Litchfield enquirer., 1860-03-29
DOOMED TO DEATH

Not very long subsequent to the tim,
 when the pilfering of loaf of bread b, starving fingers was held deserving of Deatl by our bloody statnte-book, and when Bur glary acas Death, and Forgery was Death equally with Murder, and when Murder b, consequence was three times more rife thal it is now, was chaplain to county jail 1 was not resident there, nor even bound tt be there regularly, as would now be thu case, except on the Sunday, but was call ed in when any one was lying under thu capital sentence-with six days left to hin or her in this world at the furthest-almos along with the sheriff and the executioner l was, as it were, the shadow sof the gal lows-tree, and predicted it's approach a: surely, if not, as humbly hope, so dark and despairingly. Nevertheless. it is fal harder than some persons would have u. trustful view of that Dark Gulf which lies so immediately before him.
 When a man is ever so ill, Death is not eertain; and with all his often large and genuine acceptance of religious consolation he still keeps private corner of his heart for earthly hope. Since Providence, as We tell him, and he allows, is so merciful and omnipotent, Providence, says he to himself can save body as well as soul. When sol. dier or sailor volunteers upon service, however dangerous, he has a secret cxpecta tion of coming out alive from it after all Far be it from me-who have stood by g hundred death-beds, and know well that Death is met, in the large majority of cases, with exceeding fortitude-to under-rate the courage of my fellow-creatures; but I do af firm that the hope of life-that is, the chance of its not being extinguished-is far more necessary to the doing of great deeds than poor boastful human nature is apt to own. The heroic acts that have been per. formed at extreme risk by the nobIest of our felIow-creatures, are numberless; the heroic acts that have been performed with death for their certain end, are excessively rare; and the greater part of even those will be | found to have been anticipatious of doom 1 if Death had not been forced to make his spring, he was lying in wait and sure of his prey in any case.
 Thus the thoughts of almost every man condemned to die by the law are taken up with, and concentrated upon, the hope of a rcprieve. Notwithstanding that in many cases the doomed person is ready to admit the justice of his sentence--athough have my doubts whether there is much genuine candor ill that statement, and am of opill- ion that it is commonly made with some dim piteous notion of exciting commiseratoD, and eventually pardon--yet, it being in the pow CT of his brotler-men to save his life, the taking ot it seems to him to be an action ab soluteIy monstrous and incredible. That the prison authorities, the government, the na- tion, the whole world, should quietly suffer him to be led out under the open sky, and in the face of a great multitude. to be put to death--to be hung by the neck till he is deac-appears to him not only revolting. but (although he knows it has happened to hun dreds of others before him) thing utterly inconceivable. He shuts his eyes to the fate awaiting him, as long as he can, almost always up to the last night he has to live, very cften up to the moment when he sets his foot upon the scaffold itself. I believe that, in the majority of cases, the entire en- ergies of the unfortunate wretch are direct ed to this one impossible attempt of gaiuiug rcprieve. mistrust for the most part, am sorry to say, even his willing acceptance of my good offices, of my fervent endeavors to Call his attention to more important mat ters. More important? thinks he What can be more important to g man than the question of whether he is to die on Monday, Tuesday, tomorrow, in au hour perhaps-or whether he is to Live?'
 fear shall mock many worthy persons, who read this sitting by their firesides with cravat round their necks instead of rope, when say that this state of mind in con- demned persons is not outrageous, nor to be greatly reprobated. Felons, as a general rule, are uncducated, irreligions, wicked folks, who have never thought--1 do not say of the Great Hereafter, but-of any thing whatever beyond the qualification of i some mean and present desire. Within the limit of six days, it would be difficult indeed for the best directed efforts to alter, to re- | verse such natures; but when, ill addition, the minds of those with whom we have to deal are preoccupied with one overwhelming terror, made darker by the intervals of frenzied hopes-the ignes fatui of reprieve our task is arduous indeed 1 say noth- ing of it's painful and affecting nature; of the watching of the iI-conceaIed anxieties, the trembling expectations fated to end in dis appointment, the useless futterings of the tethered bird. If it rested with us jail chaplains, there certainly would be no more capital punishments. It may be urged, and perhaps with reason, that we are not quite fitted to be judges of such matter, nor do l wish to argue the question here only let no man imagine that Gan eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth" is the measure that is accorded to the murderer that we but do unto him as he has done unto his fellow. He did not tell his victim that he should surely die at the end of certain number of days and at certain hour, and, keeping him shut up until that hour, then carry out his deadly threat. During that same interval, q doomed man dies sometimes five hundred deaths. There IS no such thing as man being "game" then, whatever may happen ill the last scene of all. when there are a thousand ruffian hands to applaud his as sumed fortitude. Tine jaileF, who is always in the condemned cell to guard against the poor wretch laying violent hands upon him. self is not appreciative of any such display ; and though "an atheists laugh" may be some exchange for Deity offended" no man alone, and without that bidcous sympa- thy, will defy God. l have seen doomed men in almost every disposition of mind sunk in the stupor of despair, graceIess, flu, rious, malignant, and even in Fare eases af