To render to him what and only what he has rendered another is maintaining the old Mosaic rule of “an eye for an eye,” which in these latter times should be obsolete.
Victoria C. Woodhull
The Public Record
Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin, was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election. While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency, some disagree with classifying it as a true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be president if elected.
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Prevention is better than remedy; besides, there is no such thing as remedy for crime already committed.
The criminal can by no possible means—nor can the State—undo the wrong.
Reparation in most cases is impossible, but should be rendered, wherever possible.
It becomes, then, the chief duty of the State to prevent the recurrence of wrong by putting such restraint upon those who are inclined to it as will effectually prevent their inclinations finding expression.
These persons have trespassed upon the public welfare and it must be protected from further trespass.
At the same time the means of prevention must be such as shall not encroach upon the culpable one’s rights further than such prevention actually requires.
As a member of society he has forfeited to society, to a certain extent, the freedom of expressing his privileges and rights as an individual, by the infringement upon the privileges and rights of another individual, also a member of the…
It should be his right and privilege to labor and receive its full recompense, to which the State should have no right, further than the cost of his maintenance.
His whole restraint should be made as nearly as possible analagous to the every-day life of a useful citizen.
He should no longer be the condemned criminal, but the member of society whom the public welfare requires shall be restrained from following the freedom his proclivities indicate.
Charity, with its long cloak of justice escaped, has long enough covered a multitude of sins.