Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-09-17
HANGING-RIGHTs & DUTIES OF SOCIETY.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & DUTIES OF SOCIETY.
Referring to the recent executions in New
York of Douglass and Benson, the Tribune has
the following excellent sentiments. 1t states
our own view precisely; the question of capital
punishment is to be settled by an examination
of the workings of different systems. Whatev-
err penalties best insure the safety Of human life,
those penalties society has the right to inhict:
But looking little more nearly into the
case, it is far from certain that all the response
bilty of their deed should rest on them alone.
For there is prior responsibility, that OF Soc-
ty to the individual. How had that been dis
charged toward them? What social Providence
had guarded their childhood and youth What
benignant influences unfoded the tender germs
of manlness, reverence and kindness in their
hearts! What watchful teachers poured the
light of truth and knowledge upon their minds I!
What congenial and honorable spheres OF en-
ployment, what wholesome social relations were
opened to them as they grew to manhood! Or
were they left from the beginning to the infiu-
ences and associations Of vice, the gateway to
crime! We know not. That was not among
the things proved before the court. And yet it
might we'll have been. For no criminal is
brought to the bar of trial, but Society Is
brought there along with him /; and none is con-
demned, but Society is condemned also. Here
after this fact will be better appreciated than
now.
We are not among those who deny the right
of Society to take life. We admit its right to
do whatever is needful and expedient for the
preservation Of its own order. 1t has as good
a right to kill as to imprson, or to do ought else
against the offender. For its first end is order,
that individuals may have freedom. And if the
killing of murderers or robbers is requisite to
that end, they may as rightfully be killed as shut
up in Jail. This let it be understood, is not adj
hitting the right Of punishment as such. There
is no such right. There is the right and the
duty of preserving social order, but right to in
flict punishment, for the sake of punishment, a
right of vndctive justice, as it is called, exists
only among the dread phantasmagoria of SON.
Der and shocking metaphysics. The sole ques-
ton then is, whether legal killing is necessary
to the order of society, that is to say, to the Sc
curity of life
Here the burden of proofs not for those who
oppose the death penalty. 1t is not for them to
prove negative. But it is for the other party
to demonstrate beyond dispute that men must
the lives of citizens 1t is not enough to say
lhab VI VIZ Cuoeom' ihOy
must show that it is an indispensable custom,
and above all that it accompshes its end.
But does it do this Does it prevent murder
Have the executions in this city within the past
five years rendered crime less frequent, or life
more secure! Let the records of our courts and
prisons, and the list of the condemned now a.
waiting the day of death, answer.
1t may he said that the fact that hanging fails
Of its end, is proof that it ought to be adher-
I'd to. But It's not plain why so dreadful fail
are should be perpetuated.
A cheap subject for sneersis the modern SYM
oathy with criminals. 1t IS not altogether mod
srn, nor are the sneers so modern, as is suppo-
'ed. Memorable instances of both are record
I'd in the New Testament and that they should
De repeated is no proof of social degeneracy-
This sympathy is but a recognition of the prior
iuty of Society to the individual. 1t shows that
hat duty is recognized in tardy and feeble de-
gree, and will some day be integray discharg-
I'd. That indication is the light Of hope upon
his gloomy twilight of crime and punishment.
Such hope may well incite us to do manfully
whatever is for the elevation of man. Friends
ct us hold to that lesson!
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