The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1873-03-28
ON cApIrAL pUNrsHMENr.

most pleaslngsresnlts nave aoolisheu
capital punishment and Jurors are
answering in the affirmative with in
creasing frequency the question,
"Have you any conscientious scru-
Piles agains: capital punishment 7"
Let us clear away the rubbish
examine the subject and see what
ground there is for conscientious
scruples.
"You have heard it said ian eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth =
but say unto you love your ene-
mies"--do good to them"
This reference to Biblical author
ity disposes of it by substituting for
the vindictive spirit of the civil law
of the Jews, the Humane and re-
formatory spirit Of the Christian
dispensation.
Now, with no authority but that
of human reason, let us examine
the question, first asking
WHAT ARR PENALTIES !
Lawyers tell US they are remedies
for wy0ngs. What wrong does cap
ital punishment remedy Does it
restore life, or property, or is 1t
compensatory in any way to those,
individuals or society, wlo have
suffered wrong. Not SO; there is
nothing accomplished by it but the
qualification of vindicti0e spirit that
might have been better accomplish
ed il. a humane manner,
WHERE Is YOUR RIGHTT
1t must be fonnded--as we have
shown that you would rest very in
securely upon Christian precept-
If at all, upon natural right Let us
see how far such rights extend. -
The law books very properly desig-
nate the conditions under which in
dividuals are justified in taking life.
But, in all cases, your existence
must be in periI--self preservation
being the only natural and rational
plea of justification.
Very we'll Now, society is com
posed of individuals in possession, by
consent, of this natural right--and
can possess no moral right that is
not founded in tho individuals COM
posing it. They give il all it pos
sesscs of life and moral right, and il
is endowed, as the individuals com.
posing il are, with the right Of self
preservation. Society may, as indi'
viduals do, take life, when such tax
Ing is necessary to self-preservatior
but otherwise, by no means.
When society then arraigns mar
under the death penalty for murder
or any other crime, it becomes 1
very serious matter for the Jury
summoned on his trial. He very
naturally asks, sis the death of THU
man necessary to the very existence
of society; and if not, would it not
be a terrible thing to become an agent
in bis execution Is there not
some other mode of punishment suf-
ticiently viadictive-- -reformatory for
the man and more beneficial to So
ciety 7 If there is then it mus. be
wicked, barbarous, cruel, to go be-
yond all right and the requirements
of Justice and safety to find modes of
torture which reform no man and
remedy no wrong.
THE WRONGS
for which, under our laws, men are
adjudged to death, are terrible evils;
but, il we may judge from their uni
form history under all human poll
ties, they appear to be evils incident
to and unavoidable in a greater or
less degree in all states of social ex-
istence. And we may state, as a
self-evident truth, that any one of
these wrongs might have been COM
mitted by ourselves under the same
physical, passionaANpd Aaaa Ne
velopment. Here lies The source Of