The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-01-14
Stokes Crime and its Result.

The uncertainty of punishment of
crime in this country, is the greatest cause
IF the alarming aud constantly increasing
ecurrence of brutal murders, even in the
State of Vermont. Every paper that W.
take up is filled with the most fendsh
tragedies. The pea ofinsanity or Of sell
defence, has been so successfully made il
time past, shat many villain haH been
permitted to roam at large, only to com
NIT other aud more heinous crimes, and
at last after long being a terror in the com
munity in which he lives, land die upon the
galows, which he had long before merit
Ell But this thing seems to be played
out" even in New York City, where it
has generally been considered impossible
to convict notorious cut-throat and
bully, or a genteel, rich lbertine. Such
men have their supporters and advocates,
even in Vermont, who argue that there
were two sides to McFarlund's case-that
Richardson was intending to marry Me.
Farland's divorced wife, who had sup.
ported Mcfarland for years and years in
his extreme drunhonuoss, and debanchery,
until the fear of being brutally murdered,
together with her two children, in his
paroxisms Of deiIium, she separated from
him, and found friend in Albert D.
Richardson. Then all his brutality and
malice was turned upon the latter, and
he was followed night and day. After
two attempts Mcfarland put an end to
his life, by shooting him through the
body in the Tribune Office, under the
glare OF innumerable gas lights. His
mockery Of a trial was had, and through
the ingenuity Of the criminal lawyers of
New York, he was acquitted on the
grounds of species Of insanity and he is
left to roam about New York to he laud
ed by certain set, as mice fellow"
If he had been hung, at once, as he de.
served to be, Simmons who recently
murdered Duryea in Brooklyn, who has
respectable friends to mourn his untimely
death, land Stokes, to-day instead of being
condemned murderer, soon to die upon the
eallows, would oe free to enjoy the socie.
ty OF his respectable aud mourning friends.
The idea we wish to convey, is that in
order to protect the inrocent, the guilty
must be punished. In Turkey, the GER
tanty Of punishment Of crime under their
laws, seems to he the great preventive and
has its restraining effect upon the vicious
The penalty seldom fails of reaching the
offender. He has no escape through
loop-hoe OF the law. the ingenuity of his
counsel, or the mis-applied sympathy of
juryman, or the unmertcd clemency Of
i Judge. His only escapes, when he is
arraigned for crime in his innocence.
No informalitics in tha process can rescue
him ; no interference Of private partialty
or popular ciamor can come to his relief
He makes up his mind to this from the
first. lie anticipates all before he com.
mits the offence. 1t is this inevitable re.
suit. which be sees and feels, that deters
him when tempted TO crime. He sees
not the law under that despotic govern.
ment it is true, nor the formilites which
attend its execution in other lands. The
cloud is out of sight, but this only gives
the more mystery and terror to its light
ming. He knows and feels that it will
strike him il he comes within its range
There are more of the crimes, incident to
large populous towns, in one of our At
lantic cities, in single month, we believe,
than are committed in Constantnople in
year. And yet the city has no munci-
pal police, as with US extending its vigi-
lance through the cite. There is 10
night watch-the streets are never light
ed and few of the shops or dwellings are
guarded by bolts. Aud yet crimes in
the shape of theft, lewdness, personal vio-
lence are comparatively rare. How are
we to account for the comparative alb
sencc of crime, in the great cities of Tur-
key2 Is the Koran, in the power of its
moral precepts superior to the Bible :?
None will subscribe to sIch an absurd
proposition as that. We say again, that
the certainty OF punishment of crimes is
the great preventive.