New-York tribune., 1873-01-03
CERTAIN AND SPEEDY EXECUTION.

That is what we think New York murderers
need. In current discussions Of Hanging, we
see it beginning to be assumed l. That a
criminal doomed TO death should be hung
within ninety days after receiving the SEN
tence; and g. That "the pardoning power is
" like the veto power, in that Its only normal
" use is to arrest manifest haste, to correct
unmistakable error, or to provide for some
wholly unlocked for exigency." We fully
agree with this reasoning While the law exists,
we believe that it should be rigidly enforced.
We know of nothing more disgraceful to
community pretending to be civilized than
theTspectacle of felon, who has been fairly
tried, who has been unanimously convicted by
jury, who has been sentenced according to q
plain and unmstakable provision OF law, VINO
has had the day of his execution and even the
hour fxed and who is yet able by his own
personal influence or by that of his friends, or
through the chcanery of his attorney, or IN
any other way, to secure procrastlnatlon, and
perhaps finally either communication or tun
and free and civilly rehabilitating pardon.
Men may believe it right to hang, or they may
believe it to be impOltic; but we think that
there can be no difference of opinion among
the sensible and the logical as to the suicidal
folly Of having laws upon the book which we
fear to enforce SO far we are fully with these
modified positions Of. certain advocates OF
hanging. They think it best to hang men guilty
of offenses of q certain class, and we doubt
whether hanging is the best use to which
human being, however wicked and degraded,
can be put; but upon the largest considera-
ton of public policy, we are certain that if
IL, TO hnIt Itch hon,
we cannot afford to play at its abolition, and
to make the enforcement of the law shut
fling, hesitating, half f-hearted work There
have been many causes tending to make this
city paradise for the violent; but no one
cause has exercised so noxious an influence
as the uncertainty of punishment. The
assassin always reckOns, and not without rea-
son, upon two chances. lie may escape con-
viction, or, if convicted, he may escape exc
cution. He has known this to be the luck
perhaps of half score of his depraved assO-
ciates; and why should it not be his luck
alsOf The number of c0ld-blOOded and de-
liberate murders is never large in any COM
munity in proportion to the whole number
committed When men learn to dread the
consequences of passionate indulgence, they
also learn to bride their tempers and to hold
the hasty hand. Half the roughs of New
York need to be taught, not that if they felo-
niOusly kill they will be hung, but that they
will certainly be punished; for at present the
prospect of total immunity leaves us very
much at their mercy,
We do not propose to argue against Hang
ing upon the ground that man has no right
under any circumstances to take the life of
his brother man. This may be great moral
truth, but society constantly ignores it; and
the time to urge it is when statutes are made,
and not when we are too timid to stand by
our own work. In one way or another, society
does take human life, and sacrifice a few for
the good of the many. If it be wrong to
hang, it is worse for the State to threaten to
hang, without intending to keep its word, and
nothing can be more thoroughly demOralizng
than the miserable subterfuge with which we
strive to get away from the enforcement of
laws to which, according to our political
theory, everybody has assented.