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 ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 kit IntatBtrid ^400! f0r iirls, 
 
 AT LANCASTER, AUG. 27, 1856: 
 
 ADDRESSES BY H. B. ROGERS, ESQ., HON. G. S. BOUTWELL, 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 
 22, School Street. 
 
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 1856. 
 
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 ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
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 AT LANCASTER, AUG. 27, 1856; 
 
 ADDRESSES BY H. B. EOGERS, ESQ., HON. G. S. BOUTWELL, 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
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 JOHN WILSON 
 , School Street. 
 1856. 
 
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 SON,
 
 OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 Supertntcnticnt anU ©ijapldin. 
 BRADFORD K. PEIRCE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 . E. BOYNTON. 
 i^atrons. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 C. M. I. CARPENTER. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 MARY M. WILLARD. 
 
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 GOVERNMENT. 
 
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 ^Trusters. 
 
 
 
 WILDER S. THURSTON. 
 
 . Lancaster. 
 
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 WILLIAM R. LAWRENCE . 
 
 . Boston. 
 
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 LABAN M. WHEATON . 
 
 . Norton. 
 
 
 FRANCIS B. FAY .... 
 
 . Chelsea. 
 
 
 CHARLES BUNKER. 
 
 . ROXBURT. 
 
 
 JAMES DEANE 
 
 . Greenfield 
 
 
 DANIEL DENNY .... 
 
 . Dorchester 
 
 LABAN M. WHEATON. 
 
 Scrretarg. 
 WILLIAM R. LAWRENCE. 
 
 STrcasurrr, 
 FRANCIS B. FAY. 
 
 ISjrecutibc CItommittee. 
 
 FRANCIS B. FAY. | WM. R. LAWRENCE. 
 CHARLES BUNKER. 
 
 397477
 
 Note. — The following account is taken from the "Boston Daily 
 Advertiser" of Aug. 28, 1856.
 
 PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 In accordance with previous appointment, the cere- 
 monies of the inauguration of the State Industrial 
 School (originally called the State Reform School) for 
 Girls, at Lancaster, took place on Wednesday. The 
 weather was delightful, — it was a magnificent latter- 
 August day : there was a clear sky and atmosphere, 
 and a bright sun, without the least uncomfortable 
 heat or disagreeable chilliness. The fine old town of 
 Lancaster appeared to great advantage as seen by the 
 visitors, who were attracted, some of them for the first 
 time, within its borders, by their interest in the pro- 
 posed ceremonies. The beautiful interval, covered 
 with a luxurious verdure ; the grand old trees ; and 
 the intelligent and hospitable people, — created a 
 most favorable impression. And in the crowded 
 annals of the town, which for two centuries has 
 known many good deeds, we doubt if any day will 
 present a brighter page in the local history than the 
 27th of August, 1856.
 
 A special train over the Fitchburg and Nashua 
 and Worcester Railroads, by means of the connection 
 at Groton Junction, speedily conveyed the party from 
 Boston to Lancaster, leaving Boston at nine o'clock 
 in the morning. About one hundred and fifty gentle- 
 men composed this party, including his excellency 
 the Governor, several members of the Executive 
 Council, heads of departments, the Sergeant-at-arms, 
 the Sheriff of Middlesex, and others representing the 
 State Government ; Moses Grant, Esq., Sampson 
 Reed, Esq., Rev. Andrew Bigelow, and other gentle- 
 men of this city, distinguished for their interest in 
 schemes of practical benevolence. At the Lancaster 
 Station, the party was informally welcomed by Rev. 
 Bradford K. Peirce, Superintendent and Chaplain of 
 the Institution, and was conveyed in carriages to the 
 site of the buildings, distant from the station about 
 one mile. 
 
 Before proceeding further in our account, we may 
 as well state, that it is the design of this Institution 
 to afford to exposed and helpless girls that protection, 
 on the part of the State, which their natural protec- 
 tors either cannot or will not afford. Its subjects 
 will be taken between the ages of seven and sixteen, 
 on the warrant of Judges of Probate, after an exami- 
 nation, at which any person professing a right of 
 control or guardianship over the girl will be heard. 
 They will be committed until they shall attain the 
 age of sixteen, and will be detained in the School so
 
 iong as may appear necessary or expedient, and may 
 then be placed in families. In the cities and towns, 
 Commissioners may be appointed by the Governor, 
 having the same authority to send girls to the School 
 as the Judges of Probate. 
 
 The examination of the fitness of a girl for the 
 School must not be regarded as a criminal proceed- 
 ing : the sending of the girl there is not a punish- 
 ment, nor is the School in any sense a prison. 
 
 For the better execution of this design, it was 
 determined not to erect any gigantic building for the 
 accommodation of a numerous crowd of inmates, but 
 rather to give the girls the feeling of residing like 
 a family in a home. 
 
 The Commissioners who were appointed by Gover- 
 nor Washburn to select a site, erect buildings, and 
 prepare a plan for the Institution, were Messrs. John 
 H. Wilkins, Henry B. Rogers, and Francis B. Fay. 
 They have nobly discharged their duty, and have 
 fully justified the wisdom of Governor Washburn 
 in selecting them, and the generous confidence of 
 Governor Gardner in retaining them to the comple- 
 tion of their task. After a diligent examination of 
 various localities, and comparison of advantages, they 
 selected the old " Stillwell Place," in the town of 
 Lancaster. Here they were so fortunate as to be 
 able to purchase a hundred acres of excellent land, 
 with a large, old-fashioned mansion-house, built of 
 brick, two wooden dwelling-houses, with barns and
 
 8 
 
 fixtures, for a sum a little exceeding ten thousand 
 dollars. The two wooden houses are well adapted 
 for the residences of the Superintendent and of the 
 Farmer, respectively. The mansion-house was en- 
 larged and fitted for the purposes of the School 
 at an expense of about four thousand dollars, and 
 two new brick buildings were put up at an expense 
 of about twelve thousand fi\e hundred dollars each. 
 These sums, with some other expenses of construc- 
 tion, were met by the original State appropriation of 
 twenty thousand dollars, and the private subscription 
 of twenty thousand three hundred dollars. The State 
 also appropriated ^ye thousand dollars for furnishing 
 the buildings, and likewise bears the current expenses 
 of maintenance. 
 
 The two new buildings, with the mansion-house, 
 make three separate " homes " for three separate 
 " families " of girls, which are designed to be kept 
 distinct in most respects, with separate matrons and 
 assistants residing in each house, but united under 
 the general care of one superintendent. The two 
 new buildings are precisely alike. They are con- 
 structed of brick, in the best style, without ornament, 
 and neatly and appropriately furnished. The follow- 
 ing general description will give an idea of their 
 appearance and internal arrangement : Each of 
 them is two stories in height, and constructed in 
 the form of an L. Entering at the front-door, which 
 is near the angle of the L, on your right is the
 
 9 
 
 parlor ; from which opens the " workroom," likewise 
 on the right hand of the entry ; next this is a small 
 lighted room or closet; and a schoolroom, at the 
 end of the entry, occupies the remainder of the L. 
 All the rooms appear small to one who has the idea 
 of a public institution in his mind ; but, compared 
 with the private dwellings of persons in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, they are of sufficient size. The school- 
 room is fitted with desks for thirty scholars. Opposite 
 the workroom, on the left of the entry, is the laun- 
 dry, and a large closet adjoining. 
 
 Starting again at the front-door, at the left hand, 
 opposite the parlor, is the dining-room ; from which 
 we proceed through the other arm of the L into 
 the kitchen, a large lighted pantry intervening. In 
 this part of the building are likewise a bathroom, 
 washroom, and drying-room. There is a passage lead- 
 ing from a door in the end of this arm of the L into 
 the main entry, between the dining-room and the 
 large closet adjoining the laundry. 
 
 On the second story, over the parlor, is the ma- 
 tron's room; over the workroom is the general 
 dormitory, containing six beds designed for twelve 
 inmates; over the dining-room is a room called the 
 " hospital ; " and at each end of the L are eight small 
 single bedrooms. The attic is finished as a safe and 
 commodious playroom ; and there are one or two 
 rooms in this part of the house which may be used 
 as additional dormitories, on an emergency.
 
 10 
 
 All the rooms are very thoroughly ventilated. The 
 houses are heated by furnaces. There is a copious 
 supply of pure water carried to the highest part of 
 the houses: it is brought from an unfailing spring, 
 about one mile distant, in iron pipes lined with 
 porcelain. The head has an elevation of a hundred 
 and eight feet above the plateau on which the houses 
 stand ; and the arrangement is thus an effective safe- 
 guard in case of fire, as well as a great domestic con- 
 venience. There is a fountain, or jet, in the centre of 
 the grounds, from which a small stream was played 
 during a portion of the exercises. 
 
 The furniture is neat, and not luxurious. A little 
 bed, a bureau, a chair, a small piece of carpeting, a 
 diminutive mirror, and a Bible, complete the appoint- 
 ments of the single dormitories. But every thing is 
 nice, and all the arrangements are of the most con- 
 venient description. Each of the three houses is 
 designed to accommodate thirty girls. The rooms 
 of the Matron and her Assistant are so arranged that 
 they can have a general supervision over the whole 
 establishment. We neglected to obtain an exact 
 measurement; but the length of each arm of the L 
 is about seventy-five feet, and the breadth about 
 thirty. We should mention, that the shape of the 
 buildings is not perfectly regular; but there are 
 slight variations, which add to their convenience, 
 and give them a better appearance. 
 
 The mansion-house is three stories in height (the
 
 11 
 
 water is carried to the highest), and differs somewhat 
 in its internal arrangement from the others; but it 
 has been made, by new partitions, to conform sub- 
 stantially to the general plan. The roof of each 
 house commands a tine prospect, embracing beautiful 
 scenery far and near, the summits of Wachusett and 
 Monadnock being distinctly visible in the distance. 
 Large trees abound in the grounds about the 
 houses. 
 
 We have already mentioned the name of Mr. Peirce, 
 the Superintendent, who resides with his family in 
 one of the wooden houses. The Farmer, Mr. A. E. 
 Boynton, resides in another. The two Matrons 
 already appointed are Mrs. C. M. S. Carpenter and 
 Mrs. Mary M. Willard. 
 
 For a chapel for the Institution, a small church, 
 standing in the village of South Lancaster, has been 
 purchased, and will be moved to the grounds. There 
 are handsome bookcases in the " workrooms," and 
 the beginning of a library ; but we should think the 
 donation of books might be acceptable. 
 
 There is no paint in any part of the new build- 
 ings. The wood-work is the chestnut-elm, finely 
 finished, and presenting a handsome appearance un- 
 painted. There are commodious cellars under all 
 the buildings. They have been erected under the 
 unremitting superintendence of Mr. J. E. Howe, 
 and the personal supervision of the Commissioners. 
 All the work has been done " by the day ; " and
 
 12 
 
 they are fine specimens of thorough and unostenta- 
 tious workmanship. 
 
 The time, after the arrival of the train, was spent 
 by the visitors in wandering about the grounds, and 
 over the houses, until one o'clock, when the com- 
 pany, numbering from one to two thousand gentle- 
 men and ladies, were collected in front of the old 
 mansion-house, on the porch of which a platform 
 was erected. Part of the company being seated, 
 while others were standing, under the shade of the 
 fine old trees, the ladies clad in their gay summer 
 attire, relieved by the duller hues of the gentlemen's 
 masculine apparel, the scene presented a lively and 
 picturesque appearance. The people of Lancaster 
 appear to take much interest in the success of the 
 School, — a circumstance which augurs favorably for 
 its success ; and they attended the ceremonies in con- 
 siderable numbers. Music was furnished by the 
 Worcester Cornet Band, supported by a numerous 
 vocal choir composed of the union of the young 
 gentlemen and ladies of the two church choirs of 
 the town. 
 
 Shortly after one o'clock, Hon. John H. Wilkins, 
 of this city, in behalf of the Commissioners, called 
 the assembly to order, and welcomed the company 
 to the services and ceremonies of the Inauguration 
 OF THE State Industrial School for Girls. 
 
