New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-16

that, notwithstanding the lachrymose sen
timentality of those who advocate tn
abrogation of the death penalty on &C
count of its shockingness, they are Away
among the most eager to witness its in
fiction; and it is hardly uncharitable tt
believe that had counsels of folly ant
clemency prevailed at the last moment
these merciful sight-seers would not have
been among the least disappointed.
We advocate the full and unvarying
enforcement of the laws that punish
crime in order that crime may be checked.
The morbid or the affected sensibility
that advocates the abolition of a peculiar
punishment because such punishment is
shocking to the senses or to the imagina-
ton, is not worthy of attention, and for
the very reason that the shocking and the
terrible are an inseparable element in the
very nature of punishment. "There ere
no ugly loves nor handsome gibbets, 8"
says the Italian proverb; and common
sense points out that the more penalty is
dreaded on account of its hideousness the
more likely is it to be avoided There is,
too, this Ineligible reason that strictly
pertains to the case-that the penalty of
crime can always be avoided by stunning
to commit the crime. Let the assassin
and the murderer, who condemns the
death punishment by the beam and cord,
cease to indulge in the taking of life, and
the penalty of the gallows will never ap-
proach him.
While we discard as utterly beneath
consideration the plea raised by morbid
sensibility, it may be reasonable, however,
to notice another objection that formerly
and to some extent still receives,
the attention of large class. We mean
the objection that the death penalty is
at any rate in this country,
for the prevention of capital crime. We
answer that the matter has never been
fairly tried. To make a penalty effica-
,ious for the purpose intended, it must
be certain and unvarying. The SLAYER of
MS fellow-man must not be led to infer
hat there are at least four to one chances
N favor of impunity, because not more
han one IN five convicted and sentenced
nurderers meets the just punishment of
his offense
We think there are means of proving
hat if condign punishment invariably
overlook the committer of murder, that
t would not be long before murders
would either cease altogether, or occur
Tery seldom inded.
There are two classes in our midst
whereby this can be proved-privates in
he regular army and the inmates of our
PRISONS.
We all know what class of men gener-
lily composes the regular army. The
issipated, the ''ne'er-do-weel. -" the I'm
rake-helly. When these men
re once enrolled in the ranks, they are
ubject to rigid discipline, the slightest
of whichsis inrariaJly punished.
here is no such thing as giving them a
act with an exhortation to mediate and
eform, but punishment, severe and GER
I'm, follows the least disorderly con
act. And it is the certainty above all
lat makes otfenses in the ranks few and
r between. The same can be found in
ny prlson-our own Parish Prison for
stance. All the inmates of this punt
We Institution are incarcerated for some
'ecles OF crime, light or heavy, and most
them wage systematic warfare against
ciety. Yet in no scholastic or monastic
tablishment can be found an assembly
men so quiet and so rigidly decorous
these very violators of law. In recent
sits to the Parish Prison we were in
rmed by the officials in charge that an
casion for punishment hardly occurred
ice in three months; and this, it must
remembered in body, many of whose
embers are professional law break
5. Ihls is, OF course, the consequence
invariable certainty Of punishment t
is futile to calculate chances: there are
me. Nothing is more sure than the
certalned consequence Of offense-pun- !
lment for every fault without exception
Let the law which condemns the muir
r be put invariably in force, without s
lr or favor. Let it be well understood '
at whenever a murder is committed. t
lether by rich or poor, by the influential ]
'rchant, lawyer or doctor, or by tne l
endless market rat, the penalty of {
; law will unfailingly follow 1t will l
t be long before murder and violence {
Il be an exception instead of rule. I
HON y DUPpTT 4