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 8982 § 
 
 14 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 HV 8982.147 
 
 Crimes against crimina s / 
 
 3 1924 024 845 301 
 
 GJorndl Cam ^rfynnl IGibran} 
 

 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024845301 
 
Crimes! 
 ggainat 
 Criminate 
 
 BY 
 
 Robert G. Ligersoll 
 
 m 
 
 Done into a printed book by 
 The Roycrqfters at their Shop 
 in East Aurora, Erie County, 
 New York, U. S. A., mcmvi 
 
B 100^3 
 
 Copyright 1906 
 
 by 
 Elbert Hubbard 
 
CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS 
 
Crime* Against Criminate 
 
 *LL nations seem to have had 
 supreme confidence in the 
 S^Oy^sJ deterrent power of threat- 
 t^Sjj^j^p ene( l an d inflicted pain. They 
 have regarded punishment 
 as the shortest road to ref- 
 ormation. Imprisonment, torture, death, 
 constituted a trinity under whose protec- 
 tion society might feel secure. 
 In addition to these, nations have relied 
 on confiscation and degradation, on maim- 
 ings, whippings, brandings, and exposure 
 to public ridicule and contempt. Connected 
 with the court of justice was the chamber 
 of torture. The ingenuity of man was ex- 
 hausted in the construction of instruments 
 that would surely reach the most sensitive 
 nerve. All this was done in the interests of 
 civilization — for the protection of virtue, 
 the well-being of states. Curiously enough, 
 the fact is that, no matter how severe the 
 
 9 
 
Crimes punishments were, the crimes increased, 
 against Q It was found that the penalty of death 
 Criminate made little difference. Thieves and high- 
 waymen, heretics and blasphemers, went 
 on their way. It was then thought neces- 
 sary to add to this penalty of death, and 
 consequently, the convicted were tortured 
 in every conceivable way before execution. 
 And yet the number of so-called criminals 
 increased. 
 
 For petty offences men were degraded — 
 given to the mercy of the rabble. Their 
 ears were cut off, their nostrils slit, their 
 foreheads branded. They were tied to the 
 tails of carts and flogged from one town 
 to another. And yet, in spite of all, the 
 poor wretches obstinately refused to become 
 good and useful citizens. 
 Degradation has been thoroughly tried, 
 with its maimings and brandings, and the 
 result was that those who inflicted the 
 punishments became as degraded as their 
 victims. 
 10 
 
Only a few years ago there were more than Crimes! 
 two hundred offences in Great Britain 8jjafn$t 
 punishable by death. The gallows-tree bore Criminate 
 fruit through all the year, and the hang- 
 man was the busiest official in the kingdom 
 — but the criminals increased. 
 Crimes were committed to punish crimes, 
 and crimes were committed to prevent 
 crimes. The world has been filled with 
 prisons and dungeons, with chains and 
 whips, with crosses and gibbets, with 
 thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen 
 and headsmen — and yet these frightful 
 means and instrumentalities and crimes 
 have accomplished little for the preserva- 
 tion of property or life. It is safe to say 
 that governments have committed far 
 more crimes than they have prevented. 
 Q Why is it that men will suffer and risk 
 so much for the sake of stealing? Why 
 will they accept degradation and punish- 
 ment and infamy as their portion? Some 
 will answer this question by an appeal to 
 
 11 
 
Crimes the dogma of original sin ; others by saying 
 against that millions of men and women are under 
 Criminate t h e contro l of fiends— that they are actu- 
 ally possessed by devils; and others will 
 declare that all these people act from choice 
 — that they are possessed of free wills, of 
 intelligence — that they know and appreci- 
 ate consequences, and that, in spite of all, 
 they deliberately prefer a life of crime. 
 
 HAVE we not advanced far enough 
 intellectually to deny the exist- 
 ence of chance? Are we not sat- 
 isfied now that back of every thought and 
 act and dream and fancy is an efficient 
 cause? Is anything or can anything be 
 produced that is not necessarily produced? 
 Can the fatherless and motherless exist? 
 Is there not a connection between all 
 events, and is not every act related to all 
 other acts? Is it not possible, is it not 
 probable, is it not true, that the actions 
 of all men are determined by countless 
 12 
 
causes over which they have no positive Crimea 
 control? Certain it is that men do not ^sainsft 
 prefer unhappiness to joy. It can hardly be Criminal* 
 said that man intends permanently to 
 injure himself, and that he does what he 
 does in order that he may live a life of 
 misery. On the other hand, we must take 
 it for granted that man endeavors to better 
 his own condition, and seeks, although by 
 mistaken ways, his own well-being. The 
 poorest man would like to be rich — the 
 sick desire health — and no sane man wishes 
 to win the contempt and hatred of his 
 fellow men. Every human being prefers 
 liberty to imprisonment. 
 Are the brains of criminals exactly like 
 the brains of honest men? Have criminals 
 the same ambitions, the same standards of 
 happiness or of well-being ? If a difference 
 exists in brain, will that in part account 
 for the difference in character? Is there 
 anything in heredity? Are vices as carefully 
 transmitted by nature as virtues? Does 
 
 13 
 
Crimes each man in some degree bear burdens 
 gsaftisit imposed by ancestors? We know that 
 Criminate diseases of flesh and blood are transmitted 
 — that the child is the heir of physical 
 deformity. Are diseases of the brain — are 
 deformities of the soul, of the mind, also 
 transmitted? 
 
