The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-07-12
+. Heaven Of s1urderers,

n
The nearest approach that the worio n"s
,.,a,x aeon TO total depravity is the case Vi
~ r.con 6 HARDEN who administered
.,,,.on 10 his wife in the most loving ana al
| f.tn..a manner who witnessed with great
an,, ,,nsurs her agonizing death struggles, and
-r,,, N, tn his last moments showed no evil
sa,ca Of such an attribute as conscience
ar compassion in his nature. This man,
who according to his own confession, has
been engaged in deceiving and betraying
women from an early period of his life.
and who used the advantages Of his posi-
ton as a spiritual adviser and counsellor TO
ruin the souls of those mitted to his
charge, Gaping the climax of (epravity by
one of the most cool, deliberate, and devilisn
murders recorded in the annals of crime,
passes away from earth with the sweet COM
posufe of a saint and, bidding his friends
good bye, piously tells them, ave shall NEE.
in Heaven"
II that be true, Heaven must be the last
place that an honest man would wish to go to-
Not one murderer in hundred is swung from
the scaffold, who, by some spiritual NEGRO
NANCY, is not brought TO declare that he is GO
ing to Heaven, a declaration in fiat contradic-
ton to the words of inspired writ, which
tells us that murderers shall be cast in ITO the
lake of bottomless fire. 1t was the custom
among some ancient nations 10 give strong
drink to him that was about to perish for his
crimes, TO supply the victim and diminish his
sufferngs. Such practice would be less in.
furious to society than to intoxicate criminals
upon the gallows with the conviction that
they are going directly to Heaven, and thus
produce the impression upon villains and
r1a i,,o hat he shnrtaSt xrysv m
the society of angels is from the scaffold.-
There may be cases of repentance and for
giveness, after life of crime, like that of the
thief on the cross; there are, no doubt, young,
undepraved natures, which, in a moment of
violent passion. have shed human blood, who
truly repent and are pardoned above, but, in
all its aspects it is demoraiZing and ruinous
to hold out to such deliberate and callous re-
probates rs the majority of murderers, that
they can wipe out by an imaginary repent
ance in an hour, the judgment that is record
ed in Heaven sgainst years of wickedness;
that they can bring blight and ruin upon our
happy hearths; that they can despoil youth
full innocence of its choicest jewels, and de-
prive it of all hope and happiness in life, or
send it perchance 10 a bloody sepuichre; that
they can bring down the grey hair,of parents
soar upward from the scene of all this misery
and disaster to that Heaven, where nothing
that detileth can enter in, and serenely look
down upon the hearts it has broken, and the
life blood it has shed, from the peaceful shell
ter OF ABRAHAM's bosom.
Probably few rejecting and intelligent per-
sons are deceived by such shocking delusions
as generally take hold of the mids of murder
3Iafr lact t,t for ,aI,
the world is not made up of rejecting and in
telligent persons. There are thousands who
do not perceive that the reformation of char
acter is work necessarily gradual, and when
bad habits have been formed, not only a slow
but painful process, an alienation of victo-
ries and defeats. which may occupy score of
years before the poisonous weeds are eradi-
Gated, and the exotics Of virtue take root in a
nature which, from lGng habits of vice. has
become like u rock, where the seeds of good
have to struggle with thousand enemies, an
uncongenial soil, with briars and thistles, and
with birds of the air. But if it is so difficult
to remodel man who has given way to ordi-
nary vices what shall be said of one who has
become SO depraved as deliberately and mali
ciously TO take human life Is it likely that
he can become good man in a month or two
crimes Shall he who, from malice prepense
and with the cool cruelty and deliberation of
JACOB S. HARDEN, has sent another soul I'M
prepaid to its account, be received into
Heaven, while his poor victim is perhaps III a
world of torment? Yet this is the stereotyped
abs urdity we hear from the scafold OF every
murderer. 1t is time that the religious per-
formances of these criminals We're kept to
themselves, and that the scaffold should no
longer become a regular pulpit, from which
culprits of the deepest dye shall preach to the
community that man may commit such
crimes they commit, and yet, after few
weeks Imprisonment, be conveyed by angels
into the bowers of Paradise. If it Is thought
advisable by their spiritual attendants TO per-
nit them to suppose that the miracle Of the
penitent thief has occurred in their case, let
them, we again say, keep their blissful assur-
ance TO themselves let them die with a. leas t
some outward semblance of humility re-
serve, and respect for the morals and common
sense of the public.
Discomfort in France.
e. 4 a. :