Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-09-26
pailp Nennebet sournal.
Augusta, Friday Morn'g, Sept g. 1879
Crime In Kentucky.

During the recent campaign MI rllls-
pnry was accustomed to speak of the moral
character of the people of Maine as having
greatly deteriorated on account of the evil
influence which republicani,rl has exerted
upon them, the suggestion naturally fol-
lowing that if we would have pure and
pious people in the State there must be II
permanent change from republican to
democratic rule We have just heard from
Kentucky statement of the condition OF
that State in regard to homicidil tenden-
cles of the people, which conflicts very de-
cidedly with Mr. Pllsbury's idea that the
rlle of democracy is the one thing needful
to render the people OF II State moral and
reduce the tendency to crime. Kentucky
is always, under all circumstances, over
whelmingly democratic. rs everybody
knows, and of course that is the very State
in which we should look for absence OF
crime and lofty morality if democracy
tends to produce those effects. But the
facts are most tearlully the other way. II
there is State in the Union where life
appears to be more unsafe than in any
other State in the Union it is that same
State of Kentucky
A compilation of statistics bearing upon
the homicidil tendencies of the people OF
Kentucky has been prepared, represent
ing thorough Investigations among the
records OF twenty counties, taken at ran
dom, of the State. The work occupied IA
special correspondent three months. The
figures are entirely accurate The aim
was to ascertain how many murders and
murderous assaults had been committed
in each county in given number OF years
and what legal punishment, if any, was
the result In twenty counties the records
of indictments alone show III homlcides
In an average period of five years, an
average of SO to each county. Against all
this there is the offset on the side of the
laws vindication of only one capital pun
ishment and three life.term in the Peni-
Tertiary About dozen convicted muir
derers received sentences of from three to
FIVE years in Jail or prison. In few
cases, where the offending party was II
negro, summary justice was meted out
with rope, without waiting for process OF
law. These statistics do not by any means
cover all crimes of murder and malicious
shooting and stabbing in the twenty
counties. rs they are confined to court
records. and very many criminals have
never been brought before courts. The
period covered in no case runs back to
the unsettled time of war. so that the fig
ures give an actual exhibit of the present
status of crime in Kentucky. The same
ratio carried throughout the State would
show 1868 shot and stabbed in personal
encounters in five years.
In Breathitt county, 800 persons, out OF
q voting population of 300. are under
indictment for crime; in Clay county
$50 out of 900: in Jackson, l54, out OF
799. Ten counties, with Il voting popula-
ton of 1854, have 2,s46 persons under
Indictment at single term-over "a per
cent. Only two men hac been hanged by
law in Kentucky in 10 years.
We commend these facts to those who
heard Mr.. Pillsbury's ISLANDERS of the State
of Maine in his campaign speeches, and
his recommendation of democratic control
as it exists in Kentucky to improve the
morals and increase the virtues OF our
people