 We not only admit, but we assert, that 
 in the physical world there are causes and 
 effects. We insist that there is and can be 
 no effect without an efficient cause. When 
 anything happens in that world, we are 
 satisfied that it was naturally and neces- 
 sarily produced. The causes may be obscure, 
 but we as implicitly believe in their exist- 
 ence as when we know positively what 
 they are. In the physical world we have 
 taken the ground that there is nothing 
 miraculous — that everything is natural — 
 and if we cannot explain it, we account 
 for our inability to explain, by our own 
 ignorance. Is it not possible, is it not 
 probable, that what is true in the physical 
 
 14 
 
world is equally true in the realm of mind Crimes? 
 
 — in that strange world of passion and ®&&inst 
 
 desire? Is it possible that thoughts or Criminate 
 
 desires or passions are the children of 
 
 chance, born of nothing? Can we conceive 
 
 of Nothing as being a force, or as a cause? 
 
 If then, there is behind every thought and 
 
 desire and passion an efficient cause, we 
 
 can, in part at least, account for the 
 
 actions of men. 
 
 A certain man under certain conditions 
 
 acts in a certain way. There are certain 
 
 temptations that he, with his brain, with 
 
 his experience, with his intelligence, with 
 
 his surroundings cannot withstand. He is 
 
 irresistibly led to do, or impelled to do, 
 
 certain things; and there are other things 
 
 he cannot do. If we change the conditions 
 
 of this man, his actions will be changed. 
 
 Develop his mind, give him new subjects 
 
 of thought, and you change the man; and 
 
 the man being changed, it follows of 
 
 necessity that his conduct will be different. 
 
 15 
 
Crimes: 
 
 Sgainsit 
 
 Criminals 
 
 Qln civilized countries the struggle for 
 existence is severe — the competition far 
 sharper than in savage lands. The conse- 
 quence is that there are many failures. 
 These failures lack, it may be, opportunity 
 or brain or moral force or industry, or 
 something without which, under the cir- 
 cumstances, success is impossible. Certain 
 lines of conduct are called legal, and cer- 
 tain others criminal, and the men who 
 fail in one line may be driven to the 
 other. How do we know that it is possi- 
 ble for all people to be honest? Are we 
 certain that all people can tell the truth? 
 Is it possible for all men to be generous or 
 candid or courageous? 
 I am perfectly satisfied that there are 
 millions of people incapable of committing 
 certain crimes, and it may be true that 
 there are millions of others incapable of 
 practicing certain virtues. We do not 
 blame a man because he is not a sculptor, 
 a poet, a painter, or a statesman. We say 
 
 16 
 
he has not the genius. Are we certain that 
 it does not take genius to be good ? Where 
 is the man with intelligence enough to 
 take into consideration the circumstances 
 of each individual case? Who has the 
 mental balance with which to weigh the 
 forces of heredity, of want, of temptation 
 —and who can analyze with certainty the 
 mysterious motions of the brain? Where 
 and what are the sources of vice and vn> 
 tue ? In what obscure and shadowy recesses 
 of the brain are passions born? And what 
 is it that for the moment destroys the 
 sense of right arid wrong? 
 Who knows to what extent reason be? 
 comes the prisoner of passion — of some 
 strange and wild desire, the seeds of which 
 were sown, it may be, thousands of years 
 ago in the breast of some savage. To what 
 extent do antecedents and surroundings 
 affect the moral sense? 
 Is it not possible that ±he tyranny of gov- 
 ernments, the injustice of nations, the 
 
 17 
 
 Crimes! 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminate 
 
Crimea fierceness of what is called the law, pro- 
 ggainrt duce in the individual a tendency in the 
 Criminate same direction? Is it not true that the 
 citizen is apt to imitate his nation? Soci- 
 ety degrades its enemies — the individual 
 seeks to degrade his. Society plunders its 
 enemies, and now and then the citizen 
 has a desire to plunder his. Society kills 
 its enemies, and possibly sows in the heart 
 of some citizen the seeds of murder. 
 
 IS it not true that the criminal is a 
 natural product, and that society un- 
 consciously produces these children of 
 vice? Can we not safely take another step, 
 and say that the criminal is a victim, as 
 the diseased and deformed and insane are 
 victims ? We do not think of punishing a 
 man because he is afflicted with disease — 
 our desire is to find a cure. We send him, 
 not to the penitentiary, but to the hos- 
 pital, to an asylum. We do this because 
 we recognize the fact that disease is nat- 
 
 18 
 
urally produced — that it is inherited from Crime* 
 parents, or the result of unconscious neg- ®$uinit 
 ligence, or it may be of recklessness — but Criminate 
 instead of punishing we pity. If there are 
 diseases of the mind, of the brain, as there 
 are diseases of the body; and if these dis- 
 eases of the mind, these deformities of the 
 brain, produce, and necessarily produce, 
 what we call vice, why should we punish 
 the criminal, and pity those who are phys- 
 ically diseased? 
 
 Socrates, in some respects at least one of 
 the wisest of men, said: " It is strange that 
 you should not be angry when you meet 
 a man with an ill-conditioned body, and 
 yet be vexed when you encounter one 
 with an ill-conditioned soul." 
 We know there are deformed bodies, and 
 we are equally certain that there are de- 
 formed minds. 
 
 Of course society has the right to protect 
 itself, no matter whether the persons who 
 attack its well-being are responsible or not, 
 
 19 
 
Crimes! 
 
 ggainst 
 
 Criminals 
 
 no matter whetKer they are sick in mind, 
 or deformed in brain. The right of self- 
 defence exists, not only in the individual, 
 but in society. The great question is: How 
 shall this right of self-defence be exercised? 
 What spirit shall be in the nation, or in 
 society^— the spirit of revenge, a desire to 
 degrade and punish and destroy, or a spirit 
 born of the recognition of the fact that 
 criminals are victims ? 
 The world has thoroughly tried conflsca- 
 tion^ degradation, imprisonment, torture 
 and death/ and thus far the world has 
 failed. In this connection I call your atten- 
 tion to the following statistics gathered in 
 our own country: 
 
 In 1850, we had twenty- three millions of 
 people, and between six and seven thou- 
 sand prisoners. 
 
