The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-02-27
Capital Pusishn..
To THE EDITOR OF THE Press.

q
derer is maintained on different gronnds ~,
punlshments, say one class of ethical writers
are exemplary, and are designed to deter ~
punished from repeating the crime. But bo,,.
ask sentimentalists do you expect to reform a
man, whom you pat out of existence. Our
old school friends, if they do not fail back at
once upon the Noachic coceadllt, and iorego
all further self-inquest into the problem, viii
perhaps reply: In the case OF the murderer
we forego the purpose OF reforming nan, but
are more than compensated in the powerful
incentive we get to reform all Others having
like evil tendencies 1--WE hung the murderer ior
an example to others. Here comes in the sar-
donic humor ef Carlyle with a comment like
this
And SO you take criminal caitiffs, murderers
aud the like, and hang them on eibbets "for an
example 10 Others. Whereupon arise friends
OF humanity and object. With yery great rea-
son, as consider, if your hypothesis be correct.
s.s la1 risn. nave you TO hang any poor creature
for an example" He can turn round and
say, why make an example of me, a merely
ill-situated, pitiable man? Have YOU no more
respect for misfortune? Misfortune L have
been told is sacred. And yet you hang me
now have fallen into your hands; choke the
life out OF Inc for an eXaample Again | ask,
why make an example of me for your own CON
venence alone?" All revenge being out of the
question, 1t seems to me, the caititl is unan-
swerable; and he and the philanthropic plat
form have the logic all their side.
Upon this mishap OF the argument of ex-
ample the rugged philosopher seizes the bull
by the horns and says, We do slay murderers
and other felons out Of rerenge and hate of
their SIN, or quoting his own fiery invective:
The one answer to him is: 'Caitiff we hate
thee; and discern for some six thousand wears
now, that we are called upon by the whole uni
verse to do it. Not with diabolic but divine
hatred. God himself we have always under
stood hates sin with most authentic celestial
and eternal hatred, it's a palpabla
deserter from the ranks, where all men are at
their eternal peril bound to be we
solemnly expel thee from our community and
will in the name OF God, not with 10y and ex-
ultatiOn but with sorrow stern as thy own
hang thee on "Wednesday next, and so end"
So end the caitiff, perhaps, but not the ar
gument, for if we do not hurry the hanging
so as to choke off the dying speech, it might
be to this effect:
SO you hang me for my sin. Let him that
is without sin take the first pull at the rope
My sin got the sun upon it, and so ripened
into an ugly deed. Yours, your Honor, elo-
quent public prosecutor, respectable gentlemen
of the jury, your Excellency and your very
polite representative ON this mournlul occa-
sion, the Sheriff, growing in the fortunate
shade, has developed no further than the lear
Who placed me in the sunshine OF opportu
nlty, and so brought to iruita2e and ripeness
the rascal that was? Had you, learned and
honorable gentlemen, nothing to do with
that? Who gave me my mean ancestry tC
curse me with this pinched brain, and these
woltlsh appetites? They were certainly none
OF my choosing.
And clearly the caitiff gets the better even
Of Carlyle upon the one answer, ON which he
rests the whole case of punishmeDts. 1t is
absurd to punish men for crimes because they
are sins. From the standpoint of pure an(
infinite intelligence the difference in the quail
ity OF men may be still greater than it seems
to us, but the difference between the sins,
that is the personal responsibility of the best
and the worst must be infnitesimal. When
Jesus let the adulteress go unpunished, be-
cause there was no one so free from adultery
as to be entitled TO begin the punishment, he
virtually denied that murder could be pun
ished by men as sin, because there are no
men who have not been guilty of causeless
hatred which he affirmed to be murder.
But though the dying speech is an effectual
exGinguisher to Carlyle and to society at
large, when it puts on the impudent assump.
crime us sin it is capable of an answer that
ought to close debate: -m aa.
We do not hate you. We do not wish to
torture you or in any way avenge ourselves ON
you Tor the injury you have done us. We will
even call you, ii IL sOOthes your feelings, our
poor unfortunate brother, but we mean tor
our own safety to be rid Of you. We do not
stand upon the method of your going, provid-
ed you promptlygo. If anas.hetics or narcot-
les, or fumes OF charcoal will abate the horrors,
or relieve the animal apprehension OF the
event, to which you have surely come, pray
help yourself with them. That we are all sin
ners is neither mere nor there, and this is no
time to charge upon you any greater abstract
outlines than belongs to us. That we are all
sinners makes the very necessity of hanging
you, to- il there were not ih all OF us germs OF
the very crimes which have matllred i'm you,
your presence and contact would not endan-
ger us and you might be kept as unique
HtHOfut we tnt cOllpt-
titon. strife, by which men like other animals
seek 10 appropriate each to himself the goods
of lite; but when it comes to killing other
living men standing in their way, we insist
the competition has been carried TOO far, and
that those, who play The game of life In such
a reckless way, shall be summarily put out
Indeed it seems to us a mistake, that YOU are
here at all. Among the multitudes that might
have been born in your place and were denied
.al
range Of possibilities that seem to us to
have been open, it looks as. If nature had made
grave mistake in selecting you. We will
essay to correct this mistake, sorry that our
remedy comes so late; and we would be glad
soon to forget that you ever existed, or that
your like can exist. In true sense we do not
punish you We regard you as a case too
tough for Our punitory discipline, and not ir-
reverently send you back, whence you came,
where we trust the conditions of existence are
more favorable, than you have found them
here
Messrs. Rautoul, Phillips and Andrew come
up to the Legislature with statistics tending
to show, that the public hanging of murderers
does not deter other men from murder, that it
brutalizes and degrades the mind, that not
rarely men have gone from the very gallows
tree to take the lives of their fellow creatures,
and thereupon claim to have the death penal
ty abolished. ...
But supposing that capital punishment does
not deter men ia general from homicide Let
us content ourselves with more modest re-
suit Hanging prercnts the man hung freD,
committing any more murders. Has anybody
at hand any statistics to dIsprove this propo-
sition? In time, gaining none but this small
and sure advantage, we might thin the num-
Der of murderers, stop the seed and breed OF
them, and with an improved general civiliza-
ton at last get rid OF them.
A farmer has just detected his favorite dog
in killing sheep. He had snapped at them
before and got kicked, cudgelled and chained
UP for his pains. That was the era of dsci-
pline, Now it is got beyond that. He aban-
dons all purpose of reforming his dog, and
proceeds with due GOODNESS to shoot him. II
Mr.. Phillips should interpose and say: Sir, do
not kill the dog 1t will not deter other doss
from sheep stealing. l am even prepared to
show that the sight Of your mangled dog nav
the knowledge of the violence that has been
done him, will excite a ferocity in all dogs
that will prove fatal to many hocks, the blrnl
farmer would be likely to grunt "Perhaps so,
but his here dog ,oon't kill no more sheep
reckon" He is practical and contents him
self with practical result.
~, Ao IL