Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-01-11
ASSASSINATION.

inquiry as to the cause. To-day Criten-
den is murdered in California or a Fisk in
New York, while over the South and West
assassination and lynch law prevail in
large communities. The sacredness of
life is measurably obliterated. 1t is in
peril every day from private malice or re-
venge. Victims are falling all about us.
No man is safe. There is none without
an enemy, who, under the existing state
of things, may become an executioner
For this bad condition of society there
is no doubt that the community itself is
mainly, if not entirely, responsible. Slow
ly but surely the safeguards of human life
against violence and murder have been
cast down by public sentiment. Private
Judgment has been allowed to establish it.
self as superior to the decisions of the
courts The knife of the assassin has been
approved and justified in its bloody work.
1t makes no difference as to the final re-
suit upon public sentiment whether the
victim be a Fisk, foul with corruption, or
II better man. The effect of palliating
murder. of allowing the perpetrator to es-
cape the penalty of his crime, because he
was frenzied by revenge or passion, and
his victim villain. lowers the tone of
public morals, and prepares the way for
the reign of the pistol and dagger. The
public sentiment at last controls the court
Ind han vi
lenient to crime when the popular voice
applauds rather than condemns. New
York courts permitted Mcfarland, with
the blood of Richardson upon his hands
to 60 free, and now they are called to
pass upon Stokes for the assassination of
Fisk. The principal works itself out npon
high and low. To-day it may sacrifice a
Lincoln and tomorrow Fisk
Worse if possible than the allowing of
assassins to escape the penalty Of their
deeds is the demand for lynch law Or mob
law to execute revenge upon them. If a
community will rise up in disregard of the
law, and claim and exercise the right in
an hour of excitement to take the life of
murderer in revenge for his crime, why
should such community deny Stokes the
right to execute vengence upon the man
who had injured him? Revenge is the
motive in both cases. ale has murdered"
cry the the lynchers. land deserves to be
hung, therefore hang him up to the nearest
tree, beam, or lamp post! "He has
robbed me of my money, reputation or
wife," says the assassin, land shot him
dead because he deserved it, The justi-
fication which the advocate of lynch law
claims is the very plea that the murderer
of Richardson was released upon and
which will be used TO prevent the hanging
of Stokes. One declares that the deed of
Stokes was right, and another demands
his instant hanging without trial. Both
are wrong. Both act from revenge. Both
elevate this ignoble principle above the
sanctity of human life, trample upon the
wisest means yet found and adopted in
all civilized nations for the protection of
life, and descend in their practice to the
level of savages. Who wonders that in a
State where assassination appears to be
licensed, mobs like that at Rochester a
few days since occur, or that riots take
place in the streets of New York? The
public sentiment has become vitated 1t
is sinking towards barbarism.
But we trust the evil is about to meet a
check. Its effects are so plainly visible
in the multiplication of assassinations that
only the blind fail to discern them. The
law must resume its majesty in our land.
Courts must be impartial and just. Muir
der must be punished as murder, whether
committed upon men Of pure life. or upon
those of dissolute and wretched lives
The punishment of crime must be left to
the tribunals established for the purpose.
The State itself should manifest regard
for human life in its statutes and penalties
for crime. Its laws should not be based
upon revenge. They should be humane
and just, and then they may be rigidly
| and impartially enforced, without which
penalties are useless and society without
protection. The carrying of concealed
weapons has great deal to do with deeds
of violence that stain the land. 1t is a
practice that should be abolished. Few
ever find it protection and many are
hurried into crime by it. Above all let
public sentiment speak out for the execu-
ton of the law upon all offenders, through
courts honest, upright and bold, and re-
move the idea that any man or set Of men
can be less than assassins who take re-
venge into their own hands and use the
dagger, pistol or rope to rid the world of
a Fisk or any other human being.
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