Blount County democrat. [volume] (Maryville, Tenn.) 1879-1883, 1880-05-12
For the Democrat. .E
Our Laws and Penalties.

There is avery beautltul idea cher
ished by the poet and the orator, that
civilization and religion have COM
pletely established themselves over the
reigns Of men, henceforth to bring
peace and comfort to troubled human
ity. The idea being q beautiful one,
and one deserving the spirit of the
age, has the characteristic of dream
rather than the solemn principles of
fact itself. 1t is admitted by all that
our standard of morals greatly sur
pass that of the ancients, and that our
ideas of humanity, in all its forms,
are more in unison with the Divine
will. But ii is not an admitted fact
that we adhere more closely to our
exalted authorities than they to their
inferior standard of right. We, to a
great extent, have lost the respect
which our forefathers had for pure
government, and have placed ourselves
in an ideal course of action. One
great cause of this irregularity in our
progress is that the powers of the
mind have been unequally developed /;
while one power has received the
nurture of tender shepherd, another
almost as requisite, stands as dwarf
under the neglcctful care of its pos
SCISSOR. We have become a thcorizing
people. And from the absorbing
power of theory, we have lost the
benefit of her sister-practice--lcaving
us on the ocean, of truth without the
guiding star to her goal.
Civilization, though it brings many
comforts unknown to the past, has also
planted a germ of confusion, which
more or less counteracts rising nature.
We do not bow at the shrine-of our
country and pay obeisance to her laws,
but have burst the chain that bound
the ancient heart TO his country, and
to-day we stand confused amid the
wreck of violated laws.
We, of the present, are neglecting
the peaceful element of our nature,
which is strict obedience to law and
principle. Our standard of law may
be perfect, yet without obedience law
availeth nothing.
1t has also been a characteristic of
our age, and especially with our
courts of justice, to tighten the penalty
which the letter Of the law, with JUS
tice, inflicts. We stamp the penalty
with cruelty without rejecting upon
the atrocity and injustice of the crime.
Cruel as the penalty may seem, it is
but what the criminal deserves.
"No rogue e'er felt the halter draw,
With good opinion of the law"
In thinking of the penalty, the crime
for which tits exacted is often entirely
forgotten. Men who think the pun
ishment cruel, and who give their con-
sent to acquitting the criminal, ,uncon-
sciously place their own property and
even their lives in jeopardy, for, in
letting loose so many villains on soci-
ETY., they only unchain as many
demons whose sole object is to commit
crime.
Everything should be meted out in
proper relations and proportions. OF
course, with the progress of modern
law and science, we cannot hold to
Draca's doctrine of punishment, which
is death for the stealing of an apple,
considering it of as deep a dye as to
commit sacrilege. Reason as well as
revelation teaches the fallacy and in
justice of his philosophy.
1t is supposed by many that the
penalty is intended for the reforma-
ton of the criminal. 1t is not. Alb
stractly considered, it is for the crime
committed. If man commits arson,
he is punished for the crime, and if he
chooses to regard it as warning to
reform it is only secondary consid-
Grafton. A man is hanged for murder,
because he committed murder The
penalty, indeed, acts as a warning TO
others and may deter them from doing
evil, but as for the criminal himself,
it is not intended for his reformation.
The penalty is cXactcd for the actual
commission Of the crime.
Thcu let people practice obedience
to law. and let courts Of justice make
every crime be followed by proper