The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-12

Whenever half a dozen murders come to
the public knowledge in rapid succession
there always arises demand for more
rigorous application of the halter. 1t makes
no difference if they occurred in widely
different classes of society or in widely re-
mote sections Of the country and were
punched by the telegraph, nor is any effort
made to analyze the facts and see if they
afford direct proof of connection between
the preparation of the crime and the laxity
of the execution of the death penalty. Such
a connection is blindly inferred or rather
assumed, and a savage cry is raised for
more hangings for the public security. We
hear such a cry from many quarters in con-
sequence of the extraordinary group Of
murders that happened last week and di-
vided popular interest with the elections.
Without undertaking to discuss the mo-
rality or the expediency of capital punish
ment, we doubt whether the fear of hang
ing as distinguished from the fear of
lesser penalty has any appreciable influence
upon the frequency of murders. That is to
say, we doubt whether the cry for more
hangings for the public security does not
depend upon a false inference or assump-
ton. The motive Of murder has it's origin
either in very hot temper or in very cool
calculation. If in the former, the passion
obscures the consciousness Of any penalty;
and if in the latter, it is equally Indifferent
what the penalty is, for the criminal reckons
upon escaping detection. Catharine Ma
dills husband, who shot his wife at their
home in Oliver street last week, in rage
at discovering what he regarded as evidence
of her infdelity, would not have pulled the
trigger second quicker if capital punish
ment did not exist in New York; and it is
inconceivable that the clergyman Hayden,
now on trial at New Haven for poisoning
Mary Stannard, if he is indeed guilty, would
have been any less ingenious and careful
in celebrating the traces Of his crime if
hanging were not practised in Connecticut.
There is practical test of this matter-the
most practical test possible, it being pecu-
mary. If the insecurity of life were appre-
ciably greater in States where capital pun
ishmen. has been abolished. or where the
execution Of the death penalty is lax, it
OugQC 10 buOW lLSell III LHe IbteS Oh lie IN
surance. But we know that it does not.
five are correct in this disbelief of the
deterrent influence of the death penalty
upon the crime of murder, it follows that
the spasmodic cries for more hangings, in
which the community INDUCES itself from
time to time, are as irrational as they are
savage. We trust moro to gentle social in
auences for the abatement Of all crimes Of
violence than we do to the.terrors of the
law. Among coarse and ignorant men and
women blows and bruises are as common as
meals or sleep. Higher up in the social
scale they disappear among women almost
entirely, and among gentlemen blow
ceases to be intended for the infection of
hurt and is limited to the conveyance of an
insult. AS mankind becomes better edu-
Gated, more civil and gentle in its inter-
course, the ingenuity Of its crimes, to be
sure, increases, but not to such an extent as
to counterbalance this decrease in their
b~utolitv