The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-01-27

1t is not dlfhcult 10 forecast the Judgment
of the future upon this question. We read of
the New England Tragedies, and thank
Heaven we are beyond all that! Our eyes
have at last been opened to the curse and
crime of Slavery, and by terrible effort its
presence has been swept away. Long before
another century shall have rolled its round,
wiser generation will regard our criminal ex-
ecutions as the darkest remnant, save one, of
medieval barbarism suffered at this date to
linger.
The grim old fable of the shipwrecked sal
lor who, on falling in with gallows, thanked
God he was in Christian country, ought of
itself to have shamed all Chrstendom into
the extirpation oil such accursed trees. The
difficulty is that society is partly based upon
an organization OF errors, which, as it grows
in perception, it tries to palliate with surface
reform. l need not go over the application
of this method to the Death-Penalty, nor
again detail the hundred offences for which
the latter was inflicted under the Draconian
Code of our great-grandfathers nor exhibit
the progress made from the wheel and stake
of the sixteenth century to the more merci-
full gallows and guillotine of our own. For
Capital Punishment still rests upon the old
idea of terrifying men from the commission
of crime. The Marquis of Beccaria knew
better than that, five generations ago. II you
wish to terrlfy offenders, make death as mer-
ciless as you can; seek out torture causing
rather than torture-saving inventions. But
in every period, the more barbarous the pun
ishments the more violent the crimes Ju-
rists agree that the object of punish
ment is, solely, the prevention of Offences
The fallacy of cruel punishment has inseusi-
bly, discovered itself to the minds of people,
until our measure of each nations civiliza-
ton is almost correlative with its reformatory
treatment of its convicts. 1t only remains to
get fairly out of mind the idea of frightening
men from crime. "We have reformed that
indifferently with u.s." But so, reform it al
toeetherw
Our foremost plea is the baneful and de-
mOraizing effect upon society of the means
| resorted to tor its protection, We would put
an end to Capital Punishment, for the sake
Of the la,o-abiding classes; just as the aboIi-
| ton of Slavery was wisely urged for the ben
| eft of the aohite man. Death may be a mur-
| derer's desert, but for the sake of the COM
munty let us reconsider this usage OF int1ict-
| ing it. Whether ''the worst use you can put
| a man to" is, or is not, "to hang him." the
| worst use to which Society can put itself is
| the Office of the executioner.
After some brief reference to the moral
responsiveness of the gallows, the writer thus
| proceeds to call attention to the inconceiva-
BILE physical agonies of men who are hanged
by the neck till they are dead, and the Lord
has mercy on their souls:
| The theory of hanging is, that the neck of
| the culprit should be broken; and it is stated
by competent surgical authority that, il this
be done successfully, the second cervical ver-
zebra is dislocated, its odontcid process rup-
| turing the transverse ligan ent of the atlas
| (the first bone OF the neck which sustains the
| globe of the head) and COMPRISING the spi-
| nal cord against the posterior of the vertebra
The cord is here just expanding into the me-
dulla oblongata, where is situated the gang
| lion that presides over respiration. Its COM
| preston stops respiration at once by stopping
all desire for it; and death in such case
would be immediate and probably painless.
But in hanging, as practiced, the second
vertebra often is only partially dislocated, or
not affected at all, and death takes place either
from slow and painful suffocation,- vic
tim getting just air enough through the half
closed windpipe to prolong his struggles,-or
from apoplexy following the sudden cerebral
congestion which is caused both by the suf
location and by the pressure of the rope upon
the great veins of the neck.
| do not hesitate to assert from the facts in
my possession, that in at least sirty per cent
of reported cases, in spite of every precaution
the neck has not been brokers' The suffer-
ers have slowly and in torment choked to
death, frequently with such hard breathing,
groans, and contortions, as to drive the wit
nesses from the dreadful scene. l will only
quote from reports of one or two representa-
tive cases, but will name few others, oil
which the details are too narrowing for pub
| lication here.
James Stephens, convicted, on circumstan-
tial evidence, OF wife-poisoning land still be-
/ liQvp1 nv niS Snirifnal AL 1usarS tn hoya
innocent), was hanged in New York, Feb. 3,
1850. Most careful preparations were made
| by the sheriff, but the hangman bundered
and Stephens was subjected to great suffering.
For many minutes his hard breathing was
frightful to listen to.-On the 18th of JAN
uary, 1866, Marschall and Frecke were hang
ed at Pittsburgh, Pa. Freckes neck was not
broken, and he "died horribly of strangula-
tiOn. His struggles were terrible and long
continued"
One week afterwards, Mrs. Martha Grind
er, the confessed poisoness, was executed up
on the same gallows, tor the murder OF her
last victim,-Mrs. Caruthers. She also suf-
iered terrible and prolonged agonies. An un-
| usual incident of the death-scene is reported
by several witnesses: "The rope slipped her
cap partially from her face, and, while hang
ing at the halter's end, by a mighty effort she
put up one of her hands sufficiently to dra,c
it dO,on again ouer her distorted features
thus saws the inductiye reporter. "in death
asserting the native modesty of woman, She
struggled fearfully, and t,oelre minutes eIapsed
before her death.
The question whether sensation, reflection
and mental horror accompany the pbysica
contortions of those perishing by straneula
ton, is fairly settled by such fact as this
and by the conduct OF many who have com
mitted suicide. Examples are common ol
unfortunates who have fastened a moose
around the neck and kicked away the sup
port beneath their feet, but who, finding the
tortures of strangulation greater than they
had conceived, have repented, and male des
rerate efforts to regain their footing.
Alexander B. Wiley, hanged at Wilkes
barre, Pa, March 21st, 1861; Hiram Coon
hanged on the following day, at Troy. N. Y;
jeremiah o Brown, hanged at ,The Tombs, ,
Aug, 9th, 1867; and Sylvester Quiller, hanged
AZ EnZaoetn, ~. -, on tne ensuing ssoianged iaoo
November all lied in great and prolonSeu
agony, of strangulation. The reports OF the
Iest ooso ,ro osnoo;,IIy no;onaut
iao' o"Se "io e'Peeiahy Po's 20 -,