Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-01-09

means of information on this subject, we may
regard the small investment Of the State in
this direction as peculiarly fortunate and wise.
The recommendations of the Commis sioners
should receive the attention they so we'll de-
serve.
TIE Law DEPARTMENT..
The report of the Attorney General gives a
detailed statement of the extent of the labors OF
this officer, as well as Of the several County
Attorneys, in enforcing the laws Of the State
against crime. The suggestions contained in
his report should receive due consideration.
THE LAWS TO PUNISH MURDER.
In view of criticisms which have found ex-
preston, not only in public journals, but even
in courts of justice, should fail to discharge
the duty imposed upon me, if did not direct
your attention to the anomalous provisions S
of our statutes for the punishment of the
crime of murder in the first degree, since the
legislation of 1869. In contravention of we'll
settled principles of government, this statute
fails to pres erye the wise distribution of pow
ers contemplated by the trainers of the con-
sttution, in that it imposes upon the executive
department the duties and responsibilities of
a court of review-a function clearly judicial
rather than executive.
!y of the governor and council to carefully
review the evidence and proceedings in
every case; and then to decide whether
the sentence of the court imposing the pun
ishment provided by law, shall stand, or anoth-
er penalty be substituted. Practically, the
determination Of this extraordinary court of
review-in which each member is a law
unto himself,-is controlled by a majority
of the council; for sense of the improperly
of one and the same person acting both as
Judge and executioner, has in every case that
has arisen under the law, restrained the exec
utive from assuming the grave responsibility
Of overriding the action of the council when
that body has voted in favor of commutation.
When the council have voted otherwise, as
they have done in only single case since the
enactment of the statute of 1869, the execu-
tive has issued his warrant, as then clearly re-
quired by law.
1t will be observed that the statute require
ment to which your attention is called, is ad-
ditional to, and even inconsistent with the de-
sign of the pardnoDg power conferred upon
the executive by the constitution. The latter
is a constitutional prerogative, designed not
as an ordinary provision for revising the pro-
ceedngs of the courts, but simply as an ex
ceptional resort in extraordinary cases, over
which it was intended that neither the legisa-
have control, and for the exercise of which
the executive department should be solely re-
sponsible. But the former is a statute duty
imposed upon the executive department., re-
quiring review" of every case, and almost
inviting the exercise of the Iardoning power
as if the legislature contemplated that mod-
fication of sentence should be the rule in
stead Of the exception. AS the constitution
makes ample provision for any exigency de-
manding the Intervention of the pardoning
power, it seems to me eminently desirable
that our statutes should establish such pen
atty for the crime of murder as the law-mak-
ing power expects to have uniformly execu-
ted. To incorporate in them a provision
looking to the modification after conviction
and sentence of the penalty provided, is not
only to create in the administrators of the
law more than suspicion that the punish
ment nominally established was not designed
to be executed, but also to deprive the law of
that wholesome influence over the evil-dis-
posed, which comes from the conviction that
no one adjudged guilty can avoid the uniform
and impartial enforcement of whatever PEN
atty the legislature may under all the crcum-
stances consider best calculated to protect
society.
PREVENTION OF CRIME.
1t is cheaper and more effective and benef
than to allow these to ripen into criminal acts
which require punishment. A large part of
this work of prevention is within the sphere
of personal moral effort; yet that important
portion which consist in removing the hind
RANGES to right conduct, and repressing the
to vice interposed by men in their
relations as citizens, comes confessedly with
in the domain of law. Indeed, no govern
ment fuils its mission which forgets that the
State can in this way do much to make it easy
TO do right and difficult to do wrong. SO large
a proportion Of pauperism and crime arises
from intemperance, of which the dram shop
is the prolific cause, that all citizens who hav G
regard for the public safety and welfare, as well
as the highest court of the nation, unite in
affirming the principle tina: the liquor traffic is
a source of grave peril to society, against
which it is the right and duty Of the State to
protect itself by such enactments as the legs-
lative authority shall consider best calculated
TO that end.
On this well settled principle has rested all
the legislation ever had in restraint of the
liquor traffic, whether involving the principle
OF license or prohibition. For more than two
hundred years, first in the parent Province
and Commonw ealth, and subsequently in the
State of Maine, thorough trial was had of
the license system, in every form that could
spread Il conviction that any system OF licens-
ing dram shops is nearly powerless to repress
the temptations which promote intemperance,
that in 1851 this State adopted the policy OF
prohibiting drinking houses and tippling shops
altogether, and of authorizing the sale of in
toxicating liquors only for medicinal and me-
chanical purposes, by agents appointed for
that purpose. This system has had trial Of
only twenty-five years yet its success, in this
brief period, has on the whole been much
greater than that of any other plan yet devils
ed that prohibition may be said to be accept
ed by large majority OF the people as the
proper policy of this State towards drinking
houses and .ippling shops; and to be acquiesc-
ed in to a great extent by others, as an expert
ment which should have as thorough trial as
other systems that preceded it. BY dealing
in this spirit with a question affecting SO mo-
mentous interests, there will ultimately be
substantial agreement among all good citizens
on such a policy as experience shall have
shown to be most effective in repressing the
evils of the liquor traffic. To this end, such
an investigation into the effects Of the traffic,
and the results of legislation to suppress or
restrain the same, as is contemplated by
proposition introduced into Congress by one
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