Thing is, IMO, kids were more mature/responsible back in 1846 than they are today. Parents, far more often than not, did a proper job of raising their children too. Sadly, that's also not done these days. Back in the mid 1800's, I'm sure more people were raised around firearms.
Trying to use logic from over 150 years ago simply doesn't work. You might as well use it from 1500 years ago.
From what I've seen, parents have been hamstrung from actually being parents for at least the past 10-15 years. Not being able to discipline their own kids is total bullshit. If you don't make the consequence of doing something you're not supposed to do far worse than any 'pleasure' you may gain from doing it, the punishment is impotent. Parents getting jammed up for striking their child (when they seriously screwed up) is just wrong. I'm not advocating abuse, just discipline. I only ****ed up bad enough one time, growing up, to warrant being smacked. Guess what, I never did anything that bad ever again. Today, a parent that did that would probably be brought up on felony charges, convicted (especially in a nanny state) and then become a PP.