 Willis's familiar Hymn, " The perfect world, by 
 Adam trod," altered for the occasion, was read by Rev.
 
 13 
 
 Franklin B. Doe, of Lancaster, and sung by the 
 choir. The same clergyman next read some appro- 
 priate selections from the Scriptures ; after which a 
 devout prayer was offered by Rev. George M. Bar- 
 TOL, of Lancaster. 
 
 Henry B. Eogers, Esq., in behalf of the Com- 
 missioners, then delivered an Address, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Trustees, Gentlemen, and Ladies, — We have come 
 to perform a pleasant duty. Under the patronage of the 
 Executive, and in the presence of this concourse of intelligent 
 citizens, we are assembled to inaugurate a new institution 
 for the benefit of ourselves and the rising generation. Thanks 
 to our Pilgrim Fathers, this is no new or unaccustomed duty. 
 They had scarcely made a lodgment in the wilderness be- 
 fore they founded a college for the instruction of youth in 
 knowledge and religion ; and their successors have faithfully 
 followed in their footsteps. Churches, colleges, schools, 
 libraries, observatories, galleries, museums, hospitals, asy- 
 lums, institutions of all sorts for the cultivation, growth, 
 and diffusion of religion, literature, science, and art, or 
 for the cure and amelioration of the thousand ills, physical 
 and moral, to which humanity is subject, have, from time 
 to time, been established and put into successful operation 
 by the State, by incorporated bodies, and by private indivi- 
 duals ; and they are this day, as a general thing, in a 
 flourishing condition, and doing their beneficent work. Yes, 
 my friends, the principles and the spirit of our Puritan 
 forefathers have made this Commonwealth the nursing mo- 
 ther of institutions designed for the improvement and 
 welfare of society. Massachusetts, — time-honored Massa- 
 
 3
 
 14 
 
 chusetts, reviled and insulted Massachusetts, — in this hour 
 of darkness, passion, and prejudice, may proudly point to 
 these her jewels. They are the golden fruits of the tree 
 which her fathers planted, and which her sons have not 
 ceased to water. True to herself, to the constitution, to 
 conscience, to law, and to liberty, she will calmly wait the 
 judgment of posterity upon her policy and her acts. If 
 she fail not in this crisis of public aflfairs. Time, the great 
 vindicator, will do her justice at last. All her sisters, even, 
 shall rise up and call her blessed. 
 
 Every public institution is an expression of the position 
 and condition of the community in which it takes its rise ; and 
 perhaps one of the best tests of progress in civilization is 
 the provision which is made for the welfare of the masses 
 of the citizens. For the physical and moral condition of 
 what, in most States, are called the lower orders, in a great 
 degree, fixes and determines the limits to which the body 
 politic, as a whole, can advance. Great and good men may 
 abound in a nation ; certain classes may advance rapidly 
 in wealth, knowledge, and culture ; all the arts and sciences 
 of life may flourish ; a halo of glory and prosperity may 
 spread itself over the surface of things : but if the masses 
 of the people be despised or neglected, if they be suffered 
 to become or remain ignorant, degraded, and corrupt, no 
 real or permanent growth can be maintained. The tree may 
 put forth a fair show of leaves ; it may even bear some fruit : 
 but if its roots, with their thousand delicate ramifications, 
 receive no appropriate nourishment from the soil in which 
 they are fixed, it will inevitably die down, and at last perish 
 for ever. History, in all its examples, teaches this sad lesson. 
 And hence it is one of the most hopeful signs of our times, 
 and one of the main securities for the permanent conserva- 
 tion of modern society, that more and more attention is now
 
 15 
 
 bestowed upon the condition of the poorer and less-favored 
 classes of the citizens. In England, especially, the thought 
 of the wisest and best-educated minds is engaged in devising 
 well-digested schemes for its amelioration and improvement. 
 Laborious investigations into the causes and condition of 
 poverty and crime, by Parliament ; elaborate discussions in 
 the great reviews ; and a host of books and pamphlets, the 
 product of thoughtful men and women, — all bear testimony 
 to the interest and feeling of the British public upon this sub- 
 ject. In our own country, public attention has not been 
 drawn to poverty and crime, their causes, dangers, and 
 remedies, so widely or deeply as in England ; for these evils 
 have not pressed upon society here with the same iron grip 
 as there. Still, we have our model prisons, retreats, and 
 houses of reformation ; and there is good reason to believe 
 that the time is not distant, when these and kindred subjects 
 will assume that place in the public thought which their 
 real importance demands. This Commonwealth, some years 
 since, made noble provision for the education and moral 
 improvement of exposed and helpless boys, in founding an 
 establishment at "Westborough for their benefit ; and she now 
 proposes to perform a similar service for an equally wretched 
 and unfortunate class of girls. The claims of the latter, 
 indeed, upon her regard, are even greater than those of the 
 former ; for there is something in the unprotected condition 
 of females which appeals more directly to our sympathies; 
 and, besides, in the estimation of most reflecting persons, the 
 influence which they exert upon the moral welfare of society 
 is earlier put forth, wider, deeper, and more lasting, than that 
 of men. Individuals who have been distinguished for great- 
 ness or moral worth have generally been the children of 
 women of noble, elevated, and decided character ; and it is 
 certain that there is no surer index of the condition of any
 
 16 
 
 community than the character of its females. It was not, 
 therefore, we feel assured, from any want of interest in the 
 welfare of large numbers of young girls among us, nor 
 from any mistrust of the validity of their claims upon the 
 public regard, that the Legislature undertook, in the first 
 instance, to make provision for boys, but rather from the 
 conviction that it would be best to provide for each sex 
 separately ; and that, inasmuch as the appropriate treatment 
 of girls was generally looked upon as a matter sui generis, 
 and attended with difficulties of a formidable and peculiar 
 kind, it would, in the end, subserve their interests better to 
 provide for boys first, and thus make the experience acquired 
 in taking charge of them the means of obtaining at last a 
 more permanent and satisfactory provision for girls. The 
 soundness of these views will be generally admitted ; and we 
 have no doubt that the delay which has arisen will be more 
 than made up by the result, provided this Institution be now 
 faithfully and carefully administered. In 1854, the Legisla- 
 ture passed a resolve, which appropriated the sum of twenty 
 thousand dollars for the establishment of a Eeform School for 
 Girls, upon condition that an equal amount should be raised 
 by private donations ; and they also authorized the Governor 
 to appoint three Commissioners to propose a system of 
 organization and government, prepare plans and estimates, 
 and select a site. The proposed subscription having been 
 speedily obtained from generously disposed individuals, the 
 larger part of whom were citizens of Boston, the commission, 
 in whose behalf I now address you, entered upon their labors. 
 They did so with no little diffidence, for the service was 
 new, delicate, and difficult ; but also with a becoming spirit 
 and determination, for they regarded it as one of much 
 importance to the welfare, not only of the children who 
 were to be provided for, but of the State itself. They are
 
 n 
 
 here to-day to give an account of what they have done, and 
 to surrender this spot, with the buildings which they have 
 erected, into the hands of you, gentlemen, who have been 
 appointed by his excellency the Governor to take charge of 
 this noble charity, and to make of it all that the public has a 
 right to expect from men selected by the highest officer of 
 the State. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter into an argument to prove the 
 wisdom and urgent need of an institution like this we are 
 commencing here ; for every mind, that will give the subject 
 a moment's thought, must come to the same conclusion in 
 respect to it. That in all our large towns there is a consider- 
 able class of young girls, who, in consequence of the poverty, 
 ignorance, or moral degradation, of their parents and natural 
 protectors, or from the melancholy fact that they have no one 
 to care for and protect them, are living an idle, dissolute, and 
 wretched life, and that, by their position and condition, 
 these girls are sure to imbibe habits, passions, and vices which 
 will destroy their own happiness in life, and spread sin and 
 baneful influences through every circle with which they 
 come in contact, is well known and self-evident to every 
 man who walks through our streets. The law of self-pro- 
 tection, to say nothing of the law of Christian benevolence, 
 imperatively demands that some one, and, if any one, the 
 State itself, most appropriately, should interpose to amelio- 
 rate, if not to remedy, this sad state of things. And surely 
 the safest, the kindest, the least expensive remedy, in fact, the 
 only possible practical one, is to remove these children from 
 the position into which they have fallen, and place them 
 where they may receive the common comforts of life, and 
 such discipline and training as shall be likely to act upon 
 their characters for good. The Reform School, therefore, is 
 not only a necessity, — it is also a blessing ; for it takes the 
 custody of the child before its moral nature has become hard-
 
 18 
 
 ened, and before it has had much opportunity of corrupting 
 others. If it succeeds in nothing else, it at least interrupts 
 its criminal education at that critical time of life, when, 
 from its pliability, both of body and mind, it is likely to be 
 the aptest pupil ; and, if properly managed, it will do far 
 more than this, as the statistics of the best institutions 
 most abundantly prove. The Commissioners, then, could 
 have no doubts in respect to the necessity or utility of any 
 institution which should take charge of exposed and helpless 
 young girls ; for any change in the circumstances of children 
 situated as thousands are in this Commonwealth would be 
 for the better. 
 
 But the real question which addressed itself to them was, 
 "What sort of an institution, what system of discipline and 
 training, will be likely to effect the greatest amount of good ? 
 To determine satisfactorily this question, they have visited 
 various reformatory establishments in this and several of the 
 other States ; made written and verbal inquiries of many per- 
 sons, distinguished for their knowledge or experience, in 
 respect to the condition and management of unfortunate 
 children ; and read carefully whatever of importance has been 
 published upon the subject in this country, England, and 
 France. The knowledge gathered from these several sources, 
 accompanied by long and patient consideration of the subject 
 in all its various aspects, has gradually drawn them to the 
 conclusion to adopt the plan which, for the first time in this 
 country, is now commenced here. The arguments in its 
 favor are briefly the following : It is theoretically more sim- 
 ple, natural, and just ; more nearly conformable to the position 
 and habits of children ; admits of easier division and wider 
 classification ; and, practically, it has, in Germany, France, 
 and England, proved itself to be eminently successful. 
 This plan is founded upon the idea of a family, — the oldest, 
 the best, and the most cherished institution enjoyed by man.
 
 19 
 
 It considers the family as ordained by God, in special refer- 
 ence to its adaptation and fitness to the training of young 
 children; and consequently, that, when a child from any 
 cause is deprived of this blessing, the best substitute within 
 our reach is one that, in its arrangements and character, most 
 nearly resembles it. It maintains that a prison is not a fit 
 place for a child ; that its discipline is not adapted to his 
 habits or position, and will seldom make him better ; that he 
 is not the subject of punishment as such, and does not deserve 
 to be confined permanently ; that large numbers congregated 
 together in one building necessitate routine, prevent teachers 
 from obtaining any real hold of the individual, and foster 
 habits and feelings eminently opposed to any true moral 
 training. It declares that children, and especially girls, need, 
 most of all, a home ; that their organization, their disposi- 
 tions, their affections, their habits, their prospects and duties 
 in life, all emphatically require that they should have the re- 
 tirement, the sympathies, the occupations, and the discipline, 
 of a home. They should have some one whom they can at least 
 call mother ; they should have some place which should look 
 at least somewhat like a home. It would be interesting, and 
 might not be wholly useless, to enter more fully into this 
 important subject, and to show what has been done at 
 Hamburg, Berlin, Mettray, and Red Hill ; to describe the 
 principles of action and the methods of procedure on which 
 these celebrated establishments are conducted ; and especially 
 to hold up to your love and admiration the noble-hearted 
 individuals, whose efforts in behalf of unfortunate children 
 have been so disinterested, and so full of success. But neither 
 the design nor the limitations of this address permit such an 
 indulgence. We have time only to refer, as we have done 
 already, in a general way, to the principles and results which 
 led us to adopt the plan of a home in preference to any 
 other.
 