 In 1860 — thirty-one millions of people, 
 and nineteen thousand prisoners. 
 In 1870— thirty-eight millions of people, 
 and thirty-two thousand prisoners. 
 
 20 
 
In 1880— -fifty millions of people, and Crime* 
 
 fifty-eight thousand prisoners. SUgainstt 
 
 It may be curious to note the relation Criminal* 
 
 between insanity, pauperism and crime: 
 
 Qln 1850, there were fifteen thousand 
 
 insane; in 1860, twenty-four thousand; in 
 
 1870, thirty-seven thousand; in 1880, 
 
 ninety-one thousand. 
 
 In the light of these statistics, we are not 
 
 succeeding in doing away with crime. 
 
 There were in 1880, fifty-eight thousand 
 
 prisoners, and sixty-six thousand paupers 
 
 in almshouses. 
 
 Is it possible that we must go to the same 
 
 causes for these effects?, 
 
 THERE is no reformation in deg- 
 radation. To mutilate a criminal 
 is to say to all the world that he 
 is a criminal, and to render his reforma- 
 tion substantially impossible. Whoever is 
 degraded by society becomes its enemy. 
 The seeds of malice are sown in his heart, 
 
 21 
 
Crimes 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminals 
 
 and to the day of his death he will hate 
 the hand that sowed the seeds. 
 There is also another side to this question. 
 A punishment that degrades the punished 
 will degrade the man who inflicts the pun- 
 ishment, and will degrade the government 
 that procures the infliction. The whipping- 
 post pollutes not only the whipped, but 
 the whipper, and not only the whipper 
 but the community at large. Wherever 
 its shadow falls it degrades. 
 If, then, there is no reforming power in 
 degradation — no deterrent power — for the 
 reason that the degradation of the crimi- 
 nal degrades the community, and in this 
 way produces more criminals, then the 
 next question is: Whether there is any 
 reforming power in torture? The trouble 
 with this is that it hardens and degrades 
 to the last degree the ministers of the law. 
 Those who are not affected by the agonies 
 of the bad, will in a little time care noth- 
 ing for the sufferings of the good. There 
 22 
 
seems to be a little of the wild beast in 
 men — a something that is fascinated by 
 suffering, and that delights in inflicting 
 pain. When a government tortures, it is 
 in the same state of mind that the crimi- 
 nal was when he committed his crime. It 
 requires as much malice in those who 
 execute the law, to torture a criminal, as 
 it did in the criminal to torture and kill 
 his victim. The one was a crime by a per- 
 son, the other by a nation. 
 There is something in injustice, in cruelty, 
 that tends to defeat itself. There were never 
 as many traitors in England as when the 
 traitor was drawn and quartered — when 
 he was tortured in every possible way — 
 when his limbs, torn and bleeding, were 
 given to the fury of mobs or exhibited 
 pierced by pikes or hung in chains. These 
 frightful punishments produced intense 
 hatred of the government, and traitors 
 continued to increase until they became 
 powerful enough to decide what treason 
 
 23 
 
 Crimea 
 
 ggatnfit 
 
 Criminate 
 
Cximts was, arid who the traitors were, and to 
 sasafntft inflict the same torments on others. 
 Criminate Think for a moment of what man has 
 suffered in the cause of crime. Think of 
 the millions that have been imprisoned, 
 impoverished and degraded because they 
 were thieves and forgers, swindlers and 
 cheats. Think for a moment of what they 
 have endured— of: the difficulties under 
 which they:> have pursued their calling, 
 and it will be exceedingly hard to believe 
 that they were sane and natural people 
 possessed of good brains, of minds well? 
 poised, and that they did what they did 
 from a choice unaffected by heredity and 
 the countless circumstances that tend to 
 determine the conduct of human beings. 
 QThe other day I was asked these ques- 
 tions: " Has there been as much heroism 
 displayed for the right as for the wrong ? 
 Has virtue had as many martyrs as vice? ' 
 QFor hundreds of years the world has 
 endeavored to destroy the. good by force. 
 %4t 
 
& The expression of honest thought was Crimes* 
 regarded as the greatest of crimes. Dun- &s*inxt 
 geons were filled with the noblest and the Crfaihwtt 
 best, and the blood of the bravest was 
 shed by the sword or consumed by flame. 
 It was impossible to destroy the longing 
 in the heart of man for liberty and truth. 
 Is it not possible that brute force and 
 cruelty and revenge, imprisonment, tor- 
 ture and death are as impotent to do away 
 with vice as to destroy virtue? 
 In our country there has been for many 
 years a growing feeling that convicts should 
 neither be degraded nor tortured. It was 
 provided in the Constitution of the United 
 States that "cruel and unusual punish- 
 ments should not be inflicted. ' ' Benjamin 
 Franklin took great interest in the treat- 
 ment of prisoners, being a thorough be- 
 liever in the reforming influence of justice, 
 having no confidence whatever in punish- 
 ment for punishment's sake. 
 To me it has always been a mystery how 
 
 25 
 
Crimes 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminals 
 
 the average man, knowing something of 
 the weakness of human nature, something 
 of the temptations to which he himself has 
 been exposed — remembering the evil of his 
 life, the things he would have done had 
 there been opportunity, had he absolutely 
 known that discovery would be impossible 
 — should have feelings of hatred toward 
 the imprisoned. 
 
