The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1865-07-19
The Ixeoutioa OF Female Criminals.

cution Of Mrs. Surratt, fot the crime O
conspiracy and murder. as an act of un
justi6abls severity. Her guilt does no
lappear to DO seriously doubted. In fact
tho evidence Of Lloyd, who kept the ho
tel at Surrattsville. as to the two carbines
is conclusive Of Mrs. Surratt's full com
plicity in the crime. Her anxiety, tha
the "shooting-irons," (which she delivered
to Lloyd should be promptly taken care
Of. and promptly produced at the call o.
the fugitive Booth and his fellow-assas'
sins. Is unimpsachable evidence. to say
nothing of the crime Of (" harboriag" the
whole gang Of assasaius at her house. in
Washington. By no method. short Of
impeachiug and convicting the witness
Lloyd Of fiat perjury, is there any posi-.
BILE escape from the conclusion Of the gull,
OF Mrs. Surratt.
The objections to her execution are de-
rived chiefly from two sources: : the com
mon prejudice against all executions. and
the particular sentiment which regards
with horror the hanging of woman.
We propose 10 devote few considera-
tions to the latter.
II will not be pretended that the nature
or desert OF crime can be at all affected
by the sex Of the criminal. Murder aud
conspiracy to murder are not a whit the
less atrocious, because committed by
even the fairest Of "the gentle sex !"
and there is peculiar infamy attaching
to crime which, as in the present in
STAGE strikes, by the foulest stratsgems,
at the wise and benefcient head of
nation. Without going SO far as some
legal writer's. who assert that /" there are
some things in the character Of women
which make them peculiarly apt for the
commisson Of murder" it is unbuestion-
ably true. that feminine depravity has
been found equal the commission of the
higest crimes known to the criminal code.
1t needed not the conviction and execu.
ton Of Mrs. Surratt to prove what history
is SO full OF examples to attest. Scripture,
history and fiction alike bear witness to
the fact, that in the heart Of woman,
Turks something which, under the strong
stimulus of passion, jealousy, hatred or
revenge, eau leap to the commission of
the most dreadful crimes. From Jezebel
to Lady Macbeth, from Lady Macbeth
to Mrs. Manning, from Mrs. Manning
to Mrs. Surratt, when women and men
have been joined together for the COM
mission of crime, the woman has most
often led or shown the way.
With the ancients, the Furies and the
Fstes. the presiding deites ofdiscord and
death, feminine and without insisting
on tho vulgar Interpretation of the sllegory
OF the temptation to sin in the Garden of
Eden, as 6rst yielded to by woman.
the history Of the world is evidence TO the
truth that in the words Of an old writer,
=" there is in woman something Of an an
gel aud something Of the devil"
1t cannot be claimed that women, who
have converted themselves into the most
infamous Of criminals, are entitled, by
reason Of their sex, to any immunity
from the punishment Of crime The law
is, or should be, no respector Of persons.
it is hardly fifteen years since an eminent
Professor in Harvard University was
hanged for murder. 1t was not century
since reverend divine Of the Church Of
England, moving in the highest and
most fashionable circles Of the realm, was
hanged for forgery. Scarcely year has
passed during the half century just elaps.
ed which has not witnessed the public
execution Of women. in The most civiliz.
ed countries on the globe. for capital Of
feuses.
1t is credtiable to he age, that certain
barbarisms in the criminal treatment Of
women. almost too revolving for notice,
have been abolished or mitigated. 1t
seems to us hardly credible that the
burning OF females, in cases of treason,
was continued in England nearly to the
end Of the last century. A woman, con-
voted of coming false money, 1889. un-
dsrwent the two-fold punishment Of be-
ing first straugled. by the stool being
taken from under her. and then fastened