 20 
 
 Having matured our system, and recommended it to the 
 Legislature of the Commonwealth, which sanctioned it with 
 singular unanimity, we at once set about to look for a place 
 where we might carry it out. And I think we may be 
 allowed to congratulate you and ourselves that we have finally 
 succeeded in obtaining one combining so many advantages 
 as this. It is central in its position, easy of access, and 
 sufficiently retired. A plateau of level ground, of about 
 twenty-two acres in extent, admirably fitted for the erection 
 of buildings, covered with verdure and shaded by trees and 
 shrubs, looks down upon a rich and lovely valley, dotted all 
 over with majestic elms and intersected by a quiet stream 
 meandering through it. On the rising ground beyond, the 
 picturesque village of Lancaster, backed by a noble range of 
 hills and mountains, adds variety and dignity to the land- 
 scape ; while from its bosom rise conspicuous the church and 
 the schoolhouse, as if to remind us all of the two chief agents 
 upon which we are to rely in all our efforts at reformation. 
 A healthier or more beautiful home, certainly, it is not per- 
 mitted to the most fortunate son of Massachusetts to know. 
 The soil is light, easy of cultivation, aud abundantly supplied 
 with natural springs. In addition, a large artificial supply 
 from a never-failing source, about a mile ofi", is carried over 
 the buildings, and might be poured upon their roofs, the 
 head being one hundred and eight feet above the level of 
 the plain on which we now stand. The entire purchase con- 
 tains about one hundred acres ; the lot being twelve hundred 
 feet on the main road in front of us, and running down with 
 equal width to Stillriver, in the valley behind us. The cost 
 of the land was ten thousand seven hundred and twenty-five 
 dollars, including one brick and two wooden dwelling-houses, 
 with their appurtenances ; the former erected more than a 
 hundred years ago, and bearing in all its parts the marks 
 of solidity and past magnificence. The wooden houses we
 
 21 
 
 found admirably well adapted, both in position and design, 
 to our objects. We have consequently prepared one of them 
 for our Superintendent, and the other for our Farmer, at no 
 further expense than a little paper and paint. The brick 
 dwelling-house, w^e soon ascertained, would answer for the 
 residence of children ; and we have therefore made such 
 alterations in its internal structure as would adapt it to the 
 general plans we had adopted, — the principal interior walls 
 and divisions remaining as they were. As now altered, it is 
 considered to be as substantial and convenient a building as 
 any we could contrive. We have also erected two new brick 
 edifices, in which we have attempted to make all the arrange- 
 ments and conveniences for children which would promote 
 the great purpose we have in view. Each of these dwelling- 
 houses is intended to accommodate thirty girls, with their 
 matron and assistant ; and each contains a parlor, dining-room, 
 kitchen, laundry, schoolroom, and workroom, on the first 
 floor ; a hospital, a dormitory, two chambers for the matron 
 and assistant and sixteen for girls, on the second ; and a 
 playroom and two chambers in the attic. Each, also, is 
 fitted up with bathing-rooms, water-closets, sinks, and other 
 conveniences ; is thoroughly ventilated ; and is heated by a 
 furnace in the cellar. All the work has been done by the 
 day, and is believed to have been faithfully executed. Our 
 object has been to erect buildings as nearly resembling a sub- 
 stantial and good-sized dwelling-house as possible ; and all 
 our arrangements have been made with a view of carrying out 
 this idea. In each of these buildings is to be gathered a 
 household, — a matron and assistant and thirty children of 
 different ages, from seven to sixteen. They are to constitute 
 one family, to be employed in the various occupations and 
 duties of a family, and to receive and reciprocate the affec- 
 tionate love, the careful discipline, and the wholesome 
 instructions, that the members of a family should always
 
 22 
 
 receive and reciprocate. Each family is to be by itself, to 
 have peculiar and special relations to its head, and to be no 
 further connected with any of its neighbors, and maintain 
 no more intimate intercourse with them, than shall be thought 
 wise and best by the Superintendent, or than is seen to exist 
 in common life between families that reside near each other. 
 We have erected no division fences, and provided no iron or 
 other guards, for restraint or coercion : for we desired, in the 
 first instance, to present no features to the inmates here 
 which were not usual in a dwelling-house ; and we preferred 
 that experience alone should suggest to the Trustees what 
 provision, if any, in these respects, was essential. Moral 
 power, such as is possessed by a large moral nature, deeply 
 versed in the habits and dispositions of children, and endowed 
 with sound judgment and discrimination, is the great instru- 
 ment by which the welfare and success of this Institution are 
 to be obtained ; and we have thought it would be well that 
 the several instructors should understand at once that they 
 must rely upon it. If they possess it, they will doubtless 
 have full opportunity for its exercise ; and we hope and pray 
 that the limited number of children that will be intrusted 
 to the care of each, combined with the more natural and 
 intimate relations established here, and the large oppor- 
 tunities for the exercise of direct, personal influence, will 
 enable them to efiect more desirable results than can be 
 efiected under any system of routine and restraint. But it 
 is well to remember, always, that an able and accomplished 
 teacher is better than any system whatever; and that no 
 system, be it ever so well adapted to the objects sought to 
 be accomplished, will work well under an ignorant or weak 
 one. 
 
 And here we hope to be pardoned if we make a single 
 suggestion, for it is one of great importance in its bearing 
 upon the welfare of schools of reform ; and upon the degree
 
 23 
 
 of attention paid to it has undoubtedly depended, as much 
 as upon any thing else, their success or failure. It relates to 
 the general idea which shall be entertained of the character 
 and propensities of the children who are to be the inmates of 
 this institution. Now, we hope the teachers here will run 
 into no extreme views upon this subject. We trust they will 
 not consider the children under their charge, on the one 
 hand, as reprobates, steeped in guilt beyond all others, the 
 incarnation of the very spirit of evil ; nor, on the other, as 
 the mere victims of injustice and misfortune, or as largely 
 endowed with that poetic temperament, or those delicate and 
 nicely adjusted moral sensibilities, which are attributed to 
 them in so many of the novels of the day. These children, 
 depend upon it, are neither devils nor angels, but human 
 beings with flesh and blood like ourselves ; ay, and with the 
 same intellectual and moral natures ; subject to the like 
 passions, follies, and temptations, and capable of the same self- 
 control, education, and improvement. And we are to treat 
 them as human beings, and to expect the same results from 
 fidelity, care, and faith, making due allowance for differences 
 in previous circumstances, and the same consequences from 
 ignorance, carelessness, over-indulgence, undue severity, and 
 mismanagement, that we experience in common cases. Let 
 us remember, too, that children are not mere machines ; that 
 we cannot make them what we desire by any contrivance of 
 ours ; that they have a will of their own, given to them by 
 God as the great sign-manual of their humanity, which may, 
 and has a natural right to, resist and withstand all our endea- 
 vors ; and, therefore, that it is essential that this will should 
 be brought into relation with, and subjection to, the will and 
 laws of God. Unless a child has a consciousness, in his 
 inmost soul, of obligation and responsibility to something 
 higher and better than himself, to the God who made him, 
 depend upon it, you have done nothing for his reformation.
 
 24 
 
 How this is to be brought about, by what training the moral 
 nature is to be developed and matured, is not for me to 
 say. I only declare that it must be done, or nothing is 
 done. 
 
 And now. Gentlemen Trustees, having finished the work 
 given us to do, we willingly surrender it into your hands. 
 We have been permitted only to bring together the outside 
 framework of an institution : it will be your privilege to 
 perfect its parts, and make them instinct with life. It has 
 been our duty to select a site, to provide buildings, and devise 
 a system of organization : it will be yours to make of them a 
 noble charity, that shall be an honor to this Commonwealth, 
 and a blessing to hundreds of her unfortunate children. 
 This may be a difficult, but it is an honorable, task. Great 
 wisdom, experience, patience, and fidelity, undoubtedly, will 
 be required to perform it well. It is not for us to speak to 
 you in reference to the motives or the principles which 
 should govern your conduct in managing this establishment. 
 You have, very properly, selected one to address you on this 
 occasion, who, from his position and known ability, is far 
 better fitted than we are to give you words of instruction and 
 encouragement. We only desire to assure you of our entire 
 confidence in your zeal and ability in this good cause, and to 
 profier to you, in all sincerity, our hearty wishes and prayers 
 for your guidance and success. 
 
 After a hymn sung by the choirs of the two 
 churches of Lancaster, and music by the band, the 
 Hon. George S. Boutwell delivered the following 
 address : —
 
 25 
 
 ADDRESS BY GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 
 
 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 the moral world is the theatre of disturbing 
 and conflicting forces, whose laws the finite mind cannot 
 comprehend. The majesty and uniformity of the planetary 
 revolutions, which bring day and night, summer and winter, 
 seed-time and harvest, know no change. Worlds and sys- 
 tems of worlds are guided 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, may 
 fall from his high estate, so to him only is given 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 shielded, 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 come, and the winds blow. 
 The returning autumn, with its harvest of sustenance and 
 wealth, bids us contemplate again 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 intelli- 
 gent violation of law, there is no accountability. Man, 
 however, is an intelligent, dependent, fallible, and, of course,
 
 26 
 
 responsible being. He is responsible for himself, respon- 
 sible in some degree 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 mem- 
 bers 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 statement, the 
 highest form of human government, — a form not yet per- 
 fectly realized on earth. It sets forth rather what govern- 
 ment ought to be, than what it has been or is. Too often 
 historical governments, and living governments even, may 
 be defined as a union of all for the oppression of many and 
 the benefit of a few. The reason of men has not often been 
 consulted in their formation ; and the interests and principles 
 of the masses have usually been disregarded in their adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 A true government is at once representative, patriarchal, 
 and paternal. In the path of duty for this day and this 
 occasion, we shall consider the last-named quality only, — 
 governments should be paternal. The paternal government 
 is devoted to the elevation and improvement of its members, 
 with no ulterior motive except the necessary results of in- 
 ternal purity and strength. Every government is in some 
 degree, no doubt, paternal. Nor are those governments to 
 be regarded as eminently so, where the people are most con- 
 trolled in their private, personal affairs. These are mere 
 despotisms ; and despotism is not a just nor necessary ele- 
 ment of the paternal relation. That government is most 
 truly paternal which does most to enable its citizens or 
 subjects to regulate their own conduct and determine their 
 relations to others. In the midst of general darkness, the
 
 27 
 
 paternal element of government has been a light to the hu- 
 man race. It modified the patriarchal slavery of the Hebrews, 
 relieved the iron rule of Sparta, made European feudalism 
 the hope of civilization in the Dark Ages, and the basis of its 
 coming glories in the near future ; and it now leads men to 
 look with toleration upon the despotism of Eussia, and with 
 kindness upon the simplicity and arrogance of the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 We complain, justly enough, that the world is governed 
 too much ; and yet, in a great degree, we neglect the means 
 by which the proper relations of society could be preserved, 
 and the world be governed less. In what works are the so- 
 called Christian governments principally engaged? Are 
 they not seeking, by artifice, diplomacy, and war, to extend 
 national boundaries, preserve national honor, or enforce nice 
 distinctions against the timid and weak ? Yet it is plain that 
 a nation is powerful according to the character of the living 
 elements of which it is composed. If it is disorganized 
 morally, uncultivated in intellect, ignorant, indolent, or 
 wasteful in its labor, its claims to greatness are destitute 
 of solid foundation, and it must finally yield to those that 
 have sought and gained power by the elevation of the 
 individual as the element of the nation. 
 
 That nation, then, is wise, and destined to become truly 
 great, which cultivates the best elements of individual life 
 and character. It is not enough to read the parable of the 
 lost sheep and of the ninety and nine that went not astray, 
 and then say, " Even so, it is not the will of your Father 
 which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish," 
 while the means of salvation, as regards the life of this world 
 merely, are very generally neglected. Such neglect is fol- 
 lowed by error and crime ; and error and crime are followed 
 by judgment not always tempered with mercy. 
 
