Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 3

[86] connected with prison administration. Dwight was called to the tribune,¹ and spoke briefly in English on the objects of the Boston Society, without entering on a development of the penitentiary system of the United States,—evidently not at ease in a body which approved by a large majority the separate system, and contained many delegates who were familiar with the Boston controversy. But the advocates of the separate system, who had awaited an exposition of his adverse views and were ready for an encounter, were too aggressive to let him alone in the quiet part he had prescribed for himself, and pressed him in personal intercourse. He was confronted by Joseph Adshead, of Manchester, author of a paper on ‘Prisons and Prisoners,’ who invited him to a public debate; by Dr. Varrentrap, of Frankfort, whose criticisms of his reports had been translated and republished in the Boston Law Reporter,² and who assailed his statistical tables; by Suringar, who upbraided him for his partisanship, telling him he could never expect to be a happy man until he tried to undo all the mischief he had done by his onesidedness; by Julius, who was fully equipped on all points of the controversy, and was an ardent friend of the separate system; and by Benjamin Rotch, of London, a Middlesex magistrate, who in a session of the Congress held Sumner's speech in his hand in full view of Dwight, ready to reply in case the latter ventured to maintain the superiority of the Auburn system.³ The secretary, thus pursued and confronted, did not find the atmosphere of the Congress congenial; certainly he was altogether silent as to a controversy which was always on his mind when in Boston. Before coming home he passed some weeks in London, during which he inspected the prison at Pentonville.

Sumner attempted, soon after the Society's meeting, to procure a meeting of the committee; but this was prevented by Dwight's absence. In the spring of 1847 He prepared a report,⁴ following in style and purport the suggestions of Dr. Wayland, which was agreed to by three members,—himself, Dr. Wayland, and Hillard,—the only acting member who dissented being Dwight. It was temperate in tone, and confined to general propositions not