Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1873-02-06
A Remedy Needed and Proposed.

A Remedy Needed and Proposed.
There are. at this moment, confined
in the Tombs between twenty and
thirty persons-twenty-six, if we re-
member Alright, is the exact number
convicted or accused of murder. The
circumstances of the different cases
are Of almost every degree of atrocity,
but those belonging 10 the two which
occurred this week are marked by so
savage recklessness add such utter
contempt of law that the most care
less among us cannot escape the con-
sideration of the question whether the
first Of human rights, the right to life,
has the least protection in this COM
munity. In the first case two men,
who had been friends, quarrel upon so
trivial and common cause as their
rival attentions 10 young woman.
and one Of them, after letting the sun
go down upon his anger. proceeds to
shoot the other, the next day. whLc
he is sitting quietly in his room. like
a dog," as he threatened that he would.
The other is still more remarkable.
Two men. who had never seen each
other before. meet in "A crowded
thoroughtare, as thousands do every
hour in the day, and after a wordv
alteration, almost rs common in such
encounters, one of them draws pistol |
and deliberately shoots the other
"dead in his tracks" rs they call it in
the semi barbarism of frontier life
where there is no law. ANY one who
walks or drives in the streets of this
city may be called upon at any time to
eSpostuatc against encroachments
upon the right of way, and it may be
the fate Of any of Us to meet with one
osf-''ese armed ruiilans on dray or in
wagon. who on slight provocation
will not have the slightest hesitation
or compunction in settling trifiing
dispute by swift murder. Is there no
remedy:
Either We have reached that point
in the development or perversion Of
human character where there can be no
restraining power of law, or else our
laws are so defective that they are
utterly futile in the prevention of
crime. To suppose the first is to as
sumo that man is absolutely depraved,
and that the highest civilization is
only to be reached at the cost of de-
veloplng in portion of the community
the merely savage instincts. If this
be not true, and we should be very
reluctant to accept any such theory,
then the fault is in society, in its
neglect TO make the law sufficient for
the protection of all its members.
This is clearly the fact. There is
no safety to life among us in cases
where mems passions are liable To be
aroused, because the re is no certainty
in the law. 1t is an axiom among
those who have given most thought to
the subject that it is not the possible
severity of punishment, but its abso-
lutte certainty, that is most effective in
suppressing crime. The man who
rremedi;ates crime, or he whose
unhrdled passions may be;ray him at
any moment into its committal, is not
restrained by the consideration that
at sometime he may possibly be hanged
or imprisoned for life, but by the con-
slant or instant reflection that the
crime will certainly be followed by
speedy punishment. Society is gov
erned by habits Of mind. What we
need for the protection of life is the
habitual and universal conviction that
the crime of murder is punished with
absolute certainty and unerring
promptitade. The twenty-six men in the
Tombs pass months and years there in
tranquility so long as they reckon upon
uncertainty and delay. They grow
haggard when they hear that the car
hook murderer, or any other convict,
is to be certainly and speedily hanged.
1t is the fault of the administration of
the law that their habitual mental con-
dition has not previously been of this
character, which would then have
acted as q restraining influence to pre-
vent their becoming criminals.
The nearer the pace Of justice in
this city approaches that Of the Provost
Marshal the safer will life be among
US. Whether the punishment for MUIR
der be death or imprisonment for life,
the community must be made to know
that manslaughter will inevitably be
followed by an immediate trial, and
the trial, on conviction, by immediate
and certain punishment. The machin-
cry of the law is out Of gear. Instead
of six. and twenty men confined
through the laws delay at once on
charges Of criminal evidence there
should never be more than two or three
in Jail at one time. A few days or .
few weeks at most, only, should ever
intervene between the committal Of the
act and its absolute, nnerring punish-
ment or the acquittal Of the accused
Why should there not be Court hav .