 Is it possible that the average man assaults 
 the criminal in a spirit of self-defence? 
 Does he wish to convince his neighbors 
 that the evil thought and impulse were 
 never in his mind ? Are his words a shield 
 that he uses to protect himself from sus- 
 picion? For my part, I sympathize sin- 
 cerely with all failures, with the victims 
 of society, with those who have fallen, 
 with the imprisoned, with the hopeless 
 with those who have been stained by 
 verdicts of guilty, and with those who, in 
 the moment of passion have destroyed, as 
 with a blow, the future of their lives. 
 
 26 
 
How perilous, after all, is the state of man. Crfatea 
 It is the work of a life to build a great and 8safn*t 
 splendid character. It is the work of a mo- Cr&ttfaate 
 ment to destroy it utterly, from turret to 
 foundation stone. How cruel hypocrisy is! 
 
 27 
 
PART II 
 
fS there any remedy? Can 
 anything be done for the 
 reformation of the criminal? 
 C£He should be treated with 
 kindness. Every right should 
 be given him, consistent 
 with the safety of society. He should be 
 neither degraded nor robbed. The State 
 should set the highest and noblest exam- 
 ple. The powerful should never be cruel, 
 and in the breast of the supreme there 
 should be no desire for revenge. 
 A man in a moment of want steals the 
 property of another, and he is sent to the 
 penitentiary — first, as it is claimed, for the 
 purpose of deterring others; and secondly, 
 of reforming him. The circumstances of 
 each individual case are rarely inquired 
 into. Investigation stops when the simple 
 fact of the larceny has been ascertained. 
 No distinctions are made except as between 
 first and subsequent offences. Nothing is 
 allowed for surroundings. 
 
 31 
 
 Crimes; 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminate 
 
Crimes! 
 
 ggainat 
 
 Criminate 
 
 All will admit that the industries must be 
 protected. In this world it is necessary to 
 work. Labor is the foundation of all pros- 
 perity. Larceny is the enemy of industry. 
 Society has the right to protect itself. The 
 question is: Has it the right to punish?—- 
 has it the right to degrade ? — or should it 
 endeavor to reform the convict? 
 A man is taken to the penitentiary. He 
 is clad in the garments of a convict <s 
 He is degraded — he loses his name — he is 
 designated by a number. He is no longer 
 treated as a human being — he becomes a 
 slave of the State. Nothing is done for his 
 improvement — nothing for his reforma- 
 tion. He is driven like a beast of burden; 
 robbed of his labor; leased, it may be, by 
 the State to a contractor, who gets out of 
 his hands, out of his muscles, out of his 
 poor brain, all the toil he can. He is not 
 allowed to speak with a fellow-prisoner. 
 At night he is alone in his cell. The rela- 
 tions that should exist between men are 
 
 32 
 
destroyed. He is a convict. He is no longer 
 worthy to associate even with his keepers. 
 The jailer is immensely his superior, and 
 the man who turns the key upon him at 
 night regards himself, in comparison, as 
 a model of honesty, of virtue and man- 
 hood. The convict is pavement upon which 
 those who watch him walk. He remains 
 for the time of his sentence, and when it 
 expires he goes forth a branded man. He 
 is given money enough to pay his fare 
 back to the place from whence he came. 
 C£ What is the condition of this man? Can 
 he get employment? Not if he honestly 
 states who he is and where he has been. 
 The first thing he does is to deny his per- 
 sonality, to assume a name. He endeavors 
 by telling falsehoods to lay the foundation 
 for the future good conduct. The average 
 man does not wish to employ an ex-con- 
 vict, because the average man has no con- 
 fidence in the reforming powers of the 
 penitentiary. He believes that the convict 
 
 S3 
 
 Crime* 
 
 ggainsit 
 
 Crimfoate 
 
Crimes 
 
 ggaintit 
 
 Criminate 
 
 who comes out is worse than the convict 
 who went in. He knows that in the pen- 
 itentiary the heart of this man has been 
 hardened — that he has been subjected to 
 torture of perpetual humiliation — that he 
 has been treated like a ferocious beast; and 
 so he believes that this ex-convict has in 
 his heart hatred for society, that he feels 
 he has been degraded and robbed. Under 
 these circumstances, what avenue is open 
 to the ex-convict? If he changes his name, 
 there will be some detective, some officer 
 of the law, some meddlesome wretch, who 
 will betray his secret «•« He is then dis- 
 charged. He seeks employment again, and 
 he must seek it by again telling what is 
 not true. He is again detected and again 
 discharged. And finally he becomes con- 
 vinced that he cannot live as an honest 
 man. He naturally drifts back into the 
 society of those who have had like experi- 
 ences; and the result is that in a little 
 while he again stands in the dock, charged 
 
 84 
 
with the commission of another crime. Crimes 
 Again he is sent to the penitentiary — and &flafn$t 
 this is the end. He feels that his day is Criminal* 
 done, that the future has only degradation 
 for him. 
 
 | The men in the penitentiaries do not 
 work for themselves. Their labor belongs 
 to others. They have no interest in their 
 toil — no reason for doing the best they 
 can — and the result is the product of their 
 labor is poor «*« This product comes in 
 competition with the work of mechanics, 
 honest men, who have their families to 
 support, and the cry is that convict labor 
 takes the bread from the mouths of vir- 
 tuous people. 
 
 WHY should the State take with- 
 out compensation the labor of 
 those men; and why should they, 
 after having been imprisoned for years, 
 be turned out without the means of sup- 
 port ? Would it not be far better, far more 
 
 35 
 
Crimed 
 
 ggainsst 
 
 Criminals! 
 
 economical, to pay these men for their 
 labor, to lay aside their earnings, from day 
 to day, from month to month, and from 
 year to year — to put this money at inter- 
 est so that when the convict is released 
 after five years of imprisonment he will 
 have several hundred dollars of his own 
 — not merely money enough to pay his 
 way back to the place from which he was 
 sent, but enough to make it possible for 
 him to commence business on his own 
 account, enough to keep the wolf of crime 
 from the door of his heart ? 
 Suppose the convict comes out with five 
 hundred dollars. This would be to most of 
 that class a fortune. It would form a 
 breastwork, a fortress, behind which the 
 man could fight temptation. This would 
 give him food and raiment, enable him to 
 go to some other state or country where 
 he could redeem himself. If this were done, 
 thousands of convicts would feel under 
 immense obligation to the Government. 
 
