West-Jersey pioneer., 1873-07-11


whom were sprinkled and others immersed.
Most of the stores in this city were closed
and the saloons did thriving business.
THE POWER OF LAW.
The grooves of custom are wonderful in
their power on human nature. 1t is not so
much question as to whether the custom
be good one or bad one, but whether it
be custom at all. Fashion is but the intro
duction of custom, and the sarcasm that
twenty millions of people wear high hats
because it is the custom to do SO, and not
because there is either comfort or beauty in
it, is truth beyond dispmting. So power
full is this that it often makes law. So pow
erful is it that it frequently oosrrides law,
times. The decline in respect for the ma
jesty of law has reached a latitude of de-
scent which may we'll startle the soul of any
patriot with fear. Forty years ago, the
quality. The grave men of the nation
talked of it in their social conclaves, as
power beyond all disputing. Their children
accepted it as next to the Creator. Indeed
the will of the one, and the fat of the 9th
er were often considered as identical. Evil
men were impressed with reverence for it
which left but little hope for any escape if
once they were involved in its meshes. They
contemplated eluding its power-they hoped
for passing on ndetected-they trusted to
escape from prisons, but they INDUCED in
few visions Of overturning or corrupting
the law In this state of things lay our sim
certify. The Declaration of Independence,
which assured to us right to ''life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness" was of
little worth except as these were secured to
us by the answering rectitude of unfiinch-
lief was our strongest bulwark against the
lawless and evil passions and actions of evil
and lawless men. 1t has passed into an ak
iom that the power of law is not so much
in the severity of the punishment which it
inficts, as in the certainty that that punish
ment will be inflicted. A moderate law will
work as effectually as a disproportionately
severe one, provided its penalties be always
executed. There is an instructive feeling of
calculation in the most passionate of men,
as to whether the penalty will not be great.
er than the indulgence, and the indulgence
is usually graded by the justness of the pen
atty. But where there is looseness in the
execution of the law, the case assumes a
different aspect. If men have an idea that
the law can be corrupted or evaded OF left
the question of indulgence III
criminality becomes one where, in lawless
minds, the chances are fearfully against the
observance of the law. 1t is Il fact that
has become so lamentably true that no one
thinks of calling it into question, that the
execution of the laws is one of the most un-
certain things of which we know, in very
many localities. The most clear and posi-
tive proofs amount 30 less than nothing.
In the face of clearly or proven guilt YER
diets, are frequently given those of inno-
cence After a verdict has been extorted |
from reluctant jurors by momentary clamor,
the tergiveisations of judicial pathways are
such as to afford numerous opportunities |
for escape, and even the custom in such To- !
calities as New York, has been to escape,
and the wonder has been when any one has
been punished in that wicked city. New |
York filled with greater horror over the ex-
ecution of Foster, the car-hook murderer, |
than it did over Mr.. Putnam, the amiable |
gentleman whom the brutal rufian MUIR
dered. The exceedingly philanthopic city
wept more tears over the execution of Nix
on, the vicious bully, who murdered the
peaceable and inoffending Phifer, than it
did over the violent death of that valuable
citizen. 1t could not reconcile itself to the
idea that law was to be executed, and
more over that fact than it did
over the crimes which called for the inter-
ference of the law. The custom has come
to be in that locality, the non-execution of
the criminal law, and people look for it more
than they do the observance. The hanging
Of two or three obscure and poverty
stricken murderers like Foster and Nixon,
shocked New York little into spasm.
In that city, if man has egough of money,
he will not be hung. For him, at least,
hanging is played out. The case of Stokes,
who killed Fisk, is one in point. Probably
the lives Of both were equally worthless,
and the community would be the better if
both were out of it; but the Jaw Furnishes
the crime with death, and yet there has
be. Another trial will only need the pur
chase of the jurors in order to free the MUIR
derer. In a border State it is almost
proverb that they will not hang white
man for killing negro. DR.. Weat, who
under the most attrocious circumstances,
negro, when the proof is clear,
is declared not guilty. Reverence for law
is just now in many places, when placed in
with reverence for custom, and
this fact may well as lie said, make phil
anthropist tremble in view of our future.
Once demoralize law in the mind Of the
people, and substitute custom, and we have
seen the beginning of the end. Law alone
tends to civilization, and custom leads to
barbarism. What is the remedy for the
present state of things of which we have
spoken, we do not know, but that it does
exist, and is increasing, we do know, and it
will be wise to give good heed to the signs
of the times.
John ]. Myers was tried before Mayor
Sheppard on Saturday afternoon last, upon
three charges for selling lager beer without
license, the penalty for each offence being
ten dollars. J. ]. Reeves city solicitor ap-
peared for the city, and ]. Boyd Nixon for
the defendant. Mr.. Nixon rnoYed 4 non.