Tribune and telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1855-1856, 1856-02-28

to n Y City-and we scarcely pick up paper
from any city of the union in which we do not
read of murder and complaints such as above
referred to, and We. in oil these the gallows IS
busy, and its victims are all the time writing
and swinging into eternity. What commeh.
tary upon the efficacy of the gallows to prevent
crime
There are Int three States in the Union IN
which capitaI punishment is entirely aboisheo'
viz: Rhode Island, Michigan and Wisconsin; ana
two in which it is practically abolished, viz
Maine and Vermont. Wisconsin was the latest
one of the numbers which ventured on the ex-
periment, and in Wisconsin only OF all OF them
is a return to the old system even agitated. We
challenge a co ntrast of their statistics of crime
with that of States which still cherish the insti-
tuition confident that the result will show to the
advantage of the abolition of the gallows.
Or if Wisconsin should prove an exception,
(Which we do not believe it will, there is yet
no reason for speedy abandonment of the HUI
name policy she has marked out. She has just
entered upon the experiment. 1t must be recol-
lected that we have yet newspapers all over the
State and preachers in every locality insisting
that "blood for blood" is justice and divinity
therefore bloody MODS, and brutality and vio-
lence arc not to be wondered at. When we
have preachers, as the Rev Mr.. Gridley of this
city, who can find no harsher term for the James
Vile and Washington county mobs, than simply
that they were of "doubfut propriety,' it is rea-
sonable to expect mobs and murder both,
We are yet under the old and bloody inhuen-
ces-those which we are seeking to dissipate.
Give us but a reas enable time in which to try
christian principles and influences, and if they
fail of their effect after fair trial, then will
agree to go quietly back to that condition which
however degrading, will seem necessary.
We apprehend at this time, if it were not for
the two mobs of the past year, there would in
this State be very few voices raised to ask the
restoration of the gallows. And yet the gallows
does not prevent mobs. Oar latest papers bring
us accounts of mob in Illinois sna.ching man
from the rope and mobbing him to death, because
the Governor had respitcd him for a brief season.
The Governor of this State has no less the pow
er to respite and pardon when capital punish
ment prevails, than when it does now, and he
is much more likely to exercise it IN a case of
life and death than in one of imprisonment
What is then to be done about it. How is the
evil to be remcdicd? Not by restoring capital
punishment. The last two men sentenced to
death in this State under the old law of capital
punishment were both respited by the Governor,
we believe one, if not both, are now free, at the
same time, we believe not single one who has
been sentenced for life under the new law has
been interfered with by the Governor. Which
is the most likely, in the long run to prevent
mobs!
We trust then theStegslaturc will not restore
the death penalty. To furnish crime by imita-
ting it, is only to increase crime. Murder whcth-
er by murderers mobs, can only be overcome
and obliterated by eradicating vice and inhuman-
ity from society and this can only be done by
involving with humane and christian principles
our individual lives, and all our institutions.