 36 
 
They would think of the penitentiary as 
 the place in which they were saved — in 
 which they were redeemed — and they 
 would feel that the verdict of guilty res- 
 cued them from an abyss of crime. Under 
 these circumstances, the law would appear 
 beneficent, and the heart of the poor con- 
 vict, instead of being filled with malice, 
 would overflow with gratitude. He would 
 see the propriety of the course pursued by 
 the Government. He would recognize and 
 feel and experience the benefits of this 
 course, and the result would be good, not 
 only to him, but to the nation as well. 
 Q If the convict worked for himself, he 
 would do the best he could, and the wares 
 produced in the penitentiaries would not 
 cheapen the labor of other men. 
 
 Crimea! 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminals 
 
 THERE are, however, men who 
 pursue crime as a vocation — as a 
 profession — men who have been 
 convicted again and again, and who will 
 
 37 
 
Crimes! persist in using the liberty of intervals to 
 Spinst prey upon the rights of others. What shall 
 Criminate we j w ^ these men and women? 
 
 Put one thousand hardened thieves on an 
 island — compel them to produce what they 
 eat and use — and I am almost certain that 
 a large majority would be opposed to theft. 
 Those who worked would not permit those 
 who did not, to steal the results of their 
 labor. In other words, self-preservation 
 would be the dominant idea, and these 
 men would instantly look upon the idlers 
 as the enemies of their society. 
 Such a community would be self-support- 
 ing. Let women of the same class be put 
 by themselves. Keep the sexes absolutely 
 apart. Those who are beyond the power 
 of reformation should not have the liberty 
 to reproduce themselves. Those who can- 
 not be reached by kindness — by justice — 
 those who under no circumstances are 
 willing to do their share, should be sepa- 
 rated. They should dwell apart, and dying 
 
 38 
 
should leave no heirs. QWhat shall be Crimes; 
 done with the slayers of their fellow men &satnat 
 —with murderers? Shall the nation take Criminate 
 life? 
 
 It has been contended that the death pen- 
 alty deters others — that it has far more 
 terror than imprisonment for life. What 
 is the effect of the example set by a nation ? 
 Is not the tendency to harden and degrade 
 not only those who inflict and those who 
 witness, but the entire community as well? 
 Q A few years ago a man was hanged in 
 Alexandria, Virginia. One who witnessed 
 the execution, on that very day murdered 
 a peddler in the Smithsonian grounds at 
 Washington. He was tried and executed, 
 and one who witnessed his hanging went 
 home, and on the same day murdered his 
 wife. 
 
 The tendency of the extreme penalty is to 
 prevent conviction «x? In the presence of 
 death it is easy for a jury to find a doubt. 
 Technicalities become very important, and 
 
 39 
 
Crimes 
 
 &gain*t 
 
 Criminals 
 
 absurdities, touched with mercy, have the 
 appearance for a moment of being natural 
 and logical. Honest and conscientious men 
 dread a final irrevocable step. If the pen- 
 alty were imprisonment for life, the jury 
 would feel that if any mistake were made 
 it could be rectified; but where the penalty 
 is death a mistake is fatal. A conscientious 
 man takes into consideration the defects 
 of human nature — the uncertainty of tesr 
 timony, and the countless shadows that 
 dim and darken the understanding, and 
 refuses to find a verdict that, if wrong, 
 cannot be righted. 
 
 The death penalty, inflicted by the Gov- 
 ernment, is a perpetual excuse for mobs. 
 C£ The greatest danger in a Republic is a 
 mob, and as long as States inflict the pen- 
 alty of death, mobs will follow the exam- 
 ple «©e If the State does not consider life 
 sacred, the mob, with ready rope, will 
 strangle the suspected. The mob will say: 
 "The only difference is in the trial; the 
 
 40 
 
State does the same— we know the man 
 is guilty — why should time be wasted with 
 technicalities ? " In other words, why may 
 riot the mobs do quickly that which the 
 State does slowly ? 
 
 Every execution tends to harden the pub- 
 lic heart — tends to lessen the sacredness of 
 human life. In many States of this Union 
 the mob is supreme. For certain offences 
 the mob is expected to lynch the supposed 
 criminal. It is the duty of every citizen — 
 and it seems to me especially of every law- 
 yer — to do what he can to destroy the 
 mob spirit. One would think that men 
 would be afraid to commit any crime in a 
 community where the mob spirit is in the 
 ascendancy, and yet, such are the contra- 
 dictions and subtleties of human nature, 
 that it is exactly the opposite. And there 
 is another thing in this connection — the 
 men who constitute the mob are, as a rule, 
 among the worst, the lowest and the most 
 depraved. 
 
 41 
 
 Crimes 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminate 
 
Gvimts 
 
 &gainat 
 
 Criminals 
 
 A few years ago, in Illinois, a man escaped 
 from jail, and in escaping, shot the sheriff. 
 He was pursued, overtaken, lynched. The 
 man who put the rope around his neck 
 was then out on bail, having been indicted 
 for an assault to murder. And after the 
 poor wretch was dead, another man climbed 
 the tree from which he dangled and, in 
 derision, put a cigar in the mouth of the 
 dead; and this man was out on bail, having 
 been indicted for larceny. 
 Those who are the fiercest to destroy their 
 fellow men for having committed crimes, 
 are, for the most part, at heart, criminals 
 themselves. 
 
