The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-08
0IvnIzATIoN GIBBETED.

abolition has, 1T seems to us, worked well,
returns upon us some old considerations.
Judge Cooley, Judge Graves, and Governor
Blair, though lawyers, and, like most lawyers
of our day, brought up at the foot of the
pallows, have been wise enough to see that
nothing can give to performance essentially
murderous, even when operated by the hands
of the law, the dignity of decency. 1t costs
society, to say the least, as little to abstain
from killing as to kill. Whether we shall do
violence to our common nature by examples
of public murders whether we shall gibbet
our own civilization; whether we shall take
the brute method of dealing with immortal
souls-these are the obvious questions. Let
us appeal, however, to another experience
than our own:-
In 1774 the Grand Duke of Tuscany vir-
tually abolished the death penalty, and in
1856 it was repealed by statute. Re-enacted
in 1906, it remained almost imperative till
about 1880, when the sight of two executions
caused disgust which effectually banished
it. Though made legal once more, during
period of revolution, it was never enforced,
and its abolition, subsequently recognized
by the italian code, still continues. British
writers, lately commenting on these facts,
have failed to call to mind the admirable
share in this great reform Of the Marquis
Beccaria, the father of the movement to put
an end to public legalized murder The
Grand Dukes statement of the effects of the
reformrecals some of the most practical argu-
ments of Beccaria. '"The mitigation of pun
ishment," he remarked, ''joined to q most
scrupulous attention to prevent crimes, and
also great despatch in the trials, together
with q certainty of punishment to real de-
lnquents, has, instead of increasing the num-
ber of crimes, considerably diminished that of
smaller ones, and rendered those of an afro
cious nature very rare" A statement that
during the twelve years ending in 1864 crime
in Tuscany was ON the increase, has, we un-
derstand, been disproved; and it has been
shown that, allowing for the growth of the
population, the number of offenses against
the laws has really been steadily diminishing.
Had this not been the case the Italian Minis
ter of Justice would not in 1866 have approved
of the abolition of the death penalty, nor the
popular Chamber of Parliament in 1866 have
voted for it.
Such is the progress of this reform in a
country which, though badly besetby brigands,
and now and then by her politicians, claims to
have been its nursery. Yet we, with our
countless educational institutions, still deem
the scaffold necessary, when the Italians, with
comparatively few schools and legions of ig-
norant citizens, think they can afford to do
away within it. Had the countrymen of Bee
caria possessed our widespread intelligence,
who will say that, with the example of Tus-
cany before them their Senate would have re-
fused to add its vote to that of the Lower
Chamber in favor of abolition? In country
where ignorance, poverty, and brigandage go
to cheaper life, the death penalty has proved
sterile. Are we to suppose that it can only
thrive here, where there is SO much to make
life dearer, and so much to teach us the vir-
tue of public forbearance? We think not;
and every tragic deed done on the gallows,
every human life sacrificed as q warming to
others, only confirm our belief. To grossly
ignorant people, an example of public mercy
and self-restraint should be the most legible
of lessons; an intelligent one ought to have
learned the lesson by heart.
THE GALLONS AS A GATE TO HEAVEN.
From the N. Y. Sun.
A few days ago murderer named John w.
Moore was hanged at Greenville, Bond county,
Ill. His victim was young woman, eighteen
years of age, and only year married. Moore
had attempted to outrage her in her own
house, had pursued her as she fled towards
her sisters, and stabbed her to DEATH He
was himself married, and had one child. On
the morning of the day of his execution, he
wrote as follows in letter to his wife,
CATER BREAKFAsT.-I have been out and eaten
little breakfast have dressed myself ready to de-
part. / feel calm, and my trust is in God. There
have been several in to see me this morning. that
was somewhat annoyed; but my soul is calm in
shall soon appear; but feel that am going to meet
reconciled Father instead of an angry God. Fare
wen, uear Iannan; lareWell, my uear cnnd. On!
meet me in heaven. l am going soon. l shall be
safely landed over on the golden shore. May the
Lord bless you, and save you for His names
sake. Good-by."
This would-be adulterer, and violator, and
murderer here talks of his calmness of soul in
the very sight of death, and asserts his conf
dence of going straight to heaven, as thou
sands have done under like circumstances.
Not only in their own estimation, but in that
of others, their crimes have been expiated
and their evil natures transformed by the
piety of their last few mortal hours, and the
gallows has been to them the gate of eternal
bliss. Is this well-grounded belief, or
mere delusion of the imagination?
According to the opinion of many intelli-
gent people, the happiness of heaven is the
result, not of admission into heavenly place,
but of the acquisition in the soul of heav-
enly state. They hold that man must have
heaven Within rs we'll as around him, in order
to taste its delights; and that no matter what
may be his superficial condition of mind, if he
dies with heart occupied by selfish, cruel,
and devilish passions, the abodes of the
blessed will be as uninhabtable by him as the
air by fish, or the depths of the ocean by a
land animal. This is the doctrine of Sweden
borg and of his follower Emerson Others 90
further, and assert that all men are naturally
disqualified for heaven, and can never enter
it except by radical change of character and
conduct. The change, they also say, must be
at least commenced during this life, and that
too, sincerely and voluntarily. No mere i'm
preston of the mind, arising from temporary
excitement will effect it, nor yet will avail i
if it be caused by the fear of some impending
calamity. There must, according to this clas