"Whipping"
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WHIPPING.—
Coporael punishment never produces any good effects. Solomon's axiom "Spare the rod and spoil the child," if meant to be taken literally, (as is questionable) is a false, sanguinary principle, that ought to be scouted by every man of sense.1
Notes:
1. This was not the first time Whitman had written on the misguidedness of corporal punishment. His first known published short story, "Death in the School-Room. A Fact" tells the story of a teacher prone to beating his students as a form of punishment. It ends when the teacher beats a boy he thinks is sleeping, only to discover that the boy was actually dead and the teacher "had been flogging A CORPSE." The tale was first published in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in August 1841. [back]