 As long as nations meet on the fields of 
 war — as long as they sustain the relation 
 of savages to each other — as long as they 
 put the laurel and the oak on the brows of 
 those who kill — just so long will citizens 
 resort to violence, and the quarrels of indi- 
 viduals be settled by dagger and revolver. 
 
 42 
 
IF we are to change the conduct of men, 
 we must change their conditions. Ex- 
 treme poverty and crime go hand in 
 hand. Destitution multiplies temptations 
 and destroys finer feelings. The bodies and 
 souls of men are apt to be clad in like gar* 
 ments. If the body is covered with rags the 
 soul is generally in the same condition. Self- 
 respect is gone — the man looks down — he 
 has neither hope nor courage. He becomes 
 sinister — he envies the prosperous — hates 
 the fortunate, and despises himself. 
 As long as children are raised in the ten- 
 ement and gutter, the prisons will be full. 
 The gulf between the rich and the poor 
 will grow wider and wider. One will de- 
 pend on cunning, the other on force. It is 
 a great question whether those who live 
 in luxury can afford to allow others to 
 exist in want. The value of property de- 
 pends, not on the prosperity of the few, 
 but on the prosperity of a large majority. 
 Life and property must be secure, or that 
 
 43 
 
 Crime* 
 
 3gaftt*t 
 
 Criminals 
 
Crime* 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminate 
 
 subtle thing called "value" takes its leave. 
 The poverty of the many is a perpetual 
 menace. If we expect a prosperous and 
 peaceful country, the citizens must have 
 homes. The more homes, the more patri- 
 ots, the more virtue, and the more secu- 
 rity for all that gives worth to life. 
 We need not repeat the failures of the old 
 world. To divide lands among successful 
 generals, or among favorites of the crown, 
 to give vast estates for services rendered in 
 the war, is no worse than to allow men of 
 wealth to purchase and hold vast tracts of 
 land. The result is precisely the same — 
 — that is to say, a nation composed of a 
 few landlords and many tenants — the ten- 
 ants resorting from time to time to mob 
 violence, and the landlords depending upon 
 a standing army. The property of no man, 
 however, should be taken for public or 
 private use without just compensation and 
 in accordance with law. There is in the 
 State what is known as the right of emi- 
 
 44 
 
nent domain. The State reserves to itself 
 the power to take the land of any private 
 citizen for a public use, paying to that 
 private citizen a just compensation to be 
 legally ascertained. When a corporation 
 wishes to build a railroad, it exercises this 
 right of eminent domain, and where the 
 owner of land refuses to sell a right of way, 
 or land for the establishment of stations 
 or shops, and the corporation proceeds to 
 condemn the land to ascertain its value, 
 and when the amount thus ascertained is 
 paid, the property vests in the corporation. 
 This power is exercised because in the es- 
 timation of the people the construction of 
 a railway is a public good. , 
 I believe that this power should be exer- 
 cised in another direction. It would be 
 well as it seems to me, for the Legislature 
 to fix the amount of land that a private 
 citizen may own, that will not be subject 
 to be taken away for the use of which I 
 am about to speak. The amount to be thus 
 
 45 
 
 Crimes; 
 &gain*t 
 
 Criminals 
 
Crimes 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminate 
 
 held will depend upon many local circum- 
 stances, to be decided by each State for 
 itself. Let me suppose that the amount of 
 land that may be held for a farmer for cul- 
 tivation has been fixed at one hundred 
 and sixty acres — and suppose that A has 
 several thousand acres. B wishes to buy 
 one hundred and sixty acres or less of this 
 land, for the purpose of making himself a 
 home. A refuses to sell. Now, I believe 
 that the law should be so that B can in- 
 voke his right of eminent domain and file 
 his petition, have the case brought before 
 the jury, or before commissioners, who shall 
 hear the evidence and determine its value, 
 and on the payment of the amount the 
 land shall belong to B. 
 I would extend the same law to lots and 
 houses in cities and villages — the object 
 being to fill our country with owners of 
 homes, so that every child shall have a 
 fireside, every father and mother a roof, 
 provided they have the intelligence, the 
 
 46 
 
energy and the industry to supply the 
 necessary means. 
 
 Tenements and flats and rented lands are, 
 in my judgment, the enemies of civiliza- 
 tion. They make the rich richer, and the 
 poor poorer. They put a few in palaces, 
 but they put many in prisons. 
 I would go a step farther than this. I 
 would exempt homes of a certain value 
 not only from levy and sale, but from any 
 kind of taxation, State and National— so 
 that these poor people would feel that they 
 were in partnership with nature — that 
 some of the land was absolutely theirs, 
 and that no one could drive them from 
 their homes — so that mothers could feel 
 secure. If the home increased in value and 
 exceeded the limit, then taxes could be 
 paid on the excess; and if the home were 
 sold, I would have the money realized ex- 
 empt for a certain time in order that the 
 family should have the privilege of buying 
 another home. 
 
 47 
 
 Crimes 
 
 9gaitt0t 
 
 Criminal* 
 
Crimea 
 
 Sgaitrti 
 
 Criminals! 
 
 The home, after all, is the unit of civile 
 zation, of good government; and to secure 
 homes for a great majority of our citizens, 
 would be to lay the foundations of our 
 Government deeper, broader and stronger 
 than that of any nation that has existed 
 among men. 
 
