The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-06-13
capital PunIshment.

hIlCOT0 4Ttt6tttyC1tCeT
see in recent issue or your valua-
BILE paper some remarks by way OF
suggestion and recommendation touch
| ing the question of capital punishment,
which to me, appear to be of question
able propriety, legally considered.
While / sympathize with you, and
much regret that through the necessary
defect of human legislation in a penal
point of view for the punishment of
| the guilty, that the innocent are some
times made to suffer the severest PEN
atty of the law, cannot but deprecate
the serious consequences that, in my
Judgment, must result from the abol-
ishment of the death penalty.
Justice to the murdered dead, and
justice to the living, seem to me alike
lmperiously to demand the life OF the
murderer as the only proper expiation
of his crimes.
Nor is 1t any human or infallible law
that demands this atonement. Accord
ing TO the legislation of Him who
cannot err, the All-wise Ruler of
the nations, it has been long since de-
creed that "Whoso sheddeth mans
blood, by man shall his blood be shed. !"
In His unerring judgment, for man to
strike down with numerous hand his
fellow man, made in the image of his
Creator, it was, and 1t ever must be,
the highest insult that guilty mortal
can offer to the Majesty of Heaven and
Earth, and deserving of the speedy eX.
ecution OF this statute upon the head of
the guilty offender.
L am aware that good men apparent
In wise and humane, have sought to
contraYene the just operation of this
law, but sage experience has long since
showed US that no substitute OF equal
terror to evil-doers, can take its place
in any penal code of human device. So
long as it Is true that all that man
hath will he give for his life, so long
strongest check to his covetous and
angry passions, against the COM
mission of the murderous deed.
The conviction of this truth and the
folly of legislating against High
Heaven in the abolition OF capital pun
ishment, have already been apparent
in those fSW States that have set the
law aside. They have found that its
substitute, Imprisonment for life, in its
operation of checking the progress of
this crime, has been anything but sat-
isfactory; and hence the present pur-
pose OF most OF them to have their
penal codes revised and amended by
giving place again 10 the Divine penal
statute.
AS to our systems OF moral philoso-
ply, 1 care not to enter their domain,
from which to argue the moral right of
doing an act enjoined by the highest
authority known to man.
If they teach the unlawfulness of
taking away life under any and all
circumstances, and choose to designate
Heavens saluJary penal statute, retail
iatory murder, and deny to the Ruler
of nations the right to take away the
life that He has given, when that life
has been prOStituted TO the worst of
purposes, that of destroying his own
H. Fa,- nnN. foil,
be IL known to their authors that
neither l, nor our worthy legislators,
endorse any such code of moral ethics.
No state in our Union in its legisla-
tive capacity has shown n higher re-
gard for Heavens statute book.
Nor can its representative men east
ly betray the moral and religious in
selves too deeply imbued with like
feelings and sentiments. They forget
not that the Heavens do rule. And
hence their righteous euactments, and
the great prosperity of our New State.
In conclusion, we would say, that some
there are that regard the penal statute
of which we have been speaking, as an
enactment of the Mosaic Code proper,
and hence. not suited to us who are in
all respects so different. But this is a
mistake. The statute was given to
Noah, and through him to his entire
posterity, and to be in force to the end
of time. While the reason of the en-
actment is given, which reason being
true of all men, through all time, it is
ever i'll force. Hence its continual obli-
CATION and enforcement under the sane
tion of the great Institutor.. 1t has ever
this to recommend it to our acceptance,
that 1t gives to every man, to every
enlightened community the greatest
possible security of life. even though
the guilty should sometimes escape,
and the innocent suffer the penalty in
his stead. a. w. c., SIR.