The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-12-02
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Executive Authority"

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.n.,... .yaaes.ion for ..ihe Supreme
Executive AuihOrity.s
nha ouillotine and the garro;e nave been
sroaested AZ improvements upon the system
Of d;snosing of erin mails of the worst class
which it seems is coming once more into use
in this State Yet we hear il constantly
boosted by the advocates OF capital punish
ment that "Governor Chamberlain win hang
Harris" or that he sis bound TO hang him."
or that she isn't the man to back out or back
down when he has once made up his mind.
All these asseverations are made with we"
to glorify and eXalt Gen. Chamberlain as l.
1t were an act OF Unprecedented heioisni ''i"'
he has in mind, and as if he wou'd aoo '"eie-
by new chaplet of laureis TO the oro" lhaV
was so gloriously crowned at Gettysburg ana
Annomattox We are unable to see that this
will he the case. Were the Executive
man of less weight of character than General
Cbamberlain-were he an Individual who
needs to attract public attention to himself by
resorting TO eccentricites-we should regard
his recent Va2aries as inspired by morbid
longing for notoriety. To override the con-
struction of law given either expressly or
by necessary implication by succession OF
Governors and Legislatures for thrty-two
years and to ignore clearly expressed public
sentiment has nothing in it that is so much
heroic as headstrong and eeotistical. 1t is
only the Governors upright, weli-poised char
acter that saves him from this reproach.
Conceding that The Governor sis bound to
hang Clifton Harris" land was equally resolved
upon hanging Charles keenan, if the Council
had not saved his neck by humoring the Elk
ecutive within and advising that the sentence
be commuted let us see If the following arti-
Gle from the New York Post offers any sug-
gestion on the subject of the proper disposal
OF criminals that may be adopted in lieu of
The tislocaton OF the cervical vertebre that
finds such favor in Augusta:
II Delaware they fog their criminals and
by an ingenious device, drive them from the
State 1t is plain that'this is an expeiient of
limited application. Ii all the States drove
their convicts from their borders, we in New
York should perhaps get rid Of q bad set OF
fellows; but our nelehbors would presently
cry out against Us with great vellemence. The
country is too large for general experiment.
Of this kind.
Rut this plan suggests another, which has
been tried in other countries, aud with good
effect. The English, Irving a large island or
two to spare, did substantially what Delaware
does; they exiled their criminals. You are
not fit to live with us" they said to them; "go
to Botany Bay" And the English convicts
built up a new Stale in the Southern Henri
sphere. The English convict, landed in Aus
tralia, found himself in fertile desert with a
career open to him il he chose TO ceatuct him
self properly. He lived in the open air; his
iare was hard, his service severe; but from
the first he knew that new life lay open be-
tore him; that he could, if he would rub off
the stain of chine Abundant rewards tempt
I'd him - a vir. uons life; he might earn a
ticket OF leave, which made him a Save with
ont master: he might set up in business for
himself; he might use for his owe benefit, at.
ter limited probation. all his skill and ener-
~; be might marry and have children. And
while he WAS considering these things, he was
aborlng in the sunshine, among other men.
Botany Bay Was happy device-and the
English will regret, if they do not already, that
they can no longer transport. their criminals.
Could we not hit upon something of the same
kind? What better use could Alaska be put
10 than that of home for convicted criminals?
IL lies too far away ; but not further than Bot
any Bay. The distance might be overcome
with the help of the Pacific Railroad. Then
there are numerous Islands in the Pacific
which might be made penal colonies New
Guinea is still unexplored; but it has harbors
aud doubtless fertile lands; we came near buy
ing the Feiees not long ago; there are parts OF
Africa whi:h still lie open to such uses-and
indeed, are fiji for little else.
The exiles of Siberia, Mr.. Knox has lately
told us, are not such an unhappy set of people
as Miss Porter's pathetic tale persuaded the
boys and girls forty years ago. Hanging is
the worst use you can put a man to-, said a
witty opponent OF capital punishment; but to
put man in prison is little better. 1t wastes
his forces and destroys his future. Danish
ment is better than either; it protects society
without destroying tn e usefulness of the man.
In former times Texas was place of volunta-
ryexlle for unconvlcted criminals. A fellow
who had committed MURDER or burglary or
any other OF dozen crimes and feared the
Iaxv hr,Y,1 III IL.
L. L. sign," to tell his angry fellow citizens
that he had gone to Texas. And society was
satisfied, for before the day OF railroads Texas
was the ultima Thule. Many criminal who
transported himself to Texas for his country s
good lived quiet and useful life there; if he
had been shut up in penitentary he would
never have recovered the blow.
Deaf Mute Sentenced TO Death-He il
Found 10 be of Unsound Mind and
Sent 30 the Hospital.
RoCKLALD, Dec. 1, 1868.
To the Editor Of the Press:
Levi Jack, the poor deaf mute who set fire
to the almshouse in Dxmont last spring and
was in August condemned to death, is to re
ceive more proper and humane treatment a
the hands of our State government The his
tory of this alleged culprit and his vindcation
can be stated in word.
Last spring, just after the rising OF the
Criminal Court, the almshouse in Dixmon
was burned and one inmate, feeble old WON
an, persisted in the flames. Mr.. Jack was sus
pected and arraigned before the Crmina
Court and pleaded Guilty" As the law or
ders, the fact being established, the sentence
is death. 1t was subsequently argued in ex
tenuation of this deed of the convicted and
condemned mute that he was insane. Gov.
Chamberlain, near the middle of November,
commissioned a board of examining phys-
clans, consisting of Drs. Germaine and Esta-
brook of Rockland, and Chase of Thomaston,
to decide upon the sanity of the mute They
unanimously agreed that Jack was of I'M
sound mind. Afterwards Warden Rice stated
that his opinion was the same and that many
OF the prisoners had expressed disapprovaI of
the execution of a lunatic. Prisoners are not
SO apt to be generous towards their fellow con-
victs. The provisions OF the law are that the
sentence of death, in such a case as Jacks, be
RENTED and the prisoner be sent to the .Asy-
lum for the insane.
The hallucinatlOn, under which this man la
bored, was that by burning the almshouse, he
should relieve himself of catarrh, lung COM
plant and some other bodily ills which he was
suffering and he still thinks that act was pi-
GUS deed of selfconcern.
The Governor being absent from the State,
has not yet issued an order for the lunatics
removal to the Insane Asylum BENNETT.
WE have no controversy with the paper
that will not acknowledge that it Numbered
egregiously in taking the ground that the &C.
r'on OF the legislature in saving criminals from
the gallows would be in the nature of ca post
Jdcto legislation. There is not word in "Kent
Marshall or Cranch" that will afford the Argus
the slightest assistance in escaping by any 9th
or door than frank confession of error. 1t
wodld be FAR more rational to assume that the
Legislature would run against the constitution
ii provision that State shall pass no law i'm
pairing the obligation.of contracts by interior
ing to prevent the revival of barbarism in
MAINE. That would be absurd enough to be
sure. but not so absolutely crazy as the other