, 1873-01-24
MURDERERB' PLEAS,

MURDERERg PLEAS.
Tho conceits Of nurdarets, when the ga1lowa
begins to loom up before their eyes, are, to say
the least, very whimsical. Cluck, the Indiana
murderer, who recently committed suicide to
escape the gallows, made an appeal to the pub
lie, in which ho expressed tho severest sort OF
indignation because the law had doc1eed his
execution. He protested in unmessured terms
against :" the deep damnation Of his taking of, !"
and declared that hanging WAS the worst use to
which he could be put. He closed his commu-
nication to the public, which differed with him
very materially On this subject, by declaring his
solemn convictions that society Was fast re-
lapsin8 into primitive barbarian when
it could hang man like hir1. Lydia Sherman,
the Connecticut Borgis, after numbering several
husbands and children, finally confesses her dia-
boliam with the utmost equanimity Of DISPOSE
ton, manifests no regret, and goes to prison for
life with contented mind, and entertaining no
hostility against the rest Of the world whom she
fallen back upon the consultations Of religion, she
now proposes to devote the remainder Of her
days to religious meditations, unless ahe should
be pardoned ont Of prison, and 90 to marrying
again, when, in all probability, she will rosumo
her usual practice OF celebrating the honeymoon
with strychnine, arsenic, and other nids to
widowhood. Foster, the car-hook murderer,
upon whose gallows tho carpenters will soon go
to work, thinks it shame that he should be
singled out for the gal1ows among men who
used pistols and knives; whereas he employed
only an extemporized weapon while in an IRA
| tional condition. As it has not occurred to Mr.
Foster that the e1temporized weapon did ita
| work quite as erectual1y rs knife OF pistol,
| that gentleman ia accordingly plunged into deep
gloom, and is represented to bo greatly agitated.
It is not unnatural, perhaps, that the cowardly
| brute who murdered an inoffensive man should
| be agitated upon the approach Of pun
| ishment which will put it out Of his power to
murder any more, and SO change his condition
that the public will no longer be exposed to his
erratio and irrational freaks. Perfect has also
put in mournful sort Of plea for communication
Of the death penalty to imprisonment for life,
and, with 6 peculiarly tender kind Of pathos,
seeks to make an impression rpon the compass
aicn Of the Governor by reciting the fact thct
be once cooked 4t 3 h9tel where the Governor
boarded. And 60 On to the ena Of the chapter.
Each murderer has some peculiar reason to offer
vhy bis sentence is an unjust one, and Thy So
ciety is about to lose valuable member. Not
one Of them, hoTeyer, has any Eemorse for the
crime he has committed, or seems to remember
that b3 his brutality 10 hae not only taken
away the life Of = human being, but has plunged
his victim'a family and friends into 2 lifelong
| gloom. In each case, sooiety ia assumed to be
the persecutor, and the murderer the victim,
! It is. not remarkable, however, that the mur-
derers should ts:ke this view Of tho case. There
has been nothing in the rseont execution Of
justice to indicate that they arc tho pereecuto1s
Of society because they make make b human Life inse-
cure. So many mon have escaped ppnle}}}meeqqtt qt
by reason Of legal technicalities, and espe-
cially by reason OF medical testimony Of
fered to prove emotional insanity, that the
whole brutal brood haye, With theis OBJ
tuse moral perceptions, come to thu
conclusion that they have q right to take the
| lyes Of these who stand in thoir Way, because
anger and passion are only attrthrtes Of an
emotional insanity, in which condition they gre
not Nable for the acts they commit. Society
itself is, to large e1tent, responsible for this
condition Of things. There il a mAudlln sentls
nept in every community which induces people
to regard murder IS Q sensation. f. and only the
sensation of day or 80. Pha interest
attaching to it, like tho interest OF all
| sensations, dies away with the arrest OF
the murderer, Tho public is 20 occupied
with it's numerous sohemes Of business and
pleasures, so deyoted1y engaged In the headlopg
race for wealth. that it has no time to look to the
| general interests, until murder becomes general
and every mans life is imperil1ed, and then it
arakes, in spasm Of Indignation, and demands
| that the laws shall DO enforced by tie punish-
| ment Of the guilty parties. The public is just
! now in one Of these spasrns. The gallowB is
| coming into use again. It will do its work, and
| then the public will quiet down, until violence
| aud brutality once more assert thair sway, when
| It will riss again. What is needed is calm,
| constant, and inhe1ib1e determination that
| Justice shall be vindicated and the
| laws DO obeyed all tho time; and
! that no brutal 1uf6an shall find N excuae for
| murder because some other brutal rufaan h1s
made his Escape, These sudden epasms OF in
| dig diguation undoubtedly subserve useful pur-
| pose in stemming the tide Of crime for . time,
but there is danger that men may suffer unjust
1y in such c1isesof prejudice and passion. Let
the public sentiment SO declare itself through
the action Of the courts and the impartial e1ecu-
| ton Of the LAWS. that every man uho commits
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