American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-11
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH
Communicated.
The Death Penalty.

i
MEssRs. EDrToRs: / perceive that you are
''death upon" the death penalty; have noticed
several hits at it in your paper at different
times. Now, whilst do not like this, ] do like
you for being willing that your own views
shonld be controverted in your own columns i
doubt not that you sincerely think you are
right; and, so long as you think So you have
| right to your opinions. / as sincerely think
your views wrong, and deplore the influence
which your filings at capital punishment may
have, in fostering In the community q morbid
opposition to the wholesome restraints of law.
1 / have neithertime nor inclination to engage in
any protracted discussion of this subject; but
i with your permission will point out non
4 seQttatur or two, which i think discover in one
Of your editorials of yesterday.
| In prefacing an extract from the Baltimore
| american, in reference to the execution of the
negro Amos Green, you say, "Justice will never
be accomplished, nor the community rendered
secure from outrage, until the present sanguin-
ary laws are repealed, and greater certainty of
punishment thus secured" But was not Green
certainly executed, and is not punishment quite
as certain, in all cases Of the death penalty, as
in case Of Imprisonment? Green was certainly
hung for rape; ergo, the death penalty makes
punishments uncertain; ergo these sanguinary
laws should be repealed. But your text de-
clares, g His revelations in regard to this wo-
man, If they could be supported By any proof,
would show her to be most abandoned and
Infamous character. The general feeling here,
among the many that have conversed with
Green, and heard his statements, is in his fa-
vor." From this you take occasion to infer the
uncertainty of punishment, and that the death
penalty ought to be abolished. Men, from
morbid curiosity, go to jail to hear convicts
story; conceive morbid sympathy for him,
and prejudice against his victim; this morbid
sympathy leads them to clamor against the
death penalty; ergo, punishment is uncertain !;
and, ergo, "the present sanguinary laws should
be repealed" This is odd logic and you must
have been sharp set for text when you chose
this one. aI.ft t-A
You say, moreover, "The voice Of humanity
is everywhere crying out against the death
penalty" Is it? But what if it is, so long as
the voice of COP cries out in favor of it, when
justly incurred? Yet, even editors must not
imagine that their own voice is "the voice of
humanity everywhere" Many, who make
some pretensions to humanity, believe that the
punishment Of death is required by divtne au-
thority to be inflicted upon the murderer; that
this is a provision of the great charter and con-
stitution of the world; that if human govern
ments fail to infiict it, in proper cases, blood
win rest upon the land and we believe that
there is quite as much humanity in protecting
society, as in shielding the murderer-quite al
genuine humanity in pitying the victim as il
sympathizing with the man-slayer.
The fact is, gentlemen, the opponents of the
death penalty have created the fact upon which
chiefly their argument is based, viz. the mcer-
tamty Of punishment. They have acted |" hui
manity," by "crying out against the death
penalty" until they have produced in the pub
lie mind morbid sentimentality, which finds
L = "a Yba "A 4 fba hoxr
ders punishment uncertain; and then they take
the benefit of their own wrong, and upon The
ground Of that uncertainty which they have
produced, clamor for the abolition Of the PEN
atty. By process of this kind all the restraints
of law may be weakened and destroyed, and
every barrier to crime prostrated 1t is unfair,
| too, to plead for the entire abolition of this
penalty, because it is in some States affixed to
| crimes to which the word Of God does not afiix
| it. AN
| 1t is time that the community should pause
and solemnly ponder the elements of its own
safety, and inquire whether the increase OF
crime is chargeable upon the death penalty, OF
npon those who, by clamoring against it, have
diminished the dread of punishment in the
minds of the vicious. If society will despiss
and fling from her the means of self-defence,
which the Most High hath given her, she can
| not expect Him to protect her by miracles. So
thinks PHILANTHRopos
We would submit with Difference to the re-
buke of " Phanthropos," but for one single rea-
son of considerable force upon our mind, name
| ly, that we feel very strong conviction that
we are right and he wrong. 1t is notoriously
true, that Of the number of persons tried in
the United States for crimes, the penalty of
which is death, but few are convicted. 1t is
also an admitted fact, that the condition of
mind ~hich is itself the crime is very generally
determined by the juries to be insanity, and
\ admitted as a just reason for acquittal 1t is
also admitted that the fearful responsibility of
condemning to death so operates upon the
minds of judges and jurors, that every possible
circumstance, whether of a legal and technical
character or otherwise, is made use of to
shield the accused. 1t is also well known that
of those who are condemned and sentenced by
juries and courts, large proportion are saved
from undergoing the penalty of the law by Elk.
ecutive clemency. These things are matters Of
general belief, and the proof of them may be
readily obtained from the files of the newspa-
pers Of the last few years.
But our correspondent has spared us the
trouble of making search for them by the adj
missions contained in the latter part Of his
communication, wherein he asserts that :" the
opponents of the death penalty haze created
'the fact" If they have created the fact, then
The fact e1ists and if the fact exists, the point
is conceded. "They hare produced in The publ,
mind, says our friend, ga morbid sentime'tahty
'which finds us way to the bench and the jury.
boz, and renders punishment uncertain" Gu,
friend may call it "morbid sentimentality,
if he likes, for with us names are as nothing
II is only important that we shall agree abou
things, and this we appear to do marvellousl,
well. He and we believe, that when the deatl