 "O one places a higher value upon 
 the free school than I do; and no 
 one takes greater pride in the 
 prosperity of our colleges and universities. 
 But at the same time, much that is called 
 education simply unfits men to successfully 
 fight the battle of life. Thousands are to- 
 day studying things that will be of ex- 
 ceedingly little importance to them or to 
 others. Much valuable time is wasted in 
 studying languages that long ago were 
 dead, and histories in which there is no 
 truth. 
 
 There was an idea in the olden time — and 
 it is not yet dead — that whoever was ed- 
 
 48 
 
ucated ought not to work? that he should 
 use his head and not his hands. Graduates 
 were ashamed to be found engaged in 
 manual labor, in plowing fields, in sowing 
 or gathering grain. To this manly kind of 
 independence they preferred the garret and 
 the precarious existence of an unappreci- 
 ated poet, borrowing their money from 
 their friends, and their ideas from the dead. 
 The educated regard the useful as degra- 
 ding — they were willing to stain their souls 
 to keep their hands white. 
 The object of all education should be to 
 increase the usefulness of man — usefulness 
 to himself and others. Every human being 
 should be taught that his first duty is to 
 take care of himself, and that to be self- 
 respecting he must be self-supporting. To 
 live on the labor of others, either by the 
 force which enslaves, or by cunning which 
 robs, or by borrowing or begging, is wholly 
 dishonorable. Every man should be taught 
 some useful art +$ His hands should be 
 
 49 
 
 €rlmti 
 Criminate 
 
Crimea educated as well as his head. He should be 
 ajjaituit taught to deal with things as they are— 
 Criminate w j t j 1 \tf e as j t [ Sm This would give a feeling 
 of independence* which is the firmest foun- 
 dation of honor, of character. Every man 
 knowing that he is useful* admires him- 
 self | & 
 
 In all schools children should be taught to 
 work in wood and iron, to understand the 
 construction and use of machinery, to be- 
 come acquainted with the great forces that 
 man is using to do his work. The present 
 system of education teaches names, not 
 things. It is as though we should spend 
 years in learning the names of cards, 
 without playing a game. 
 In this way boys would learn their apti- 
 tudes — would ascertain what they are 
 fitted for — what they could do. It would 
 not be a guess, or an experiment, but a 
 demonstration. Education should increase 
 a boy's chances for getting a living. The 
 real good of it is to get food and roof and 
 
 50 
 
raiment; opportunity to develop the mind Crimes 
 
 arid body and live a mil and ample life, &gaftu(t 
 
 Q The more real education, the less crime ^ r 
 — and the more homes the fewer prisons. 
 
 THE fear of punishment may deter 
 some, the fear of exposure others; 
 but there is no real reforming 
 power in fear or punishment. Men cannot 
 be tortured into greatness, into goodness. 
 AH this, as I said before, has been thor- 
 oughly tried, the idea that punishment 
 was the only relief, found its limit, its in- 
 finite, in the old doctrine of eternal pain; 
 but the believers in that dogma stated dis- 
 tinctly that the victims never would be, 
 and never could be reformed. 
 A§ men become civilized they become ca- 
 pable of greater pain and of greater joy. To 
 thg extent that the average man is capa- 
 blf of enjoying or suffering, to that extent 
 hq has sympathy with others. The average 
 itnan, the more enlightened he becomes, 
 
 51 
 
Crimed 
 
 Sgatnfit 
 
 Criminate 
 
 the more apt he is to put himself in the 
 place of another. He thinks of his pris- 
 oner, of his employe, of his tenant"— and 
 he even thinks beyond these; he thinks of 
 the community at large. As a man be- 
 comes civilized he takes more and more 
 into consideration circumstances and con- 
 ditions. He gradually loses faith in the old 
 ideas and theories that every man can do 
 as he wills, and in the place of the word 
 "wills," he puts the word "must." The 
 time comes to the intelligent man when in 
 the place of punishment he thinks of con- 
 sequences, results — that is to say, not 
 something inflicted by some other power, 
 but something necessarily going out of 
 what is done. The clearer men perceive the 
 consequences of actions, the better they 
 will be. Behind consequences we place no 
 personal will, and consequently do not re- 
 gard them as inflictions, or punishments. 
 Consequences, no matter how severe they 
 may be, create in the mind no feeling of 
 
 52 
 
resentment, no desire for revenge. We do 
 not feel bitterly towards the fire because 
 it burns, or the frost that freezes, or the 
 flood that overwhelms, or the sea that 
 drowns — because we attribute to these 
 things no motives, good or bad. So, when 
 through the development of the intellect 
 man perceives not only the nature, but 
 the absolute certainty of consequences, he 
 refrains from certain actions, and this may 
 be called reformation through the intellect 
 —and surely there is no reformation better 
 than this | Some may be, and probably 
 millions have been, reformed, through 
 kindness, through gratitude — made better 
 in the sunlight of charity. In the atmos- 
 phere of kindness the seeds of virtue burst 
 into bud and flower. Cruelty, tyranny, 
 brute force, do not and cannot by any 
 possibility better the heart of man. He 
 who is forced upon his knees has the atti- 
 tude, but never the feeling, of prayer. 
 I am satisfied that the discipline of the 
 
 53 
 
 Crimes 
 
 &gafa£t 
 
 Criminate 
 
Crimes 
 
 against 
 
 Criminals 
 
 average prison hardens and degrades. It is 
 for the most part a perpetual exhibition of 
 arbitrary power. There is really no appeal. 
 The cries of the convict are not heard 
 beyond the walls. The protests die in cells, 
 and the poor prisoner feels that the last 
 tie between him and his fellow men has 
 been broken. He is kept in ignorance of 
 the outer world.. The prison is a cemetery, 
 and his cell is a grave. 
 In many of the penitentiaries there are 
 instruments of torture, and how and then 
 a convict is murdered. Inspection and in- 
 vestigations go for naught, because the 
 testimony of a convict goes for naught. 
 He is generally prevented by fear from 
 telling his wrongs; but if he speaks, he is 
 not believed— he is regarded as less than 
 a human being, arid so the imprisoned re- 
 main without remedy. When the visitors 
 are gone, the convict who has spoken is 
 prevented from speaking again. 
 Every manly feeling, every effort toward 
 
