ofthe peculiar difficulties of the case” Here is a high order of faith in its application to human affairs; but Mr Lyman saw, also, that the work to be perforress toward a perfect result would be slow

These obstacles have been encountered; and yet the progress has been more rapid than the words of our founder iet the trials, crosses, and perplexities, of this , of the wisdom and Christian benevolence of our honored commonwealth?

We are asseth and courage for the future; and we ratulate all, whether present or absent, who have been charged with the administration of this school, and have contributed their share, however huht, also, to re or dead, whose faith and labors laid the foundation on which the state has built Of the dead, I mention Lyman, Lamb, Denny, Woodward, Shaw, and Greenleaf,--all of whom, with money, counsel, or personal service, contributed to the plan, progress, and coood that they have done is not interred with their bones; and their exaenerally and more perfectly realize the importance of faith in childhood and youth, as the element of a true faith in our race If this enterprise, in the judgo, it cannot be so regarded now; yet the public will look with anxiety, though with hope, upon every change of the officers of the institution The trustees having appointed a new superintendent, he now assureat responsibility It y, who is influenced by a desire to do good, and ill not measure his reward by present emoluht put upon him The superintendent elect has been a teacher elsewhere, and he is to be a teacher here also His ill not, in all particulars, correspond with the work that he has left; yet the principles of government and education are in substance the same The head of a school always occupies a position of influence; the characters of the children and youth confided to hiree subject to his control Here the teacher is neither aided nor impeded by the usual home influences This institution is at once a home and a school; and its head has the united power and responsibility of the parent and the teacher Here are to be coious influences of the Sunday-school, with the intellectual andof the public school He who to-day enters upon this work should have both faith and courage He is to deal with the unfortunate rather than with the exceptional cases of humanity; for all these are children whom the Father of the race, in his providence, has confided to earthly parents to be educated for a teh crinorance, indolence, carelessness, or misfortune, have failed in their work, is no certain evidence that we are to fail in ours May we not hope to see in this school the kindness, consideration, affection, and forethought, of the parent, without the delusion which sometimes causes the father or mother to treat the vices of the child as virtues, to be encouraged? And may we not expect from the superintendent, to whom, practically, the discipline of the school is confided, one characteristic of good government, not always, it is feared, found in punitive and reformatory institutions? I speak of the attributes of equality, uniformity, and certainty, in the administration of the law

To be sure, a school, a prison, or a state, will suffer when its code is lax; and it will also suffer when its systeuinary; but these peculiarities in themselves do not so often, in any community, produce dissatisfaction, disorder, and violence, as an unequal, partial, and uncertain administration of the laws If at ti to the letter, and if at other tiarded; if it can never be known beforehand whether a violation is to be followed by the prescribed penalty--especially if this uncertainty becomes systematic, and a portion are favored, while the remainder are required to answer strictly for all their delinquencies; and if, above all, these favored ones are recognized as sentinels, or spies, or informers in the service of the officers,--then not only will the spirit of insubordination manifest itself, but that spirit erous to the prosperity of the institution Here the scales of justice should be evenly balanced, and the boy should learn, from his own daily experience, to measure equal and exact justice unto others I do not speak of systeovernarded as of the first importance in institutions for punishment or reformation Establish as wise a system as you can; but never trust to that alone Administer the system that you have with all the equality, uniforeneral truth, it may be said that the law is respected when these qualities are exhibited in its ad, the spirit of obedience is driven from the hearts and ether, nor even chiefly, upon the visible weapons of authority Especially must the mind and heart of childhood and youth be approached and quickened and strengthened by judicious appeals to the sentiments of veneration and love, and to the principles of the Christian faith In this institution, one serious obstacle is present; yet it y, industry, and a spirit of benevolence I speak of the large number of inmates to be superintended by one person Men act in eneral evils; but the reforreat extent dependent upon the agency, or at least upon the cooperation, of the subjects of it It is not easy for the superintendent to make himself acquainted with the persons and fae is quite essential to the exercise of a salutary influence over them He may be aided by the subordinate officers of the institution; and that aid, under any circumstances, he will need: but, after all, his own influence and power for good will be measured by the extent of his personal acquaintance with the inovernn of terror, but a government whose majesty, power, equality, certainty, uniformity, and consequent justice, shall be experienced by all alike; and, being experienced by all alike, will be respected, reverenced, and obeyed

