The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-12-12

the death penalty on any but the lnur
Gercr and sometimes the traitor. II is
repugrlant to reason and right to make
arson, burglary, and rape punishable by
death. These are hcinous crimes, but
they have no affinity with death. They
do not suggest death as murder and
treason do. Ind to make tf.em capital
offences would not add new tcrrors to
death, but would rather deprive the glib
bet Of itH awful SolcI.nitv by dui!ing the
senses Of our people, dcaicning tho force
OF tho law, and maKinT human life cheap-
or u Ill ii is. "litst"i,E has shown that 100
grr.t severity in the punishment of crime
prevents the remedy from heiny cl"c-
tual. II is possible, as the freshman sad,
to get accustomed to hanging. Mover
were l~arccnicS so common in England as
when twenty thieves could be seen dang
ling OH one gibbct, and when a man
would be hanged for countcrtcitinS the
stamps. used, iii tho snle of periumory and
hair-powder, or for cutting a hop-Vlnc.
Enact a law making arson, burglary,
and rape capital offences, and as a natural
consequence a confcderacy will be form
ed byjudges, juries, prosecutors and wit
nesses, to defeat and prevent he xecu-
ton of so bloody q code. already IN
cases Of homicide there is too great n
shrinking on the part Of orr people from
aiding the law in the arrest and trial OF
offenders !; and who among us would be
forward in putting the moose round a
mans neck for, it might he, setting fire
to an clubhouse? Undue severity i'll pun
ishing cxcitos sympathy towards the
criminal and horror against the law.
Such a code were not in unison with the
virtuous and intelligent among our pco-
pie, TO enact such 4 statute you be to
set the hands Of the clock backward to Il
period out of accord with the nineteenth
century: and no greater calamity could
befall a people than the enactment OF.
laws at variance with the civilization
and times they live in. Convictions
could no doubt be obtained under such Il
law, but executions would seldom follow.
When minor offences wore punished
capitallv in England, ont of sixty con-
victions there used to be but one eHecu-
ton. Thus the deterrent effect of shame
full punishment would be frustrated for
the hope excited by one pardon will neu-
tralize the fear caused by fifty executions.
Besides, human life ought not to be &C.
counted so cheap, and the surest mode
for rendering the death penalty odious,
diSgraccful, and terrible, is to hold human
life sacred.
1t ia contondel by some that, despite
the evils usually attending undue sever
itv Of punishment, the ~exigenrics of the
times demand and justify a resort to it as
an e%xpcdicnt check upon a temporary
prevalence of the crimes Of arson, bur-
glarv, and rape. The race lately entran
chised, say they, need this rigid and Sc
we're schooling. Such special legislation
we deprecate. You cannot make one
law for the white nan and another for the
negro. Socially, Intellectually, morally,
and industrially the blacks arc hopclesSly
inferior to the whites; but in the eye of
the law they are equal, and i'll our courts
what is sauce for the goose must be sauce
for the gander. Let no specious argu-
mcntS about critical emergencies dclude
our. Legislators into passing laws which,
though intended as wholesome and tenn
porary and special, will certainly work
commonwealth permanent harm and
and relcsate usfto "a lower civilization.
The logic of facts and of history is against
such legislation, and the transient opin-
ions born of alarm should not be suffered
to hurry us blindfold into barbarism, or
stern puritanism.