The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-04-27
ABUSE OF THE PARDONING
POWER


POWER.
If resistance to tyrants is obedience TO
God" and who doubts it? is not mercy TO
criminals cruelty to the community? Why
are criminals punished, and for what
reason are they confined in prisons? In
one sense, punishment" as punishment,
has very little to do with it, although i'm
prisonment is affixed as a penalty, as a
punishment The great, controlling idea
is, however, the safety of the community
first by placing the law breakers where
he can no longer prey on the community,
and, secondly, as a warning to all others
in like manner offending. There is, too,
perhaps, some idea of the reformation of
the wrong doer, but the safety of the
state is above and beyond all other con-
siderations This must be secured at any
and all hazards. and at the same time, in
tlividual rights be protected Human
nature is falliblc All are liable to err.
Courts of justice, judges as well as jurors,
are not omniscent, and being human, are
liable to err and make mistakes. An
alleged criminal may be wrongfully con-
yicted-tbat is to say, his guilt may appear,
from the evidence, to be beyond question
or doubt, and yet the future may disclose
his entire innocence. To rcctify these
errors, so far as may be, all governments
have vested certain officers with the par
doning power,--a power at once most ben
ignant and most dangerous. This power,
generally placed in the hands of the
executive of the state or nation. is granted
solely that errors and mistakes may be rec
titled Surprising there had been no such
power, what would be the fate of many an
innocent man, convicted upon complete
evidence, SO far as the evidence of man
can be complete after full, fair and i'm
partial trial, whom facts, subsequently
brought to light, have demonstrated to be
entirely innocent? The executive stands
between the people and the criminal
Although he has the power, or prerogativc,
to pardon each and every criminal SEN
fenced to confinement, he has no moral
right so to do. Looking over the annals of
crime, from those the most petty to those
the most fiendish, how many do we find
that have been committed by pardoned
known to be first offence there may be
something of justice in plea for mercy ::
but has an executive the right to so con-
slider 1t +? Except in cases of rare and be-
culiar circumstances, the fact of commit
ting that first offence shows n vicious, de-
PRAYED mind, and discloses the man against
whose Vaccinations society ought to be
protected
John A Dix, noble man that he is. has
set worthy example before his brother
governors, and one which they would do
well to follow. But how about William
b. Washburn, whlom governor of Massa-
chusetts, and now her representative in
the Senate of the United States We have
placed before our readers, from day to day,
the horrid details of the recent child muir
der at or near Dorchester, Massachusetts.
In this connection, and rs showing how this
pardoning power is exercised, we desire to
present the murderer's record before our
readers.
His victims were many. One was a son
OF MIR. Paine, of Chelsea, who was, about
CHRISTMAS, 1871, taken by Pomeroy to
Powder Horn Hill, stripped naked, tied to
a beam, beaten with rope, and left helm
less. Tracy Hadcn, another boy, was, on
Feb. 81, 1872, stripped, tied up, and beat
en- with board and ropes, by which some
OF his teeth were knocked out, the bridge
OF his n)sc broken, and other more serious
injuries inflicted. johnny Bach was en-
ticed to Powder Horn Hill soon after July
4, 1877, stripped, gagged, tied to IL beam,
beaten and then taken to Saltwater creek
and washed. Rober. Gould, in September
OF the same year, was taken from South
Boston to the vicinity of the Hartford and
Erie railroad, stripped, tied to a telegraph
pole, whipped and cut with knife in the
head Harry Austin, in August of the
same year, was, at South Boston, stripped,
beaten, and cut in the back and groin with
a Knife. George Pratt, about the same
time, was cnticcd In the cabin of Yacht
at south Boston, stripped and punctured
WIN pms and needles in different parts of
his body and left insensblc and bleeding.
Joseph Kennedy was about the same time
taken to place on the Old Colony road in
South Boston and maltreated in about the
same manner that the Gould boy had been.
These boys were all of tender are. from
seven 10 eleven years old.
This was late in the summer OF 1872. or
rather, the discovery of the guilty person
Pomeroy was made at that time. Soon
after he was convicted, and sentenced TO
the reform school for the period of his mi
nority. Yet, on the sixth day of February,
lS'4' after restraint of less than two
years, upon petition of his mother and
the recommendation of the prison officials
he was pardoned and sent home to commit
DINER crimes. In less than ten weeks. af
ter his pardon, he ruthlessly murders one
child, and it is more than probable other
children. Does this need comment? Are
the hands of the prison officials and of the
goyernor-senator entirely clear of this
murderP IT 1t is only single murder. 1t
may be hard to resist the prayers of
mother, but is it not far worse to see little
children fiendishly slaughtered, when their
lives might have been spared but for the
exercise Of power, placed in the execu-
tive's hands for the safety of innocent men,
and not for the detrlment of the commu-
nifty?
The Second Confession of the MUIR
derer Waltz
A snpcial IN tho T;,,oo o,,s tbot .Lo 80