The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1862-04-30
To What End Should Treason be Punished

When our laws against treason were enacted
it WIS deemed by the Legislators wise to treat it
eas l-rAvc offence, and punish it by the death
penalty which, as far as the criminal himself Is
concerned, is the heaviest punishment that can
be inflicted. That law still stands on our stat
ute hooks, and is the only method known to the
conrts for Furnishing treason. But, since the
present crop of Southern traitors have sprung
up, and the Nation has been put to an enormous
expense to subdue the causeless rebellion which
has for more than G year defed it, treason has
presented itself III an entirely different light
from any in which it has been before seen and
ttsa hjdeousncss and expensiveness of 1t have so
impressed the public mind, that the people are
auxiously inquiring whether, in furnishing the
resels, the country cannot derive some benefit,
&te load Of debt under which we must s;agger
for gears be somewhat Gghtened, and the future
made more surely exempt from such costly re-
bcllions.
IN discussing this question of punishment,
lex us not forget that criminal laws were never
gnade ior the benefit Of the criminal but for the
goQd Of the public, for the peace and safety Of
thc community although all other punishment
short of the death penalty, it is hoped has, in
cidontally, q Tetormatory influence upon the
guilty, as well as . good effect as an example
upen other persons Of evil thoughts and intents
There is no more common practice in our
hy Hpa
she expense that the Commonwealth has beer at
da pursuing, experimenting, and conyicting a
teson, courts thus recognizing every day the
principle thas the criminal may legally be made
TO pat back into tie treasury the money drawn
therelrom by reason of his crime.-But this is
only Que way in which the State endoavors to
derive an advantage from the vigorous enforce
saent of criminal law. Another and much
more important use Of punishment is to deter
r9theEs from similar Crimes and so far as possible
discourage and prevent a repetition of like Of
fences. 10 this end the punishment is made to
strike as far as possible at the root of the evil.
In shis State, and in many other States, the traffic
in Intoxicating liquors is Il crime, because that
traffic is believed to be productive of individual
and public crilnes and pau perisn, and not be-
GAUGE the traffic is what the lawyers call nahum
in sc. The law has for its object directly the
improvement of society and the Commonwealth
by removing or Furnishing traffic in the fruitful
source of evil and crime. In short, communi-
ties in their associated action always recognize,
in dealing with crime, the maxim that proven
ton is better than cure and much of our law
both civil and criminal has for its object the
education and reformation of men, that they
may be kept from vice rather than punished for
crime.
If in ordinary criminal law and in dealing
wlth minor offences we nave IN view the good of
the whole community, SO much the more should
I've have the Same object in contemplation when
Furnishing the crimes that shake the foundations
OF society, or attempt to overthrow the pill
iars Of state. That the gigantic treason that
has Gfroused the loyalty Of the Nation, should
be 50 dealt with as, il possible, to prevent for
all coming time u repetition Of the terrible
crime, we think no truly loyal man will deny.
The ond we all agree about, but there is wide
disagreement as 10 the road through which that
end can be reached. Much Of this diversity of
opiaijn, VIC thin6, arises from coniounding the
punishment Of treason with the suppression of