Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-08-05
INCREASE OF CRIME-Is THERE A
REMEDY.

We have noticed that there has lately been
great increase OF crime throughout the coun-
try-alike in dense cities, and in retired spots,
where there is usually but little to seduce to
fraud or excite to violence. All the heart
sickening records of crime cannot present one,
however unusual, or however revolving that
has not its parallel in these latter days. We
can hardly take up a newspaper that does
not contain an account Of some horrible act
of barbarous violence. Men seem to be pos
sessed with the evil one. 1t is not an uncom-
mon thing to read of parents numbering their
children, and children Staying their parents.
No relation of life, however tender, affords pro-
lection against violence and crime.
More acts Of violence, worse than murder,
but frequently followed by it, have been COM
mitted in the last few months on helpless
women, than we remember ever to have read
of before. Madness seems TO have abandoned
dogs, and transferred itself to men. Where
there is one case Of hydrophobia, there are
twenty cases Of bad men and dissolute women,
who commit crimes that humanity shudders at.
What may be the cause Of the great increase
of crime, we viii not undertake to say but we
have noticed that the newspapers present US
With but few cases of victims to the law, COM
pared with the vast number of criminals
Punishment does not seem to follow the guilty
with It's accustomed and old fashioned certain
ty. True, in some cases we read Of great
criminals who are snatched from the hands Of
the law, and are either burned, mangled, or
otherwise tortured. Such criminals could not
be subjected to too severe punishment. But
these voluntary executions of criminals by
uobs that usurp the authority of the law, are
themselves bad signs of the times. They
either indicate love of violence, or q great
distrust of the course Of justice. We incline
to the opinion that they rather denote the lat
ter than the former.
The plans of the optimists have all failed.
These Wanting philanthropists are brought
down to humiliation. There will be bad men,
and where there are bad men, there will be
crimes. Bad men can only be restrained by
INV auu Sah NC ShCSASo
by adequate punishments. The failure Of legal
| punishments leads to acts Of either individual
or mob violence, which, when once or twice
INDUCED in, creates a thirst for blood, that in.
cites to the very crimes that they delighted
to punish. Men cannot slay their fellow men
with IMMUNITY. One murder, though followed
by deep ccntrition, by sleepless remorse, seems
mysteriously to create morbid taste for vio-
lence. One of the heaviest punishments Of
the murderer seems, by the inscrutable dispen.
sations Of Providence, TO be an uncomfortable
impulse to seek comfort in desperation, and
refuge from sensitive conscience in har-
dened and confirmed villainy. As the bad
mans crimes multiply, his punishment in
creases, and he wanders over the earth with q
worse brand than Gains, for his was single
murder
The laws ought to be rigidly enforced. The
judge should be beyond reproach, and the jury
above suspicion. The relaxation OF punitive
justice, leads TO crime, for bad men, ashamed
of nothing, are only appalled, by the galows.