Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1857-09-05
y,ayy vs.. Common Sense.


| No sooner is crime committed, thar
half the community tax their wits in dis
icussing the law, and searching for loop
holes through which the criminal may es
cape. Men whose chronological acquire
Inents are Of the most limited character
and whose critical knowledge of law OF
language Is of proportional extent, advance
second hand opinions Of the CONSTRUCTION
| Of statute, section Or clause of a statute
with an air of dogmatism which they fan
ley will pass for profound wisdom. In fact
through following perverted notion o.
what constitutes snartness and superiep in
ItelIigence, half the world, or more, are con
isiantly striving with their common sense
and exhibiting ''ther ears"
| 1t is, indeed, provoking to hear ''limb.
of the law no ought to be at schoo
learning to read and write their mother
tongue correctly, attempting to demon
strate that the burglar Cancemi cannot b.
convicted of murder for the killing of off
Ger Anderson, because the shot was fred
without "malice prepense;" and that Mrs
Cunningham is not liable under the stat
ute cnacting penalties against the frauds-
lent production of an heir, because she was
intercepted in her plot before the pretsn-
ded heir was produced in court. Lawyers
Impose on juries by such sophi. tries, and
when juries get befogged in cloud OF
Isophistiies and legal technicalities, the
chances are ten to one in favor Of the Grim
.inal. The reason why our criminal code
is so inefficient for the punishment of crime
is to be found in the rained Interpretation
given to he law, and the too frequent
banI&hment Of common s. nse from our
courts Of justice.
The editorial fraternity are not less Civ
en-, than the lawyers, to humbug sophis-
tries, and too often they show that they
are far more anxious to damage the repu-
tation of the public prosecutor and his wit-
nesses than they are to bring shameless of
tenders to justice. In SC far IS they at
tsnpt to divert public opinion from the
erornity Of the crime, by fixing attention
on the conduct of other parties than the
criminal, they raise impedimen in the
way ef justice, and aid the guilty to es-
cape.
And there is another phase of this ques-
lion which has not been sufficiently observ-
ed. The hasty, incautious wretch who
commits crime, as if by impulse, and by
taking no thought, leaves all the evidences
Of his guilt exposed to public view, meets
with no sympathy, 10 subtle defenders, be-
cause he did the deed in laundering, III
artistic manner. He need not hope to es-
cape punishment, becau'e he has offended
in vulgar, uuinteresting way, and every
body Is disguised. Bat let u crime, no
matter how horrible in itself, be cunningly
planned and boldly executed, and the per
petrator, or suspected pc petrator, becomes
1T once an object Of public intercst. Mcn
who wouIl lynch horse thief, or shoot a
robber of hen-roost foGnd on their prem
iscs, Will make heroine of Miss Mad
eloic Smith or Mrs. Cunningham.
Great criminals captive the Imagination
10y me very magnitude of their crimes
and the ted sncy to admire superior tai
ents. even when those talents are perverted
to the basest uses, is so strong IN human
nature, that when not corrected by love
Of yirt.e, it degenerates into 81 mpathy
with Lhe criminal. For the best interests
Of society, therefore, our laws should be
founded on principles Of virtue, and inter
pretcd by the standard Of pure morality.
Law should not be a system of devices to
permit of the commission Of crime with
but strong net, through whose
meshes great criminals could not break
II New York Sun.