The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1845-09-22

they kept such hustle" about them.
is HANGING a PREVEN TIVE OR PUN
ISHMENT OF CRIME?
We confess we have our doubts, since our
mind has been directed tn the subject The most
internal villains step off of the gallows ladder.
told into the realms of bliss. having had
time 10 repent of their sins, while their victims
have been hurried To their eternal doom with al
their imperiections on their heads" Since the
execution of McCurry in Baltimore, who went to
the gallows with his heart full OF lies, and pro.
claimed by the Priests who attended him TO BIZ
sincerely repenlant, and Ia have died in the hope
of redemption through the Saviour, our faith in
capital punishments has been much shaken either
as preventive or punishment for murder. And
now we have another galluws saint, in the person
of Green. who puIsoned his young wife, within a
week Of his marriage, who has been proclaimed as
having experienced saving grace in the very
hour of dissolution, having previous to that time
and after his conviction and sentence, INDUCED in
gross abuse of the Court. obscene and blasphemous
language, &c. We approve most highly of the
remarks below, which we take from the New
York Tribune.
Ne nhJect most strenuOusly to the la,u requir
ing that men shall he hung, bat mt to their being
hung su long as the law requires it. The Courts,
the Governor. the Sheriff. have dune their simple
duty in the premises. and cast no blame on
them. Yet we think the People dn wrong in au-
thnrzing, commencing Executions. Let US con
sider:
Green was cruel, wicked. want0n. horrible
murderer-his crime one of the most revolving
and inexcusable that was ever heard of. So long
as any body is to be hang he just the man.
Yet we believe good has been done by hanging
him. hut much evil.
J. He is not punished All his spiritual com-
frters believe that he died a penitent, regenerae
Christian man, and has gone To Heaven, what
ever may he the fate of his hapless wife. His
execution, them was not the dismissal of male
factor to his doom, as perpetual imprisonment
wnnld have been, Int the elevation of = saint To
glory Gnd had forgiven him all his sins, and
ready 10 receive him To endless joy ; hut frail,
sinful Man decided that, though fl for Heaven,
he was unfit for EARTH and hung him. Those
who most deemed him saint were most resOlute
for choking him To death as a sinner. We trust
part of the responsibility of this unmercfu deed
devOlvps on us.
g The murder is not redressed Hanging
Green does not bring To life his pnor victim, nor
in any way heal the wounds inflicted TN her rra
tives and friends. 1t does not wipe out The stain
of blood from the land it rather deepens it.
3. II does not teach men that murder ,oil
SURELY he punished Here is one case of so
called punishment, but all around honicides are
committed and the slayers escape detection or CON
viction. Innocent men are frequently hung, and
guilty murderers Stlll oener escape. Not half
the murderers in our State are convicted and il is
far worse in the newer Western States The
punishment of Death often defeats conviction
the jurors dreading TO convict unless on the most
positive evidence where The consequence is so ter
rlble and So remedIless
4. IL DOES teach reuenge for injuries The
crowd who gathered. and swarmed, and swayed
to and fro around the place of execution eager for
a sniff the butchery if they could not be graft
fled with sight of il, went away-snfened. pen
ten. meek. fOrgiving, think you? No, srs! no
more than the wolf who has first Tapped blood
They had taken a striking lesson from lofty quar-
ter in the school Of an eye for an eye Let one
of them but suspect that his sister ls wrJnged or
his wife untrue, or his friend traitor, and his
hand will instncIivPly grasp the knife or the pis-
to. The community insists on blood for blood
why shaI he let his wrongs 90 unavenged Why
shall villainy 90 unscaihed, simply because human
laws have not provided for its punishment? An
friends these blnody instructions will return
To plague the inventor and SO long as life for life
is the law of the land we shall find Man lifting
his hand in passion against his br0ther-perhaps
longer. We do not say that the worst memr RS
of a community will be uniformly as gond as the
laws Of that community, but il is idle to expect
that they will he better. They never will.