Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-23
The Death Penalty The Folly of


disciples account tOE 3 poor mhu : OHcAeee
by talking about the force of circumstan-
ces-for a rich mans by suggestions of
monomania. They regard 8 thief or bur
glar as the unfortunate and irresponsible
scapegoat of legal and social wrongs, 8
forger like Ketchum as merely 8 broker
who lad developed bis financial abilities
TO an unhealthy extent, and a murderer
like Mrs. Grinder as a woman who had
an insane prediction for poisoning her
friends. Of this class are those who cry
out against the execution of JEFF. Davis,
and favor the utmost mildness toward the
rebels; nor can there be a better ~illustra-
ton of the folly Of this principle, than
the harm and mischief which its applica-.
tion has already wrought in the South
This class Of people, too, asa matter of
course, raise a great outcry against capital
punishment. Indeed they entirely mis-
; 's take the real aim of all penalties. The
great object Of punishment, in civil gov
eminent is not, as these theorists assume,
OF diseipEine-she good of the ofeader-but
soarnin0 and instructiOn-the good of So
eiety. Where these two can c~o-exist,
they should Of course be made to do SO;
but where they conflict with each other
the claim of society is infinitely greater
n9 than that of the individual. The infict-
ion of punishment is always justi6able
when lst) it is deserved, and (2nd) it is for
the good of society. The contrary opin-
ion, which makes the good of the offender
the object of penalties, is unwholesome and
u -. -
into charity schools, and practically puts
q premium upon crime.
In discussing the death penalty, there
fore, there are but two questions to be
answered: Is 1t deserveds and: Does its in
p fiction 6eneft sOeietyf There can be no
doubt Of the answer to the first at least
when the penalty is applied in retribution
for the crime of murder. Every mans
consciousness endorses the justice of the
proposition that he who destroys human
life justly forfeits his own. This axiom
cannot and need not be argued. 1t is self
evident. God recognized it when he
said to Noah: "Whoso sheddeth mans
'r1h blood, by man shall his blood be shed for
in the image Of God made he man" p
Lbs QOCld1dblOn ID dNOACnsO4 NuAOukn
.ittsr Noah to the whole race, and, as its Ian
guage indicates, in the original yet more
clearly than in the translation, is a com
-as- mand, not a prediction. The destruction
ofhuman life must be punished by the loss
of life. Men, everywhere and always,
have regarded death as the only proper
punishment for murder-its infiction the
1-5,, o-.-o-.;o, r. A. ,ao.o5,oss
of human life. The same instructive feel
ing found expression in the Hebraic ordi-
II nance prescribing that when an Ok goreda
man to death it should be killed, and in
the Athenian law by which the tree or beam
Il which fell upon a man and killed him was
declared unhallowed, and banished from
the territory of the republic. These regu-
Ell ~lations, though in this age of intellect they
~ may seem f~anciful, were yet the expression
of a natural justice, and contained a lesson
which even in this age we may do well to
-1nondar-the lesson of 4ha anntitvAe
mai life. w
Some of the arguments suggested to
show that capital punishment is deserved,
: apply with equal force to demonstrate that
q its inhicticn is necessary for the preserTa-
ton of social order. But the most con
vincing proof of this proposition is the
universal experience of mankind. From
the time that God laid the foundation Of
alllaw by the Mosaic ordinances, down to
the present day, the death penalty has
~ been found essential to the very existence
Of society. Its absence has co-existed
aa with barbarism, not with civilization
with heathendom, not with Christianity,
The exceptions are so few and i~hcOnse-
quent as hardly to be worth mentioning.
-9v Social order has always been the highest
~ where the death penalty has been most
strictly enforced. Even the states who
have abolished the penalty within a few
years already afford US examples of this rule.
The recent horrible murders in the State of
Michigan illustrate the results of abolish
ing the death penalty. Men like Bivins
and. Cooper murder sisters, wives, parents,
sm under circumstances of peculiar and un-
~exampled atrocity, well knowing that if
worst comes to worst their lives are safe
that, even if caught and convicted, the
most dreadful fate that awaits them is
comfortable quarters and continued susie
nance. Such knowledge cannot fail to be
stimulus to crime, while human nature re-
mains what God has made it.
As life is the greatest Of goods, 50 muir
der, which destroys it. Is the greatest of
crimes. 1t differs from all other crimes
nOtonIy in degree but in kind. The harm
it does is absolutely irrepsrable. Life,
nnoa foHon nm ava he rosFouo5 CHI
peare, through Othello, phrases this truth
thus: I
"If quench thee, thou flaming minister,
i can again thy former light restore,
55 Should repent me; but once put ont thy light,
~ Ihsu cunning'st pattern Of excelling nature,
know not where Is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume." |
The penalty for murder should be. COM
mensGrate with its guilt. As it is. the
D. most signaland terrible of crimes so should
its penalty be the most signal and terrible
of punishments.
A word upon the peculiar necessity
which exists at present for the strict en-
forcement of capital punishment, and we
are done. Never, as a nation, did we
stand in such urgent need as now of learn I
ing to appreciate the s~acredness of human
H- existence. War cheapens life, and as the re-
suit of wal, murder has becomet terribly COM
mon. Never was life rated so cheaply as
Row.. And the inevitable result has been
an era of blood for which the darkest of
the dark ages hardly furnishes a parallel. {
No mans life is safe today The agis of 6
the law cannot protect it. This state Of I
things needs sharp and stern correctives,
and we are glad to see that they are being
applied. Within four weeks no less than e
eight persons in the Northern States have
suffered the extreme penalty of the law il