As the beautiful excellence of a head may be a desideratum only remedied by the “Excelsior,” of the brain, so a great man ought to exhibit his wisdom by his liberality to the unfortunate among men as a token of philanthropy, unbounded by party lines, unfettered by chain-cable opinions, and untrammelled by cast-iron rules. Why slur the noble project of letting the prisoners go free by petition? It is sanctioned by ancient custom; it is the counsel of God, and would be the only visible testimony to the world that this realm is what it professes to be, a Government of Liberty! Heaven, earth, and hell know that the penitentiaries of the several states are a disgrace to the , and a stink in the nostrils of the Almighty. And the county and city prisons are still worse. Unfortunate men, and in nine cases out of ten, innocent, are hurled into prison by corrupted Judges, suborned witnesses, or ungodly men who gamble themselves into Congress, into Legislatures, into courts, into churches, and into notice and power, and then damn their friends and fellow beings to prison, wretchedness and ruin. And in ninety and nine cases out of a hundred, the prisoners are treated meaner than dogs; half starved to put money into the pockets of specula[t]ors; fed upon unwholesome provisions; whipped without mercy and even murdered wi[t]h impunity. Look at the beastly conduct of * * * * to the female in Auburn State Prison, N. Y. Remember a man was whipped to death, not long since in penitentiary, Illinois; and it is not uncommon to lacerate with the ‘rope’s end’ [t]hirty men at once, in the parish prisons of , so that the voice of reason now cries from the vast numbers of prisons and the multiplying number of prison[e]rs in the for relief; and the death like groans from cells, bastiles, castles, and cursed holes throughout the earth, is ascending up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth to be avenged of such cruelty. And when great men, in high places, see a shoot out his own brains with a rifle; or gaze upon the havoc made by the bursting of a ‘great gun’ among the ‘Executives’ of the , then know ye, the hour of his judgement is come!

The is the boasted land of ‘Liberty,’ where ‘these truths are held self evident’—that ALL men are created equal; and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness: but at the same time, in the face of these truths, slavery is tolerated by law: imprisonment is tolerated by law: an[d] murder is tolerated by law: and even fifteen thousand free citizens are exiled from one state t[o] another—and the General Government has no power, (according to the opinions of and ) to redress the wrong. O, Queen Victoria, and ye lords and commons of Great Britain, what think ye of a Republican Government? and how do you imagine your daughter will come out in her attempt at equal rights and reigning in righteousness? Pshaw! (will they answer.) your coffers are robbed with impunity; your citizens are mobbed, and driven like chaff from the threshing floor, and the government controlled by a set of money gambling, chicken hearted, public fed cowards, cannot redress you! Ask the reigning sovereigns of Europe, Africa and Asia, what they think of the boasted Republic in ! and will they not laugh in the face of the whole world, and taunt the , by exclaiming: Ah! hah! ah! hah! If there is any power in a Republican Government, in a real case of necessity, you have failed to find just men to exercise it. Party spirit cuts the cords of union; patronage veils the face of justice, and bribery closes the lips of honor, and when the wicked rule the people mourn.

Perhaps it may be said, the government has been adequate to the calls of justice; and I answer, if it has, it was because the officers in authority considered their honor and the rights of the people, paramount to patronage, pelf andpopularity!

They were patriots who carried out the poet’s explanation of true greatness:

It is said that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,’ and when men are called ‘quadrupeds,’ and ridicule occupies the place of reason, and the virtue, dignity, honor, power, and majesty of the people seem to be buried in rubbish; covered with dust; mildewed with fog; tainted with treachery; burlesqued by blackguards; or humbled by debauchees; it it high time for humanity to excl[a]in: ‘How has the gold become dim, and where has the glory departed?

The only suggestion worthy of commenda [p. 509]