The Portland daily press., 1876-02-14
Influence of .he Death Penalty.

To the Editor Of the Press:
Since l addressed my brief article to the Ar-
gus founded on an item in the Advertiser in
which allusion was made to the letter of Judge
Goddard as published in the Argus, have
lowing paragraph:
Let every convicted murderer be hung, as he
is pretty likely to be under our present law and
predict that the deatb-rate of murderers and
victl ms together for the next year or five years,
shall fall short OF 80 per cent. of the number
OF victims alone during the past year or five
years"
As the above involves the main arguments
now employed in favor Of the death penalty
VIZ, that of protection to society,-I venture to
send you few facts in connection with the
history of the gallows and the crime of murder
in our State. To my mind, they show quite
conclusively, that Judge Goddard labors under
a mistake when he assumes that killing men
because they kill is sovereign panacea for all
such ills. These facts are as follows:
Sager was hung in the streets of Augusta in
1888 as terror to evil doers, and the account,
by an eye witness, states that ''drunkeness,
profanity and fighting were the order of the
day. Never before nor since was Augusta so
disgraced with rowdyisrn and crime. A large
body of police was brought into service, and
the very Jail which had been emptied of mur-
derer, threw open its doors to receive those
who came to came TO profit by the solemn ex-
ample Of an execution. No less than seven
men were placed in the very cell from which
Sager had been taken to the gallows."
So declares the report of a committee of ths
Legislature of Maine of 1885 on a new bill with
reference to capital punishment. The execn-
tion of Sager had opened the eyes OF the people.
The new bill became law that winter. 1t re-
quired that the offender should be in prison one
year before execution and then that the execu-
tion should be in comparative priUacv; and
such was its nature that 1t was virtually or
practically the abolishment of capital punish.
ment in Maine for years. 1t was so designed
by its trainers, of whom Hannibal Hamlin was
one.
From 1884 to 1866, no person was hung in
Maine by the laws of Maine Two men were
executed in Auburn by authority of the United
States government some fifteen years ago;
but during the 81 years to which 1 refer, be-
tween 1884 and 1866, there were no executions
under the laws of Maine. And what is now
regarded as siugularly remarkable by many, is
mtted 10 Maine during all those years though
our population was nearly or quite up to its
present figure. The average of murders was
not one an fee gears How does Judge GODDARD
account for this fact, if banging is so necessary
as preventive to the crime of murder?
But see further; in 1866 Governor Cony hung
Spencer for hitting the warden of the prison,
an act on the part of the Governor no one, so
far as know, deprecated. Spencer was not
incarcerated for murder. His term, or sentence
would have expired in two years. But did the
hanging of Spencer deter men from killing?
RV means for in a short fimQ follnwad the
very shocking double murder of the two old
ladies by Harris the negro at North Auburn,
which was followed by other deeds in different
parts of the state, less dreadful. In 1869 new
law, designed to make hanging certain in
Maine was enacted, and Governor Chamberlain
hung Harris, on which many people in our
State who had implicit faith in the salutary in
fuence of the gallowS, breathed easier, believing
that numbering was at an end in our State. But
what followed? Why, within three months
from the time of said hanging two dreadful
murders were perpetrated; and in the following
June james L. Lowell killed his wife in Lew
iston and severed her head from her body,
almost within sight of the Jail in which Harris
had been confined; and, in short, "within
twenty months of the execution of Harris
more murders were committed in Maine."-
as Judge Walton declared before the Grand
Jury in Auburn, eighteen months ago "than
had been perpetrated in our state IN any preui-
Oots t,Centy gears of 0uLr history.
Indeed, such had come to be the condition of
things at that time that a certain class of men
in all parts of our state were calling for hang
ing without judge and jury. They said Jus
tice should be summary, quick and sharp with
such scoundrels" If a man killed he should
be hung to the nearest tree. And even this
1nurderous process was tried in Aroostook-to
the shame of our state be it said-and Cullen
was strung up instantly without benefit of
clergy" And what was the result? Were
murders at an end in Maine? If the philos-
ophy of Judge Goddard is correct, surely here
deter men and women forever from engaging
in muIderous deeds But no. Scarcely had
the body OF the miserable Cullen got cold
or the papers ceased blazing abroad
an account of the vengeance of the
bloody deed in Aroostook, when the COM
munlty was startled by the assassination of DR..
Baker inlWarren by his parsmour or somebody
else. And then upon the top of that, came
the news of thu far more dreadful murder
triple murder-of the Gordon family, followed
by the crime for which Wagner was executed.
Such are the facts relative to murder and the
laws of Maine. 1t seems to me they form no