 While human governments debate questions of war and
 
 28 
 
 peace, of trade and revenue, of annexations with ceremony, 
 and appropriations of territory without ceremony, who shall 
 answer to the Governor and Judge of all for the neglect, 
 indifference, and oppression which beget and foster the 
 delinquencies of childhood, and harden the criminals of adult 
 life? 
 
 And who shall answer for those distinctions of caste and 
 systems of labor which so degrade and famish masses of 
 human beings, that the divine miracle of the feeding of the 
 five thousand must be multiplied many times over before 
 the truths of nature or revelation can be received into teach- 
 able minds or susceptible hearts ? And who shall answer for 
 the hereditary poverty, ignorance, and crime which consti- 
 tute a marked feature of English life, and are distinctly 
 visible upon the face of American civilization ? These ques- 
 tions may point with sufficient distinctness to the sources of 
 the evils enumerated ; but we are not to assume that mere 
 human governments can furnish an adequate and complete 
 remedy. Yet this admitted inability to do every thing is no 
 excuse for neglecting those things which are plainly within 
 their power. Taking upon themselves the parental character, 
 forgetting that they have wrongs to avenge, and seeking 
 reformation through kindness, criminals and the causes of 
 crime will diminish, if they do not disappear. This is the 
 responsibility of the nations, and the claim now made upon 
 them. Individual civilization and refinement have always 
 been in advance of national ; and national character is the 
 mirrored image of the individual characters, not excepting 
 the humblest, of which the nation is composed. Each foot 
 of the ocean's surface has, in its fluidity or density or posi- 
 tion, something of the quality or power of every drop of 
 water which rests or moves in the depths of the sea. What 
 is called national character is the face of the great society 
 beneath ; and, as that society in its elements is elevated . or
 
 29 
 
 debased, so will the national character rise or fall in the 
 estimation of all just men of the living, and upon the page 
 of impartial history. Government, which is the organized 
 expression of the will of society, ought always to represent 
 the best elements of which society is composed ; and it 
 ought, therefore, to combat error and wrong, and seek to 
 inaugurate labor, justice, and truth, as the elements of sta- 
 bility,, growth, and power. It must accept as its principles 
 of action the best rules of conduct in individuals. The man 
 who avenges his personal wrongs by personal attacks or 
 vindictive retaliation, must sacrifice in some measure the 
 sympathy of the wise, the humane, and the good. So 
 the nation which avenges real or fancied wrongs crushes 
 out the elements of humanity and a higher life, which, pro- 
 perly cultivated, might lead an erring mortal to virtue and 
 peace. The proper object of punishment is not vengeance, 
 but the public safety and the reformation of the criminal. 
 Indeed, we may say that the sole object of punishment is the 
 reformation of the criminal; for there can be no safety to 
 the public while the criminal is unreformed. The punish- 
 ment of the prison must from its nature be temporary : per- 
 petual confinement can be meted out to a few great crimes 
 only. If, then, the result of punishment be vengeance, and 
 not reformation, the last state of society is worse than its 
 first. The prison must stand a sad monument of the want 
 of true paternal government in the family and the State ; but 
 when it becomes the receptacle merely of the criminal, and 
 all ideas of reformation are banished from the hearts of con- 
 victs and the minds of keepers, its influence is evil, and only 
 evil continually. 
 
 Vice, driven from the presence of virtue, with no hope of 
 reformation or of restoration to society, begets vice, and 
 becomes daily more and more loathsome. Misery is so uni- 
 versal that some share falls to the lot of all ; but that misery
 
 30 
 
 whose depths cannot be sounded, whose heights cannot be 
 scaled, is the fortune of the prison-convict only, who has no 
 hope of reformation to virtue or of restoration to the world. 
 His is the only misery that is unrelieved ; his is the only 
 burden that is too great to be borne. To him the foliage of 
 the tree, the murmur of the brook, the mirror of the quiet 
 lake, or the thunder of the heaving ocean, would be equally 
 acceptable. His separation from nature is no less burden- 
 some than his separation from man. The heart sinks, the 
 spirit turns with a consuming fire upon itself, the soul is in 
 despair ; the mind is first nerved and desperate, then wander- 
 ing and savage, then idiotic, and finally goes out in death. 
 Governments cannot often afford to protect themselves, or to 
 avenge themselves, at such a cost. There may be great 
 crimes on which such awful penalties should be visited ; but, 
 for the honor of the race, let them be few. 
 
 We may err in our ideas of the true relations of the prison 
 to the prisoner. We call a prison good or bad when we see 
 its walls, cells, workshops, its means of security, and points 
 of observation. These are very well. They are something ; 
 but they are not all. We might so judge a hospital for the 
 sick ; and we did once so judge an asylum for the insane. 
 
 But what to the sick man are walls of wood, brick, granite, 
 or marble ? What are towers and turrets, what are wards, 
 halls, and verandas, if withal he is not cheered and sustained 
 by the sympathizing heart and helping hand ? And similar 
 preparations furnish for the insane personal security and 
 physical comfort ; but can they — 
 
 " Minister to a mind diseased ; 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; 
 Raze out the written troubles of the brain ? " 
 
 And it may be that the old almshouse at Philadelphia, which 
 was nearly destitute of material aids, and had only superin-
 
 31 
 
 tendent, matrons, and assistants, was, ail in all, the best insane 
 asylum in America. 
 
 We cannot neglect the claims of security, discipline, and 
 labor, in the erection of jails and prisons ; but to acknow- 
 lege these merely will never produce the proper fruit of 
 punishment, — reformation. Indeed, walls of stone, gates 
 of iron, bolts, locks, and armed sentinels, though essential to 
 security, without which there could be neither punishment 
 nor reformation, are in themselves barriers rather than helps 
 to moral progress. Standing outside, we cannot say what 
 should be done either in the insane hospital or the prison ; 
 but we can deduce from the experience of modern times a 
 safe rule for general conduct. In the insane hospital, the 
 patient is to be treated as though he were sane ; and, in 
 the jail, the prisoner is to be treated, as nearly as may be, as 
 though he were virtuous. This rule, especially as much of 
 it as applies to the prisoner, may be recklessness to some, 
 to others folly, to others sin. 
 
 " The court awards it, and the law doth give it," is no 
 doubt the essence and strength of governmental justice in the 
 sentence decreed ; but it would be a sad calamity if there 
 were no escape from its literal fulfilment. And let no one 
 borrow the words of Portia to the Jew, and say to the 
 State, — 
 
 " Nor cut thou less nor more, 
 But just a pound of flesh." 
 
 As the criminal staggers beneath the accumulated weight 
 of his sin and its penalty, he should feel that the State is 
 not only just in the language of its law, but merciful in its 
 administration ; that the government is, in truth, paternal. 
 This feeling inspires confidence and hope ; and without these 
 there can be no reformation. And, following this thought, 
 we are led to say, it is a sad and mischievous public delusion 
 that the pardoning power is useless or pernicious. It is a
 
 32 
 
 delusion ; for it is the only means by which the State mingles 
 mercy with its justice, — the means by which the better senti- 
 ments of the prison are marshalled in favor of order, of law, 
 of progress. It is a public delusion : for it has infected not 
 only the masses of society, who know little of what is going 
 on in courts and prisons, but its influence is observed upon 
 the bench and in the bar, especially among those who are 
 accustomed to prosecute and try criminals. This is not 
 strange, nor shall it be a subject of complaint : but we must 
 not always look upon the prisoner as a criminal, and con- 
 tinually disregard his claims as a man. It is not often easy, 
 nor always possible, to make the proper distinction between 
 the character and condition of the prisoner. But the prison, 
 strange as it may seem, follows the general law of life. It 
 has its public sentiment, its classes, its leading minds, as well 
 as the university or the State ; it has its men of mark, 
 either good or bad, as well as congress or parliament. As 
 the family, the church, or the school, is the reflection of the 
 best face of society, so the prison is the reflection of 
 the worst face of society. But it nevertheless is society, 
 and follows its laws with as much fidelity as the world 
 at large. 
 
 It is said that Abbe Fissiaux, the head of the colony of 
 Marseilles, when visiting Mettray, a kind of reform school 
 at which boys under sixteen years of age, who have com- 
 mitted off'ences without discernment, are sent, asked the 
 colonists to point out to him the three best boys. The looks 
 of the whole body immediately designated three young per- 
 sons whose conduct had been irreproachable to an exceptional 
 degree. He then applied a more delicate test. " Point out 
 to me," said he, "the worst boy." All the children re- 
 mained motionless, and made no sign ; but one little urchin 
 came forward with a pitiful air, and said, in a very low tone, 
 "It is me." Such were the public sentiment and sense of
 
 33 
 
 honor even in a reform school. This frankness in the lad 
 was followed by reformation ; and he became in after-years a 
 good soldier^ — the life anticipated for many members of the 
 institution. 
 
 The pardoning power is not needed in reform and indus- 
 trial schools, where the managers have discretionary authority ; 
 but it is quite essential to the discipline of the prison to let the 
 light of hope into the prisoner's heart. Not that all are to 
 enjoy the benefits of executive clemency, — by no means : 
 only the most worthy and promising are to be thus favored. 
 But, for many years, the Massachusetts Prison has been im- 
 proved and elevated in its tone and sentiment above what it 
 would have been ; while, as it is believed, over ninety per 
 cent, of the convicts thus discharged have conducted them- 
 selves well. If the prisoner's conduct has not been, upon 
 the whole, reasonably good, and for a long time irreproach- 
 able, he has no chance for clemency ; and whatever may be 
 his conduct, and whatever may be the hopes inspired, he 
 should not be allowed to pass without the prison walls until 
 a friend, labor, and a home, are secured for him. And the 
 exercise of the pardoning power, if it anticipate the expira- 
 tion of the legal sentence but a month, a week, or a day 
 even, may change the whole subsequent life. Men, crimi- 
 nals, convicts, are not insensible to kindness; and when the 
 government shortens the legal sentence, which is usually 
 their measure of justice in the case, they feel an additional 
 obligation to so behave as to bring no discredit upon a power 
 which has been a source of inestimable joy to them. And 
 prisoners thus discharged have often gone forth with a feel- 
 ing that the hopes of many whom they had left behind were 
 centred in them. 
 
 Mr. Charles Forster, of Charlestown, says in a letter to me, 
 " I have been connected with the Massachusetts State Prison 
 for a period of thirty-eight years, and have always felt a strong
 
 34 
 
 interest in the improvement, welfare, and happiness of the 
 unfortunate men confined within its walls. I am conversant 
 with many touching cases of deep and heartfelt gratitude 
 for kindly acts and sympathy bestowed upon them, both 
 during and subsequent to their imprisonment." And the 
 same gentleman says further, " I think that the proportion of 
 persons discharged from prison by executive clemency, who 
 have subsequently been convicted of penal offences, is very 
 small indeed." To some, whose imaginations have pictured 
 a broad waste or deep gulf between themselves and the 
 prisoner class, these may seem strange words ; but there is 
 no mystery in this language to those who have listened to 
 individual cases of crime and punishment. Men are tried and 
 convicted of crimes according to rules and definitions which 
 are necessarily arbitrary and technical ; but the moral cha- 
 racter of criminals is not very well defined by the rules and 
 definitions which have been applied to their respective cases. 
 Our prisons contain men. who are great and professional 
 criminals, — men who advisedly follow a life of crime them- 
 selves, and deliberately educate generation after genera- 
 tion to a career of infamy and vice. As a general thing, 
 mercy to such men would be unpardonable folly. Of them 
 I do not now speak. But there is another class, who are 
 involved in guilt and its punishment through the defects of 
 early education, the misfortune of orphanage, accident, sud- 
 den temptation, or the influence of evil companionship in 
 youth. 
 
