Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-25

1t is not easy 70 olstlngulsh DetWeen
real and feignSd penitence as exhibited by
persons under sentence of death; nor is it
exactly our province to Judge. "Judge
n not that yebe-ROt judgsdns divine
Injunction. Yet the interests of com
munity, as well as the future welfare OF
the condemned, demand that care should
be exercised lest We be imposed upon by q
mock piety in such cases. 1t il by no
means uncertain that many criminals do
not deceive themselves in this regard. We
cannot exactly comprehend the peace of
mind suddenly born ofrepentance after the
pronunciation of the sentence of death.
Let us take the case of Martha Grinder,
the female poisoner recently executed at
Pittsburgh. During all her term of i'm
prisonment she denied her guilt and pro
claimed her Christian character. She was
tried before an impartial jury, and, under
an overwhelming array of evidence, con-
victed of several murders. These muir
ders seem to have been perpetrated solely
for the purpose Of gratifying a morbid
desire to commit crime. She wa SEN
fenced to death. When within a few
days of the time appointed for her execu-
ton, there remaining no hope of escape,
she confessed her guilt. Then began
that preparation for death which ought
not to have been deferred so long, but
which had better be made late than never.
But the apparent ease with which Mrs.
Grinder threw off the weight of guilt
depressing her, received the divine
pardon, and stood forth q calm and ap-
parently heaven-sustained woman, was
certainly remarkable. The first con-
dition of forgiveness is repentanee-not
a mere regret that an error or q wrong
has been committed which has brought or
is about to bring pain or disaster upon
the offender; but that higher and holier
feeling which is the result of sincere PEN
itence and sorrow for the infection of
wrong upon a fellow mortal and a viola
ton Of the law of God. Forgiveness is
based upon such repentance as this, and
this repentance is not apt to make people
self-satisfed and calm. Our idea is that
although a brief period of sincere peni-
tenoe may suffice to win q divine pardon,
the few weeks of life usually allotted to a
condemned murderer are all too short a
time for this feeling of absolute sorrow
and penitenee TO exhaust itself and leave
a condition of mind so serene and com.
plaeent as that exhibited by Mrs. Grinder
and other condemned criminals. Sincere
sorrow for such awful wrongs will not ex-
haust itself so quickly. In such cases, a
hope of pardon, based upon repentance
and good conduct, is frequently the con-
trolling motive; but in many instances,
we doubt not, the convict and his spiritual
adviser manage to deceive themselves into
a false confidence in the sulprit's religious
triumphs.
On this subject the Chicago Tribune has
some comments, from which, although not
altogether in accordance with BUR thought,
we transcribe the following paragraph:
@Would it not be well for spiritual ad-
visers, and for all persons whose attention
may be arrested by the marvellously hap
by manner in which these scourges of So
ciety are swung into eternity, to consider
that possibly their assurance of salvation
may result as often from that insensibility
to moral enormity, and that braEen impu-
dence of character which have sustained
| them in their crimes, as from the opera
tons Of the divine being. Let the world
remember that the expectation of glory IN
the future state may arise, and in these in
stances presumably does arise, from that
same species of moral insanity which has
prompted to past crimes, and that the as
s~urance, impudenee and moral insensibility
which induce u~nprinciplsd men and wo-
men to expect to thrive on crime in this
life, may be extended by a few theological
appliances to the life to come. But for the
dignity of Christianity and the promotion
of common public morals, let Christians Of
all classes distinguish between the seafold
theology Of these miserable wretches and
the truths of the Christian religion"