The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-12
The philadelphia Re.ributlon.

Governor GeAry has shown himself t
be u man of iron resolution. EXtraor'
binary efforts were made to relieve
Twitchell and Eaton from the de0lL
penalty by operating on the Governor
aud Legislature. The Philadelphia
Ledger says that"the influences brought
to bear were Of the most powerful kind
and the Legislature was SO far over.
come us TO rush through both Houses
in a single day an act obliterating the
mode OF punishment for murder in the
first degree AS it has stood since the
foundation OF the Commonwealth. The
same powerful influences were then
brought TO bear upon the Governor to
induce him to sign the bill and make 1t
operative on Eaton's case, and failing
that, to get him reprieved on other
The subject can fully understand the
tremendous pressure brought to bear
Oh the Executive to gain these ends"
Yet the Governor sustained by his At
lOrney General withstood II all. AS
soon as the bill which had been rushed
him to commute the death penalty TO
imprisonment for life, was presented to
him, he vetoed 1t.
Wherefore the Ledger concludes that
III Pennsylvania at least "all may now
500 that a time WHE sometimes come
about, when those habituated 10 the
breaking OF the law, and who have
learned contempt for it's penalties, must
pay dearly for their transgressions."
Nevertheless, there is another side to
all this. Away from the scene of these
tragedies. where peoples feelings have
not been SO excited as TO warp their
cooler Judgment, and perhaps with
many oven on the spot, the moral effect
OF this enforcement OF the death penalty
must he very much weakened by the
fact that both men died protesting their
innocence. 1t is true tho evidence was
very strOng-in Twltchell's case as
strong apparently as ciICumstantiAl
evidence can be-but in Enton's case at
least, his demeanor and his dying pro-
teStations canot fail to inspire doubt as
to the justice of his fate.
The Tribune thus severely comments
on this hOrrld business:
The advocates of public strnnGulatiOn,
as the best means OF preserving public
respect for the sanctity of human life,
must be sadly disappointed at the half
allowance with which the ministers of
the gallows In Philadelphia were yes
terday compelled to be content. One
criminal, convicted of murder on evil
dence hardly conclusive, affirmed his
innocence in his dying moments, and
bore himself upon the scaffold with the
forritude OF Il man who has no reason TO
fear death. Another, after likewise SOL
EMMY declaring his innocence of the
murder of which he was convicted,
under circumstances which at the least
must be said to shake our faith in the
absolute certainty of his guilt, flew in
the face OF those who had prepared this
moral spectacle for the Philadelphians,
and, taking poison in his cell, during
the night. committed a murder then, ii
he had not before, and cheated the gal
lows OF Its second victim. The CHASTITY
picture OF the days doings would not
be complete without the glimpse of the
after piece which the careful reporters
furnish. University Professors are seen
manipulating the scarcely cold body
cut from the Rallows, and the stilled
heart spasmodically resumes its pulsa-
lions, and the arms begin a convulsive
motion. Such Is the flower OF the Ijuris-
prudence and humanity OF our time!