The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-22


dict implied we saw the great test of tie
principle on which the pact of society is based
We knew that q crime had been committed;
we knew, further, that the law declared an
individual guilty thereof; we then asked that
the penalty of the crime be exacted from the
criminal We have made no exceptions in
this and shall make none. We do not cham
pion the gallows, but the safety of the person,
which the elimination of the gallows from our
practice of law had threatened
We count in the effect of these executions
the terrifying of all evil-doers. It is from
the strength of their well-founded fears that
society will gain liberty to breathe once more.
For this reason we have given large share of
our space to-day to the affrighting tableaur.
The great reason that the public good is
paramount over all private considerations
leads us to display these scenes of agony.
Some days since we received the following
letter, praying us to take another course,
which we print as written. It comes from o
source to command respect
To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD
take the liberty to address myself to you as the
ucuu anu lTOuL OI american JOur0allSm-a position
which the world has admitted that your paper
holds IN the cause OF JUSTICE In the cause OF right
and ], as one OF your subscribers, ask that you
Since your Governor Dix has decided the fate Of
William Foster, who, by his decree, shall suffer
loved ones, withhold giving the doings on the day
of his execution from the columns of your paper
He Is soon TO surrender his lie to the law. His
dear family are now bowed to the very earth In
their deep distress for his fate.
Let the curtain fall 81 ms endHn0t to speak
win YOU 20 m" not Mr.. Hditor' use your powerful
paper In an editorial and call on the editors and
proprietors OF all pictoriS papers to remember
after his death with horrible wo0d-cut engravings
showing his sad death scenef
What good can come from snch descriptions
Only puts more arrows Into the bleeding hearts
OF his family.
Remember without charity we are nothing
As your journal is the head and front in power
snow your power to withhold from publishing any
at the Tonibs this week. Very respectfully VI
PHILADELPHIA, March II, 1873. J. G.
When we referred above to private con-
siderations it will be seen from the foregoing
how pathetically touching they may be. We
are conscious of the load of heart-breaking
grief which the events of yesterday have
brought upon the innocent the good and the
pure. We would not willingly lay hairs
weight upon their burden; but it would be an
inexcusable mistake in us to cover over exam
Piles intended for the world, and earn at such
But there is deep reason for this publication
which must not be ignored. The horror, the
anguish of loved ones and the heart-wringing
paintings are the very things from which many
men would shrink sooner than from the gal
lows. Foster, so far as we know, was just the
man whom these things would have Influenced
had they been before his eyes in time. To the
very class from which the Fosters are recruited
surely picture of that anguish and parting
would be q great preventive Of future crime.
A reckless man may often be careless of
his own safety; but he will think long
before exposing those he loves to the
tortures that Foster brought upon his family.
Those who read our accounts out of morbid
curiosity will find before they have ended that
another and deeper feeling than gratifed NOR
out of no desire to pander to such taste that
we print them. The details of the crime
have been. spread abroad because society
demands to know its dangers and is the safer
for knowing them. A new system of burglary,
novel mode of garroting, fresh plan to
rob, are all necessary to be published that
people may know what they have to fear, what
to prevent a fortiori is this true of the
crime of murder. The same reason which
prompts the publication of the offence calls
for the details Of its punishment. The first
may tend to the incipiency of panic in the
orderly elements of society; the second we
desire should have the same effect upon the
criminals and deterring effect upon those
lowering on the borders of crime. The les
sons of yesterday are not likely to be soon for
gotten. They preach to men eyes and minds
as the Gospel of the tangible alone can preach.
They grimly and emphatically proclaim that
murder is something which demands the
immolation Of the murderer on an altar which
is q gallows, by celebrant who is hangman,
and before an audience which embraces all
civilized mankind.