The Portland daily press., 1869-02-06
Wha, tho People Think.

We are by no means alone in regarding the
act which the State proposes to commit, at
Thomaston, a week from to-day, as most bar
barous. The Maine Farmer of this week has
long article on the subject from which we
make the following extract. The elegance of
the writer's style is creditable to his intellect
and culture as the humanity of his sentiments
10 to his heart:
For more than thirty years barbarous pun
ishment has sluabered upon our statue pooA,
and would indeed have been regarueu as
practically outlawed" but for ihe ss2.neary en-
dorsement afforded by the extraoroae.tnaLy 1oet case
Spencer who was executed III toof ior tne
murder OF the Warden OF the ota.e frison.
Tho nronosed re.establish ment OF the gallowS
=; this Stoto For the execution of Harris on the
1o,h of tba nresent month, has fully aroused
tho naonle of Maine to sense of the false and
mnrigbteous character of the philosophy upon
which the death penalty is based, and at last
compelled our Legislature to consider the pro-
priety Of removing from among us the relic of
dark and heather ages. There is to be a pub
nc nearing in the Representatives. Hall on
thursday evening of the present week. 1t is
question involving the honor and welfare of
our commonwealth; and it is to be hoped that
the Legislature will indulge in no cowardly
evasions, but grapple the proposition fearless
ly, and act unequivocaly.
1t can be safely asserted, we trust, that no
person of culture and feeling can be found in
the State of Maine, in the year of grace 1867,
who will advocate capital punishment ON any
other ground than that of expediency or ne
cessity; always excepting Mr.. OF Port
land (if he belongs to this class) whose afro,
cious and inhuman dogmas were pubhsned
and answered in the Press few weeks ago. IL
is true that some careless advocates OF this ex-
treme penalty, when requested to give rea-
son for this belief, will cite you to recent
cold -blooded murder, and triumphantly ex-
claim that the wretched offender deserves to be
hung. But it does not belong to you, good
friends, to pronounce upon his ill desert;
there is a higher tribunal to determine that
question, and it is high-handed usuIpation for
man, by any social organization, to assume
such right. Vengeance belongs to God alone.
The idea that society has the right to deal with
its miserable offenders in a vindictive spirit,
and TO take the life of a human being for the
purpose of gratifying the revengefu feelings
of those who survive, has passed away with
the bloody laws of Draco and the iron bed Of
Procrustes, and long since ceased to be part
of the philosophy of humane and thoughtful
men.
The Gardiner Home Journal says
An individual has right to take life in self
defence, and a State has no more, and we do
not believe that self-defense demands the
hanging of Harris. Gov. Chamberlain seems
to us almost to have mono-mania on this
subject. 1t cannot be that he supposes that
tHe b0uGllu6ub Vi tLt nOsb eullguGtucu pUEliOH
of his own party, or of his own State, is in fa-
vor Of the barbarism of capital punishment,
that has been virtually abolished for more than
twenty years. We believe that every secular
paper in the State with perhaps one excep-
tion,) every Republican paper, and every re-
ligIous paper but one, are a unit in opposltion
to the re establishment of capital punishment.
We did hope that Governor Chamberlain,
after seeing the expression of the sentiment of
the people ON his first attempt on the life of
Harris, would let the matter rest, until the
Legislature had had time to act upon the mat
ter. Had Governor Chamberlain's sentiments
on this matter been fully known, we think he
would have lost many thousands of votes-we
knoW he would have lost one.
The Rockland Gazette in the course of long
article in opposition to the death penalty says
We know of no indications that the Govern
or will stay this execution longer, or abandon
his purpose, although we confess that we
think he shows persistent intention to carry
gut his own views with reference to the in
fiction of the death penalty, which is not, UNI
der the circumstances, entirely creditable.
The Gospel Banner has an editorial of great
interest this week in which it shows by stats
tics that though only two men have ever suf-
fered the extreme penalty of the law since
Maine became State, yet crime has beea less
frequent here than in any one of the neighbor-
ing States where death is still the penalty Of
murder.