The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-10-30
ENEMIES OF THE STATE.

ENEMIES OF THE STATE.
We have been accustomed to find fault
with the proper officers for not promptly
enforcing the law-with the grand jury for
not finding indictments, with states attor-
neys for not pressing convictions for the
higher, as we'll as the lower, grades of
crime, and with the courts for not exciting
the utmost penalty of the law-but, after
all, we are inclined to think that, in Yer
mont, the people have some reason to be
thankful for the remissness Of the officers.
The laws on our statute book are unknown
to the people and, perhaps, to the officers.
In our demand for the due execution ofthe
laws, it will be well to remember that there
may be something in our statute book that
we little dream Of Thus IL is recalled ms
specimen of Vermont legislation, growing
out of the st. Adams raid, the following
enactment If any three or more per
sons acting in concert shall, with force
" and violence, attempt TO kill, main or
wound any person, or to rob any person,
corporation or other community of asy
money or other property, or to burn,
blow up, or otherwise destroy any bank
" building, store. factory, dwellipg-house,
or other building or depository of pro-
"perty, or any railroad car or engine, or
any steamboat, vessel or other water
craft, used or to be used in navigable
" waters, wheth er the same may be finished
" or in the course of construction, each
person so offending, shall, upon being
duly convicted thereof, be deemed and
" adjudged to be guilty of felony, and
." an enemy to the state, and shall suffer
Z" the penalty of death for the same, with
- in the space of ninety days next after
"such conviction"
The law goes even further than this and
provides that if any person shall have any
knowledge of the commission of such
crime and shall neglect to disclose it, he
shall be deemed a principal in the commits
sion of such crime and suffer the penalty
therefor-that is to say. if one shall have
knowledge that three persons acting TO-
gether, shall 'attempt to wound any PER-
'son" he shall be hung within ninety days
after conviction. This act still stands up
on the statute book, and has never been al
tered, amended or repealed. The general
statutes provide that for wilful murder, the
punishment shall be DEATH but that the
penalty shall not be inflicted until twenty
months after conviction; but this statute
provides that where three persons acting in
concert--that is acting together-shall even
ATTEMPT to oound another, he shall be
deemed an enemy of the state and shall
suffer the penalty of death within ninety
days after onviction-which is law? Is
attempting to wound person by three
others acting together q greater crime than
wilful and deliberate murder committed
by one acting alone? So the law seems to
read and three persons endeavoring to give
another black eye are meeted out the
same degree of punishment as q murderer
and much more speedily too.
To be sure the law is entitled "an act to
'prevcnt raids, but the question might arise
as to what are "raids," and as criminal
laws are to be strictly construed, does the
language of the act or its title and the cir
cumstances which caused its enactment
govern in its construction? Should the law
be strictly construed, according to the letter
without regard to the circumstances which
called 1t into existence, and should it be
impartially enforced, the population of the
state would be rapidly decimated and Yer
mont would be the scene OF Wholesale
hangings. Fortunate was it for Peter
Nary, Thomas Dushan and William But
terfy, however unfortunate it may have
been for this community, that they acted
in concert in attempting to burn Rutland
prior to, rather than after, November 10,
1854 Fortunate was it for the three and
more West Rutland roughs who, during the
past summer, made "raid on Claren
don Springs and not only attempted but
actually wounded a man there, that the
grand jury, states attorney and court con.
cluded to treat their offense as simple
assault and were CONTEXT with small fine
instead of pursuing them under this statute
adiudging them "enemies of the state
and suspending them from the gallowi
within ninety days! Seriously, the law il
specimen of very weak and foolish legis
lation whatever its construction may be
and shows what Legislators will do undel
the influence of fear. 1t looks more lik,
an enactment of barbaric age than of ;
civilized christian community, and shoulC
be stricken from the statute book.