A visit to the Philadelphia prison; being an accurate and particular account of the wise and humane administration adopted in every part of that building; containing also an account of the gradual reformation, and present improved state of the penal laws of Pennsylvania: with observations on the impolicy and injustice of capital punishments ... In a letter to a friend / By Robert J. Turnbull.

  • Turnbull, Robert J. (Robert James), 1775-1833.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A visit to the Philadelphia prison; being an accurate and particular account of the wise and humane administration adopted in every part of that building; containing also an account of the gradual reformation, and present improved state of the penal laws of Pennsylvania: with observations on the impolicy and injustice of capital punishments ... In a letter to a friend / By Robert J. Turnbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    covered tliefe attributes ? Their knowledge furely cannot coniift in imitating a fyftem, begotten in ty¬ ranny, and fan&ioned by error and cuftom: their love of the human race is not evidenced by the nume¬ rous victims to their laws: and their juftice, I hope, will not be faid to exift in fuch an ufurpation of power over the life of an individual. Independent, then, of the ill policy of capital pu~ nifhments, proved by the difadvantages accruing to communities fince the introdu&ion of them, they ought not to be permitted in a free government, inafmuch as it is an encroachment, as juft obferved, on the rights of individuals. It may feem ftrange, that the power of a legiflature, appointed by the nation at large, and who are faid to fpeak the will of the people, fhould be queftioned, and that laws pafted by them fhould be deemed unjuft : fuch never* thelefs is the cafe. The idea fo generally accepted, that a fociety can enaft any laws whatever, for the their regulation and benefit, will, upon being viewed ftri&ly, turn out an erroneous one. Although the fovereignty of a country may exercife all the autho¬ rity veiled in them, by the common confent of the governed, yet it fhould be recollefted, that they can hold no more power than their conftituents them- felves could poftefs; and if they make ufe of any other, it is aflumed. To illuftrate this: Men origi¬ nally had the privilege of doing whatever they pleafed, without any kind of reftraint, which was not for¬ bidden by the laws of nature or laws of God, which we deem their natural liberty. From the numberlefs inconveniences under which they laboured, by living without government and laws ; from the expofure of fome to the depredations of thole more ftrong and cunning than others, they were thus early induced to form themfelves into civil fociety. From a fenfe of their weakneftes, they were urged to this method of fecuring to them what they were unable to protect e themfelves$