The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-03-14
Grimes and Criminals.

in the Police Gazette line on Lords day
takes issue with n published statement of
the Mayor, that there were no murders
committed in the city during the year
1858. The editor, from the stores of his
own memory-what a capacity for useful
knowledge goes on to give list of cases
of various grades of homicide that occur
red within the period indicated, which
seems to put the showing of the civic
functionary little out of countenance
So far as these matters are in the nature
Of a controversy between the past and the
present Mayors, in respect to the COM
parative vigilance and success of their
respective administrations, they are of no
importance to anybody. Future genera
tions will not be very likely to place the
golden age of Cincinnati within the reign
of either. ... ... ...
In the manufacture of sinners, there is
a show Of responsibility which, by many,
is greatly coveted. To declare all man.
kind utterly criminal and reprobato, is to
place ourselves upon pretty high ground
in respect to virtue and morality. Dis
gust at the depravity of the human race
is usually accompanied by desire to
make public, if not the depravity, at least
the disgust; and for that purpose there is
a willingness to state the matter in terms
as vivid as possible To minister to this
spirit gentlemen of the press are prone to
look upon themselves as especially dele
gated The strong point with many of
them is indignant virtue. When not vir-
tuously indignant, they are nothing. In
their vocabulary, every homicide is
murder; every murder horrid murder;
and every horrid murder accompanied
by circumstances of unheard-of atrocity."
What more natural then, than to lapse
into a state of maudlin morality. Good
Heavensl how wicked the worlds getting
to bel How long can society survive
such an awful condition? Upon this
society becomes uneasy. 1t wonders
whether something ought not to be done
to check the progress of vice, and strike
terror to the hearts of evil doors, Courts
and juries catch the infection. Some
body must be convicted. A hanging is
needed to restore the lost moral tone of
the community. The balances of justice
are in this way disturbed, and cease to
weigh correctly; and bent upon its own
selfrectifcation, society can not rest until
it has committed some signal act of retri-
button. There, are not wanting judicial
officers base enough to seek popularity by
ministering to this morbid demand for
somebody to punish and a judicial MUIR
der, perhaps, comes in to make the vicious
circle complete. lInt
Something of this kind must have been
going on at Baltimore. The Lutheran
Observer states that there are five or six
men under sentence of death in that city.
They are young; from twenty-five to
twenty-five years of age; and stand CON
victed of murder in the first degree Gas
it is, says the Observer, "no doubt true,
that man does not reach the highest grade
of crime at one leap, it becomes an in.
quiry of Importance to others, how these
young men, just in the prime Of life, and
] some of them respectfully connected find
themselves in the presence of the death
l of felons." AS the time of these young
3 men is probably short, a preliminary in
quiry would not be much out of order
d whether, taking all the facts into consid
r Grafton, they are really guilty of the very
I unusual crime of homicide with premedi
b tation-murder.
Life taken with calculating malice is
, not common occurrence in this age anC
country. Between it and sudden deco
of thanksgiving in hot blood, in a STATE
, of intoxication, under the influence of {
5 real or fancied provocation, in the mids
, of quarrel, a fray, mob, or riot, there
! is great and wide difference. The onC
is the worst and least excusable act tha
5 a human being can commit; for the other
it is easy to imagine, in the present statt
of society, and the natural weakness o
/; human nature, thousand extenuatinl
circumstances. Without knowledge o
2 the facts in any of the cases, it is no
] very unsafe to conjecture that recollec
> ton of the disrepute into which the cit,
a of Baltimore has fallen through recen
: popular disturbances, and prevailing
J. desire to vindicate its character in tn
4 eyes of the world and their own, ha
l operated upon the minds of courts ant
juries, and led them to visit upon the offend
q crs in question a ahigher degree of severit
: than the facts will justify. One crime is
! perhaps, to be committed in order to ez
8 plate another.
Society is, to every thoughtful observer
. divisible into classes 1t may be that n
I. two persons, in their analysis, would draN
3. the boundaries in precisely the sam
Z place; but let each man divide for him