American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-15
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH
LCUHifiitificHp0u
The Death lP elaalty.

y 4
for' the proofs that the voice Of God cries out
IN favor Of the death penalty that it is required
i by Divine authority to- be inflicted upon the
murderer; that this is a provision of the great
charter and constitution Of the world, and that
i III human governments refuse to infiict it, in
4 proper cases, blood will rest upon the land.
i This request would, fear, Head to violation
i OF sone of your EDITORIAL caiions laid down in
-Pyeur paper Of Saturday that correspondents
must !. write short articles" for to furnish all
the proofs that to establish the above propo-
sitions would involve q discussion Of the whole
subject of capital punishment; an undertaking
Il to which I am not inclincd ut present, aho
which, if were SO inclined, would be inpracti-
cable, as must necessarily be absent from the
city for some weeks But If your friend is, as
! am bound to believe, q sincere and candid
9 Inquirer" who has not yet taken sides, he
may consider one tcord from Cop as good as q
thousand. That word he may find in Genesis
ix and g, i'll which we hear God addressing
the whote human family, flor Noah and his sons
comprised thewhole race, and declaring, first,
that He will surely require the blood Of your
lives, at the hand Of every mans brother" and
secondly, explaining the manner in which it
shall be required, viz {" Whose sheddeth mans
blood, by man shall his blood be shed-for in
the image of God made he man" And that
this was but a reannouncement of law that
had existed from the beginning, is proved by
that passage which you, Messrs. Editors, made
such agr0tesque use of in your comments upon
my first communication. If Cain, the first mur-
| derer, had not known that the death penalty
had been affixed to murder, he would not have
dreaded it. He felt that his life had been for
feited; that he might justly be put to death by
any man" (Adam.) Hence his terror. And
if there had been no death penalty, why need
| the Supreme Governor have interposed the par
doning power, and seta mark upon Cain; sealed
a pardon to him, 81 lest any man finding him
| should kill him So well understood was the
death penalty, even at that early day, that it
required the interposition Of the Supreme Ma
/ gistrate of the universe, with the pardoning
power, to prevent its infection upon Cain.
Had He not marked Cain as pardoned man,
the penalty of death would have, been inflicted.
/ Now, this law was not q Jewish law; it ex-
isted, as believe, from the very origin of
human society; it was announced to the whole
| race, in Noah's family, eight hundred and fifty
six years before the giving of the law of Moses;
it is found in the statute book of the Supreme
Legislator, and it neper has been repealed. This
same law was repubshed and made very ex-
plicit. fSee Exodus xxi. 12-l4:) Qt" He that
| smteth q man that he die shall surely be put
| to DEATH (See also Numbers, xxxv. 30-34 J
At the latter place, it is explicitly forbidden to
commute the penalty: s'Ye shall take no salts
faction for the life Of the murderer, which is
guilty of death; he shall surely be put to death,
and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood
| that is shed, but by the blood of him that shed
| it" &c. Turn to and read the whole passage
| Now, here we have the voice of God in favor of
the death. penalty, at several periods of our
world. 1t was a provision in the charter by
| which the world was granted to the survivor of
the food and his sons--the charter, by the by,
under which all other tenues have grown up:
and refusal on the part Of government to in
| tiict this penalty is violation Of that charter
But it is replied, there is no authority in the
New Testament for the infiction of this penalty
If this were true, it proves nothing against my
position. But il is not true Would any law
making power incumber their statute books by
enacting over and over and over again the same
law Is not a law always in force until duly
repealed? Did Christ repeal it? Show US
where. So far from this he explicitly says,
! 81 come not to destroy the law and the pro-
phets, but to fulhlo And there is not a ord
about the repeal'of the death penalty. rs.
The case cited in your comments upon me
would be in point, where the crime of adultery
was punished with death. The woman was no,
/ charged with murder, and no man had con-
demaed her even Of adultery; and, ms Christ
was not acting as a civil magistrate, lie did not
condemn her, and advised her in the general to
| 20 and sin no more. The utmost that this case
can prove land | think it perhaps sufficient for
ths) is, that death ought not be inflicted on the
adulterer. But whilst it is true that there were
reasons existing under the Jewish economy for
severity in furnishing sundry crimes, which rea
sons do not now exist, yet it is also true that
there existed no reason of old for capitally
Furnishing tho murderer, which does not now
MS fully exist The crime Of wilful murder il
always and everywhere the same; and if euer il
was necessary to punish it with death, it al,cays
will be. liz it was erer right for God to REQUIRE
its infiction, it may be di,tdys right. 1t cannot
| be ,rrong for Him to require it, or He never
would have done it. He is the same God now
that He was when He spoke to Noah. lie has
not changed for the worse; and, alas! we have
proof that mans murderous spirit has never
changed for the Letter.
It is an easy, ippant way to get clear of a
sturdy argument to deny the authority whence
| it is drawn--to exalt the New Testament OF the
expense of the Old. But those who believe,
with Paul, that "Au scripture is given by in
spiration of God, and is proftdJte," and who
know TINT Paul said that of the old Testament,
and before the New was all written, will be
slow to adopt this method The Bible is the
great charter and constitution of the globe--the
FUNDAMENTAL LAW or THE WORLD; and / do
think, if Inquirer" win candidly examine it,
he wiR see that the provisions in question are
in it, and hive never been repealed But men are
somewhat fond, in these days, of appealing to
a HIGHER LAW" and arraying the "voice Of
humanity against both the laws Of the land and
the laws Of God. PiiILASTHRoPos
Our friend is imperious. They who read his
former article and our reply viii smile at the
elevation to which he raises himself. He re
Dukes in manner that seems to reveal a con
sciousness Of all his powers. But he should
not regard every thing as "grotesque'' which
he has not learned Mt school. There are nC
doubt some valuable ideas in the world not ye
embodied in the phrase books Of the learned