Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1848-03-24
4 SETTLER

The present Is most fitting season todiscuss the
all-important subject OF capital punishment There
are now within the confines of our county, some
two or three human beings charged with murder
against whom the iron vengeance of retributive
justice is about TO be hurled in conformity with
the bloody relic OF a barbarols age, which still lin
gers upon our statute books, 10 the disgrace, we
think, of an enlightened nation of the 10th century
1t cannot be gainsayed nor disguised that there is
IN this community, TO our credit be it said, grow
ing Discrimination to deprying fellow being of life
under any circumstances And this confessed is it
not susceptible oil the dearest demonstration. that
If tie punishment Of offenders be to prevent crime
some more safe and efficient means should be de-
vised. We think it is leaving the crude question
Of the moral right of the law to take away human
life, TO be discussed at a more convenient season.
We would now take a more elevated, enlightened
and practical view of the subject The object Of
human punishment is or should be three fold first,
to reform the offender secondly to deter others from
offending and. lastly TO secure the safety of the
community by depriving the offender of the power
of doing further mischief To effect the first Rca-
son, Humanity, Christianity, all cry aloud against
the sanguinary process of cold bloodcd, calculating
capital punishment. If the criminal be not fit to
live can he be fit to die Besides after the IRE
tricyable act has been committed upon victim,
suppose, as has often been the case, the legal muir
dcged victim be proven innocent! What must be
the selaccusing pangs which inh.ct the breast
Of Witness, Judge, and Jury? What reparation
can they make for the savage cruelty? What Sc
curity can human falbity give that the tragedy
will not be acted over again NoRca None but
an alteration III our criminal code, which not only
efiectaaly prevent such horrid and irretrieyable
catastrophe but offer every human probability of
the reform Of the offender, and by the greater I'M
certainty of its consummation, lettering others
from offending and thereby most efectually at
tanning the third object OF human punishment in
securing the safety otthe community Stop, fellow
citizens Are these men about to suffer the ex-
IRENE punishment OF man, but as members of the
human famiy-as fellow citizcns-as immortal
beings, who will be judged at the inallible bar of
their God. We hold that their awful doom should
awaken in the mind Of every Phanthropst deep
and certain desire for the ameoration of our codes
Of capital punishment II is not the severity Of the
punishment but the certainty fits execution which
tends TO the security of the community. True the
great Improvements which have been made in the
manner of capital punishment within the last cen
tury-the horrtd ,ortures which formerly acconpa-
uied the capital sentence in most countries having
been banished from the civilized world and the fur
ther step of execution in private is yearly becoming
OF more general adoption. In England, in cases of
high treason although BY the strict letter of the
law the criminal is sentenced to be drawn TO the
gallows, 10 be hanged by the neck, and cut down
alive 10 have his entrails taken out and burned while
he is yet alive but yet at the present day all the
torturing practice Of the sentence is generally re-
mi,ted by the crown. But there is one more step
TO be taken IN the march Of civilization and that IS
the total abolition OF capital punishment Man is
social being, and hence perpetual imprisonment
without the possibility of pardon from the chief
magistrate while it would certainly prevent the Of
fender from doing further mischief and offer ample
time for reform and repentance, would from its GER
tain, solitary and lasting character offer better Sc
cuniy to the community than can be hoped from
the extreme, partial and uncertain effects of run.
shment Of Death. LACEY.
BRIsroL