Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-11-05

responsible for the anticipated
crime Of others, which is certainly
against common sense and sound
reasoning.
1t is true that society demands
perfect immunity from the Viola
tion of its laws, and We cannot, OF
course, treat its ielons with unres-
trained freedom, thereby giving a
premium for violation of law, and
a bid for lawlessness and vice; yet,
when murderer is placed in such
a position as will give this perfect
assurance of future safety, then all
is accomplished which q wise legis-
lation should demand.
But il is urged that We would
have too many murders If we were
to render null and void the death
penalty. This does not follow as a
necessary consequence. ] doubt
very much whether an execution
ever yet was the instrument pre-
ventative to crime. In my humble
opinion, it is rather an incentive
than otherwise. Men sometimes
witness laWnessness and the she'd
ding of blood until they themselves
become callous and hardened to ev-
cry sense of morality and refine
ment this whether it be in the
darkened cesspoOls of vice and law
lessness, or whether it be in the
noon-tide of boasted civilization
witnessing judicial execution.
Punishment is most assuredly adapt
ed to the prevention of crime, but
the salutary, wholesome lesson,
must of necessity reach beyond its
infiiction, but if a judicial execution
does not abate crime, which we
most sincerely doubt, why the ne-
cessity?
The world, in my humble judg
ment, is slowly yet surely advanc-
ing to a higher plane, looking to
the sentiment ''peace on earth, and
good will towards men," Did the
malefactors gibbet, although pro-
nounced legal by a human being
wearing the judicial ermine, tend
to bring about this elevated ascen-
dancy?
No sane man with three grains
of sound reasoning dare make the
assertion. The world, from Cam to
the present time, has groaned under
almost inconceivable atrocities per-
petrated under the garb of public
necessity, law and religion. Ire
land with its surging miseries and
upheavals of sorrow too plainly tell
the sad tale of woe and suffering
when little more love, alittle more
charity blended with moral sua-
sion would have done more in cor
recting existing evils if any there
were in five years than could be af-
fected in century By the inexora-
BILE law of blood and death. We
are aware of the old Jewish law,
that if man should shed blood by
man should his blood be shed.
Does this maxim adapt itself to the
wants and requirements of the
nineteenth century? We should ra-
ther question its adaptation to any
age, or among any people. While
we are true to confess that punish
ment for crime is an imperative
public necessity, yet the ends Of
that punishment should justify the
means. Reformation in the crimi-
nal should be the great desiderdtttna
in a wise legislator, and how this
reformation is to be effected at the
scaffold we fail to discern.
Charles j. Guiteau if he were
sane at the commission of this
crime, is guilty of murder and will
no doubt suffer the penalty of the
law, but L would claim for him the |
same impartial tral, as though he
had slain the humblest mendicant
that walks the streets of Washing
ton City, and 1 believe the sober
thinking men of the nation will |
thus agree with me.
True he killed a President, and |
by that act inflicted grave injury |
upon the great body of the Ameri-
can people, yet crime is not meas
ured by damages, at least not muir
der; while petty offenses are gra-
ded, and of right ought to be, yet |
these are not graded apportioned |
to immediate damage; the grade |
is fixed by specific statute. If the
Nervousness of murder is heightened
or aggravated by specific damage,
then the man that slays the father
of ten children commits crime of
double magnitude to him who Stays
a father of five children. Happily |
our laws make no such distinctions,
and whenever our executives and
officials transcend or ignore this |
principle, then the
foodgates of anarchy and confusion
are thrown open, reason and judg-
ment are dethroned, and malace |
and revenge rule in wild disorder.
What is murder? Murder is defined |
to be the killing of any human be-
ing with malice prepense, malice is
presumed until the contrary is
shown, and this proof must come
from the defense. The killing
must not only be accompanied by
malice, but the act Ito make it muir
der) must be perpetrated by one of
mature years and comparatively |
sound judgment. An infant under
seven years of age cannot commit
murder, neither can any one over
that age, who is insane or a non
conapos nse1atis, the law however
presumes as in The case of malice,
that every man is sane, until the
contrary appears, and the plea Of
insanity must be sustained by the
defense.