The Portland daily press., 1874-01-27
It being thus impossible to establish any

II being thus impossible to establish any
connection between the increase in the num-
Der of murders and the abolition of capital
punishment, the demand for the restoration
of the gallows is not only unjust but irration-
al. 1t is purely vindictive and is prompted by
essentially the same motive that inspires the
vulgar to demand, when wong is commit
ted by person, to have it s'taken out of
him." Now vindictiveness, considered mere
ly from the standpoint of the well being Of
society, has no place whatever in the mod
ern philosophy of the suppression OF
crime. The advocates of the gallows,
though many of them gentlemen Of
great ability and of great skill in their sever
al avocations, attempt to prescribe for dis
order of which they have not taken the
trouble to make thorough study. Exp erts'
men who have made the protection OF society
from crime the study of a lifetime ana VINO
have had great practical experience in dealing
with criminals, were led to the adoption OF
reformatory and curative systems by the per-
ception of the very fact which we have men,
toned, namely, that the punitory theory and
practice make the criminals which they pun
ish. There are mountains of evidence In
support of this fact. The report of prison
congresses and associations where prison of
ficers, inspectors, philosophers, as well as
phlanthropists, meet to discuss matters OF
which they have special knowledge, are full
of it. How unintelligent then is this cry for
unfruitful vengeance! Unfruitful do we say ?
may, bearing fruit Of its own kind in horri-
BILE abundance. Only last Saturday an asso-
ciated press dispatch told the people of the
United States that, in California, on the
previous day man had been hanged, during
which operation his head was wrencheI by
the fall from his body. This picture of the
head of a human being tumbling one way
and the body the other was wildly before the
mind of a large majority of American citi-
zens and made some impression upon every
body. Who shall say that the terrify-
ing effect of this spectacle in prevent
ing future homicides equalled its brutal
izing influence on the mind of the
average citizen. Every taking of human
life cheapens it 10 the spectators and in this
| cage the spectators were the whole nation.
The man who deliberately sets about MUIR
der-and this is the only man whom any
body wants to hang-has his mind intent
upon the killing and upon escaping detection.
The penalty does not enter into his calcula-
tions because he does not propose to be pun
ished at all. The bloody influences of for
mer executions, are continually though per-
haps imperceptibly acting upon his mind
while the lettering influences of fear are not
operative because he proposes to escape the
consequences altogether.
The whole subject is before the legislators
at Augusta. They are to seek the best means
| to guard the sanctity of human life. This
should be done with an eye single to the pro
J lection of society. The desire for vengeance
on an offender or retribution for the ofiense
has no legitimate place in their deliberations,
| On subject of such paramount Importance,
| too much care cannot be bestowed and with
such care we may hope for result consistent
with the teachings of experience and reason.