I am in the right in the once case than in the other. Besides, we feel less reluctance to take away a man's life, when we are heated by the injury, than to do it at a distance of time by an oath, after we have cooled. For perhaps one may, a year after, hang himself from uneasiness for having shot a man.
Few minds are fit to be trusted with so great a thing.
National crimes require national punishments, of which many must necessarily have their part, who have not incurred them by personal guilt. If rebels should fortify a town, the cannon of lawful authority will endanger, equally, the harmless burghers and the criminal garrison. This infliction of promiscuous evil may, therefore, be lamented, but cannot be blamed. To bring misery on those who have not deserved it, is part of the aggregated guilt of rebellion. The law then renews the pursuit in the heat of anger, and overtakes the offender again with death.