The true Democrat., 1857-03-03
The Reign of Crime.

In the last weeks issue of this paper, we
 gave some account of the late atrocious mur-
 der in New York and took occasion to give
 vent to the indignation which it 50 naturally
 and justly provoked in the human breast In the fate of Dr. Burdell we saw the type of
 that of many others who have happened to
 incur the odium or excite the internal passions of their interruptions enemies. The tragedy in New York has within brief space of time been re-enacted in other cities, and the victims were perhaps the best and purest in the land
 In St. Lonis. three foul murders have recent ly been committed, and for provocation in each case it it is said, which would not have even warranted blow In Memphis, too, the fend of murder has been at work; and whith- ersoever we turn our eyes the terrible words "mysterous disappearance" "more blood snet," or "anotner murler,'' prelude new tale of crime and boodshed. In fact it ap- pears that the inhabitants of the cities this side of the Atlantic ocean, now hold their lives at the mercy and caprice of midnight robbers and cowardly dastards, who scrupe not at shedding the blood of being, when prompted by their wicked and dcpraved hearts. We need not look across to Paris or any other field of butchery for the romance of crime.- It does seem that the frightful crimes and atrocities which illustrate the bloodiest and gloomiest pages in the history of the French revolution are about to be reproduced among us. When an individual iourneying on the highway holds his life at hazard, or when his domicil ceases to protect him in the enjoyment of the same, which is one of the very ends of civil society, we may as well return to the sa wage state, in which the right inheres in every man to wage the war of extermination upon those who seek his life or thirst for his blood. When we hold our lives at the sport of mur- derers and aSsassns, living as it were at their suiferance, then 1t is time that the mighty arm of the law should be ut-stretched to deal re- tribution in eUery instance. When the hum- blest citizen Is assasSinated by heartless demon 1t should be felt as an insult and defiance of the entire community in which it occHrs, as an outrage upon the majesty and dignity of the law, which sltouW guaranty the personal safety of every one under its jurisdiction The stern dictates of law and justice should never be lost sight of in the shade of sympathy, which is too often drawn over the liendish culprits guilt Not for all the patry fees ever won in the crim- lnal courts would We become the advocate or apologlst of ore who has wilfully and mali clously imbrued his hands in the blood of human being.
 few more words as to crime and lawless- ness and we shall conclude. We have alrea- dy expressed our utter adherence of human bloodshed, in every shade or form, wherever found In the fearful reign of crime, so appar- ent to all, we naturally seek for some source or sources to which it is attributabie When we consider the universal and barbarous cus- tom of carrying deadly weapons, the insecur- ty of jails, the frequent escape of criminals. the laXity in the administration of the penal laws ln criminal courts, the sub0rnaton of witnesses, and the packing of jnries on the part of cu prits and their friends, we shall find some extenuaton, as it is, for the progress of crime. The public sense of justice is contin- ually outraged, and self preservation would seem almost at times to warrant summary trial and punishment of those who trample on every law, human and divine-yet, when it comes to arraignment and trial, we find that because, forsooth, the evidence does not estab- fish beyond all human excuses the guilt of the culprit, he is liberated and feels that the courts of the country have licensed him to recommit crime. We fully endorse that humane rule of law. which, like the rule of charity "thinketh no evil" until guilt is proven beyond req sonable doubt,' but when the fact that crime has actually been committed by some one is positively and directly proven, in such man. her as to leave no doubt of the act, then the agent or agents, whoever he or they may be. should be known and punished-if in the power of the courts, assisted by human exer- tion tO detect tha arercv