Documents relative to the House of Refuge, instituted by the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the city of New York, in 1824 / Pub. by permission of the Board of managers, by Nathaniel C. Hart, superintendent.

  • Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City of New-York.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Documents relative to the House of Refuge, instituted by the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the city of New York, in 1824 / Pub. by permission of the Board of managers, by Nathaniel C. Hart, superintendent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    61 of accounts, that the funds of which the Board has been put in possession, are all pledged in the erection of the building on hand, and will scarcely be adequate to its completion. The House of Refuge has been brought into existence by the animating sympathies of our city for the destitute objects whom it embraces. But how it is to be supported,—by what unquestion- able means its continuance and its prosperity are to be secured, are considerations which call for the de- liberate attention of the Society, and which cannot but excite a feeling in the breast of every enlightened member of our community, who has turned his atten- tion to the nature and tendency of this institution. That the free-will offers of benevolent citizens will, when called for, still flow to its support, cannot be doubted from the manifestations already obtained of heart-felt interest in our cause. The same liberal hands that have given us a place and a name, are able to insure our continuance, and even to enlarge the sphere of our useful activity. But the question w ill naturally arise,—Ought such an institution as this to rest for its support on the voluntary contributions of a city, whatever may be the extent of the benevolence which it is calculated to excite ? Is it of that local and incidental character w7hich places it in the class of those objects which are fitted merely to awaken the impulse of spontaneous charity? We would venture to call upon the members of our Corporation and of our state Legislature, to view7 the facts in relation to this question. Can there be a more legitimate and worthy object of legislative provision than the educa- tion of the destitute? And of all classes of the desti- tute, have not they the most emphatic claim to the charity of public instruction, w;ho have the misfortune to be drawn into the vortex of crime, by the force of inevitable suffering, by the urgency of guilty parents, by the excitement of wicked associates ? Our state is beginning to stand in the very front of those countries which view the question of education under the most truly enlightened aspect;—which conceive it to be a solemn duty to provide liberally for the instruction of all its children,—and to spare the hand of correction, and the brand of infamy, from those whose juvenile de-