New-York tribune., 1873-01-22
A DFIIRIUU OF VENGEANCE.

II is apparent to all-and to none more
clearly than the miserable cOnvicts in the
Tombs-that just now the way of the trans
gressor is to be especially hard and uncom-
Portable The unexpected conviction of Stokes
revealed stern disposition on the part OF
the people to insist on the enforcement OF
the laws. The affirmation by the court or
final resort Of the sentence of Foster, the car
hook murderer, indicates the purpose of the
authorities to do their duty. The deliberate
attempt at assassination by Magruder will go
far toward intensifying the feeling of the one,
and urging the other to carry out the strict
letter of the law, however revolving it may be.
This is certainly bad time for murderers.
Every few years the public of this city seems
to be seized with determination to punish
all sorts of crimes in the most summary man
ner. 1t appears at first sort of epidemic; 1t
is, as it were, spasm of Indignation; mo-
mentary enthusiasm of virtue which demands
a score of victims, but after a little delay
contents itself with one or two; and then
the fever is followed by long period
of lax morality, during which crimes are fire.
quent and criminals obtain all sorts of
respite. Finally aggregated crime again
grows revolving, the people are once more
aroused, and the machinery of the law is set
to work TO provide the necessary sacrifices, as
it is now doing.
We are to hang Foster certainly. The
decision of the Court of Appeals, which we
publish this morning, assures us that
satisfaction The drunken lunatic of
minute or two must suffer by
strangulation the penalty of his Offense.
His execution will be witnessed by dozen
score of hardened fellows attracted by curios-
ity to see how he will bear himself and to
criticise his miserable end; then they will 60
away to the nearest grog-shOp (Which having
laid in an additional stock of liquors will be
prepared to take advantage of the occasion
and the excitement) and drink in the
very devil which had been the ruin
of the culprt they had just looked upon;
and never once will the meaning or the moral
of the execution occur to their minds. Next
day one out of ten of the reading people will
peruse the account of the execution with a
sense of its character and the purpose of the
laws severity the other nine will devour with
avidty story which has no more of meaning
for them than auy other vile romance of
crime. And so he will be forgotten for some
fresher victim
The simple fact is that executions now-a-
days are without moral. AS the punishment
of crime, they result too frequently more
from outside influences than from actual evil
dence The whole system of prosecution Is
lax and wrong The absurd plan of selecting
jrries from the most ignorant of the panel;
the vile methods of confusing witnesses until
anything and everything but the truth is OBJ
tanned the swearing of ignorant men to deliver
verdicts according to the law as well as evidence,
when they are avowedly ignorant of all COM
plex principles of law; the permitting of ap-
peals upon the errors of expert Judges who
are trained to commit few mistakes and the
denying the right to remedy the blunders of
inexpert Jurors all these are alike violations
of common sense. The methods of conviction
and execution are blots upon our civilization.
We have no compassion or sympathy
for murderers, and we unite in the most
vigorous demand for the punishment of the
dozen or more now in the TOmbs. AS long as
the law remains as it is we are even earnest in
our wish that those clearly guilty shall be pun
ished. But every conviction and every execution
add to our belief that our present punishment
for murder is both cruel and ineffective.
Hanging is an inadequate penalty, and not
calculated to deter others from committing
crime.