Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-01-29
Murder and It's Punishment.

| 1900 ~
be made of persons convicted of muir
der. The events that crowd fast up
Oh us force the question upon our at
tention, and we cannot avoid its
consideration if we would.
1t is claimed by some that the abo-
lition of the gallows in the State of
Iowa has materially increased the
number of homicidcs within the last
ten years. Is this claim true? If it
is, then it is in order seriousl " to dis
cuss the propriety of restoring the
Death Penalty. IF it is not true, then
let us give the present law full and
fair trial, and not allow ourselves to
be driven into course we do not APP
prove by the frenzied demonstrations
of some excited localities.
The highest known authority for
making hare soup, lays this down as
the first requisite: "First catch your
hare" the rule is equally good in
considering what shall be done with
the murderer-frst catch your muir
derer-but this precept has been for
the last two years mainly disregard
ed in Iowa, and most of those who
have shed the blood of their fellows
are still at large, plying their voca-
tons at their leisure. In this matter
the State has been inexcusably re-
miss. Massachusetts has just sent 4
couple Of constables to Ireland after
Cahill, who is suspected of killing
Bridget Landregan, and they caught
him and brought him back to trial.
But in Iowa when murder is com
mitted the officers telegraph to Du-
buque and to Council Bluffs and then
wait for the Lord to return them their
prisoner; or they allow their mann
moth robbers, like Babbagc, to walk
off at their convenience. This inetfi-
cheney i'll c0tching the criminals has
worked an increase of crime, not only
by leaving the old criminals to add
to their crimes, but by inviting other
criminals to field where they can
operate with so little danger of arrest.
A moments thought will convince
anyone that if the persons who com
mitted the murders in the vicinity
of Des Moines had generally been
apprehended and sentenced to impris-
onment for life under the present
law, the people woul1. have been sat
istied and never have resortcd to lynch
law. But the murderers were not
caught and the people were angry,
and, like most angry people, they did
not strike wisely but directed their
fury against the law, because it did
not punish the criminals by hanging,
when it should have been directed
against the officers who never caught
| them.
1t is said that men dread hanging
more than imprisonment. Granted,
and it follows that they will make
greater efforts to keep out of the way
when catching means hanging than
when it simply means Imprisonment,
and if only one in four is caught with
the milder punishment in force, how
many would be caught and brought
back to certain death? certainly Il still
smaller percentage.
Another reason for the increase of
murder in Iowa is, that it is a new
State, and its wild and unsettled do
main attracts to some extent the
criminals of older States. The Ben
ders and their ilk cannot thrive in Il
populous State. \ train cannot be
wrecked and robbed between Albany
and New York; it can be be-
tween Des Moines and the Missouri
river.
These reasons for the increase of
crime in Iowa are in manner pecu-
liar to this State, but a marked in
crease results from the terrible, grow
ing tendency to crime which we share
in common with the rest of the na-
ton, if not of the world. There has
never been year so fruitful of muir
der, of rape, incendiarism, burglary,
seduction, forgery, highway robbery,
embezzlement and peculation, as 1874
has been. Good men are in despair
everywhere. On New Years day Il
city court reporter for 4 prominent
Boston paper, threw up his hands
aghast at the contemplation of the
awful growth and spread of crime re-
vealed by the summing up of his
years work.
A wave of didbolism is rolling
over the land and it would not halt
at the Iowa State line whether muir
der is punished with death or impris-
onment therein, especially as it is not
the habit to catch the murderers any
how.
1t must be apparent that the in
crease of murder (if there is an in
crease) is not due to the enactment
Of the present law. 1t is due to any
thing else but that. The present law
has not had fair trial, if it has had
any trial at all. Judge Maxwell, i'm
mediately upon the passage of the
law, so far forgot the dignity which
should attach to his position as to
ccnsurc the Legislature for its action,
and to prophecy great evil for the
new law. His sentiment was echoed
by the smaller fry in various parts of
the State, and they have labored to