Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1854-03-25
INEFFICIENCY OF THE Law.

We have a natural distaste to anything like
a reformer-one who sets himself up as the
predestined genius whose duty it is to revolu-
tionize the public mind in some respect or 9TH
er: who seems to believe that it is his especial
: duty to strike at the errors Of humanity and to
lay bare the faults and the misdemeanors of
every kind which exist in the laws and among
their administrators Having then this distaste,
it might naturally be asked why we NEEDLE or
dip our pen into subjects relative to grave
wrongs, which we assert have long existed in
our courts of justice? Well, if we must an
swer, we reply that we notice those wrongs
merely as a chronicIer of facts, not through
that egotism which expects any reformation to
be the result Of our scribblings.
The Press, single handed, when speaking of
evils, exists but as 4 medium of introducing
such evils to the thoughts of the public gener-
ally; singly, it has but little power or influence
in effecting any reforms Of an elicacious na-
ture; but when combined in opinion and zeal,
in n land where expression of thought is guar
anteed and protected, the Press becomes a
great moral power, against which opposition is
surmounted and swept away as pebbles by the
waves. We, as an integral, and a weak one, of
this great intellectual engine of a free people,
can hope to do no more than barely to hint Of
vices which prevail, to the detrilnent of the
public good, leaving it to ADLER and more influ-
entail journals to say what should be done to
wipe off such excressences from our social and
political character.
Since our last issue, in which we for the Sc.
cond time, allude to the fact that criminal Of
fences are suffered to occur with barely a no.
tice from the legal authorities, we observe two
instances OF crime, occurring in different parts
Of the State, which have drawn forth from our
contemporaries sentiments similar to our own
The first is from the Anahapas Gazette, and the
remarks of the editor are caused by the fact
that Mr.. Falsin Derousel, "without cause or
provocation, deliberately shot Joseph T. Babi.
neau." The editor p~refaces the occurrence by
this sentence:
wv regret to have to announce the commits.
sion OF another of those crimes, which are be. |
coming of such frequent occurrence in our
midst, as to alarm the public mind, and force
upon US the conviction, that the laws which are
intended as a safe. guard to protect society,
are but lightly estimated"
Strange, indeed! if there was no cause for
such an act! Can the editor say that the de-
ceased had never injured the other even bv H.
crime punished elsewhere by law, but
in this State seems to be left to the ag-
srIeVed party to settle as he thinks proper.
The second which follows is from the BuHe.
caused by the murder of an Italian by ano-
Their a few days since in st. Louis street:
"Crime is becoming unprecedentedIy rife a.
noung US; and the foule>t deeds seen: to be
.ast losing the enoimity that Justly attaches to
The announcement Of a murder excites ,
scarcely any notice. There is evidently some
hing wrong in the administration of Justice, or :
rIme would not thus boldly stalk abroad, and .
'old up lis shameless front. The fact is, and .
mere Is no use IN smoothing it over with soft :
Voras, there Is, and has been in this city, gross i.
in the enforcement Of the laws a. +.
'a'nst criminals. A sickly and puerile senti- +
iooeh Piiiianliroplc WHINE or COM
for the wretch who has embrued his -.
lands in the sacred blood Of a human being, has :
isurped the sense of justice, and these almost l
ally assassinatioEs are its first fruits. There :.
) nothing that will restrain the bludseon of the :
ully and the stiletto of the assassin, but the =
tern, memorable penalties of the law, inflicted !
With a certainty that never fails, and a rigor that y
ooks alone TO the protection and welfare of the :
community. The judge or the juror who fails, v
rom whatever motive it may be, to enforce the a
of the law, perpetrates an outrage !"
pom the community, and richly deserves to De a
up for the whitening fin ger Of scorn to !.
oipt at" u
Let the law take hold of crime in its yery ~
erm, If reformation is desired. Let the law C.
libel be first strictly enforced, as that also t.
n assault and battery, before it Furnishes for Il y
urder and mans!aughter, and there will be f.
'mpsratively few of the latter, which are now n
ahappily, Of daily occurrence in this State. u