The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-25

Mr. Beecher, tho apostle of Plymouth
Church in the godly city of Brooklyn. can al
ways be depended upon for delivering an in
teresting discourse whenever any event Of mo-
ment occurs either in political criminal or
social life He did not disappoint public ex-
pectation on Sunday in his essay on the execu-
ton of Foster-a theme which it was readily
foreseen would be seized upon by him with avid
ity to feed that passion for sensational display
which appears to be the most marked feature
of his congregation. In his treatment OF the
subject there is at once much to invite criti-
cism and much to merit favorable considera-
tion We can fortunately review Mr.. Beech
er's pulpit speeches. sermons" we believe
they are called-as freely as we could comment
upon the lectures of Fourierite or the per-
sonations of a popular actor. and hence we
can speak our mind in regard to his positions
as frankly as we could if his place of perform
ance were the stage or the rostrum instead of
the sacred desk.
The point which Mr.. Beecher desires to
make the most prominent in his discourse is
opposition to the exaction of the death penalty
in cases OF murder, in refined and elevated
societies. When communities are in semi
barbarous condition, he says, then punish
ment for crime can be of barbarous charac-
ter, but sin the higher grades" we must re-
gard the murderer of hundred men not as o
beast, but still as ''child Of God," who may
be deprived of his liberty but not of his life.
Hanging, in Mr.. Beecher's opinion, does not
Init thori poit md nh
has to spend forty years of his life in prison
is, in the reverend gentleman's opinion,
better example to society than man who is
hanged and forgotten. We are unable to en-
dorse this doctrine Mr.. Beecher admits that
the main object of the punishment of crimi-
nails is to prevent crime, and hence the more
terrible the penalty exacted the greater must
be the advantage of the example. Experience
teaches us that death on the gallows is after
all the most dreaded, and consequently the
most beneficial punishment that can be in
ficted on the murderer. The desperate strug-
gle for life on the part of every condemned
man who has friends to interest themselves
in his fate shows that Imprisonment for life
has no such terrors as execution. There is
not ruffian in New York or Brooklyn who
would not have felt that the Communication of
Fosters sentence was victory for his class,
and who would not have been emboldened in
crime by such result.
But says Mr. Beecher, "human society
has no right of punishment for the sake of
revenge" and the reformation of the culprit'
goes hand in hand with protection Of society
by the prevention of crime. They are, indeed,
inseparable objects, for society never protects
itself 80 we'll as when it reforms the criminal.
To properly carry out this theory we must
abolish I'LL stated periods Of imprisonment for
the murderer and let him loose upon the
community as soon as his penitence for the
past is supposed to be sincere and his reforma-
ton insured. What use Of combining MUIR
derer for forty years, which appears to be Mr..
Beecher's limit, if he can be made good and
useful member of society in less time? If q
man twenty-five years of age takes the life of a
human being, and suffers Mr. Beecher's term
for reformatory purposes, he would emerge
from prison in his sixty fifth year, and society
would then reap but little benefit from his life,
however pious he might have become What
society needs for its protection is the stern
exaction from every murder of penalty that
carries terror to the mind of the evil doer, and
the story of Fosters latter days, as well as the
history of every other criminal who has been
sentenced to death, proves that the most
dreaded penalty of the law is the gallows.
On one point we agree with Mr. Beecher.
Certainty and celebrity in punishment for
crime whatever that punishment may be, are
needed for the protection of the community.
The delay that too often occurs between the
arrest, the trial and the exaction of the PEN
atty, is calculated to divert public attention
from the guilty act and to excite an undue
sympathy in its perpetrator. We should
have On amendment of our criminal laws, by
which such appeals as are permitted in capital
cases should be at once heard and decided, so
that the result should be reached as speedily
as possible. The popular idea of the superior
honesty and integrity of appointed judges. in
which Mr. Beecher shares, is plausible enough
in theory, but the experience Of European
countries has shown that judges SO chosen for
life can be as subservient tools of o
government as elective judges have
ever been of the people to whom
they owe their positions. We are
not surprised to find Mr.. Beecher condemning
the press for devoting space to the stories of
crimes that from time to time startle the COM
munity and to the history and actions Of
such criminals as Foster. The newspapers, in
their duty OF laying news before the public,
and of holding up as an example the fate of
criminals, in all its horrors encroach on the
province of sensational pulpit orators. Mr..
Beecher would have had more striking and
attractive discourse to deliver last Sunday if
the papers of Saturday had not forestalled
him in their descriptions Of Fosters last