The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-24


The Pulpit ON Fosters Punishment.
AS might have been supposed from the very
great prominence given through the press to
the crime and punishment of William Foster
during the past week, the pulpit very naturally
had something to say about the case yester-
day. It did not, however, demand that wide
spread attention that many persons anticipated
it would. Mr.. Beecher declared strongly
against capital punishment in enlightened and
civilized communities. 1t may do well enough
in barbarous state of society, but it does not
prevent crime here He denied to society the
right to punish when it does not
prevent crime. When it licenses grogshops
and drunkenness, when it delays the punish
ment of crime and thereby emboldens the
criminal and when individuals calmly surren-
der to robbers in their own homes they do not
deserve to have homes at all, nor does society
possess the right to punish, and especially it
should not punish criminals as beasts, but as
men. Mr. Beecher believed that forty years
imprisonment would prevent murder much
more efectually than hanging man and then
forgetting him. He also deprecated the
prominence given to criminal news in the
press, and he did not believe that young per-
SONS can read the daily record of crime and
not be injured by it.
Rev. Mr. Aston, preaching from the same
text that Mr. Beecher used, was satisfied that
laxity Of justice and law is the main cause of
the increase of crime, but not the sole cause.
The abandonment of our city government to
rings and robbers, the violation Of the sane
tity of oaths and the criminality of the bench
of Justice encourage crime also. Laxity OF
parental discipline of the young, the nom
enforcement of school attendance, the ex-
and the rum traffic-these are the fruitful
sources of crime. And the cure Of crime
must be found in their opposites-strict
domestic discipline, enforced attendance on
schools, the introduction and maintenance Of
the Bible therein and the abolition or curtail-
ment of the accursed rum traffic.
Rev. DR.. Tying briefly referred to Foster, and
expressed the full hope he had that the unfor-
tunate man who had been cut off so suddenly
had, long before the terrible moment came,
realized the goodness and mercies of q low
able God. He had met his doom with resig-
nation and entirely in Christian spirit.
And, added the Doctor, would that oil those
who died we're as well prepared as that reviled,
hunted down criminal
Rev. Mr.. Pullman denied the theory that
the ''lost SOUL was one on which the Lord
would inflict all his infinite resources Of tor
ment. He did not think that Fosters soul il
lost. The divine spark in the human soul
could never be entirely extinguished, and be
maintained that the condition OF eternal
punishment cannot be found in the Bible. A
finite man cannot commit IN infinite offence.
Mr.. Hepworth drew several lessons from the
death Of Foster, and cautioned the young men
of his congregation to beware of bad habits,
to shun vice and dissipation. His end had
| demonstrated that we have "a whole man. in
the executive chair of this State. and the Com
monwealth ought to be proud of and thankful
for that 1t showed also the difficulty of en-
forcing capital punishment, and he hoped the
day would come when it will be abolished in
this State. We have hanged the least crimina
one of the Gagged murderers in the Tombs
and he hoped we should go on until w
got enough of it and abolish the relic
barbarism.
Mr.. rockingham, solving the enigma Q
life, said pain is the ugly thing that oil peopl
bate md ths dead Of ieaiStipa psia u % y