 54 
 
real reformation, is trampled under foot, 
 so that when the convict's time is out 
 there is little left on which to build. He 
 has been humiliated to the last degree, 
 and his spirit has so long been bent by 
 authority and fear that even the desire to 
 stand erect is almost faded from the mind. 
 The keepers feel that they are safe, because 
 no matter what they do, the convict when 
 released will not tell the story of his 
 wrongs, for if he conceals his shame, he 
 must also hide their guilt. 
 Every penitentiary should be a real reform- 
 atory. That should be the principal object 
 for the establishment of the prison. The 
 men in charge should be of the kindest 
 and noblest. They should be filled with 
 divine enthusiasm for humanity, and every 
 means should be taken to convince the 
 prisoner that his good is sought — that 
 nothing is done for revenge — nothing for 
 a display of power, and nothing for the 
 gratification of malice £ He should feel 
 
 55 
 
 Crimea 
 
 against 
 
 Criminals 
 
Crime* that the warden is his unselfish friend. 
 Sgatnait When the convict is charged with a vio- 
 Crimittal* lation of the rules — with insubordination, 
 or with any offense, there should be an 
 investigation in due and proper form, giv- 
 ing the convict an opportunity to be heard. 
 He should not be for one moment the 
 victim of irresponsible power. He would 
 then feel that he had some rights, and that 
 some little of the human remained in him 
 still & They should be taught things of 
 value and instructed by competent men. 
 Pains should be taken, not to punish, not 
 to degrade, but to benefit and ennoble. 
 Q We know, if we know anything, that 
 men in the penitentiaries are not alto- 
 gether bad, and that many out are not 
 altogether good; and we feel that in the 
 brain and heart of all, there are seeds of 
 good and bad. We know, too, that the 
 best are liable to fall, and it may be that 
 the worst, under certain conditions, may 
 be capable of grand and heroic deeds. Of 
 
 56 
 
one thing we maybe assured — and that is, 
 that criminals will never be reformed by 
 being humiliated and degraded. 
 Ignorance, filth, and poverty are the mis- 
 sionaries of crime. As long as dishonorable 
 success outranks honest effort — as long as 
 society bows and cringes before the great 
 thieves, there will be little ones enough to 
 fill the jails. 
 
 Crime* 
 
 &gain*t 
 
 Criminals! 
 
 ALL the penalties, all the punish- 
 ments, are inflicted under a belief 
 that man can do right under all 
 circumstances — that his conduct is abso- 
 lutely under his control, and that his will 
 is a pilot that can, in spite of winds and 
 tides, reach any port desired. All this is, 
 in my judgment, a mistake. It is a denial 
 of the integrity of nature. It is based upon 
 the supernatural and miraculous, and as 
 long as this mistake remains the corner- 
 stone of criminal jurisprudence, reforma- 
 tion will be impossible. 
 
 57 
 
Crimea 
 
 against 
 
 Criminate 
 
 We must take into consideration the na- 
 ture of man — the facts of mind — the power 
 of temptation — the limitations of the in- 
 tellect — the force of habit — the result of 
 heredity — the power of passion — the dom- 
 ination of want — the diseases of the brain 
 — the tyranny of appetite — the cruelty of 
 conditions — the results of association — the 
 effects of poverty and wealth, of helpless- 
 ness and power. 
 
 Until these subtle things are understood — 
 until we know that man, in spite of all, can 
 certainly pursue the highway of the right, 
 society should not impoverish and degrade, 
 should not chain and kill those who, after 
 all, may be the helpless victims of unknown 
 causes that are deaf and blind. 
 We know something of ourselves — of the 
 average man — of his thoughts, passions, 
 fears and aspirations — something of his 
 sorrows and his joys, his weakness, his 
 liability to fall — something of what he 
 resists — the struggles, the victories and the 
 
 58 
 
failures of his life. We know something 
 of the tides and currents of the mysterious 
 sea — something of the circuits of the way- 
 ward winds — but we do not know where 
 the wild storms are born that wreck and 
 rend. Neither do we know in what strange 
 realm the mists and clouds are formed that 
 darken all the heaven of the mind, nor 
 from whence comes the tempest of the 
 brain, in which the will to do, sudden as 
 the lightning's flash, seizes and holds the 
 man until the dreadful deed is done that 
 leaves a curse upon his soul. 
 We do not know. Our ignorance should 
 make us hesitate. Our weakness should 
 make us merciful. 
 
 I cannot more fittingly close this address 
 than by quoting the prayer of the Bud- 
 dhist: "I pray thee to have pity on the 
 vicious — thou hast already had pity on the 
 virtuous by making them so." 
 
 Crimes! 
 
 Against 
 
 Criminals; 
 
 59 
 
HERE THEN ENDS CRIMES AGAINST 
 CRIMINALS, WRITTEN BY ROBERT G. 
 INGERSOLL, AND DONE INTO A BOOK 
 BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR 
 SHOP, IN EAST AURORA, WHICH IS 
 IN ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, MCMVI 
 
ELBERT 
 HUBBARD (fe£ 
 
1 — ■"■"■' 
 
 HV 8982 1*4-7 
 
 
 Author 
 
 Ingersoll 
 
 Vol. 
 
 Title 
 
 Crimes Against Criminals 
 
 Copy 
 
 
 - 
 
 Date 
 
 Borrower's Name 
 
 
 
 
 , . .^