Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-02-26
THE DEATH PENALTY.

reka Republican says:
We agree with You, brother Nghels. 1t is
Il relic of barbarism and the quicker it is SUI
perceded in our young State the better. 1t
has nothing but the sanction of law to sustain
it. Hanging is as much murder as any other
killing, and the wrong IS all the same whether
done by the people of the State or by an lndi-
vidual We profess to be a Christian people
and vet live under the old Jewish law of IAN
eve for an eye and a tooth for tooth, which
was repealed by Jesus of Nazareth, of whom
we are the professed followers. But this is
not the time to argue the question. The sta
tlstics OF the day show that i'll the majority OF
the States where capital punishment has been
abolished, crime has decreased. Neither the
safety of the people nor the prevention of
crime require it, Man has no right to take
from man what he cannot restore. The criml-
nal may forfeit his liberty, but he cannot for
felt his life,
This is in accord with the better sentiment
q the country and the age. in proportion
with the more rational and less violent modes
% furnishing crime, crime diminishes. VIC
lencc begets its like. Heroism is not confined
to the battlefield the ships deck or the fever
hospital; nor are heroes alone to be found in
the ranks Of the yirtuous q will die like
man SAYS every culpIit before whose shrink
ing vision stands the gibbet and so it is held
with reason that the experience Of the gallows,
the witnessing of the dreadful operation of
hanging a man by the neck until he is dead,
is quite as apt to arouse this false sentiment
Of heroisln as it is to deter the bystanders
from the awful crime of murder. The fact is
that theorize as we may upon the subject of
exemplary punishment, the law which de-
mands life for life is oftener the lex talio-
MS the law of revenge than the law of need
full and wholesome example Indeed, there
is an amazing Inconsistency in the Law of CAPT
tai punishment. The hypothesis upon which
it rests is that human life is of all things the
most precious: And then the law proceed to
take Il human life to establish its theorem! 1t
is often said by the advocates of the abolition
OF capital punishment that the better and wiser
course would be to make murder in the first
degree punishable by solitary confinement for
life the culprit to be deprived of all possible
Intervention by the pardoning power This,
to be sure, is the short cut toward what would
seem to be a most effectual means of punish
ment; but so long as juries make mistakes
and find innocent men guilty (as they do from
time to time), it would seem useless cruelty |
10 deprive any man of that clemency which in
all ages has resided with the sovereign. Near
the city of Philadelphia there is Tor used to beg
a prison called "The Eastern Penitentiary'
l.ya IS
Tor was) maintained Not only murderers !
sentenced for life, but burglars and thieves
sent for shorter terms underwent this form o |
punishment. The prisoner was taken blind |
folded to his cell. This cell opened into
small yard or paddock. The prisoner never
saw any man but the officers of the Peniten-
tiary. We cannot believe that such torture
is ever justified. When Charles Dickens first
came to this country he visited this prison.
Commenting upon what he saw he said, 1--WE
quote from "The American Notes for General
Circulation
In it's Intention | am well convinced that it
Is kind, humane, and meant for reformation;
but am persuaded that those who devised
this system of Prison Discipline, and those
cution, do not know what it is that they are
doing. / believe that very few men are capa-
bic of estimating the immense amount of tor
ture and agony which this dreadful punish
ment, prolonged for years, inhicts upon the
sufferers; and i'll guessing at it myself, and i'll
reasoning from what have seen written upon
their faces, and what to my certain knowledge
they feel within, am only the more convinc-
ed that there is a depth of terrible endurance
in it which none but the sufferers themselves
can fathom, and which no man has a right to
inhict upon his fellow creature. | hold this
slow and daily tampering with the mysteries
Of the brain to be UNNECESSARILY worse than
any torture of the body; and because its
CHASTITY signs and tokens are not SO palpable
to the eve and sense of touch as scars upon
the flesh, because its wounds are not upon
the surface and it EFFORTS few cries that hui
man ears can hear, therefore | the more de-
uounce it as a secret punishment which slum-
bering humanity is not reused up to stay. |
hpsitated once, debating with myself, whether
in had the power of saying eyes" or "No," J
| would allow it to be tried in certain cases,
where the terms of Imprisonment were short;
but now | solemnly declare, that with no re-
wards or honors could walk happy man be-
meath the open sky by day, or lie me down
upon my bed at night, with the consciousness
that one human creature, for any length of
time, no matter what, lay suffering this I'M
known punishment in his silent CELL and | I
the cause, or | consenting to it in the least s