CONSTITUTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.

When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded on the precept and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures, and when we reflect upon the miseries, which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the link which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degree and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested as may, instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth and obligations of these principles, the subscribers have associated themselves under the title of “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.”

For effecting these purposes they have adopted the following Constitution:

ARTICLE I.

The officers of the Society shall consist of a President, two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, who may be an undoubted first-class Trust and Safe Deposit Company, regularly chartered by the State or national authorities; two Counsellors, and an Acting Committee; all of whom shall first be nominated as suitable by the “Committee on Membership in the Acting Committee,” a standing committee of that body. They shall be chosen by ballot at the annual meeting of the Society to be held on the fourth Thursday in the First month (January) of each year, and shall continue in office until their successors are elected.

No person shall be placed in nomination for officers of the Society, or as a member of the Acting Committee who shall not have been previously appointed by a standing committee of the Acting Committee called “The Committee on Membership in the Acting Committee.” A majority of the whole number of votes cast shall be required to elect any nominee.

In case an election for any cause shall not then be held, it shall be the duty of the President to call a special meeting of the Society, within thirty days, for the purpose of holding such election, of which at least three days’ notice shall be given.

ARTICLE II.

The President shall preside in all Meetings, and subscribe all public acts of the Society. He may call special meetings whenever he may deem it expedient, and shall do so when requested in writing by five members. In his absence one of the Vice-Presidents may act in his place.

ARTICLE III.

The Secretaries shall keep fair records of the proceedings of the Society, and shall conduct its correspondence.

ARTICLE IV.

The Treasurer shall keep the moneys and securities, and pay all orders of the Society, or of the Acting Committee signed by the presiding officer and the Secretary, and shall present a statement of the receipts and expenditures at each stated meeting of the Society, and an Annual Report at the annual meeting in the First month (January).

All investments and re-investments shall be made by the Treasurer only with the advice and consent of a majority of the members of the Finance Committee of the Acting Committee.

All bequests and life subscriptions shall be safely invested, only the income thereof to be applied to the current expenses of the Society.

[CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE OF COVER.]

Office of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Fifth and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia.