The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1873-06-20
Marietta, Georgia. Friday Morning, 90, 1878


vengeful spirit is always evil. But
what shall be done with A.. The
law "a law) says hang him. Leave
his wife widow and children or
phans. Here We also deplore and
pity. For it has been done to A as
A did unto B And what is the DIFF
ference in the transactions ? Some
in AS favor perhaps, but you will
say A ought to be punished--grant-
| ed. BIS brother might entertain the
same view, and acting on it, kill A..
Then the question would be, what
shall be done to BIS brotherg The
result is the same as If you had done
it under the forms Of law, and if the
law is nullty your are as guilty as
B's brother, or as A in Bs.brother's
favor, for he acting under that nat
ural impulse of feeling, that is suro
to be around in such cases, slew A.
Under your plaL his death would
have been accomplished by deliber-
alton and Knocked investigation un-
der forms ola void law. No body
benefited by the death Of the unfor-
tunate man. Many may be injured.
But says one "a has committed the
highest offense known to our law and
Of course should suffer the highest
penalty meaniug death). 1t is adj
mitted that A has committed a very
high offense, but the highest only in
reference TO b for the violation Of one
commandment is an offense no high
er than that of the violation of any
other commandment. 1t is indeed a
very grave offense, and who | ask
will duplicate it. But what shall we
do with A is the question, no not
that quite Ought A to be hanged
is the very question. Let US then
examine the status Of A. We find
him under sentence of death already
An unerring jugde has sentenced
him. He will and must die. Moth
ing contingent here. No application
for pardon, reprieve or communication
has been or can be made to inspire
hope. All is certain, let the man
alone. No one is clothed with a
constitutional and yet discretionary
power on whose caprice his life
hangs. Death is certain, no one
knows the time Make haste then,
you may be too late. Yonr victim
may die and thus go into eternity
unpublished. How dreadful! But
is death "a punishment Here is
another question. The writer must
be- allowed to enter his protest
against this view of it. Death does
not belong to the penal, but to the
remedial dispensation. II is no pun
ishment to die. You have only done
for A what nature would soon have
done, not only for him, but for his
executioners also.
1t is true II is one thing to die at
home in peace, quite another to die
on the gallows. But it will be observ-
cd the difference is not in the taking
Of life, the killing, but in the mode,
which if detached would only be a
farce. Establish the fact that the
taking Of life is wrong, or rather
abolish the law that permits it, and
the modes all disappear Really
there is very little in the mode SO
far as relates to the poor trembling
culprit. The odium Of his execu.
ton falls on his family and other rel-
atives always TO a greater or less de
gree, not on him, be is dead. And
thus the innocent suffer.
You undertook in your mad haste
to pull up the tares and 10 you have
ruined the wheat. There 10 there's
fore no reason to support capital
punishment, no revelation, no noth-
ing to support it, but the forms Of
law and power. s'But society must
be protected" Yes that must be
done, and If this can be accomplish
ed fully, without the execution or
the death Of the offender, is itnot bet-
ter Is il not better to reform than
to Destroy Would not the Golden
Rule apply here The Judge Of all
the earth does right. Remedial
agents are employed in the admin
istration Of his government. II is
only the finally impenitent that are
ssloss.1 That Is confined, according
to orthodoxy. No distinction Of an
organic whole. The soul that sins
lives on, in the sense Of continual
existence. In other words it has
never been killed, but cast out, con.
fined, away from the good whether
for the better the writer cannot tell.
One thing is sure every remedial
agent is first tried. When all fail,
with kind Of Divine reluctance
tempered with mercy it may be, the
condemned is confined Bounds are
set beyond which he cannot pass.
| He can no more invade society.
| Yet he still lives. How unlike the
governments of earth Here is
war Of determination Governments
take what they cannot give. No Of
| forts made to reform and restore 70
| family and friends the erring one.
i Like the Jewish rabbIe, It Is "lIangl
/ him i Hang him." tits true Heav-s
en- may forgive him. He may shout
/ the praises of his God amid the
cIaukiDg Of bis chain in his dungeon
i 49,, at he who Dravs for the for