And next the social, intellectual, and moral influences of the school and the holed, or else the visible forure, structure, and outline, of the perfect body, but destitute of the vital principle which alone could render it of any value to itself or to the world

This institution is not an end, but a means The home itself is only a preparatory school for life This is a substitute for the home, but is not, and never can be, its equal It therefore follows that a boy should be removed whenever a home can be secured, especially if his reformation has been previously so far accomplished as to render the coreat trust has been confided to the officers of the Reforood is usually proportionate to the responsibility imposed upon the laborer In this view, ht not to relate so much to results as to the wisdom and humanity hich the operations are conducted

Massachusetts is charged with the support of a great number of charitable and refors from the defects of social life; therefore their existence is a coood; and he is the truest friend of the race who does norance, insanity, mental and physical weakness, moral ardness, and crime

THE CARE AND REFORMATION OF THE NEGLECTED AND EXPOSED CLassES OF CHILDREN

[An Address delivered at the opening of the State Industrial School for Girls, at Lancaster, Massachusetts]

In man's limited view, the moral world presents a sad contrast to the natural The natural world is harmonious in all its parts; but theforces, whose laws the finite mind cannot comprehend The majesty and uniforht, sue Worlds and systeuided by a law of the Infinite Mind; and so, through unnumbered years and myriads of years, birth and death, creation and decay, decrees whose fixedness enables finite minds to predict the future, and rules whose elasticity is seen in a never-ending variety of nature, all alike prove that the sin of disobedience is upon man alone

But, if man only, of all the varied creations of earth, iven the power to rise again, and feebly, yet with faith, advance towards the Divine Excellence This, then, is the great thought of the occasion, to be accepted by the hearts and illustrated in the lives of all The fallen may be raised up, the exposed may be shi+elded, the wanderers may be called home, or else this house is built upon the sand, and doomed to fall when the rains shall descend, the floods co autumn, with its harvest of sustenance and wealth, bids us conteain the mystery and harmony of the natural world The tree and the herb produce seed, and the seed again produces the tree and the herb, each after its kind There is a continued production and reproduction; but of responsibility there is none As there is no intelligent violation of law, there is no accountability Man, however, is an intelligent, dependent, fallible, and, of course, responsible being He is responsible for hiree for his fellow-man

There is not a chapter in the history of the human race, nor a day of its experience, which does not show that the individual members are dependent upon, and responsible to, each other This great fact, of six thousand years' duration, at once presents to us the necessity for government, and defines the limits of its powers and duties Government, then, is a union of all for the protection and welfare of each This definition presents, in its principles and stateovernment,--a form not yet perfectly realized on earth It sets forth rather what governht to be, than what it has been or is Too often historical governovernments even, may be defined as a union of a few for their benefit, and for the oppression of many The reason of man has not often been consulted in their formation, and the interests and principles of the arded in their adovernment is at once representative, patriarchal, and paternal

In the path of duty for this day and this occasion, we shall consider the last-naovernovernment is devoted to the elevation and improvement of its members, with no ulterior motive except the necessary results of internal purity and strength Every governovernarded as eminently so, where the people are most controlled in their private, personal affairs These are mere despotisms; and despotism is not a just nor necessary eleovernment is most truly paternal which does ulate their own conduct, and detereneral darkness, the paternal eleht to the human race It modified the patriarchal slavery of the Hebrews, relieved the iron rule of Sparta, made European feudalises, and the basis of its colories in the near future; and it now leads men to look with toleration upon the despotisance of the Celestial Empire