The Portland daily press., 1874-09-23

ton has been the atrocity of the crime, the
ill desert Of the criminal and the innocence
and helplessness of his victims. These con-
siderations alone, We admit, are calculated to
inspire any sympathetic nature with the feel
ing that changing is too good for him." 1t
cannct be deuied that the crime had every
aggravation OF deliberation, cruelty and re-
inconsistencies. But men who occupy, under
the laws of the state, judicial position, are
bound to take into consideration the whole
case and to found their decision on general
principles, having reference not only to the
offender and his crime, but to the future well
fare of the state and the philosophy of pun
ishment and penalties. As Zen Jonson said
almost three centuries ago:
In gre t atfIirs and doubtful, it behooves
Men that are asked their sentence, TO be free
is4 From hate or love, anger pity;
% For where the least of these doth hinder, there
The mind N t easily discerns the truth.
.ssT'irning their attention for time from the
awful m dnight tragedy at Smutty Nose, the
Council were bound to consider, among other
things, this question: l'oes the law, as it now
stands, contemplate resort to the gallows
except under extraordinary circumstances,
such as a homicide committed by an inmate
OF the state prison? We believe that the his
tory OF the law will compel an answer in the
negative. There is disposition, to be sure.
among some Of the opponents as well as the
advocates of capital punishment to regard the
law as wretehed evasion of responsibility
on the part of the legislature, which has nat
ura!iy Been followed by a corresponding eva
SIGN on the part Of successive executives.
But the fact that toe people of Maine, acting
through this legislature, have lett the law sub
s.antally as it now is ever since 1887, is quite
conclusive evidence that they Lave had
clear, decisive purpose in it and that they
have known exactly what they meant. That
purpose seems 10 have been to practically
abolish capital punishment, while leaving
lodged somewhere the power to make use, in
great emergencies, of the rejected penalty.
AT any rate this was tie Interpretation put
upon it by every Governor from Kent to
Chamberlain, including Fairfield, Kavanagh,
Anderson, Dana, Hubbard, Crosby, A.P Nor
ri!l, Wells, Williams, L. M. Morrill,, Washburn,
Coburn and Cony. Governor Cony is
sued his warrant for the execution of
a convict who murdered his keeper,
in accordance with what appears 10 be the
intent OF the law. There were then 10 more
executions till Feb. 5, 1869, when Gov. Cham
berlain, holding that his predecessors had
stunned duty Enthusiastically imposd upon
them by law, hanged the negro boy Harris.
"A desperate effort was then made in the leg
islature to sustain the Governor in the course
he had taken. but no change was made ex-
cept to require The Governor to issue his war
rant in capital cases unless, after review by
the Council, the sentence was committed or
The convict pardoned. No more was intend
ed by the law of 1869 than to secure the Grm-
al consideration and disposal of each case by
The Governor and Council, instead of allow
ing the convict to hold his life for years at the
discretion of a Governor wLo might at any
time issue warrant for his execution, or
might change his sentence to, perpetual i'm
prisonment merely by deferring to issue his
warrant. That no more than this was in
tended is shown by the uniform practice of
the Council. under both Chamberlain and
Perham, of committing all sentences on
which .hey were called to act. And the leg
islature of last winter, being loudly called up
on by gentlemen of great ability and persever-
ance to condemn this practice, did most en-
phatically approve and authorize it by refus
ing to make any change whatever in the law
which had been SO interpreted. Subsequent
TO the hanging of Harris murders were fire
quent and atrocious, but in no instance did
the Council reach the conclusion that the law
of 1869 had re-established capital punishment
as penalty to be enforced as matter of
course even in ctses of the most atrocious
crimes; and after five years of uniform COM
mutation, the legislature was so far from dis
approving this SO called neglect and ''laxi
ty," that it came nearer taking away the
power to hang altogether than making the
erection Of the gallows imperative.
Gov. Dingley, in addressing the Council in
Wagner's case, makes use of language which
seems to indicate that the amendment of
1869 increased the str'ngency of the law and
that Harris was hanged in compliance with
it. He says; 81 shall follow the practice of
the two chief magistrates who have cccu-
pied the chair since the enactment of this
provision of law'-that is, execute unless
the Council advises pardon or Communication.
Unquestionably the Governor has now no
discretion in the matter, if the Council is de-
termned upon an execution, but the appar-
ent reference to a diversity of practice since
the law Of 1869 was passed, is evidently the
result of mistake. Harris was hanged be-
fore the new provision was enacted, and
under that provision there has, so far. been
no execution. Judge Goddard himself, in
Letter published last winter says: "AI-
though repeated capital convictions have
been had since 1869, when this law was
passed, yet no executions have taken place."
We mention this point in Gov. Dingley's
statement because we are reluctant to have
the groundess impression prevail that some
how the amendment Of 1859 imposed upon
the executive, including the Council, some
new duty or obligation to enforce capital
punishment, beyond what is clearly set forth
in its provisions. But no more need be said
10 show clear purpose Oh the part of the
people and lawmakers of Maine to continue
bloodless administration of the criminal
law. If the limits of newspaper article
would permit we might show, as has been
thousand Times shown before, that the
shedding of blood as means of deterrino
from crime is worse than useless: that Il
brutalizes, more than it intimidates: that
Maine has never received any benefit from
this species of punishment when it has been,
at infrequent intervals, applied; that states
using milder penalties are at least quite as
exempt from the higher crimes as those
where the galIows is still maintained; that
the punishment of crime IN this state is
much more certain than it would be under
bloo1ier code; and finally that the death
penalty is relic of barbarism, entirely in
consistent with any well-c ,nsidered mod
ern theory of justice, social science or
nunlan W. 81 Lf
EVERY reader of the PRESS should bear
in mind that the exhibition of the Maine |
Pathological Society at City Hall is the fullest |
and finest display of what tho s+t