e been stolen, or of any other
offence not capital, for which, by the laws now in force, burning in the
hand, cutting off the ears, nailing the ear or ears to the pillory,
placing in and upon the pillory, whipping, or imprisonment for life, is,
or may be inflicted, shall, instead of such parts of the punishment, be
fined and sentenced to hard labor for any term not exceeding two years."
Also, as if dreading that lax laws might lead to a carnival of crime, the
legislators restricted the operation of the new and lenient statute to
three years. The act was renewed, however, at the close of that term, and
finally, in 1794, the reform of the criminal code was crowned with the
declaration that "no crime whatever, excepting murder of the first
degree, shall hereafter be punished with death."

Other States either kept pace with or followed the example of
Pennsylvania in making their criminal laws more reformatory and less
vindictive, and while England affected to despise American civilization,
America was leading England in the march of humanity.

The genius of the nation was progress--not the spirit of the huckster,
anxious for present gain, but the enlarged view of the patriot, anxious
for the future weal of his country and his race. A striking expression of
this spirit is shown in the report made in 1812 by Gouverneur Morris, De
Witt Clinton and other eminent men on the practicability and prospects of
the proposed Erie Canal. After boldly stating that the tolls from this
work would amply repay the outlay required for its construction, the
report adds: "It is impossible to ascertain and it is difficult to
imagine how much toll would be collected; but like our advance in numbers
and wealth, calculation out-runs fancy. Things which twenty years ago any
man would have been laughed at for believing, we now see. * * * The life
of an individual is short. The time is not distant when those who make
this report will have passed away. But no time is fixed to the existence
of a State; and the first wish of a patriot's heart is that his may be
immortal." In the Northwest also, the State-builders of that day were
equally farsighted in patriotic provision for the future. When it was
proposed to admit Illinois as a State, Nathaniel Pope, delegate in
Congress from that territory, urged, that the northern boundary should be
extended to take in the port of Chicago, and a considerable coast-line on
Lake Michigan, so as to give the State an int