New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-03-08
THE OUNCE OF PREVENTION.

Some sciolist, who probably had not be-
slowed upon the matter an adequate attention,
once said that to hang man was " the worst
ching we could do with him. Now, the regi-
men of the rope is an utterly absurd one, and
a violation Of every principle of economy, UNI
less it is based upon the axiom that, under GER
tain circumstances, to hang q man is " the
" best thing we can do with him." Describing
all irreigious motives of revenge, the capital
penalty, at least in cases of killing is enforced
upon tho assumption that one life may be def
nitely taken for tho purpose of saving other
lives which are indefinitely endangered. IL Is
n logical sequtr that Society is by no means
under any moral obligation to wait for an
overt consummation of the crime, but Is ut
equal liberty to deal with the propensity, and,
indeed, upon production of sufficient evidence,
Is called upon by its own theory, as well as by
ordinary motives Of humanity, to forestall the
deadly deed, and to strangle the slayer IN posse
before he becomes q slayer IN esSe. In this
way, the innocent life will be saved and the
dangerous life extinguished; and although it
may be argued that it would be impossible to
decide in such cases with a certainty worthy
of the importance of the act, yet this objec-
ton, it seems to us, is fully met by the fact
that there is risk III all judicial
decisions and that, even now, cases are
numerous III which persons executed are
subsequently found to have been innocent.
However wisely we may plan, we cannot
escape the infrmity of human judgment
Whenever, to use the very phrase of the law,
there Is reasonable cause to believe man
guilty of murder we hang him without any
uualms occasioned by our sense of our own
fallbity. Ergo, whenever there is =" reasona-
" ble cause to believe that man may COM
NIT murder il suffered himself to live, the
argument for hanging before preparation is
by so much the stronger, as q living man Il
more valuable than q cadavor. SO far as the
individual most injured is concerned, the pro-
lection which the law now affords is merely q
=. ~oliery for it is literally locking the door of
fine stable after We larceny of the steed. Every
Indictment for homicide Is an admission that
the mofirc is more culpable than the act itself.
There never was trial for murder in which
tho jury were not Instructed to look into tho
dnimus and slight testimony is ofien held by
the Court to be sufficient to establish malice.
Must we wait until the murderer has accom-
plishcd his purpose before We punish the
day, without thought of hanging them, for
assault with intent to kill. For thus furnishing
an inchoate but uncompleted crime we hayo
the authority of Scripture, which declares that
n man who has looked upon n woman to lust
after her has already committed adultery.
Upon the same ground, the wretch who cher
ishes homicdal propensties has already pcrpe-
trated homicide Why should he not be
found guilty, prayed over, and then duly
executed
A correspondent, who has written to us from
PENNSYLVANIA sends us some questions which
are more easily asked than answered He
wishes to know why idiots and lunatics, who
may at any time commit murder, should not
be killed themselves pro bono pubIiCo, the fact
of their dangerous character having been estab-
lished, upon sufficient evidence, by jury.
Society, according to its present system, hangs
A, who has killed b, in order that $50 far, per-
fectly innocent Of the deed, but with destruc
tive instincts) may not kill d. The main in
terest, the reader will observe, centcrs in ID.
We are more anxious about ID, who is living,
and who may live fifty years, than about b,
who is already dead and buried. The unknown,
and perhaps unborn being whom we desig-
nate as ID, must, at all events, DO protected
from the violence of c, who is also unknown,
and perhaps unborn; and, therefore, lest tho
abstract d may be slain, we hang the concrete
A, not because he has killed b, but as an ex-
ample to the possible C. This is. perhaps, tho
most wonderful example Of prudent foresight
TO be- discovered in social affairs. The UNI
reasonable objection of A to being hung to
save C from being hung and ID from being
killed, can only be met by al unfnching ap-
plcation of the rule which we have adopted.
At any risk and Mt any cost ID must be saved
But what if this invisible and mysterious
proteg6 Of Society, who may still DO in tho