Some of the laws relating to this class of minor offences have undergone changes within the last two hundred years, particularly since our separation from the Mother Country.
These changes have been not so much in regard to the nature and description of the offence itself, as in regard to the penalty. They have in Massachusetts at the present time, and have had ever since the American Revolution, laws against drunkenness, vagrancy, petty larceny, libel and slander, profane cursing and swearing, Sabbath breaking, unlawful games or plays, lewdness, common railing and brawling, and idle and disorderly conduct generally. Our Colonial ancestors had laws substantially like those in force so far as relates to the offences themselves.
In fact, the present statutes on these subjects are many of them copies of the provincial statutes. But the penalties are quite different. They now punish breaching of these laws by a small fine or by imprisonment for a short term, or by both. For similar breaches of the statute and common law in the early history of Massachusetts some very different penalties were provided. These were actually enforced in frequent instances, which is hardly true of similar cases at the present day.
The Magistrates and Courts that administered the laws in Massachusetts during the first century and a half after its settlement were full believers in the propriety and efficacy of corporal punishment for a certain class of transgressions. Having based their criminal code largely upon that of Moses, they were well persuaded that, if in no case they exceeded the Hebrew limit of forty stripes, they would have the Divine sanction. With this illustrious precedent constantly in view as a rule of action, they did not hesitate to apply the rod whenever it seemed to them appropriate and adequate penalty for the offence. Crimes of a graver character were dealt with by tribunals of larger jurisdiction and punished by imprisonment or death. But for a large class of misdemeanors, particularly such as were considered scandalous or tending to disorder and of evil example, the rod was a very frequent instrument of punishment.
It was a matter within the discretion of the Magistrate to some extent. This office was held by William Pynehon, of Springfield, Mass., for the first eleven years, afterwards for half a century by John Pynehon and his associates. In awarding this punishment of whipping little regard seems to have been paid by the court to the sex or social position of the offender. If the infliction of the penalty tended to disgrace the culprit, the commission of the offence was in itself disgraceful. The degrading punishment was regarded the just and proper sequence of the disgraceful crime.
The constable was the officer by whom the sentence was executed, and the public whipping post was the place. The time was sometimes the day on which the court was held. Occasionally, the day of the weekly religious lecture was designated as the time for the infliction.
Sometimes whipping was an alternative sentence to be inflicted if the offender failed to pay his fine. Often it was the only punishment awarded.
Some instances will be given, taken from the records—most of them are from the Pynehon record, containing cases tried by William Pynehon as a Magistrate, and cases tried by his son, John Pynehon, in connection with Eleziar Holyoke and Dr. Samuel Chapin who were commissioners appointed by the General Court.
False Reports, Slanders, etc.
In May, 1645, the General Court enacted a law designed to suppress the invention and circulation of false reports, whether injurious to private individuals or to the public in general.