 The field from which this class is gathered is an extensive 
 one, and its outer limits are near to every hearthstone. To 
 all these, prison life, unless it is relieved by a hope of 
 restoration to the world at the hand of mercy, is the school 
 of vice, and a certain preparation for a career of crime. As a 
 matter of fact, this class does furnish recruits to supply the 
 places of the hardened villains who annually die, or perma-
 
 35 
 
 nently forsake the abodes of civilized men. What hope can 
 there be for a young man who remains in prison until the 
 last day of his sentence is measured by the sun in his course, 
 and then passes into the world, with the mark of disgrace and 
 the mantle of shame upon him, to the society of the com- 
 panions by whose influence he first fell ? For such a one 
 there can be no hope. And be it always remembered, 
 that there are those without the prison walls, as well as many 
 within, who resist every effort to bring the wanderers back 
 to obedience and right. I was present at the prison in 
 Charlestown when the model of a bank-lock was taken from 
 a young man whose term had nearly expired. The model 
 was cut in wood, after a plan drawn upon sand-paper by an 
 experienced criminal, then recently convicted. This old 
 offender was so familiar with the lock, that he was able to 
 reproduce all its parts from memory alone. This fact shows 
 the influence that may be exerted, even in prison, upon the 
 characters of the young and less vicious. Now, can any 
 doubt that these classes, as classes, ought to be separated ? 
 Nor let the question be met by the old statement, that all 
 communication between prisoners should be cut off. Hu- 
 manity cannot defend, as a permanent system, the plan which 
 shuts up the criminal, unless he is a murderer, from the 
 light of the human countenance. Such penalties foster 
 crimes, whose roots take hold of the State itself. 
 
 The result of the exercise of the pardoning power is 
 believed to have been, upon the whole, satisfactory. This 
 is the concurrent testimony of officers and others whose 
 opinions are entitled to weight. Permit the statement of a 
 single case, to which many similar ones might be added. 
 In a remote State of the West there is a respectable and 
 successful farmer who was once sentenced to the penitentiary 
 for life. His crime was committed in a moment of despera- 
 tion, produced by the contrast between a state of abject
 
 36 
 
 poverty in a strange land at the age of twenty-three, and 
 the recollection of childhood and youth passed beneath the 
 parental roof, surrounded by the comforts and conve- 
 niences of the well-educated and well-conditioned classes 
 of English society. This, it is true, was a peculiar case. 
 It was marked in the circumstances and enormity of the 
 crime, and marked in the subsequent good conduct of 
 the prisoner. But can any one object, that, after ten years' 
 imprisonment, this man was allowed to try his fortunes 
 once more among his fellow-men ? Are there those who 
 would have had no faith in his uninterrupted good conduct ; 
 in the abundant evidence of complete reformation ; in the 
 fact, that, in prison and poverty and disgrace, he had allied 
 to him friends of name and fortune and Christian virtues, 
 who were ready to aid him in his good resolutions ? If any 
 such there be, let them visit the solitary cell of the despair- 
 ing convict, whose crime is so great that executive clemency 
 fears to approach it. Crime and despair have made the 
 features appalling ; all the worst passions of our nature riot 
 together in the temple dedicated to the living God ; and the 
 death of the body is almost certainly to be preceded by mad- 
 ness, insanity, and idiocy of the mind. Or, if any think 
 that this person escaped with too light an expiation for so 
 great a crime, let them recall the incident of the youth who 
 was questioned because he looked with fond affection into 
 the babbling face of the running brook, and, apologizing, as 
 it were, in reply, said, " Oh, yes, it is very beautiful, and 
 especially to me, who have seen no water for four years 
 beside what I have had to drink ! " 
 
 Nor is it assumed, in all that is said upon this subject, 
 that the laws are severe, or that the judicial administration 
 of them is not characterized by justice and mercy. In the 
 ordinary course of affairs, the pardoning power is not resorted 
 to for the correction of any error or injustice of the courts ;
 
 37 
 
 but it is the means by which the State tempers its justice 
 with mercy ; and, if the penalties for crime were less than 
 they are, the necessity for the exercise of this power would 
 still remain. It assumes that the object of the penal law is 
 reformation ; and if this object, in some cases, can be at- 
 tained by the exercise of the pardoning power, while the 
 rigid execution of the sentence would leave the criminal, as 
 it usually will, still hardened and unrepenting, is it not wise 
 for the State to benefit itself, and save the prisoner, by opening 
 the prison-doors, and inviting the convict to a life of industry 
 and virtue ? And let it never be forgotten, though it is the 
 lowest view which can be taken of crime and prisons, that 
 the criminal class is the most expensive class of society. In 
 general, it is a non-producing class, and, whether in prison 
 or out, is a heavy burden upon the public. The mere interest 
 of the money now expended in prisons of approved structure, 
 is, for each cell, equal annually to the net income of a labor- 
 ing man ; and professional thieves, when at large, often 
 gather by their art, and expend in profligacy, many thousand 
 dollars a year. And here we see how much wiser it is, in 
 an economical point of view, to save the child, or reform the 
 man, than to allow the adult criminal to go at large, or pro- 
 vide for his safe-keeping at the expense of the State. 
 
 Under the influence of the pardoning power, wisely exe- 
 cuted, the Commonwealth becomes a family, whose law is 
 the law of kindness. It is the paternal element of govern- 
 ment applied to a class of people, who, by every process of 
 reasoning, would be found least susceptible to its influence. 
 It is the great power of the State, both in the wisdom 
 required for its judicious exercise, and in the beneficial 
 results to which it may lead. Men may desire oflice for 
 its emoluments in money or fame ; they may seek it in a 
 spirit of rivalry or for personal pride, or for the opportunity 
 it brings to reward friends and punish enemies : but all these 
 
 6 
 
 397477
 
 38 
 
 are poor and paltry compared with tlie divine privilege, 
 exercised always in reference to the public welfare, of elevat- 
 ing the prisoner to the companionship of men, and cheering 
 him with words of encouragement on his entrance anew to 
 the duties of life. 
 
 Yet think not that the prison is a reformatory institution : 
 far from it. If the prison should be left to the influence of 
 legitimate prison discipline merely, it is doubtful whether the 
 sum of improvement would equal the total of degradation. 
 This may be said of the best prisons of America, of New 
 England. The prison usually contains every class, from 
 the hardened convict, incarcerated for housebreaking, rob- 
 bery, or murder, to the youth who expiates his first ofience, 
 committed under the influence of evil companions, or sudden 
 temptation. The contact of these two persons must be 
 injurious to one of them, without in any degree improving 
 the other. Therefore the prison, considered without refer- 
 ence to the elevating influence of the pardoning power, has 
 but little ability to reform the bad, and yet possesses a sad 
 tendency to debase the comparatively good. 
 
 We miss, too, in the prison, another essential element of 
 a reformatory institution. Reformation in individual cases 
 may take place under the most adverse circumstances ; but 
 an institution cannot be called reformatory, unless its prevail- 
 ing moral sentiment is actively, vigorously, and always, on 
 the side of progress and virtue. This moral influence must 
 proceed from the officers of the institution ; but it should be 
 increased and strengthened by the sympathy and support of 
 the inmates. This can hardly be expected of the prison. 
 The number of adult persons, experienced in crime and 
 hardened by its penalties, is usually so large, that the moral 
 sentiment of the officers, and the weak resolutions of the 
 small class of prisoners, who, under favorable circumstances, 
 might be saved, are insufficient to give a healthy tone to the
 
 39 
 
 whole institution. The prison is a battle-field of vice and 
 virtue, with the advantage of position and numbers on the 
 side of vice. Indeed, there can hardly be a worse place for 
 the young or the inexperienced in crime. This is the testi- 
 mony of reason and of all experience ; yet the public mind 
 is slow to accept the remedy for the evil. It is a privilege to 
 believe that the worst scenes of prison life are not found 
 in the United States. Consider this case, reported in an 
 English journal, — " The Ragged-School Magazine : " — 
 
 " D. F., aged about fourteen. Mother dead several years ; 
 father a drunkard, and deserted him about three years ago. 
 Has since lived as he best could, — sometimes going errands, 
 sometimes begging and thieving. Slept in lodging-houses 
 when he had money ; but very often walked the streets at 
 night, or lay under arches or doorsteps. Has only one 
 brother : he lives by thieving. Does not know where he is ; 
 has no other friend that he knows ; never learnt to read ; 
 was badly off j picked a handkerchief out of a gentleman's 
 pocket, and was caught by a policeman ; sent to Giltspur- 
 street Prison ; was fed on bread and water ; instructed every 
 day by chaplain and schoolmaster ; much impressed with 
 what the chaplain said; felt anxious to do better; behaved 
 well in prison ; was well flogged the morning he left ; back 
 bruised, but not quite bleeding; was then turned into the street, 
 ragged, barefooted, friendless, homeless, penniless ; walked 
 about the streets till afternoon, when he received a penny 
 from a gentleman to buy a loaf ; met, next day, some expert 
 thieves in the Minories ; went along with them, and con- 
 tinues in a course of vagrancy and crime." 
 
 And what else could have been expected ? The govern- 
 ment, having sown tares, had no right to gather wheat. Yet, 
 had this boy been provided with a home, either in a family 
 or a reform school, with sufficient labor, and proper moral and 
 intellectual culture, he mis^ht have been saved. Of the three
 
 40 
 
 thousand persons annually in prison at Newgate, four hun- 
 dred are less than sixteen years of age ; and twenty thousand 
 children and youth, under seventeen years of age, yearly 
 pass through the prisons of England. '' Many of the juve- 
 nile prisoners," it is said, " have been frequently in prison, 
 and are very hardened : some, from nine to eleven, have been 
 in prison repeatedly, and have very little fear of it." 
 
 The officers of the Liverpool Borough Jail are united in 
 the opinion, that, when a boy comes once, he is almost certain 
 to come again and again, until he is transported. And, of 
 every one hundred young persons discharged from the prin- 
 cipal prisons of Paris, seventy-five are in the custody of the 
 law within the next three months. A professed thief said 
 to the Rev. Mr. Clay, of England, " I am convinced of this, 
 having too bitterly experienced it, that communication in a 
 prison has brought thousands to ruin : I speak not of boys 
 only, but of men and women also." And Mr. Hill, Recorder 
 of Birmingham, says of the sentences imposed in his court, 
 " We are compelled to carry into operation an ignorant and 
 vengeful system, which augments to a fearful extent the very 
 evils it was framed to correct." A few years ago, there was 
 a lad in a New-England prison, whose experience is a perti- 
 nent illustration of the evil we are now considering. His 
 father, a resident of a city, died while the boy was in infancy. 
 He, however, soon passed beyond the control of his mother, 
 and, at an early age, was selected by a brace of thieves, who 
 petted, caressed, and humored him, until he was completely 
 subject to their will. He was then made useful to them in 
 their profession ; but at last they were all arrested while 
 engaged in robbing a store, — the boy being within the 
 building, and the men stationed as sentinels without. In this 
 case, the discretion of the court, which distinguished in the 
 sentence between the hardened villains and the youth, was 
 inadequate to the emergency. The child, unfit for the
 
 41 
 
 prison, and sure to be contaminated by it, ought to have 
 been sent to a house of reformation, a reform school, or, 
 perhaps better than either, to the custody of a well-regulated, 
 industrious family. Now, in such cases, the distinction 
 which the law, judicially administered, does not make and 
 cannot make, must be made by the Executive in the wise 
 exercise of the pardoning power. But this power, in the 
 nature of things, has its limits ; and on one side it is limited 
 to those who have been convicted of crime. 
 
 At this point, we may see how faulty, and yet how con- 
 stantly improving, has been the administration of the crimi- 
 nal law. First, we have the prison without the pardoning 
 power, except in cases of mal-administration of the law, — 
 a receptacle of the bad and good, where the former are not 
 improved, and the latter are hurried rapidly on in the path 
 of degradation and crime. Then we have the prison under 
 the influence of the pardoning power, more or less wisely 
 administered, but, in its best form, able only to arrest and 
 counteract partially the tendencies to evil. Next, from the 
 imperfections of this system, an advancing civilization has 
 evoked the Eeform School, which gathers in the young 
 criminals and viciously inclined youth, and prepares them, 
 by labor, and culture of the mind and heart, to resist the 
 ' temptations of life. But this institution seems to wait, 
 though it may not always in reality do so, until the candi- 
 date is actually a criminal. 
 
