Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1846-04-25
Dickens on Capital Punish
rRaeEaf.
To the Editors Of the Daily
London Neacs:

GENTLEMEN In the very remark
able Report made to the State Assem-
blv of New York, in 1911, by select
committee of that body who arrived at
the conclusion " that the punishment OF
death, by law, ought to be forthwith
and for ever abolished in that part OF
America, there is the following sug-
gcstlon -.
ass Whether there sleep within
4 the breast of man, certain dark ana
mysterious sympathies with the though
d of that death, and that futurity "hicii
await his nature, tending to inFesl any
act expressly forbidden by that pena'-
~ with an Unconscious and inexplca-
he fascination. that attracts his thoughts
to it, in spite of their very shadderihg
dread; and bids his Imagination BROOD
over lis idea, till out Of those dark
depths in his own nature, comes grad
uaiIy forth monstrous birth of Temp
tation -
Strongly impressed by this passage
when Grst read the report and be-
lieving that it Swallowed out meta
q physical truth, which, however wild
and appalling in its aspect, was truth
still was led to consider the cases
of several murderers, both in deed and
in intent, with reference to it and
certainly it gathered very strong and
special confirmation in the course OF
that inquiry. But, as the bearing,
here, is on Capital Punishment in its
influences on the commission of crime,
and as my present object is to make it
the subject of one or two considera-
tions in its other influences on society
in general -; /, for the present, defer any
immediate pursuit Of the idea, and
merely quote it now, as introducing
this lesser and yet great objection to
the punishment of death:
That there is, about it, horrible
fascination, which, in the minds-not
of evil-disposed persons, but Of good
and virtuous and well-conducted peo-
pie, supersedes the horror legitimately
attaching to crime itself, and causes
every word and action of a criminal
under sentence Of death to he the sub
iect of morbid interest and curiosity
which is odous and painful, even to
MANY of those who eagerly crafty it
by every means they can compass hut
which is, generally speaking, irresisti-
Bile. The attraction of repulsion being
as much a law of our moral nature, as
gravitation is in the structure of the
visible world, operates IN no case Il
believe) so powerfully, as in this case
of the punishment of death though
it may occasionally diminish in its force
through strong reaction.
When the murderers Hooker and
Tawell had awakened vast amount
of this depraved excitement, and it had
attained to an unusually indecent and
frenzicd height, one of your cotempo-
raries, deploring the necessity of min
istering to such an appetite, laid the
blame upon the caterers OF such dain-
ties for the Press, while some other
newspapers, disputing which of them
should bear the greater share of it, di-
vided it variously. Can there be any
doubt. on cool reflection, that the whole
blame rested on, and was immedigtely
and naturally referable to, the punish
ment of death ?
Round what other punishment does
the like interest gather? We read of
the trials of persons who have render
ed themselves liable to transportation
for life, and we read Of their sentences,
and, in some few notorious instances,
of their departure from this country,
and arrival beyond sea but they are
never followed into their cells, and
tracked from day to day, and night TO
night; they are never reproduced in
their false letters, fippant conversations,
Theological dispositions with visitors,
lay and clerical or served up in their
whole biography and adventures-so
many live romances with a bloody end
ing. Their portraits are not rife in
the print-shops, nor are their autographs
stuck up in the shop-windows, nor are
their snuf-boxes handed afably to gen.
tlemen in court, nor do they inquire of
other spectators with Eyeglasses why
they look at them so steadlastly, nor
are their breakfasts, dinners, and lunch
cons, elaborately described, nor are
their waxen images in Baker-street,
(unles5 they ,oere IN immediate dan
ger, at one time, Of the gali0cs, nor
are high prices offered for their clothes
at Newgate, nor do turnpike trusts grow
rich upon the tolls that people, going