Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-02-14
proao. ne life Of the individual or the li-es Of


striking for liberty, it is nothing but Pickwckian
| We believe in it as Gods truth. Our people havt
accepted il as the words which reveal the gospe
| of liberty; the new dispensatioD of the rights o.
men. No government is rightly constituted which
is not based on it, nor performs its dates rightly
which does not carry it out. The life of a mar
| held at the will or discretion of his fellow-men
| Absurd! Forfeited then by minor offences Such
an inversion of things, subjectng greater to less
| could only emanate from reason upside down
For all minor offences there are resources ample
| in the range Of lawful penalty. To provide FOL
them is the very office of that legislative wisdom
| which free government calls into requistion
and it may not shik its duty, by tlespassing upon
| the rights of life.
If the State has the "power Of life and death,
as it "has to declare war;" then logically and
apart from constitutional restriction. majority
which may deem the tenets of the minority preJu-
dical to the State, may enact that minority or It's
leaders to death. The conclusion is legitimate
and is as sound as the premises. No, our fathers
never meant, and government never has,
lodged arbitrary power in the hands OF a majority
any more than with one. In political and pruden-
tial matters the State may legslate and the rco-
pies will may direct, but life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness as the inaenable rights of all
are the very basis of the State upon which no pow
or within it can infringe; and not even upon the
least of them may it ercroach, without ust com
pensation." What a monstrous anomaly would Ii
be if this people, whose boast is constitutional re-
striction upon governmental power, and who base
their liberties in the rights of nature should ac-
knowledge either a constitutional or natural or
moral authority in the ruling power, to punish
should its discretion so dictate, the sale OF glass
of liquor petty larceny orfast driving, with death
The State and the people are alike bound by moral
law, and have no more right to commit murder
than the individual. Society is no more the arhi-
ter of life than it is the Of life. 1t Is bound,
like all who have it, by the law Of Him Who gave
it. 1t must conform to justice; aud noe than
that, it may not administer abs ract justice, any
farther than its necessities demand. 1t can never
exceed justice, it may administer justice only up
to the point of It's necessities.
Do we then deny the right of the death penalty
for murder? AS founded in any general power of
the State over life even for crime, We do. Has the
man who defends his life the life of another
against an assassin, any general power over life
Has he any general right to take life None
whatever; but he has right to defend it. 1t is
not in right to take life, but in the right to de-
fend it that the rightfulness of the death penalty
for murder consists. Crime only puts the primary
rights within the power of the State. The viola
tor of right forfeits, mot aenates.) that right.
Law is protectory declaration Of rights: Thou
shalt respect thy neighbours right to life" and so
on. That is a moral and original law, which So
ciety declares. 1t is as much bound by it as the
individual. 1t has an additional duty, to protect
and vindicete that right; in other words to en-
force that law. When an individual violates a
right, he forfes his own right to protection under
the law which protects that right; because the re-
tenton of his own right is logically and practically
inconsistent with the rights of the whole. If the
violation of law defining hight does not forfeit
that right in the violator there can be no punish
ment; since the penalties of punishment are an
inflacton Of what, before the crime, were rights
and if those rights still existing, the infection
is trespass and therefore wrong.
For the law which protects life, to protect equal
" the life Of him who violates it, would be to stul-
tify itself. 1t would be absurd. 1t cannot pro-
tect both life and warfare against life at the same
time. The statement is logical contradiction
the performance is natural mpossibllity. 1t fol.
lows as we have said, that the violation of the
right to life forfeits the existence of the right 10
the yolator forfeits by the nature of the act to
that power which stands in the relation of protec-
tor or administrator of that law. The forfeiture
and consequent penalty not in violation of the
law, which cannot be violated outside Of its extent
but they in support and in pursuance Of the
law.
Thus it is that society acquires the power over
life 10 the case Of murder. 1t has no such inner.
srt power. 1t has no power otherwise than as thus
acquired. II has no power, therefore, over life
for minor offences. 1t has none such by their OWE
nature,-it has none such by inference from thi,
case. With the same reason might one, by virtue
of the undisputed right to defend himself against
an assassin, claim light over the assailauts life
in other cases and for other causes.
This then is the foundation of the only penal
power which society has over life: not hight tc
take life but the right to defend it; just as an in
dividual who defends his life against an assassin
does so, not by right to take life but by RICH,
to defend it.
For minor offences penal justice can find ample
scope and effective means, whether for prevention
or REFORM if directed by that legislative wisdom
which is the duty of society under the dictates
of humanity, to apply to this object. With laws
based upon right principles, the fears lately ex-
pressed, Of capital punishment being inflicted for
trivial offeEces," need have no indulgence. In
relation to this the yindictive feelings, natural
instincts" they may be sometimes called, are no
guide. They are stronger in the brutes. These
know no penalty but death, In the earlier or low
er stages it is so with man and evidence fills the
earth" Death is the penalty for oflences-be-
tween individuals by murder, between nations by
war. AS men advance the restraints of law and
government are acquired; but codes are sanguin-
airy, and many offences are punished with death
With the advance of light and knowledge the
codes are sofened, in the interest of both policy
and humanity TIL with the advent Of civil liberty
its just foundations revealed, in the "inalicna
BILE rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi
ness" The beautiful sentiments of the society OF
Friends, as drawn from the New Testament, have
here full scope Vengeance, in the law, is right
fully nowhere, vengeance is the Lords and not