The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-11-17


take care that the laws be faithfully executed ;
Art. v. Sec. IL.
Our laws provide that murder of the first
degree shall be punished with DEATH" R. S.
Chap. 118, Sec. 2.
Also that when any person is convicted Of
crime punishable with death and sentenced
therefor, he shall at the same time be sentenc-
ed to solitary confinement and hard labor in
the State Prison, till such punishment is in
fiicted:" R. S. Chap. 1856, Sect.
1.-THE sentence of death shall, in all cases, be
inflicted by hanging the convict by the neck
till he is dead, and be executed at the time di-
rected in the warrant, within the walls or en-
closed yard of the State Prison" &c., Sec 8.
when a sheriff inflicts the sentence OF
death as aforesaid, he shall Immediately make
return of the warrant therefor, to the Office OF
the Secretary of State" Sec. 9.
Yet you "are surprised and shocked to hear
Tufaor that Gov. Chamberlain is about to is
sue his warrant"
The explanation of this remarkable lam
guage may probably be found in your previous
assertion: "The present law was no doubt in
tended practically to abolish the death penal
ty, it being supposed that no Governor would
ever go out of his way to infiict the extreme
penalty of the law"
The foregoing extracts from "the present
law" will not probably be claimed to have a
bearing in that direction
The passage on which you take the RESPONSE
bility of making your statement unquestiona-
bly, is the following: "But he shall not be exc
cuted W thin one year from the day the sem
tence of death was passed, nor until the whole
record of such proceedings or case is certified
by the clerk of said court under the seal
thereof, to the supreme executive authority of
the State, and a warrant is issued by said ex-
ecutive authority, under the great seal of this
State, directed to the sheriff of the county
wherein the State prison is situated, COM
handing him to carry said sentence of death
into execution. Sec. Z.
Because the law does not specifically lay
that, after the year the Governor shall issue the
warrant, it is, I suppose, attempted to be ar
gued thatit is not his duty to do it,
1t is not usual for our statutes to command
the higher officers of the State to perform any
specific acts. The constitution and the laws
Define their general duty, they are required to
saoedr that they will do it to the best of their
ability, and the statute then proceeds to speci-
fy the details of their official duties, usually
without stopping to command the execution Of
each official act.
Observe the language of the very passage
last quoted. Is there any command to the
Judge of the Supreme Court, to direct the
clerk to certify the record of the case" to the
Governor? Why, then, are you not shocked
and surprised" that one of our judges has done
such a deed?
Nay, why have you not been Surprised and
shocked" that this has been done by every
judge in every capital case that has been
brought to the notice of the Governors for
more than thirty years?
Is the Governor the only high officer of the
State who is to be restricted from executing
his duty without specific orders?
So with all our statutes. To cite only one of
many illustrations: Executions lin civil cases.
Judicial Court after twenty-four hours from
its rendition" Chap. 80, sec. 112. Will any
candid man contend that the judges are at
liberty to direct the clerk not to issue them
'qfter twenty-four hours" or that they could
safely refuse to command the clerk to issue
them? Any judge who should attempt to act
on such a theory would deserve and receive
immediate impeachment Yet Gov. Chamber
Jain shocks and surprises" you, by the mere
"rumor' that he is about to issue Harris's
warrant.
But you will urge as a last plea that the
practice of our Governors under "the present
law" has given it the construction for which
you contend, however contrary it may be to
the letter and spirit of the statute.
Upon this point l refer you to the mastery
reasoning of Gov Cony in his inaugural adj
dress of 1864, where he reviews the whole SUBJ
ject and concludes with an intimation of his
intention to hang Spencer, which he did
during the ensuing summer.
Yet neither the Legislature to which it was
addressed nor that of 1865, elected lust after
the execution, nor any subsequent Legislature
has expressed the slightest condemnation of
that act, nor of any dissent from Gov Conys
argument.
Therefore you will at least admit that a mart
OF the usage established under our present
law is to hang for certain varieties of murder,
The killing OF warden not over mild in his
discipline and treatment by a white convict
whose term was soon to expire, has been pun
ished with death under the present law with
out objection on the part of the lawmaking
power, and so far as have ever heard it sug-
gested, with the full popular approval.
Was the Press Shocked" or "surprised"
when Spencer was swung ( # by Gov. Cony,
not by "rumor" but in solemn reality; or when
Gov. Cony himself was twice thereafter re-
elected by large majorities?
Or was the life of warden of so much
greater value than that of two women, and the
dsmnation of his taking off" so much
"deeper" =?
Let us look facts squarely in the face. Cliff.
ton Harris presents to the Executive and the
people of Maine test case. Thu guilt of bur-
glary, robbery, the murder of two blameless
and unprotected elderly ladies', perjury and
lprobably) rape, rest on his head and that not
by the verdict of twelve fallible men, based on
the skiliul adjustment of thousand deceptive
circumstances, but upon his own confession.
in open Court This full-grown negro has
blackened the era of the enfrancnisement of
his race by the most brutal complication of
crimes that stains the judicial records of Maine
Think you that if he escapes the people of
Maine will permit ano her prisoner to expiate
the not wholly unprovoked murderlof his nat
ural his warden, on the gallows? Do you
Halter yourself that thereafter the most igno-
rant or imbruted assassin will regard sour
present law" except with contempt? Or. to
quote your language, do you imagine that
thencetorth all the moral effect of the death
penalty upon the minds of criminals might be
retained by keeping it on the statute book?"
No, sir, this case of Harris is destined to de-
stroy >" the refuge of lies" which is impaired
to the present law"
The Power which "out of evil still educes
good" will grant us at last this single benefit
from that hideous crime.
AT last our law will be settled, either by the
abolition of the death penalty, against which
act l do rot propose to offer the slightest ar
gument or opposition, or by the enforcement
OF this atrocious monster.
In the meantime / do not propose To he
" shocked or surprised" either by the honor"
or the reality of the action of the Legislature
in retaining or abolishing the death penaltv
nor of the execution of the Auburn murder
err"
PUBLIC SAFETY.