The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-07-07
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT,

on the gibbe!, answered the requirements Of
the law, was victim, if we may use the
word, of capital punishment. The question
arises in the minds of many citizens, cui
bono? This question of the policy and the
efficacy of capital punishment is one that has
agitsted the minds of men everywhere time
and again for many ages, and some OF the
wisest statesmen as we'll as the most thoughts
full phlanthropists of all countries have
labored for its adjustment, and with success
in some localities. 1t is urged that death as
penalty for crime is relic Of the barbarous
ages The first crime committed on earth
the record tells u.s. was murder and the same
record tells US that the punishment was not
death. but the Punishment of Gain from the
presence of his family and his kind to the
land of Nod, virtual imprisonment for
life. and this was the penalty imposed by the
Father of All, the Divine Ruler Of the Uni
verse, Can there be better precedent, a
wiser rule, established by man? Punishs
ment for crime is an outgrowth of society, q
necessity for its safety and well-being, and
while society lasts, with its multitudinous
requirements, crime will exist, and while
crime exists there must be penalties of come
kind to follow. But as the ages roll by and
the peoples OF the earth progress and adj
vance in civilization and in learning, and in
all the refnements and elevate ms OF mil d
and heart, it is but reasonable and philoso-
phcal that the meaus for the suppression OF
crime and of wrong doing on the part of the
vicious and evil>disposed who do not keep
pace with this advancement and develop.
ment, should be in keeping with the better
and the nobler influences that prevail. The
time was when men charged with or cons
victed of grave offenses we're made 10
enter into combat with fierce wild
beasts, either to prove their innocence
by victory in the encounter or to receive
punishment for their wrong doing by their
defeat and terrible death. And then there
we're wagers of battle where the accused was
forced to meet the nearest friend of the
party slain, or the party himself if wronged
in any other way, and his success or defeat
was taken as evidence of his guilt or inno-
cence. No one IN this enlighteded age will
pretend to deny that this was :barborous, or
that it would be process worthy OF our day
and time Even in our own country, land but
short timo ago as compared with the worlds
lifetime, custom prevailed to tie women
charged with witchcraft in sacks and then to
throw them into mill ponds and deep
streams of water to test the truth of the
charge. If they were drowned they were
innocent, and if they escaped watery
death they were guilty for only witch
could escape tied up in al
sack, and then death by fire at the stake
awaited them. But our age has progressed
beyond the cruelties of such custom, be-
yond the cruelties of torture by fire, of death
by breaking on the wheel, beyond the hor,
rors of decapitation, Of death by the knout
or bsstinado, of drawing and quartering, and
why not, it is earnestly asked, do we not
dispense with death entirely as punishment
1t Is claimed, and 1t seems to be a most just
and reasonable claim, that the true object of
punishment should be the reformation of the
unfortunate whose evil passions have so
dominated as TO lead him into derelictions
into outrsges against society and into crime,
This is ostensibly the object when the law
makers defue what are derelictions and
crimes, and the aim is to make the penalty |
10 accord with the gravity Of the offsnse; If
IL be imprisonment, the length thereof to give
the more time for reformation and TO inhu-
ence others from similar acts. In this
state there are but two offenses,
II we mistake not, for which the
penalty IL death, murder in the
first degree and another a nameless crime
more heinous than murder, and in these cases |
death or imprisonment for life Is option
81 with the jury. II the penalty be optional
with the Jury, why. IL may be asked, not do
away with the death penalty altogether, re- |
lieving tw,ive men Of the responsibility OF
taking fellow beings lief Again II may |
Be asked, il IL be crime for one man 10 take
another's life, why should the taking of
mans life by twelve men simply because
they sit in jury box. be legslizsdf We
have read of cities and Of temples of refuge
es,a' lished in the olden times 70 which the
slayer fbis fsllow-msn could fee, and IL be
resched the estes Of las ono or the portals Of
the other he wss forever free from the ven.
eeancs Of eli, and only bic enrsciencs melted
out punishment 70 him afterwards. This old
custom always inspired us with q respect for
ih origin.tors and we have ever felt rever,
ence for them. There is such spirit IF bu-
manly, such tenderness of feeling in The
Sdes, 20 much Of mercy In IL thsi il seems
ns;s influence ought 10 reach down
the generations that have passed
in our boosted civilization and
% "Vensssncs Il mine. saith The
d Why should fhs temples Of jus-
land and The hands Of jurors be
with the blood Of The vicious
- Own hsnds srsf II Ia not 20
BY Of punishment % tbs