Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-05-21
CAPITAL pUHIsHHEHT.

Among the probable consequences Of the inau-
guration of the new Government in South Caro-
lima, will be the introduction of much cant and
New England isms and sentimentaities. The
"God and morality party" in its desire to do a..
way with all the old landmarks, will probably
abolish the old fashioned system of hanging crimi-
nals and substitute some new-fangled punishment
In this connection recent debate in the English
House Of Commons possesses some interest. The
bill to abolish capital punishment was defeated by
q vote Of 127 to 23 The debate was very iuteres-
ting but chiefly remarkable for bringing forward
as the strongest antagonist of the measure, Mr.. j.
Stuart Mil, one of the profoundest, yet at the same
time, one of the most crotchety thinkers of the
Eage He supplied some of the strongest argu-
ments against the proposed change, in speech Of
finished beauty and adroitness. He said that
solemnly to blot out murderer from the catalogue
Of the living, is the most appropriate and impress
sive mode in which society can deal with his crime.
An Imprisonment carried out in way commen-
surate with the offence, would be horrible tor
ture Society is asked to denude itself of an instru
ment of punishment which effects its purpose at a
less cost of suffering than any other, while inspir
ing more terror Professional criminals may pre-
tend to be Indifferent to the gallows but it is not
to it's effect upon hardened criminals that we arc
to look, but on the many who are still innocent,
and who are deferred from crime by the awful
penalty that awaits them. ~,
It is not question of adopting the most eAec-
tual means Of softening the heart and moving the
souls of murderers, but question Of preserving
the sanctity and safety of human life Some may
say, with Jeremy Bentham, that precaution is the
only thing to be sought, but human nature has
implanted in it a sense which recognizes also the
justice Of retribution. .,,
There is certain effeminacy in some minds
which is shocked at the taking of human life, yet
those men would substitution the gallows solitary
imprisonment with hard labor for life; that is, an
unrelieved monotony of toll, without society, with
out sympathy. Unbroken silence and uninterrupt-
ed solitude would be doing nothing less than crea
ting hell upon EARTH The life Of an uneducated,
brutal prisoner, undergoingsuch sentence, would
be, in effect, a slow, lingering, painful death
The experience Of years by those who have been
brought most in contact with the criminal classes,
is preponderating that there is no punishment SO
deterring as the galows, and it is for this class,
mainly, that punishments are devised They fear
death by the hands Of the executioner, and it is
the only thing in this world that they do fear.
To those people whose religious seusibilities are
shocked by the infection of the death penalty, we
would say that it is punishment, recognized by
thecode of every nation and in the only case where
there has been any direct revelation of the will of
the Almighty it has been prescribed in many cases
for offences less then MURDER to which We believe
it should be confined. ,.
We hope that no sicky sentimentality will ever
operate to change the law in this respect in South
Carolina '..-.'..