 Hence the necessity which calls us to-day to consider the 
 means adopted elsewhere, and the means now to be employed 
 here, to save the young and exposed from the dangers which 
 surround them. 
 
 Passing then in review, ladies and gentlemen, the 
 thoughts which have been presented, I deduce from them 
 for your assent and support, if so it please you, the follow- 
 ing propositions as the basis of what I have yet to say : —
 
 42 
 
 I. Government, in the prevention and punishment of crime, 
 should be paternal. 
 
 II. The object of punishment should be reformation, and 
 not revenge. 
 
 III. The law of reformation, in the State as in the family, 
 is the law of kindness. 
 
 TV. As criminals vary in age and in experience as crimi- 
 nals, so should their treatment vary. 
 
 Y. Prisons and jails are not, in their foundation and 
 management, reformatory institutions, and only become so 
 through influences not necessarily nor ordinarily acting upon 
 them. 
 
 VI. As prisons and jails deter from crime through fear 
 only ; exert very little moral influence upon the youth of 
 either sex ; and fail in many respects, and in a majority 
 of cases, as reformatory institutions, — we ought to avail 
 ourselves of any new agency which promises success. 
 
 Influenced, as we may reasonably suppose, by these or 
 kindred sentiments, and aided by the noblest exhibitions 
 of private benevolence, the State has here founded a school 
 for the prevention of crime. As we have everywhere among 
 us schools whose leading object is the development of the 
 intellect, so we now dedicate a school whose leading object' 
 is the development of the afiections as the basis of the 
 cardinal virtues of life. 
 
 The design of this Institution is so well expressed by 
 the Trustees, that it is a favor to us all for me to read the 
 first chapter of the By-Laws, which, by the consent of 
 the Governor and Council, have been established : — 
 
 " The intention of the State Government, and of the 
 benevolent individuals who have contributed to the establish- 
 ment of this Institution, is to secure a home and a school for 
 such girls as may be presented to the magistrates of the
 
 43 
 
 State, appointed for that purpose, as vagrants, perversely- 
 obstinate, deprived of the control and culture of their natural 
 guardians, or guilty of petty offences, and exposed to a life 
 of crime and wretchedness. 
 
 " For such young persons it is proposed to provide, not a 
 prison for their restraint and correction, but a family school, 
 where, under the firm but kind discipline of a judicious 
 home, they shall be carefully instructed in all the branches 
 of a good education ; their moral affections be developed and 
 cultivated by the example and affectionate care of one who 
 shall hold the relation of a mother to them ; be instructed 
 in useful and appropriate forms of female industry ; and, in 
 short, be fitted to become virtuous and happy members of 
 society, and to take respectable positions in such relations in 
 life as Providence shall hereafter mark out for them. 
 
 " It is to be distinctly understood, that the Institution is 
 not to be considered a jplace of punishment, or its subjects 
 as criminals. It is to be an inviting refuge, into which the 
 exposed may be gathered to be saved from a course which 
 would inevitably end in penal confinenent, irretrievable ruin, 
 or hopeless degradation. 
 
 " The inmates are to be considered hopeful and promising 
 subjects of appropriate culture, and to be instructed and 
 watched over with the care and kindness which their pecu- 
 liar exposures demand, and with the confidence which youth 
 should ever inspire. 
 
 " The restraint and the discipline which will be necessary 
 are to be such as would be appropriate in a Christian family 
 or in a small boarding-school ; and the ' law of kindness ' 
 should be written upon the heart of every officer of the 
 Institution. The chief end to be obtained, in all the culture 
 and discipline, is the proper development of the faculties and 
 moral affections of the inmates, however they may have been 
 heretofore neglected or perverted; and to teach them the
 
 44 
 
 art, and aid them in securing the power, of self-govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Under the influence of these sentiments, we pass, if pos- 
 sible, in the work of reformation, from the rigor of the 
 prison to the innocent excitement and rivalry of the school, 
 the comfort, confidence, and joys of home. This Institution 
 assumes that crime, to some extent at least, is social, local, or 
 hereditary, in its origin ; that the career of hardened criminals 
 often takes its rise in poverty, idleness, ignorance, orphanage, 
 desertion, or intemperance of parents, evil example, or the 
 indifierence, scorn, and neglect of society. It assumes, also, 
 that there is a period of life — childhood and youth — when 
 these, the first indications of moral death, may be eradicated, 
 or their influence for evil controlled. In this land of educa- 
 tion, of liberty, of law, of labor, and religion, we may not 
 easily imagine how universal the enumerated evils are in 
 many portions of Europe. The existence of these evils is 
 in some degree owing to institutions which favor a few, and 
 oppress the masses ; but it is also in a measure due to the 
 fact that Europe is both old and multitudinous. America, 
 though still young, is even now multitudinous. Hence, 
 both here and there, crime is social and local. The truth of 
 this statement is proportionate to the force of the causes in 
 the respective countries. 
 
 We are assembled upon a sloping hillside, overlooking a 
 quiet country village. Happy homes are embowered in 
 living groves, whose summer foliage is emblematical of inno- 
 cence, progress, and peace. "We have here a social life, with 
 natural impulses, cultivated worldly interests, moral and 
 religious sentiments, all on the side of virtue. Crime here 
 is not social. If it appear at all, it is segregated ; and as the 
 burning taper expires when placed at the centre of the spirit 
 lamp's coiling sheet of flame, so vice and crime cannot thrive 
 in the genial embrace of virtue.
 
 45 
 
 Circumstances are here unfavorable to crime : it is never 
 social ; but sometimes, though not often, it is hereditary. A 
 family for many generations seems to have a criminal ten- 
 dency. Perhaps the members are not in any generation 
 guilty of great crimes, but often of lesser ones ; and are, 
 moreover, in the daily practice of vices that give rise to 
 suspicion, neglect, and reproach. Here together are asso- 
 ciated, and made hereditary, poverty, ignorance, idleness, 
 beggary, and vagrancy. Surely these instances are not com- 
 mon, probably not so common as they were in the last 
 generation. But how is the boy or girl of such a family to 
 rise above these circumstances, and throw off these weights ? 
 Occasionally one of great energy of character may do so ; 
 but, if the children of more fortunate classes can scarcely 
 escape the influence of temporary evil example, how shall 
 they who are born to a heritage of poverty, ignorance, and 
 ever-present evil counsel and conduct under the guise of 
 parental authority, pass to the position of intelligent, indus- 
 trious, respectable members of society ? Some external in- 
 fluence must be applied ; by some means from without, the 
 spell must be broken ; the fatal succession of vicious homes 
 must be interrupted. The family and home has here failed 
 to discharge its duty to itself and to the State ; and shall not 
 the State do its duty to itself, by assuming the paternal rela- 
 tion under the guidance of that law of kindness, which we 
 have seen effectual to control the insane, and melt the 
 hardened criminal? But in cities we find vice, not only 
 hereditary in families, but local and social; so that streets 
 and squares are given up, as it were, to the idle and vicious, 
 whose numbers and influence produce and perpetuate a 
 public sentiment in support of their daily practices. This 
 phase of life is not due to the fact that cities are wealthy, or 
 that they are engaged in manufactures or commerce ; but to 
 the single fact that they are multitudinous, and their inhabi- 
 
 7
 
 46 
 
 tants are therefore in daily contact with each other, while, 
 in the country, individuals and families are comparatively 
 isolated. Yet some may very well doubt whether such an 
 Institution as this, with all the benign influences of home 
 which we hope to see centred and difl'usive here, will save 
 a child of either sex, whose first years shall have been so 
 unfavorable to a life of virtue. 
 
 The answer is plain : as in other reformatory institutions, 
 there will be some successes and some failures. The failures 
 will be reckoned as they were ; the successes will be a clear 
 gain. 
 
 But investigation and trial will show a natural aptitude or 
 
 instinct in children that will aid in their improvement and 
 
 reformation. There has been in one of our public schools 
 
 a lad, who, at the age of fourteen years, could not recall 
 
 distinctly the circumstances of his life previous to the time 
 
 when he was a newsboy in the city of New York. He was 
 
 ignorant of father, mother, kindred, family name, and nation. 
 
 At an early age, he travelled through the middle, southern, 
 
 and south-western States, engaged in selling papers and trash 
 
 literature ; and, for a time, he was employed by a showman 
 
 to stand outside the tent, and describe and exaggerate the 
 
 attractions within. When he was in his fourteenth year, he 
 
 accepted the ojBfer of a permanent home ; his chief object 
 
 being, as he said, to obtain an education. " I have found," 
 
 said he, " that a man cannot do much in this country unless 
 
 he has some learning." This truth, simple, and resting upon 
 
 a low view of education, may yet be of infinite value if 
 
 accepted by those, who, even among us, are advancing to 
 
 adult life without the preparation which our common schools 
 
 are well fitted to furnish. And the case of this lad may be 
 
 yet farther useful by showing how compensation is provided 
 
 for evils and neglects in mental and moral relations, as well 
 
 as in the physical and natural world. Though ignorant of
 
 47 
 
 books, he was thoroughly and extensively acquainted with 
 things, and consequently made rapid progress in the know- 
 ledge of signs ; for they were immediately applied, and of 
 course remembered. In a few months, he took a respectable 
 position among lads of his age. The world had done for 
 this boy what good schools do not always accomplish, — 
 made him familiar with things before he was troubled with 
 the signs which stand for them. There is an ignorance in 
 manhood ; an ignorance under the show of profound learn- 
 ing ; an ignorance for which schools, academies, and colleges 
 are often responsible ; an ignorance that neither schools, 
 academies, nor colleges can conceal from the humblest intel- 
 lects ; an ignorance of life and things as they are within the 
 sphere of our own observation. From this most deplorable 
 of all ignorance, this boy had escaped ; and the light of 
 learning illumined his mind, as the sun in his daily return 
 reveals anew those forms of life, which, in ungenial spring 
 and early summer, his rays had warmed into existence, and 
 nourished and cherished in their progress towards perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 And, ladies and gentlemen, let us indulge the hope that 
 the events of this day and the faith of this assembly will 
 declare that it is possible to save the children of orphanage, 
 intemperance, neglect, scorn, and ignorance, from many of 
 the evils which surround them. And let it not be assumed 
 and believed that the task of training and saving girls is less 
 hopeful than similar labors in behalf of the other sex. It 
 has been found true in Europe, and it is a prevailing opinion 
 in this country, that, among adults, the reformation of 
 females is more difficult than the reformation of males. But 
 an analysis of this fact, assuming it to be true, will unfold 
 qualities of female character that render it peculiarly easy to 
 shield and save girls who are exposed to a life of crime ; 
 for, be it remembered, this Institution deals with mere
 
 48 
 
 children who are exposed, but not yet lost. It differs, 
 in this respect, from most institutions, although many in- 
 clude this class with others. And it may be well to remark, 
 that every reformatory school in Europe, even those altogether 
 penal, — as Parkhurst in England, and Mettray in France, 
 — have had some measure of success. Eighty-nine per 
 cent of the colons, or convicts, at Mettray have become 
 respectable and useful ; while, of the youth sent to the ordi- 
 nary jails and prisons, seventy-five per cent are totally lost. 
 It is not fair, therefore, to assume that this attempt will fail. 
 The degree of success will depend upon circumstances and 
 causes, to a great extent, within human control. There are, 
 however, three elements of success so distinct, that they may 
 well stand as the appropriate divisions of what remains for 
 consideration. They are the right action of the government ; 
 the faithful conduct of superintendent, matrons, and assist- 
 ants ; the sympathy and aid of the people of the State in 
 matters which do not admit of legislative interference. 
 
