The New York herald., 1871-02-05
What Is crimes

by moral and social law, which causes an injury
upon others; punishment Is the moral or physical
suffering inflicted on the criminal In expiation and
reparaten OF the wrong committed Thus crime is
sort OF moral disease, OF which Punishment is the
remedy The efficacy OF the remedy may be termed
q question o. social therapeutics, question OF the
fitness and measure OF the dose. Punishment /
directed the crime but TO the criminal and II
Is clear therefore that VIII not be able to gusran
tee the public security and re-estabsh social ar
mony disturbed by the infracion, except by estab-
lisning moral harmony In the soul OF the criminal
by erecting regeneration. After having weighed
the offence the Judge weighs The man, and in
accordance with the combined weight OF these two
material elements OF Judgment he determines the
degree of punishment. The offence may be easy TO
measure; II is fact. But the guilt, the perversity
The incorrgioity OF the agent. the social alarm that
results In their extent and gravity difficult to
tabllsh. The separation OF crime from the person
OF the criminal would cause the Of the rule and
light Of repression; 1t would become materialized.
beng inflicted rather upon the fact than upon the
agent 1t has occurred In some lnstanceS-though
rarely since the renodelltng OF legal and criminal
institutlons-that citizen on first charge, until
then vlrtuous, and man profoundly depraved have
been confoundei in a blind estimation and SUBJ
jected TO an unjust equality OF punishment when
the DEGREES OF justice have not borne that seal OF
uisulDulNc equity Una. hlueW Ol suIUcteuCy ana
efficacy which must characterize an administrator
OF justice ut once firm, liberal and enlightened.
But OF al offences most revolving and repelling
the crime OF murder stands foremost. To IL is
attached an everlasting stigma. Most men turn
from 1t with horror ana disgust The mere thought
OF deprving another fellow creature OF life, no
matter what the means, whether the poniard, the
pistol, the budgeon causes the blood TO chill in
the veins Of all right-minded men. Yet murderers
have ever existed, and murders the most foul have
been committed, far back as records OF the
worlds transactions can be traced The bitter
penalty to be paid for this violation OF q divine law
has also been In existence from the remotest an
uQu1ty
CAIN, THE FIRST MURDERER
ever mentioned, was made painfully aware OF the
intensity OF the crime he had committed In giving
way TO the evl passion which caused him, through
jealousy and envy, TO raise the murderous club ana
strike his brother dead upon the green sward where
only few moments previously they had stood in
social converse. After the bitter pangs or remorse
haa passed-necessariy following such an action in
the human breast-he ailicted IN a still greater
degree by the penalty inflicted: the sentence OF that
Judge to whom Abel's blood had cried from the
ground, which decreed that "a fugitive and vaga-
bond shalt thou be the earth" Thus did the first
murderer fare; and as he went about from place to
place, detected and forlorn, made fully cognizant OF
the Nervousness OF his crime, II was necessary to
have "a mark set upon himn lest any finding him
should Kill him, inferr1ng that the horror
OF murder was realized among the nations or
the earth long before the inscribed marble
tables were handed down from Sinai. Even that
pattern Of humility, Moses, VINO was trained under
the most favorable auspices, having every advan-
tage that could be obtained In the palace OF the
Egyptian monarch-whose protege he was-dyed
his hands In human blood and may Tuthfully be
styled an assassin There is Jewish mythology
which states that afterwards when he looked upon
the indeilbe inscription on the table OF command
ments, she remembered the murder he had CON-
mitted and wept bitterly" To him, however-aud
1t seems almost paradoxical-was entrusted the
delivering TO the people, TO the world, those laws
which not only definitely forbade murder, but which
also contained IN detailed form The punishment or
penalty to be indscriminately exacted in every
case. "At the hand OF every mans brother will
require the life OF man," said the great lawgiver,
anu from that sentence there could be no appeal
THE DEATH PENALTY
was to be rgiily carried into execution, and for
ages afterwards the world was bound by this law.
Every coid-blooded murderer placed within the
reacn Of the administrators OF justice explatcd the
crime OF murder with his life. But, though it was
acknowledged TO be just requsition, and recog-
nized among men os great measure for deterrlng
crime yet it did not eecsually prevent the perpe-
traton Of this odious practice even among the most
enlightened. When Joab took three darts In hts
hand and pierced Absllom through the heart, while
the latter was hanging heplessy by the hair OF his
head from the boughs OF the oak, he knew 1t was
murder-a cowaraiy, cold-booded assassination,
emanang in the petty political Jealousies concomi-
tant upon their respective positions As is well
known Joab was subsequently murdered In turn,
partly for this alleged act OF cruelty, when ne was
fha t,a nt
Murder continued even among this favored race un-
tll the day when the last vestige Of their mon
erchlcal institutions had been crushed ont by
foreign Invaders. And moreover, when The Roman
coneueror stood without the gates Of their Deseged
capital, Offering them generous terms Of surrender,
In order to prevent any further carnage than what
mad alreadS been committed, two conflicting parties
In the city OF Jerusalem met in the Tempe and
murdered ana tortured each other upon the very
spot on winch the great solomon had stood when
Qedicaung The building 10 its great and noble pur
pose and where tie recital OF the law they then vo-
lated had SO often been listened TO.
>. This done In defiance oil the officers OF Justice
and the institutions the suppression OF crime all
.of which had been maintained al great cost to The
MURDERS IN GREECE
But if assassination was rife among the Jews IL
was equally In the midst OF those philosophical
fathers Of the human race 10 whom IL mas been said
tine world Is chiefly indebted for its sublime teach
ings in literature, In science aud art In the cutya-
ton OF the eye the hand and the mind and in those
noble aud eievatiny qualities which characterize
men OF the present DAY. All that was lofty and
comprehensive they presumed TO teacn; human
WAS 10 DC so ruDtueu the PASSIONS
under tins state OF subJuaation were 80 be made
the means OF perlecung the man and rendering
him capabe OF witnstanding temptation any
position OF nfe They conceived they had the fore
most place IN the providental ORDER OF the world.
Eut there were, nevertheless, murderers among
them There was not pubic exhibition at Athens
where during the time heir rhetorical sages We're
instructng them from the sacred iorum-of Greek
excellence and superiority. OF the necessity OF
maintaining that position by strict observance Of
the laws and by giving their adhesion to lhe GOV,
ernments OF the country-but that some hand you'd
clutch the assassn's knife and plunge y INTO ne
heart OF = fellow creature. In vain Escby ylus, Sopno.
SIes. Euripldes Arlsiophanes, Plato and others
sought 70 Instruct them from toe national materiai
from the legends and traditions OF 'ne ny'hic1i h
ages the fates and fortunes OF the great Dhi-
historical families before the Trojan war; the
lal OF Nlletus; Qf the wisdom OF ~ NE o.rss re-
corded In the condensed sayings o. the early
sages the general truths OF inoraiity anu
religion; OF personal accountapiliiy, anu ora =
Judgment TO come lmo0ihed by individual eAieIi,
ence and belief and by pecullarites OF hdivduai