Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-02-17
THE RUTLAND HERALD.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY II, 1870.
The Criminal Period.

We do not suppose that the average OF
humanity is any worse to-day than it has
been in by-gone times; yet the readers Of
the daily papers must just now be inn
pressed with the fact that this is in some
respects peculiarly criminal period.
Daily we have reports of murders and
suicides, committed by parties in various
stations in life, and for various assigned
causes, that are shocking in their circum-
stances, as they are terrible in the mere
fact that they are murders and suicides.
For each particular case, of course, there
is an explanation; jealousy, disappoint.
ment, shame, revenge and insanity are all
charged with the responsibility for these
horrors. Yet, for the fact that so many
of these events are occurring simultane-
ously, may not some cause be assigned ?
Is there not growing disregard for the
sanctity of life and for the restraints of
law, to which a portion at least of this
outburst of crime may be attributed
Has not the method of dealing with
criminals of certain class, which has
been coming into vogue, something to do
with this startling increase and frequency
of occurrences of bloodshed and violence
Have not our courts and juries, by dis
pensing with, rather than dispens sing JUS
tice, done much to provoke the commits
sion of crimes, by those who presume
upon the certainty of escaping with i'm
punity? For murders committed under
certain circumstances, it seems to have
come to be understood that there can be
no legal conviction secured, nor any pun
ishment inflicted. There have been many
cases of deliberate murder within the last
few years, where the only public sympa-
thy manifested was in behalf of the muir
derer instead of his victim, and juries fol-
lowing in the wake of public sentiment,
have acquitted the criminals in spite OF
the most conclusive testimony as to their
guilt, and in defiance of the most posi-
tive provisions of law. For instance,
Miss Harris, with the utmost deliberation
of purpose, shot dead the man whom she
accused of having deceived her, and a
Washington jury declared her innocent
amid the applause of the public; Gen.
Cole, with equal deliberation, and with
out giving his victim any warning or a
chance to defend himself by word or act,
killed Mr.. Hiscox in the public hall of a
hotel, in the presence of many witnesses,
because he believed he had debauched his
wife, and an Albany jury acquitted Cole
without any hesitation and later young
woman, who deliberately murdered a
man who had promised, as she says, to
marry her, and then failed TO keep his
promise, has so much of the public SYM
pathy on her side, at Wheeling, Va,
where the murder took place, that we are
told that she could readily have furnished
bail to the amount of million of dollars,
if bail could have been accepted.
1t seems to be settled, at least as far as
presidents can settle it, that any man or
woman may kill any other man or woman,
with complete IMMUNITY, provided that
the killing is done in revenge for a wrong
done or supposed to be done to ones
martial rights, or is prompted by jeal-
ousy, or outraged feeling in reference to
those domestic and social relations which
ought to be held sacred. Certain it is
that no one has recently been convicted
or punished, for committing murder from
such motives or under such circumstances
as those we have just indicated. If it
suits the community generally to es-
tablish this as their law, which is to
govern such cases, we suppose there can
be no appeal, for, as experience has already
shown, written laws are nugatory in the
face of ruling public sentiment against
their enforcement. But no one should
wonder that under such state of affairs
murders should increase in frequency. II
one-tenth of the men and women who
have cause for jealousy should choose to
take the work of vengeance into their own
hands, there would not be hemp enough
in the country to make the ropes to hang
all the murderers. So long as courts and
juries set law and testimony at defiance,
and public sentiments sustains them in
so doing, so long may we look for the
criminal period to continue.
What this state of affairs finds to &C.
complish of the increase of crime, the
practice of the lawyers in criminal cases
supplies. No sooner is man or woman
in danger of being tried and convicted
and hanged for murder than ell the efforts
of the legal profession are directed to the
securing of the utmost possible delay in
the administration of justice. Every pos
sible effort is made to prevent speedy
trial, and usually the skill of lawyer
avails, to put so long period between the
arrest and the trial, that the chances of
conviction are greatly diminished. If a
conviction is secured, then comes count
less motions for new trial, exceptions to
rulings, and finally appeals to executive
clemency if that becomes necessary. AS
these things are usually managed, a man
who commits murder may very safely
count upon very long, complicated and
decidedly interesting chase after chance
of being hanged, with the probabilities
strongly against his ever being able to
reach it. The laws delay in such cases
does as much to embolden criminals and
increase the frequency of capital crimes,
AZ any other influence or agency. We
shall have fewer murders when oonyic-
ton follows arrest and punishment fol-
al Al
which ought to characterize the adminis-
tration of justice in all such cases.
THE BYRON CoNTRovERsY.--Itw would
seem that the dissgreeable discussion
opened by Mrs. Stowe ought to be consid-
cred now as closed. The London Quar-
terly Re0teao contains an examination of
that lady's "vindication,' in which con-
siderable new matter is brought forth.