New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-12-24
For The Tribune.
C,nitp, punishmeu,s.

For The Tribune.
Cnpitai PHniahn,ents.
Mr.. Editor: The subject of Capital Punish
men,s, you say, ought to be discussed agree
with you in the opinion, and would, therefore, re-
quest admission into your columns for few re-
marks suggested by extraordinary specimen of
reasoning which you gave us, few days since, frer
the Rochester Democrat There is natural fond.
ness in the human mind for any thing which bears
the show of logic; and, in accommodation to this
feeling, the wretched fallacies sometimes gait
credit, by being presented in imposing logical
form, especially if accompanied by parade OF
statistical tables. Surely, figures cannot lie, il
is said; and yet the most perncious falsehoods may
arise from their false position or by nverting the
order of their results In the article referred to,
we are presented with tables showing that in Bel.
GUM, France and Prussia there has been, for sue
cessive years, gradual diminution in the number
of executions for murder,-and corresponding to
this, pari passu, like gradual dimnuton of the
number Of convictions for the same crime
"Hence we see,' says the writer, (" that the de-
creaaa of Capital Punishmen,s, instead of causing
any Increase of the crime of murder, has been at
tended with the opposite results" This is Ger
tainy very strange logic. The ialscy is of so
peculiar kind, that it has no name in any of our
elementary treatises on the art OF reasoning. 10
use vugarism, however, it may be called 90
putting the cart before tho horse" or in other
words, substituting the cause for the effect. The
conclusion is, of course, right acrong. On the
same principle, might contend for the aboli-
ton of all laws for the punishment of crime, BY
means of statistical tables, showing that The latter
has regularly diminished, in exact proportion to
the steady execution of the former. To apply the
argument of this admirable logican to q case pre-
sisely similar, it might be said that stealing has
not increased with the dinnution OF convictions
and imprisonments for that ofence,-lherefore,
imprisonment for theft ought to be abolished. In
fact, it is hard to see how contrary result could
take place, or by what scheme the convictions and
executions could increase, while the crime itself
diminished.
1t is bad cause which needs to be upheld by
varied and contradictory arguments, and this is
preeminently the with the advocacy of the
abolition of Capital Punishments. At one time,
we are told that tue punishment Is sanguinary and
cruel at another, that it has not the same terror
for the mind as imprisonment for life. Again:
TO tolerate this relic of barbarsm. It was neces-
sary, it is reluctantly coaceded,) in more savage
and licenteus state of society, such existed in
the jewish Iheocracy, bur now its day has gone
byi-nen have become wiser than the Bible
more humane than their Maker, (unless He may
be supposed to have shared in the universal pro.
gression of ideas) AIR. 0'Sullivan is more pro-
found legislator than Moses, although assisted by
the wisdom of the Almighty the bloody lyncheIs
OF Alabama, of Ficksburg and St. Louis, with the
almost weekly homicides of New-York and Phila-
delphla, are far more civilized than those semi
baroarous Jews, with whom murder was SO rare
and astonishing crime, that tho whole Nation,
from Dan 10 Beersheba, arose 10 take vengeance
for one single case, Judges xix. and ky Al
another time, and perhaps by the same reasoner,
we are gravely informed that murders are mos,
alarmingy on the Increase, and that this, in some
strange and unexplained way, is caused by the
STIMULATING effects of Capital Punishmen,s. Now,
we are called upon 20 despise and trample under
.oe'' as an exploded barbarisn, the almost uni
s sai sentiment and experience Of mankind in all
ass"' ana IN all past ages Of the world, or in
~ words, the gcc aasnaaitatis, which is but
e osao and Interpretation of the cor De; in tho
s. ssriarchal law ;-and again. we are mos,
= sasay asked to fall down and worship wba,
man, os ~. N " DC tae roz popali o, public senti
Aehiury. We saw assumed
20, .os We are convinced that even in The ex
to which II exists is selfcrea,ed o. IN ea a,sas
WORDS produced simply by the cont;n,aI Ssu1'
ton that such Is the public sant;r,a,
of that sober research and ael;hs.a, any
matter so important denands,-a r,,,s ~ a.
this wise aad thinking generation has "','ot
opinions manufactured for it, which o,Sss,. mac
would never have thought Of We ero NIL as" as.l
how this thing is managed in this Country. TN
people arc told by some ofhcious demasogues =
interested partisans, that such measure is d
manded by the popular voice. This is repeated
until, in the absence of all opposition on the pal
Of those who are inattensive TO such mannuyre
it gains partial credence. Men then begin to
in favor of il, for reason of their own, foande
on the merits of the case, bur because it is the put
lie sentiment In respect to this very matter, ho