 The act of the legislature, though voluminous in its details, 
 contemplates only this : A home for girls between seven and 
 sixteen years of age, who are found "in circumstances of 
 want and suffering, or of neglect, exposure, or abandonment, 
 t)r of beggary." The first idea of home precludes the possi- 
 bility of the inmates being sent here as a punishment for 
 crime ; therefore they are neither adjudged nor actual crimi- 
 nals, but persons exposed to a vicious life. Secondly, the 
 idea of home involves the necessity of reproducing the family 
 relation, as circumstances may permit. Hence, the members 
 of this Institution are to be divided into families ; and over 
 each a matron will preside, who is to be a kind, affectionate, 
 discreet mother to the children. 
 
 And here, for once, in Massachusetts, a public institution 
 has escaped the tyranny of bricks and mortar ; and we are 
 permitted to indulge the hope, that any future additions will
 
 49 
 
 tend to make this spot a neighborhood of unostentatious 
 cottages, quiet rural homes, rather than the seat of a vast 
 edifice, which may provoke the wonder of the sight-seer, 
 inflame local or State pride, but can never be an effectual, 
 economical agency in the work of reformation. Every public 
 institution has some great object. Architecture should bend 
 itself to that object, and become its servant ; and it must ever 
 be deemed a mistake, when utility is sacrificed that art or 
 fancy may have its way. 
 
 Reformation, if wrought by external influences, is the 
 result of personal kindness : personal kindness can exist 
 only Avhere there is intimate personal acquaintance ; this 
 acquaintance is impossible in an institution of two, three, or 
 five hundred inmates. But, in a family of ten, twenty, 
 or thirty, this knowledge will exist and this kindness 
 abound. Warm personal attachments will grow up in the 
 family, and these attachments are likely to become safeguards 
 of virtue. 
 
 Nor let the objection prevail that the expense is to be 
 increased. It is not the purpose to set up an establishment 
 and maintain it for a specific sum of money, but to provide 
 thorough mental and moral training for the inmates. Make 
 the work efficient, though it be limited to a small number, 
 rather than inaugurate a magnificent failure. 
 
 The State has wisely provided, that the " Trustees shall 
 cause the girls under their charge to be instructed in piety 
 and morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as 
 shall be adapted to their age and capacity ; they shall also be 
 instructed in some regular course of labor, either mechanical, 
 manufacturing, or horticultural, or a combination of these, 
 and especially in such domestic and household labor and 
 duties as shall be best suited to their age and strength, dis- 
 position, and capacity ; also in such other arts, trades, and
 
 50 
 
 employments as may seem to the Trustees best adapted to 
 secure their reformation, amendment, and future benefit." 
 
 It is sometimes the bane of the poor that they do not work, 
 and it is often equally the bane of the rich that they have 
 nothing to do. The idle, both ricli and poor, carry a weight 
 of reproach that not all ought to bear. The disposition and 
 the ability to labor are both the result of education ; and why 
 should the uneducated be better able to labor than to read 
 Greek and Latin ? Surely only that there are more teachers 
 in one department than in the others ; but a good teacher of 
 labor may be as uncommon as a good teacher of Latin or 
 Greek. There is a false, vicious, unmanly pride which leads 
 our youth of both sexes to shun labor ; and it is the business 
 of the true teacher to extirpate this growth of a diseased 
 civilization. And we could have no faith in this school, 
 if it were not a school of industry as well as of morality, — 
 a school in which the divine law of labor is to be observed 
 equally with the laws of men. Industry is near to all the 
 virtues. In this era, every branch of labor is an art, and 
 sometimes it is necessary for the laborer to be both an artist 
 and a scientific person. How great, then, the misfortune of 
 those, whether rich or poor, who are uninstructed in the 
 business of life ! We should hardly know what judgment 
 to pass upon a man of wealth who should entirely neglect 
 the education of his children in schools ; but the common 
 indifierence to industrial learning is not less reprehensible. 
 Labor should be systematic ; not constant, to be sure, but 
 always to be reckoned as the great business of life, never to 
 be avoided, never to cease. 
 
 Labor gives us a better knowledge of the fulness, magni- 
 ficence, and glory of the divine blessing of creation. This 
 lesson may be learned by the farmer in the wonderful 
 growth of vegetation ; by the artist in the powers of inven- 
 tion and taste of the human mind and soul ; by the man
 
 51 
 
 of science in the beauty of an insect or the order of a 
 universe. The vision of the idle is limited. The ability to 
 see may be improved by education as much as the ability 
 to read, remember, or converse. With many people, not 
 seeing is a habit. Near-sighted persons are generally those 
 who declined to look at distant objects ; and so nature, true 
 to the most perfect rules of economy, refused to keep in 
 order faculties that were entirely neglected. The laborer's 
 recompense is not money, nor the accumulation of worldly 
 goods chiefly ; but it is in his increased ability to observe, 
 appreciate, and enjoy the world with its beauties and bless- 
 ings. Nor is labor, the penalty for sin, a punishment 
 merely, but a divine means of reformation. It is therefore a 
 moral disciplhie that all should submit to, and especially is 
 it a means by which the youth here are to be prepared 
 for the duties of life. But industry is not only near to 
 all the virtues; it is itself a virtue, as idleness is a vice. 
 The word labor is, of course, used in the broadest significa- 
 tion. Labor is any honest employment, or use of the head 
 or hands, which brings good to ourselves, and consequently, 
 though indirectly, brings good to our fellow-men. 
 
 The State has now furnished a home, reproduced, as far as 
 practicable, the family relation, and provided for a class 
 of neglected and exposed girls the means of mental, indus- 
 trial, moral, and religious culture. The plan appears well ,* 
 but its practical value depends upon the fidelity of its execu- 
 tion by the superintendent, matrons, and assistants. I ven- 
 ture to predict in advance, that the degree of success is 
 mainly within their control. This is a school, they are 
 the teachers ; and they must bend to the rule which all 
 true teachers willingly accept. 
 
 The teacher must be what he would have his pupils 
 become. This was the standard of the great Teacher ; this 
 is the aim of all who desire to make education a matter
 
 52 
 
 of reality and life, and not merely a knowledge of signs and 
 forms. Here will be needed a spirit and principle of devo- 
 tion which, will be fruitful in humility, patience, earnestness, 
 energy, good words and works for all. Here must be 
 strictness, possibly sternness of discipline ; but this is not 
 incompatible with the qualities mentioned. It is a principle 
 at Mettray to combine unbounded personal kindness with a 
 rigid exclusion of personal indulgence. 
 
 This principle produces good results that are twofold in 
 their influence. First, personal kindness in the teacher 
 induces a reciprocal quality in the pupils. The habit of 
 personal kindness, proceeding from right feelings, is a potent 
 element of good in the family, the school, and the prison. 
 Indeed, it is an element of good citizenship; and no one 
 destitute of this quality ought to be intrusted with the 
 education of children, or the punishment and reformation of 
 criminals. 
 
 Secondly, the rigid exclusion of personal indulgence trains 
 the inmates in the virtue of self-control. And may it not be 
 forgotten that all apparent reformation must be hedged by 
 this cardinal virtue of practical life ? Otherwise the best 
 formed expectations will fail ; the highest hopes will be disap- 
 pointed ; and the life of these teachers, and the promise of the 
 youth who may be gathered here, will be like the sun and 
 the winds upon the desert, which bring neither refreshing 
 showers nor fruitful harvests. Every form of labor requires 
 faith. This labor requires faith in yourselves, and faith in 
 others ; — faith in yourselves, as teachers here, based upon 
 your own knowledge of what you are and are to do ; and 
 faith in others upon the divine declaration that God breathed 
 into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul, — 
 not merely as the previous creations, possessed of animal 
 life ; but as a sentient, intellectual, and moral being, capable 
 of a progressive, immortal existence.
 
 53 
 
 " 'Tis nature's law 
 That none, the meanest of created things, 
 
 Should exist 
 Divorced from good, — a spirit and piilse of good, 
 A life and soul, to every mode of being 
 Insepax'ably linked. 
 
 See, then, your only conflict is with men ; 
 And your sole strife is to defend and teach 
 The unillumined, who, without such care, 
 Must dwindle." 
 
 And always, as in the beginning, the reliance of this 
 School is upon the people of the Commonwealth, whose voice 
 has spoken into existence another instrumentality to give 
 eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, a heart for the work of 
 this life, and a hope for an hereafter, to those who from 
 neglect and vicious example would soon pass the period of 
 reformation. But may the people always bear in mind the 
 indisputable truth, that schools for the criminal and the ex- 
 posed yield not their perfect fruits in a day or a year ! They 
 must, if they will know whether the seed here planted pro- 
 duces a harvest, wait for the birth and growth of one 
 generation, the decay and death of another. Yet these 
 years of delay will not be years of uncertainty. The public 
 faith will be strengthened continually by cases of reforma- 
 tion, usefulness, and virtue. But, whether these cases be 
 few or many, let no one despond. The career of the crimi- 
 nal is often, in money and always in influence, the heaviest 
 burden which an individual can impose upon society. 
 
 This is a School for girls ; and we may properly appeal to 
 the women of Massachusetts to do their duty to this Institu- 
 tion, and to the cause it represents. We can already see the 
 second stage in the existence of many of those who are to 
 be sent here ; and there is good reason to fear, that the rela- 
 tion of mistress and servant among us is in some degree 
 
 8
 
 54 
 
 destitute of those moral qualities that make the house a 
 home for all who dwell beneath its roof. But, whether this 
 fear be the voice of truth or the suggestion of prejudice, 
 that woman shall not be held blameless, who, under the 
 influence of indolence, pride, fashion, or avarice, shall neg- 
 lect, abuse, or oppress the humblest of her sex who goes 
 forth from these walls into the broad and dangerous path 
 of life. But this day shall not leave the impression that 
 they who are most interested in the elevation and refinement 
 of female character are indiflerent to the means employed, 
 and the results which are to wait on them. 
 
 The greatest delineator of human character in this age 
 says, as the images of neglected children pass before his 
 vision, — 
 
 "There is not one of them — not one — but sows a har- 
 vest mankind must reap. From every seed of evil in this 
 boy, a field of ruin is grown that shall be gathered in, and 
 garnered up, and sown again in many places in the world, 
 until regions are overspread with wickedness enough to 
 raise the waters of another deluge. Open and unpunished 
 murder in a city's streets would be less guilty in its daily 
 toleration than one such spectacle as this. There is not a 
 father^ by whose side, in his daily or nightly walk, these 
 creatures pass ; there is not a mother among all the ranks of 
 loving mothers in this land ; there is no one risen from the 
 state of childhood, — but shall be responsible in his or her 
 degree for this enormity. There is not a country throughout 
 the earth on which it would not bring a curse. There is no 
 religion upon earth that it would not deny ; there is no peo- 
 ple on earth that it would not put to shame." 
 
 This Institution, then, in the true relation of things, is not 
 the glory of the State, but its shame. It speaks of families, 
 of schools, of the church, of the State, not yet educated to the 
 discharge of their respective duties in the right way. But
 
 55 
 
 it is the glory of the State as a visible effort to correct evils, 
 atone for neglects, and compensate for wrongs. It comes to 
 do, in part at least, what the family, the school, the press, 
 the library, the sabbath, have not yet perfectly accomplished. 
 As these agencies partially failed, so will this ; but as the 
 law of progress exists for all, because perfection with us is 
 unattainable, we may reasonably have faith in human im- 
 provement, and that the life of each succeeding generation 
 shall unite, in ever-increasing proportions, the innocence of 
 childhood with the wisdom of age. 
 
 His Excellency Henry J. Gardner, Governor of 
 the Commonwealth, was introduced, and expressed 
 his gratification at witnessing the transfer of the 
 buildings from the hands of the Commissioners, who 
 had erected them, into those of the Trustees, who 
 were to maintain the care of the Institution. After 
 alluding to the generous private munificence which 
 had contributed to the design. His Excellency said, 
 " I should be derelict in my duty, did I not express 
 an earnest and emphatic approbation of the manner 
 in which the Commissioners have performed their 
 duties ; and I sincerely believe that no commission 
 in Massachusetts ever worked with greater diligence, 
 more entire assiduity, and a greater regard to true 
 economy, than the commission which has created 
 the scene before me." And he expressed a feeling 
 of equally confident assurance in the fidelity of the
 
 56 
 
 Trustees, Superintendent, and Matrons, on whom 
 now devolves the management of the Institution. 
 
