certainty of that event in a language which was accommodated to the idea of the Jewish nation.

2d. It has beeen faid, that the great Jehovah frequently fwears, both in the old and new teftament, ard that the angel who is to found the last trumpet will "fwear that time fhall be no more." Every expreffion of this kind fhould be confidered as an accomodation to Jewish and pagan customs, in order to render the truths of revelation more intelligible and acceptable. The Supreme Being, for the fame reasons, often affumes to himself the violent paffions, and even the features and fenfes of men; and yet who can suppose it proper to afcribe either of them to a Being, one of whofe perfections confists in his existing as a pure unchangeable spirit.

If oaths are contrary to reason, and have a pernicious influence upon morals and the order of fociety; and above all, if they are contrary to the precepts and spirit of the gofpel; it becomes legislators and ministers of the gospel to confider how far they are responsible for all the falfehood, profane fwearing and perjury that exift in fociety. It is in the power of legiflators to abolish oaths, by expunging them from our laws; and it is in the power of minifters of the gospel, by their influence and example, to render truth fo fimple and obligatory, that human governments fhall be afhamed to ask any other mode of declaring it, from Christians, than by a bare affirmation.

The friends of virtue and freedom have beheld, with great pleasure, a new conftitution established in the United States, whofe objects are peace, union and juftice. It will be in the power of the first congress that shall act under this conftitution, to fet the world an example of enlightened policy, by framing laws that fhall command obedience without the abfurd and improper obligation of oaths. By this means they will add the restoration and establishment of TRUTH, to the great and valuable objects of the conftitution that have been mentioned.

Jan. 20 1789.

AN ENQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS OF PUBLIC PU

NISHMENTS UPON CRIMINALS, AND UPON SOCIETY. READ IN THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING POLITI

CAL ENQUIRIES,

CONVENED AT THE HOUSE OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ESQ. IN PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 9th, 1787.

"Accuftomed to look up to thofe nations from whom we have derived "our origin, for our laws, our opinions, and our manners; we have re"tained, with undiftinguishing reverence, their errors, with their improvements; have blended, with our public intitutions, the policy of "diffimilar countries; and have grafted, on an infant commonwealth, "the manners of ancient and corrupted monarchies." PREFACE TO

THE LAWS OF THE SOCIETY FOR POLITICAL ENQUIRIES.

HE defign of punishment is faid to be, Ift,

THE

to reform the person who fuffers it; 2dly, to prevent the perpetration of crimes, by exciting terror in the minds of fpectators; and, 3dly, to remove those persons from fociety, who have manifefted, by their tempers and crimes, that they are unfit to live

in it.

From the first institution of governments, in every age and country (with but a few exceptions) legiflators have thought that punishments should be public, in order to answer the two first of these intentions. It will require fome fortitude to combat opinions that have been fanctified by fuch long and general preju

dice, and fupported by univerfal practice. But truth in government, as well as in philofophy, is of progreffive growth. As in philofophy, we often arrive at truth by rejecting the evidence of our senses; so in government, we often arrive at it, after divorcing our first thoughts. Reason, though depofed and oppreffed, is the only just fovereign of the human mind. Difcoveries, it is true, have been made by accident; but they have derived their credit and usefulness only from their according with the decifions of reafon.

In medicine, above every other branch of philofophy, we perceive many inftances of the want of relation between the apparent caufe and effect. Who, by reasoning a priori, would fuppofe, that the hot regimen was not preferable to the cold, in the treatment of the fmall-pox? But experience teaches us, that this is not the cafe. Caufe and effect appear to be related in philofophy, like the objects of chemistry. Similar bodies often repel each other, while bodies that are diffimilar in figure, weight and quality, often unite together with impetuofity. With our prefent imperfect degrees of knowledge of the properties of bodies, we can discover these chemical relations only by experiment. The fame may be faid of the connection between cause and effect, in many parts of government. This connection often accords with reafon, while it is repugnant to our fenfes-and when this is not the cafe, from our inability to perceive it, it forces

T

our confent from the testimony of experience and observation.

It has been remarked, that the profeffion of arms owes its prefent rank, as a science, to its having been refcued, fince the revival of letters, from the hands of mere foldiers, and cultivated by men acquainted with other branches of literature. The reason of this is plain. Truth is an unit. It is the fame thing in war-philofophy-medicine-morals-religion and government; and in proportion as we arrive at it in one science, we fhall discover it in others.

After this apology, for diffenting from the established opinions and practice, upon the subject of public punishments, I shall take the liberty of declaring, that the great ends propofed, are not to be obtained by them; and that, on the contrary, all public punishments tend to make bad men worfe, and to increase crimes, by their influence upon fociety.

I. The reformation of a criminal can never be effected by a public punishment, for the following reafons.

Ift. As it is always connected with infamy, it deftroys in him the sense of shame, which is one of the ftrongest out-posts of virtue.

2dly. It is generally of fuch fhort duration, as to produce none of those changes in body or mind, which are abfolutely neceffary to reform obftinate habits of

vice.