New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-01-31

iuthe face You may read lesson there WHICH
viii stsrtIe your conscieDces and coa'trsia you
to seek repentance and mercy!
But The Courier asks for light, and shal
have il. Hear
q Ia TrsJr-, r. Of old. tdks Of The example %
,i,rtietiveness end with rs usual anoun' o. tnsNr
irr How Z 4 thai the law l. T!ndtsiiFe "nsI =
49, and not vindiclTe when Impfisonsi vac
"a 5.an s,nitten on one cheek. ever imP@ie1 %
~ ,ie.Ite forbssrSnce by the contempt aaoa OF any
gnisbrpent wiste7sri ifDot Is The Ifbsss therefore
arnosod % al puaishrnen.t TIE burden OF our reg
80 .,ereosvp uvectiTes against the gallo ~ uniformly
I.s ,xitb spuaI fJrce against imprisonment tor LIE
All every other pena'Ty; and u bound IN eOas osncy
m foreses the day when not only the gaJws out t1e
RrdeUe!. and the Newgstes the prisons and the pen
jteptsries Will take their place with whipping % a.
,iJIor;es and instruments Of judicial torture among the
relics Of 81 ouisrown past
Well; we shall very gladly see the day. which
we do in faith foresee, when prisons, peniten-
tiaries, &c. shall be practically abOlished-not
by giving IMMUNITY to crime but by pre5ssiisg
crime. We hope the day viii come when sane
human beings will be no more likely to murder
than to hold their arms in the FIRE until they
burn eff But to this end it is requisite that
the disposition to murder be never created or
evoked by such depraving influences as formed
the characters Of Saul and Hewlett. SO long
as our youth are educated to idleness, sensu-
atty, vice and recklessness by such influences
as have surrounded these young men from eshy
childhood, we shall Of course have murders md
murderers. and must do the best We can With
them.
But is The Trlune opposed to all punsh-
ment . and Why is not the Law as vindic-
tive when it imprisons as when it hangs We
snswer: Tie Tribune opposes all punishment
based on that principle of rendering evil for
evil which Christ expressly and emPhatieally
abrOgated. But it does not oppose the iniic-
ton on offenders Of whatever constraint or dis
cipline may be deemed essential to the public
safety or TO their own reformation. To any in
fiction consistent with the merciful spirit OF
Chrst's teachings respecting the treatment in
this world of offenders We assent, but to none
other.
Yet hear once more Tie Courier and En-
guirp:
But this phian'hropic csnt hss hs1 ia day There
is an UNDERMINING cOnsceRsc, sense OF Justice IN
the community that distinguishes al the difference
between retaliation and retTibuiOn'
Indeed -Four of the Acknowledged States
(the most civilized, enlightened and moral
States on EARTH have already virtually abol-
ished the GallOws Some Of them leave pos
sibility Of hanging year after sentence, il the
Governor sees fit 10 order (which he never
does-but the Gallows is practically abolished
in precisely those four States which have
enacted laws to suppress absolutely the traffic
in Intoxicating Beverages. Does The Courier
mark the coincidence Michigan, too, has ut
terly and years ago abolished the Gallows, and
she appears TO be on the verge OF passing
Prohibitory Liquor Law. Does The Courier
note that enlightened communities are begin
ming to deal more stringently with the incite-
ments to and beginnings of crime and less
savagely with its maturity