The Portland daily press., 1873-04-19
The Modocs and Capital Punishment

comes this morning with letter signed
Consistency, in which he makes wretch
ediy unfair use of the villainous and treacher-
GUS murder of Gen. Candy and his associates
and the consequent universal popular demand
for prompt and effective punishment of the
perpetrators, as an argument in favor of cap
ital punishment. All punishment of crime is
for the general good of society and should be
OF such kind as most effectively to promote
that good. If capital punishment in any case
or any class of cases is essential for this pur-
pose it must be inflicted. For instance wneh
convicted murderer in our state prison Is SO
irreclaimably vicious as to make savage as
sault with intent to kill upon his keeper, he
must he bimselfkilled in self defense. That,
however. does not prove that the sixteen or
severteen other convicted murderers in the
same prison are not more suitably and con-
sistently punished by being kept in their
present position, working industriously at
their several avocations, improving themselves
in all ways and becoming daily better pre-
pared for the next world, than they would
have been had they been instantly strangled
to death and launched into eternity with
souls freshly scared by the hot impact of re-
cent crime. Society is fully protected from
them and the repetition of their offences by
others is more discouraged by the certainty
Of conviction which accompanies punish
ment which leaves the rectifcation of mis-
takes possible than by the infrequency of
conviction where the punishment savagely
cuts off all possibility Of remedying the errors
incident to all human testimony and judg-
ment.
Captain Jack and his followers are in a
State Of war against our government and
have shown themselves incapable of appre-
ciating and accepting the humane treatment
rendered them by the great nation within
whose borders they live, and which has been
adopted with such benefcent results by sever
al other Indian tribes. Captain Jack is not
amenable to the civil law in any sense, but is
subject to the military law which he has in
voked, and must suffer tine legitimate conse
qIences Of his infamous trcachery. In the
simplest and plainest self defense he and his
tribe must be exterminated because no other
coui Sc is safe with a view to the protection of
society. He has shown that it Is unsafe to
have any communication or negotiation with
him and only unfinching severity will meet
his case.
The attempt to make the Peace Policy re-
sponsible for this horrible event is unjust for
itmight as easily have occurred before the in
auguration Of that policy. Conferences with
the Indians have been frequent since the
whites first came tothis continent aud envoys
have repeatedly been assassinated in most
savage and perfidious way.
The perverted statement of our position on
this question by our correspondent is wilful,
for he is not stupid man, and he seizes, like
many others at this juncture, upon the strong
popular feeling that an example must be
made in the Modoc case, to ojustify his theory
that all punishment should be vindictive,
should be inflicted in q spirit of vengeance
and not solely for the good of society. This
savage yindictiveness is certainly as disgust
ing as the 'sentimentality'' which he in
vents in order to denounce; and the attempt
to draw a parallel between these Indian MUIR
derers and a murderer in civilization and to
make the propsr punishment the same in
both cases is the baldest kind of an ad cap
tandxm argument.
NINE ladies of Ellsworth have addressed a
note to the assessors of that city, protesting
against being taxed while they are not allowed
any voice in the disposition of the money they
are called to pay as taxes. They say that by
being taxed they are classed with minors and
aliens and by not being allowed to vote they
are made the political interiors of foreigners,
negroes and men who have not intellect
enough to learn to read or write and. are too
ignorant to read the ballots that they deposit
the day of election. They further aver that
under the present system, their accumulations
are at the mercy of men who have not the
ability to accumulate dollars worth of prop
erty. What gives point to their protest is the
fact that three of the ladies signing it are
among the most enterprisng aud successful Of
( the people doing business in that city and all
Of fthem hold considerable property.