The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-05-22
sTAoELtSEl
The Prevention of Murder.


a COinmunltAuOulu INC MI NEAPhIS|
When Foster was hanged and Stokes
waa found guilty oil murder IN the first
degree there went up very general
chorus Of satisfaction, not TO say OF re.
IoiCing. 1t was said, Now, at last, the
law has resumed its terrOrs; 1t isseen that
rctribulive Justice Is not abolished, and
society Is safe again. Onthe former occa.
sion, venlured TO express a very decided
dissent from the general opinion as to the
efficacy of the gallows in restraining muir.
der, and since that time the course OF
events has, to say the least, not discredlted
my Judgment. Murders are ms frequent
now as they were then. Three days ago,
We hanged Nixon; and, in the midst Of
the sensation caused by that triumphant
yindication OF tho law" another brutal
murder-probably twO-Was committed
by man who, we may be very sure, was
well acquainted with all the circumstances
ur NiXOns crime, and Of the penalty he
paid for ii.
The question comes up-it must force
itself upon US: II q man sees that society
Is determined to hang murderers, and
does hang them, and within thirty.eix
hours OF q much.bruited iniliction OF the
extreme penalty Of, the law, and within a
short distance OF the place where 1t was
executed, COMMUNIST brutal murder, what
restraining power is there In this hldeous
gallows? Certainly our recent expert
Gnce would seem 10 show that Its terrors
are hardly equal 10 those OF BcarecroW
in a corndeld. And the truth, as reveal
ed by tho past history Of crime, Is that
although the murderer breads death after
conviction and sentence, that dread does
not enter as an Improbable element into
the forces that determine his action pre-
yious to tho murder. The striking, all
significant, unEnswerable fact remains
that when the death penalty was 80 COM
mon that mon were hanged by the score
every month for stealing and forging,
stealing and forging were more common
than they are now, when we have great
difficulty in getting a man well and
promptly hanged fora premeditated and
brutal murder. And murder itself was
common, at least in the proportion Of ten
Ia one, compared 10 what II iB now, when
murderer was sure, II taken, to be tried,
convicted, sentenced, and hanged within
week oil his capture. This has an un'
desirable bearing upon tho plea constant
y urged by those who maintain inc o.
dcacy Of the death penalty-that Us de-
lerent power depends, in Q great measure,
upon its certainly and It's promptness.
Blind ourselves as We may to the tact,
this Is the trulh-that crime diminishes,
not in the ratio Of the severity, but in
ihst'o the mildness OF punishment The
reason of this is, not that mild punish
ncnt has any restraining power upon
crime. but that the condition Of public
sentiment which causes shrinking from
tue iufiiclion OF dreadful punishment
punishment which imposes, as public
punishment must, greater and more last
ing suffering upon the family and friends
of the criminal than the criminal himself
ia a condition in which crimes, at least
great crimes Of violence, arc less likely
10 be committed than In one in which the
idea Of Justice and good government Is
essentially. that Of retributiOn-that is
simply Of vengeance For vengeance 1t
il, only It is inflicted by society instead o.
the Individual. The corrective power o.
punishment is manilestly nothing when
The punishment Is death; very little when
it consists in long terms Of imprisonment
The man who has served flvo years, moi
tn say ten or twenty, in State prison
comes out into the world, in ninctY-nine
cases in hundred, a criminal Of necessity
Tor the rest Of his life.
1t is not plain, then, that we must look
to other influences than those OF tho gal
lows and the prison walls for that much
ueeded protection Of society which is Sc
much talked OF and so earnestly prayed
for by all? five cannot restrain crime
by lear, we must do so by preventive
measures; and as the only direct control
that society has over It's members Is ovGI
their bodies, its, preventive measure:
must be directly exCrtcd upon their NOR
al natures. Upon their moral natures
not upon their intelleCts, For, uniortu
nately, Il Is not found that the education
Oi the intellect diminishGs the READINGS!
10 commit crime under sufficient tempia
ton; II is found that it does often taciIl-
tate its preparation and Concealment
The great remedy Is to make men better
This is 10 new plea II began more thar
eighteen hundred years ago; but 1t has
prevailed so slowly, so very slowly. Tht
fierce passions OF men their vlndlctivG
ness, and their pharlseeism, have clothed
themselves In robes Of justice and some
times concealed themselves undor TIL
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