The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-02-02
II. A. LOUGHARY,
President o. S. w. S. A.
"a LIFE FOR A LIFE"

The old law, which, in the very sound
Of its fierce enunciation, sends the blood
curdling back to the heart, is such an
undeniable relic of barbaric age that
at mention of it humanity instinctively
recoils. Men, wise and humane, have
argued and carefully weighed the ques-
tions arising from it, and in view of the
fiendish natures of some who wear the
human form, have decided that though
narrowing to every finer sensibility, its
extreme measures are necessary to the
public veal. Others just as wise, but
perhaps more humane, have deliberated
upon it and published to the world their
belief, well supported by logic, that in
no instance does capital punishment
subserve the ends of justice or act as
safeguard for the public. For our own
part, we have always been taught, and
attempted to teach, that "two wrongs
cannot make one right" and that MUIR
der is murder, whether committed in
the heat of passion or with cunning
malice by an individual, or deliberately
perpetuated in cold blood by the Of
Tended law.
"If hanging is ever justiiable, this
one was" said a friend, after reading
the confession of the unhappy wretch,
who, protesting, covering, shuddering,
was sent by the dark door of the scaf-
fold to his eternal doom on last Friday.
Perhaps so. But looking over and
noting the comments of the press upon
the dread event, we find that hundreds
of persons asse9abled in the city of AL
bany on the day of the execution; that
a number of arrests, caused by differ
enceo of opinion concerning it, were made,
while the details of the hanging, the ad-
justment of the moose, the half incoher-
ent words of the victim, the length of
time before life was extinct, etc., etc.,
were all themes of conversation and
comment for several days. Is not the
demoralizing effect of these things upon
a community simply shocking? Does
it not foster a revengeful spirit and de-
velop a brutal sentiment that will rather
serve to furnish work for the hangman
than to take away his occupation ?
And is any act justifiable that thus dis
turbs the moral equilibrium of the
masses? But we are told that such a
scene and such a fate inspires evil doers
with wholesome dread of consequences
and puts their passions under restraint.
We read, however, that, notwithstand-
ing this restraint and dread of ignoble
death, almost under the very shadow of
the gallows, and but one day after it's
work was done, an assault was made
where the execution took place, and the
officer assaulted was cruelty beaten and
left for dead.
Brutality begets brutality, and never
allays it. Like Milton's tabled FORTRESS
of "Hell Gate" who
"opened, but to shut excelled her power"
This demon of revenge, whether evoked
in the name of the law, or aroused by
individual passion, opens the door of
crime which it is impossible for the
same power to close. The death of a
good citizen by the red hand of the as
sassin rouses a spirit of revenge which
the law renders potent, while the hang
ing Of the assassin by the neck until he
is dead keeps alive a vengeful ire that
bids the gallows again take its prey.
We heard, less than a week since, a
Christian minister relate to large au-
dienee the horrible details of an execu-
tion when man was, in the presence of
multitude, sent shrieking, praying,
and protesting into the dark waters of
the Eternal river. We know not what
point he wished to make by its recital,
but we turned shudderingly aside and
thought of the agonized and pleading
utterance, "Father, forgive them"
which fell from the lips of Jesus of
Nazareth, and felt that this gentle and
pathetic appeal for mistaken humanity
would more surely draw them toward
Him than any recital of the workings of
a vengeful law human or Divine could
possibly do.