 Hon. John H. Wilkin s, in behalf of the Com- 
 missioners, officially notified His Excellency that the 
 buildings were completed; whereupon the following 
 proclamation was read : — 
 
 ©ommonfeDealtJ of P(assac|)usett», 
 BY HIS EXCELLENCY HENRY J. GARDNER, 
 
 Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachzisetts. 
 
 Whereas, by the third section of an Act passed by the Legislature of 
 this Commonweahh, on the twenty-first day of May, A.D. 1855, entitled, 
 " An Act to estabHsh a State Reform School for Girls," it is provided, that, 
 " as soon as the Governor shall have been notified by the Commissioners 
 appointed under certain resolves ' for the purchase of a site and the erection 
 of buildings thereon for a State Reform School for Girls,' that said buildings 
 are prepared for occupancy, he shall forthwith issue his proclamation, giving 
 public notice of the fact." 
 
 And, by the fourth section of the Act aforesaid, it is provided, that, 
 " after proclamation shall have been made, as provided in the third section 
 of this Act, whenever any girl, above the age of seven and imder the age of 
 sixteen years, shall be brought by any constable, police officer, or other inhabi- 
 tant of any city or town in this Commonwealth, before any Judge of Probate 
 or Commissioner authorized and empowered to act in the case by the eighth 
 section of this Act, upon the allegation or complaint that the said gu'l has 
 committed any offence known to the laws of this Commonwealth, punishable 
 by fine or imprisonment, other than such as may be punished by imprison- 
 ment for life ; or that she is leading an idle, vagrant, or \icious life ; or has 
 been found in any street, highway, or public place within this Common- 
 wealth, in circumstances of want and suffering, or of neglect, exposure, or 
 abandonment, or of beggar}', — it shall be the duty of the Judge or Com- 
 missioner aforesaid, before whom the said girl is brought, to issue a summons 
 or order, in WTiting, addressed to the father of said girl, if he be living and 
 resident within the town or city where the said girl was found, and, if not, 
 then to her mother, if Tshe be Hving and so resident ; and, if there be no 
 father or mother of said girl resident within said town or city, then addressed
 
 57 
 
 to the lawful guardian of said girl if any there be resident within said town 
 or city, or, if not, to the person with whom, according to the examination of 
 the girl, and the testimony, if any, received by the Judge or Commissioner 
 aforesaid, the said girl shall reside ; and, if there be no person with whom 
 she statedly resides, the Judge or Commissioner may, at his discretion, appomt 
 some suitable person to act in her behalf, requiring him or her, as the case 
 may be, to appear before him at such time and place as he shall in said sum- 
 mons or order appoint, and to show cause, if any there be, why the said 
 girl shall not be committed to the Reform School for Girls, established by 
 
 this Act." 
 
 And, whereas the Commissioners, appointed under the resolves above 
 
 referred to, have given me notice that the buildings erected for said State 
 
 Reform School for Girls, at Lancaster, in the County of Worcester, are now 
 
 ready for the reception of inmates, — 
 
 Noio therefore, I, Henry J. Gardner, Governor of the Commonwealth 
 of Massachusetts, do issue this proclamation, gi^'ing pubUc notice to the Com- 
 missioners under the Act, magistrates and people of this Commonwealth, of 
 the fact that said State Reform School for Girls, now called and known by 
 authority of the Legislatm-e as the State Industrial School, is prepared for 
 
 occupancy. i , ,- ^ 
 
 Given under my hand and the seal of the Commonwealth, this twenty- 
 seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
 and fifty-six. and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-first. 
 
 Henry J. Gardner. 
 
 By His Excellency the Governor, 
 
 Francis DeWitt, 
 
 Secretary of the Commonwealth 
 ©oU sabe tjc ©ommontocalti) of i^assacljiisctts* 
 
 The Governor directed Hon. Francis DeWitt, Sec- 
 retary of the Commonwealth, who was present, to 
 cause the proclamation to be recorded and published 
 in the usual manner. This official duty completed 
 the formal ceremonies of the day. 
 
 The choir then sung an anthem ; and Col. F. B. 
 Fay, of Chelsea, who is both a Commissioner and
 
 58 
 
 Trustee, then invited the guests to repair to tables, 
 laid in another part of the grounds, where a collation 
 had been provided by the ladies of Lancaster. 
 
 Accordingly the company proceeded, at about twen- 
 ty minutes before four o'clock, to the tables, where 
 they found a truly generous and excellent provision 
 made for their refreshment by their fair entertainers. 
 Before commencing, Col. Fay addressed the company 
 as follows : — 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — A very pleasing duty has 
 been assigned me, — to invite you to partake of a collation, 
 which the ladies of Lancaster, by their well-known hospitality, 
 have kindly and generously furnished for the present occa- 
 sion. For this act alone, they would be justly entitled to 
 our warmest acknowledgments and heartfelt gratitude. But 
 this is not all. These good ladies seem never to be weary 
 of well-doing. They are like " ol' Virginny, dat neber tire." 
 I have spent most of my time here for some months ; and I 
 may say, that almost daily some of them have visited us, — 
 watching our progress, speaking words of encouragement and 
 approbation, and stimulating us to persevere ; thus proving 
 their interest in the object of this institution, and affording 
 the strongest assurance that they will be faithful auxiliaries 
 to our Superintendent and Matrons in the discharge of their 
 several duties. Permit me to add, that the citizens of Lan- 
 caster in general, with a liberality which deserves all praise, 
 have extended to the Commissioners every facility that we 
 could desire ; and while we have been indebted to many of 
 them for special favors, which time will not permit me to 
 enumerate, I should omit an act of justice were I to pass in 
 silence the services of Jacob Fisher, Esq., whose valuable an4 
 important aid has been of so marked a character.
 
 59 
 
 After a sufficient time spent in the discussion of the 
 material repast, Col. Fay again called the company to 
 order, and Mr. Wilkins proposed the first regular 
 toast, as follows : — 
 
 " The good old CommonweaUJi of Massacliuseits. — A ' gem of purest ray serene ' 
 is this day added to her ' crown jewels.' " 
 
 His Excellency made a brief speech in response to 
 this toast, complimenting the town of Lancaster, and 
 concluding with the following : — 
 
 " The Town of Lancaster, — long known as one of the most beautiful of the 
 rural towns of Massachusetts, henceforward to be famed in a new aspect of civili- 
 zation." 
 
 The second regular toast was omitted in conse- 
 quence of the absence of Ex-Governor Washburn; 
 but we print it, viz. : — 
 
 " That Ex-Governor of the Commonwealth, — by whose recommendations, and 
 under whose auspices, provision was made for the establishment of our Institution." 
 
 The third regular toast was the following : — 
 
 " The Private Contributors to the Fund for the Establishment of our School, — gene 
 rous co-laborers with the State, — in loco parentis, — silver threads of brotherly 
 charity intertwining and encircling the golden cord of fatherly care." 
 
 The Chairman called upon Mr. Charles Hale, 
 Editor of the " Boston Daily Advertiser," to respond 
 to this toast. After some playful allusions, Mr. Hale 
 said that he could not pretend to have been one of 
 the subscribers to the fund : printers are proverbially 
 "poor printers" always; but, as an humble member 
 of the PresSs he would claim for the Press some
 
 60 
 
 share in bringing the subject to the attention of 
 the public. The act of the Legislature, in 1854, 
 appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the esta- 
 blishment of the School, provided an equal sum 
 were subscribed by private individuals within six 
 months. That period had more than half elapsed, 
 when Governor Washburn, who had early been a 
 friend and advocate of the establishment of such 
 an institution, addressed a letter to the editors of 
 several papers, inviting their attention to the subject. 
 Mr. Hale had the pleasure of writing an article for 
 the " Daily Advertiser," in which the plan was set 
 forth ; and so immediately did the community re- 
 spond, that, on the same morning that the article 
 appeared, he received a letter from a gentleman of 
 Boston, agreeing to be one of twenty to subscribe a 
 thousand dollars each ; and, at the same time, another 
 letter from another citizen, offering to do any thing 
 in his power, and proposing, in case it were deemed 
 best to complete the amount in smaller subscriptions, 
 to be one of a hundred to pay two hundred dollars 
 each. The subject was kept before the public; and 
 within seven days more than one-quarter, and within 
 eighteen days one-half, of the necessary sum was 
 pledged through the columns of the " Advertiser." 
 Public-spirited individuals made collections, and the 
 whole sum was something more than completed within 
 the prescribed time. Mr. Hale than adverted to some 
 of the leading aspects in which the School presents
 
 61 
 
 itself, and declared that in one respect its foundation 
 marked an epoch in the history of civilization ; viz., 
 the recognition by government, to a marked and 
 peculiar degree, for the first time, of the influence 
 of woman upon social life and in the body politic. 
 This is the first time a government has sought to 
 prevent crime by providing a peculiar social education 
 for women. Eespect for woman is a mark of civili- 
 zation ; and it is really an indication of the advance 
 of the world in civilization, that, while the late war, 
 in which three great European powers have been 
 engaged, has not furnished the page of history with 
 the name of a single hero of whom the world can 
 fairly be proud, that same war has furnished the 
 world with a heroine in Florence Nightingale, whose 
 laurels are brighter than any warrior ever won, and 
 whose name will never be forgotten. He closed with 
 a toast to this effect. 
 
 The Chairman then announced the fourth regular 
 toast : — 
 
 " The Purpose and Theory of the Industrial School, — a scabbard of mercy cover- 
 ing the sword of justice." 
 
 A brief and entertaining response was made by 
 Deacon Grant. Fifth regular toast : — 
 
 " Restraint under Proclivities to Vice, without Confinement, — a problem more diffi- 
 cult to solve than ' a church without a bishop,' or 'a State without a king.' " 
 
 Sixth regular toast : — 
 
 " The Citizens of Lancaster. — We thank them for their old common : the water 
 that gushes from its centre will make it a new common." 
 
 9
 
 62 
 
 Capt. Fisher, of Lancaster, made an appropriate 
 response. Seventh regular toast : — 
 
 " The Ladies of Lancaster. — The ample provision made by them for the enter- 
 tainment of visitors to-day attests the deep interest they feel in the success of an 
 institution established for the benefit of their sex." 
 
 Kev. Christopher D. Thayer, of Beverly (a native 
 of Lancaster), was call upon to respond to this senti- 
 ment, which duty he discharged with much eloquence, 
 calling to mind the noble-hearted ladies who in times 
 past resided in the Stillwell Mansion, when the Hiller 
 and Cleveland families occupied it. He believed they 
 would be gratified with the use to which the build- 
 ings and grounds are now put. He also alluded to 
 the apparent congeniality of the atmosphere to edu- 
 cation, indicated by the fact that Jared Sparks, Presi- 
 dent of Harvard College ; George B. Emerson ; and 
 Solomon P. Miles, — three gentlemen distinguished 
 in the cause of education, — had lived within a 
 stone's throw of the present location. From these 
 influences and others, he drew a happy augury for 
 the success of the new Institution. 
 
 This speech closed the intellectual banquet ; for it 
 was now time for those visitors who intended to take 
 the railroad to Boston to proceed to the station. In- 
 deed, the time for all the speeches had obviously been 
 limited ; and if " brevity" be indeed " the soul of wit " 
 (as we think it truly is), never were there half a dozen 
 wittier speeches than those which followed the colla-
 
 63 
 
 tion given by the ladies of Lancaster on this memo- 
 rable occasion. The company separated in the best 
 of hnmor, greatly gratified and satisfied with the cele- 
 bration of the day ; the pleasure of which literally no 
 cloud occurred to mar. The Boston train left Lan- 
 caster at five o'clock, and reached the city shortly 
 after seven without accident.
 
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