The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-06-30
A Day of Horrors.

1t would be difficult to prove that the hang
ing of six men last Friday-one in Massachu-
sets, two in Maine, two in South Carolina and
one in Georgia-affords any additional guar
anty of peace and security to the communi-
ties in which the executions occurred. Uni, ,r-
tunately for such an argument there are now
several other men in this country awaitisg ex-
ecutlon, and after they have been hanged there
VIII De more unhappy criminals to take their
places. New Jersey has just reputation for
enforcing the law of capital punishment vig-
orously and promptly, and yet the condemned
cells of the prisons and jas of that state are
In constant use. As matter of fact, choking
men to death according to the forms of law
does not deter other men from committing
murder Persons may say without reasoo)
that this is sentimental nonsense" or may
say with degree of reason) that men of low
and dangerous instincts who intentionally COM
NIT murder count upon escaping the penalty
oil the law through the delays and complicated
processes of the courts or the skill of ATTORNEYS
If however, capital punishment in itself had
any intrinsic deterrent force, it is obvious that
man, however debased, who took the trouble
10 think about the subject with any care.
would hesitate to run the risk of thrusting his
neck into the hangman's noose; a risk to
which the courts, however slow and inefficient
they may be, necessarily subject him.
III we do not hang men for the benefit of
the community, Tor what do we hang them?
Does any one have any confidence in the re-
pentance of a man who is driven to ask for
divine forgiveness because he is going to be
hanged within half an hour? Are not persons
of sense shocked whenever notorious criminal
makes the scaffold a platform for setting forth
his own Willingness to die, and for urging the
spectators of his shameful death ITO meet him
in glory? If such man were imprisoned DUR
ing the remainder of his natural life under the
proper Conditions of regular employment,
there would be an opportunity to subject his
protestations of repentance to satisfactory
test His daily good behavior, his industry,
his thoughtful consideration for the rights Of
others within the narrow limits of prison life,
might convince his felow-men that his pro-
fesson of reform was not the consequence of
mere spasm of fear, but of an earnest and
reasonable effort TO prepare himself for death.
This would afford the condemned man time for
rearepentance, and at the same time would sat-
isfy justice. Usually we aretold,in answer TO
this, that the man would be turned loose upon
clety by meaus of pardon. This has nothing
to do with the principle. Because man alone
in deep water will be drowned if he does not
swim, it does not prove that swim ming world
not save him.
One of the men hanged last Friday was car
ried to the scatfold suffering from a self-inflct-
ed wound, which. it is reported, came very
near putting an end to his miserable life before
the sheriff's officers could hang him. We can
not imagine more shameful spectacle 1t
was worse even than the Indifference to death
and the loquacity which the brandy given 10
sustain criminals as they walk to the scaffold
sometimes occasions. The condition of mind
which produced such horrible consequences
may be imagined. The executive officers Of
the law were put to their speed in this race be-
tween capital punishment and the suicides
knife. A barbaric statute required that what
was left of the mans life should be destroyed.
A paper found in his cell after the execution
says that he en1eavored 10 kill himself because
be was innocent, and hence did not wish to dis
grace his family by an undeserved death on
the gallows. Capital punishment deprives
convicted persons of every remedy in the con-
tiDgency of innocence. But the penalty of i'm
prisonment for life, rigidly enforced, whirl
equally effectual as a preventive of crime,
would have tempered this mans grief aud hoe
ror at his conviction and if after all be was
really guilty he might have been prepared
thus, when death came in the course of nature,
to meet ii ike a rational heing IN Y Post