The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-08-04
eaOOd Reading for Mississippi Om-
Gals.

The law-abiding people have come to
think that the pardoniRg business Is great
ly overdone in this State A vast sum
of money il expended in keeping up a
Judicial system for the protection Of soci-
ETY. against wrong-doiDg, but the whole
system is rapidly degenerating into a
farce so far as the prosecution of crimi-
mails is concerned, under the Ames-
Davis practice of wholesale pardoning.
Eighty-four pardons in one year-eighty-
four licenses to robbers, thieves and cut
threats to go and sin agaiR-are not likely
to exercise a very wholesome influence on
theconduct OF that class. Our officials who
issue these licenses, In the shape of par
dons, would do we'll to study and profit by
recent message Of Gov. .Tilden, OF. New
York, disappearing bill providing that
g person sentenced to i'm prisonment for
life, or for term of Is years or upward,
who has conducted himself properly in
prison. may, at the expiration of 10 years,
be discharged by the Governor from act
ual confinement, and that the residue of
/ the term shall be RENTED, unless he is
convicted Of some other crime, or fail to
receive full pardon within 10 years"
Notwithstanding the discharge would
be at the discretion of the Governor, Gov.
ITilden declined to sign the hill for rea-
sons which he sets forth in the following
extract, and it is this extract which We
would commend to the study of the officials
in the State, whose merciful interference
in behalf Of criminals In so often secured:
The object of these provisions is to Offer
to life cOnvicts the same inducements tC
good conduct that are held out to other
prisoners, and it is thought that their
adoption would tend greatly to promote
the discipline of the prisoners. 1t may be
that this would be the case, and that the
enactment of this bill would tend to secure
: good order among the eOnvicts. But in my
? opinion this anticipated advantage would
be much more than counterbalaneed by
other and graver considerations. TO The
heinOus crimes of murder in the SECOND
degree, rape, and arson-in the first degree
should be attached q punishment proper
tionate to their enOrnity. In many Other
States and countries that punishment i
death Formerly in this State the same
dread penalty was exacted. In my ludg
ment the punishment should not be les
than imprisonment for life. In saying thi
try to realize the suffering Of a life-lon?
incarceration, but also consider the ma
ture of these crimes. As general rule, per
I sons guilty of these Offenses are unit eve
again to associate with their fellows
A man who proposes to himself the com
mission of either of these felonies, shOui'
have before him, as an element of hi
calculations, the prospect OF being foreV
err immured within the walls of a prison
The terror of the law which now deter
men capable through revenge, passion, o
lust, of committing these crimes, woul
be greatly lghtened by change whic
provides for their liberation even at tn
f end of the long period of 10 years. Eve
for the stake of promoting good order i
the prison, / cannot assent to an enact
a ment which tends to lessen the just sens
of the atrocity of these crimes, or of til
wickedness OF those who commit them
In particular cases, where the cireumstar
ces will allow, executive elemency ma
Y now be exercised, and in this manne
only should any proper. indulgence b
: granted.