The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1854-05-12
Increase OF Capital Grimes.

Increase OF Capital Grimes.
The rapid and alarming increase Of CAPT.
tai crimes is daily becoming more and more a
matter Of serious contemplation. While We
are progressing at railroad speed in every
thing relating to human Advancement, in edu'
cation, religion and morals, we are daily
shocked with the evidences Of fearful in
crease in the higher order Of crimes. MUIR
ders and killing are chronicled in the news.
papers Of The day with the utmost iDdiffer.
ence, and have become Of so common occur.
ence, that unless it is an extraordinarily good
murder, it il sc ,rcely considered worth copy
ing. There must be something remarkabl
in the affair to excite interest or arrest public
attention in the least. Our criminal code is
annually being sweled with penal laws for
fhe punishment OF crime, and the facilities
for administering justice are increasing in a
corresponding ratio-yet the evil which il is
the design Of the law to correct, far out
strides oil penal restrictions. The species
of crime to which we allude, is more espe-
eially confined to what is commonly denomi-
mated the "higher classes of society. the
shooting. stabbing, bowie-knife fraternity.
Not day passes but we ind chronicled in
our exchanges more OF less affisys Of butch
les. deadly assaults, &C., where deadly wea.
psns.are employed. Thesame species OF crime
ispursued and encouraged, and too frequent.
ly justified and exonerated upon q plea
of self.de'ence, or when committed in the
act of resenting an aggravated insult or out
rage. Public opinion, and too often the pub.
lie press. hastily justify the commission Of
crime as justifiable from the impulse Of ex-
cited passions which their better Judgment
would most heartily condemn. But the mis-.
chief has been done. An indignant people
utter their momentsry impressions, and they
fall upon the public ear and have their eli.
feet. The convictions of the after thought,
when nicely gagged BY justice and right, are
perhaps smothered in the breast where they
originate, and never appear to countsract the
mischief done in the exasperated moment.
Thus is public opinion unwittingly cre-
ated, by which IN indefinite amount of crime
10 committed and justified. A recent case
occurred in Georgia, in which man q qen.
hen'dn of eourss) made remark in public re-
hecting upon the chastity of a neighbor's
wife, and was Immediately shot down. The
by-standers said "amen" to the deed. The
examining Court held the man to bail in the
nominal sun Of one hundred dollars. He
wss afterwards summsrily discharged upon
the ground that he was acting in self.dsfenes
in defending the character of his wife. The
statutes Of that State say, that no words shall
justify even an assault, yet public opinion
and the Courts say that words justify the tax.
ing of life.
In Montgomery (Ala.), about two weeks
since. q Mr.. Wood sho, Gen. Earle, while
sitting in chair, approaching him from be-
hind and giving no intimstion of the attack.
The Alabama Mail in describing tho ARRAY
says, that after the fatal shot Wood fell upou
Earle and cut him with knife while il lsst-
ed, breaking off the blade in the skull-and
adds, further: at is alleged that Mr.. Wood
had the strongest provocation possible for
taking the life of Gen. Earle, which was
that the latter had caused a female friend of
Mr.. Wood to leave his house under suspicious
circumstances. Mr.. Wood was immediate
Tecognizedin the enormous SUN of 5000.
itwiil De seen that the law of self.defence
ano the criminal code generally, under the
influence OF vitiated public sentiment. is
quite as much dis1egarded by the Courts a.
oy the perPetrator of a murder. The recen,
case in Kentucky is too much of an extreme
to illustrate anything but case of wanton
deliberate murder. The adjudication of that
case is not mere violation of law. bu, de-.
hberats onslaught upon every legal right
which laws secure to man, equaled only in
enormity and coo'ness of purpose, by the
commission Of the fendish deed itself. The
instances where law is administered in its
full force and spirit, against the bowis.knife
ana pistol gentry, are the rare exceptions,
"niie the reverse is the general rule.
N,2OO,OOO Taxi
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