EPISODES 23 1 



THE REGULATORS 



The population of many parts of America is derived 

 from the refuse of every other country. I hope I shall 

 elsewhere prove to you, kind reader, that even in this we 

 have reason to feel a certain degree of pride, as we often 

 see our worst denizens becoming gradually freed from 

 error, and at length changing to useful and respectable 

 citizens. The most depraved of these emigrants are forced 

 to retreat farther and farther from the society of the vir- 

 tuous, the restraints imposed by whom they find incom- 

 patible with their habits and the gratification of their un- 

 bridled passions. On the extreme verge of civilization, 

 however, their evil propensities find more free scope, and 

 the dread of punishments for their deeds, or the infliction 

 of that punishment, are the only means that prove effectual 

 in reforming them. 



In those remote parts, no sooner is it discovered that an 

 individual has conducted himself in a notoriously vicious 

 manner, or has committed some outrage upon society, 

 than a conclave of the honest citizens takes place, for the 

 purpose of investigating the case, with a rigor without 

 which no good result could be expected. These honest 

 citizens, selected from among the most respectable per- 

 sons in the district, and vested with power suited to the 

 necessity of preserving order on the frontiers, are named 

 Regulators. The accused person is arrested, his con- 

 duct laid open, and if he is found guilty of a first crime, 

 he is warned to leave the country, and go farther from 

 society, within an appointed time. Should the individual 

 prove so callous as to disregard the sentence, and remain 

 in the same neighborhood, to commit new crimes, then 

 woe be to him; for the Regulators, after proving him 

 guilty a second time, pass and execute a sentence which, 

 if not enough to make him perish under the infliction, is 



