ON THE CAUSES OF CRIME. 595 



the fallen and to spread the principles of morality and justice among 

 the peoples of the world. It is found that true statesmanship, like 

 true religion, begins with visiting the prisoners and helping the poor. 

 It is certain that in our own country Edward Livingston, the public 

 man who ranks high in European regard for intellectual ability, gained 

 his position by his great work on the penal laws of Louisiana. When 

 it was the fashion in the scientific world to hold that men and animals 

 were dwarfed on this continent, this work -was brought forward by our 

 friends in Europe as a proof that statesmanship w r as full-grown here. 

 It is a remarkable fact that an able foreign writer selected the Louisiana 

 code and the proclamation of General Jackson against the doctrine of 

 secession as the two ablest productions of the American mind, not 

 knowing that they both came from the same pen. An exposition 

 of Mr. Livingston's system has lately been published in France by 

 M. Charles Lucas, a member of the Institute, and formerly president 

 of the Council of Inspectors of the Penal Institutions of that country. 

 M. Lucas is a distinguished writer and leader in the work of criminal 

 reform. He belongs to that body of large-minded, philanthropic men, 

 who seek to benefit humanity by wise systems of legislation. A cer- 

 tain breadth and reach of mind seem to mark those men who have en- 

 tered upon the study of penal laws and the reformation of criminals. 

 While there is much to condemn in our system of laws and in their 

 administration, there is much to admire in the practical workings of 

 many of our prisons. In some respects we are in advance of other 

 people. Much has been done in many of our States to improve the 

 condition of our criminals, and much more to rescue the young from 

 vice and destruction. I should be glad to speak of the instances of 

 ability and self-devotion shown by men who have charge of public or 

 private charities established for the reformation of offenders. They 

 would lend a weight to my argument which my reasoning cannot give, 

 but I must leave these things to be brought out by the discussions 

 of this congress. I only seek to show the ends at which it aims ; I 

 only seek to make for it the sympathy and support of the public in its 

 efforts to combine and organize the forces of those who, in different 

 parts of our country, are working in this field of philanthropic and 

 patriotic labor. Crime has its origin in the passions which live in 

 every breast, and the weakness which marks every character in its na- 

 ture. It concerns each of us, as clearly as the common liability to fall 

 prematurely before disease and death. No man can know human na- 

 ture, no man can be a great teacher to his fellow-men, no man can 

 frame laws wisely and well, who has not studied character in convict- 

 life. There he can best see the lights and shadows of our natures, see 

 in the strongest contrasts what is good and what is bad. The prisons, 

 to which all vice tends, are the points from which the reform can be 

 best urged which seeks to find out where vice begins. Starting from 

 the sad ends of crime and running back along the tracks, it is seen that 



