The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-02-16
From the Chicago Tribune

A more unseemly exhibition of the
profane treatment of sacred subjects
has rarely been afforded than in the
case of the murderer Bolts, who recent
ly expiated his crime upon the gallows,
and who has been canonized since his
death by various Eastern journals. Ac-
cording to these papers, this miserable
man died in the full odor Of sanctity.
The last moments of his life were
crowned with beatific visions, among
them one of Heaven, which appeared
to him as gorgeously-illuminated
theatre, filed with beautiful women,
clad in bright garments, one of whom
took him by the hand and led him into
Paradise. If we are to believe all that
is said of Bolts, he is full-fedged
saint, purged of all earthly dross. He
had reached that degree of perfection
which is usually considered to be the
result of heavenly influences which only
operate beyond our earthly life. He
had attained, at a single step, a pitch of
godliness which cannot fail to be dis
couraging to unhanged beings, who
have to bear innumerable crosses in
their daily lives, and leave this world
with only a hope born of urweared
effort in well-doing, and patient endur-
ance of sore tribulations. If the muir
derer died with the assurance that he
was going straight to Heaven, after the
manner of the impenitent thief, no one
would certainly be cruel enough to dis.
pute him; but we at least may claim
that this canonization shall be mainly
of his own making, and stop there; that
the pious men who accomplished this
remarkable miracle shall not trumpet it
abroad; and that the daily press shall
not hold out inducements for other men
to earn hanging as means of grace.
Bolts was anotorious debauchee through
his whole life, and in the course Of his
amours killed man whom he suspect.
ed of intimacy with his mistress. Had
he died a natural death. in the midst Of
his prohigate career, we should have
heard nothing of this instantaneous
change from badness to goodness. He
would have departed this life without
any other visions than those which the
remorse Of life Of sin usually paints
before a dying mans eyes. If, there.
fore, a person who commits no crime,
but leads life at peace with himself,
his neighbors, and his God, dies with
out any other heavenly certainty than
that which grows out Of hope if man
who has committed crime every day of
his worthless life dies natural death
without any hope of Heaven, we protest
that the criminal who dies an unnatural
death shall not advertise the gallows as
a stepping.ston into heaven. Perfect
ndulgence of every passion while liv-
ing, the enjoyment of heavenly bless
ings after death, with the additional
comforting assurance Of a splendid
funeral are more than enough to satisfy
the most fastidious of sinners, and offer
a special inducement to every cut-throat
and tibet who is satiated with his pleas
ures to take his pistol or knife, and,
with their help, set off on his departure
to the regions of the blest.
We are not protesting against these
sudden conversions of notorious crimi-
nails while on their way to the gallows
as facts. We do insist that the minis.
tiers of religion shall not invest crime
with any Fictitious glamor, or with Dor.
rowed hues of sentiment, but that they
shall picture it in all its atrocious de-
| formity. 1t is not one of the triumphs
of religion to prove that crime is the
path to Heaven, and that the man who
| dies with the blood of his fellow-man
still red upon his hands goes to his re.
ward with the same certainty as the
martyr who dies al the stake for the
cause of Gods truth or the good man
who has lived up to his convictions of
what is right to the best of his ability.
If we believed in such an apotheosis of
crime, we should certainly urge more
general application of the efficacy of
the gallows to the punishment of other
crimes. 1t is sadly enough needed. We
have great faith in the gallows as pre-
ventive of crime, but not as a religious
persuader.