The Portland daily press., 1869-02-01
Has Any Person q Blight to Commit Sui


gan ROVER is inherent in the people,"
Maine Declaration ofrights.
MR. Ep1ToR,-In order to correct UNDER
standing ofthe nature and extent of the legiti-
mate powers of government, clear perception
of the source from which those powers are de.
rived, seems indispensable. AS governments
can rightfully exercise only such powers as are
delegated to them by the people, the first point
TO be settled, must be the nature and the ex-
tent of the "powers inherent in the people," in
their individual capacity. As the stream can
not rise higher than its fountain, presume it
will not be claimed that the people can confer
rights or powers they do not possess.
With a view to eliciting light upon single
point, of vast Importance, 1 have propounded
the question at the head of this article. If the
individual has the right to take his own life,
admit he may delegate to the government the
right to take it, in the event of certain specih-
ed contingencies But assuming that every
person of sane mind will disclaim the right to
murder himself, ask whence government of
delegated powers acquires the right to take the
life of any of its subjects?
I know that the natural right to life, inher-
ent in the individual, implies the right to de-
rend that life, even by striking down the assail-
liant, in the absence of any other defence.
Granted, for arguments sake, and that that
right is delegated to the government. But
that is not the question at issue. Suppose a
case in point. The assassin enters your dwell
ing, strikes down your child, then aims the
deadly weapon at yourself; you ward off that
blow and arrest and bind him securely. Have
you ithen right to kill him for what he has
done? Ii so, it is competent no doubt, for you
for the people" if they see fit, to authorize
and require the government to exercise that
power subject to the same limitation. But
who, except regulators of all law and order
will claim the right to kill his victim when Sc
curely confined, whatever may be his crime?
Again the question recurs, whence does the
government derive its right to take the life of
prisoner completely in its power?
Will your correspondent "T' or some other
advocate of the bloody code, please answer?
| But there are those. who ignoring the exis-
tence of certain immutable principles as the
| basic element of all institutions and laws, hu-
| man well as divine, put this que ston wholly
| upon the ground of expediency and necessity !;
claiming that individuals and governments
have an undoubted right to do whatever they
may deem necessary for their protection and
in the cheapest possible way; as though it was
as easy to create powers as to enact statutes
to originate truths as to construct creeds
To all such I would respectfully submit re-
quest, in the name of justice and humanity, that
they will listen to the voice of blood as it comes
wailing down the centuries from the infancy of
the race, not from the innocent victims of law
merely, but from the millions of earth's chill
dren who have looked in vain to this bloody
expedent for protection.
Then tell us, in view of the historical fact,
that when and wherever sanguinary laws have
been most vigorously executed, there has been
| the least protection of life and property, how
| many more oceans of human blood must drench
the EARTH before that promised state of secur-
ty can be realized? Perhaps that large body
| of churches to which "T' refers, as almost
Unanimous in favor of capital punishment,
can shed some light on the subject, as they
claim to be posted on the future destiny of the
race. EFF
Portland Jan ~ 1850