Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-10
SUBSTITUTE FOR CAPITAL PUN
ISHMEfT

SUBSTITUTE FOR CAPITAL PUN
ISHMENT
Contrast with capital punishment and
its results and incidents the punishment
proposed for 1nunderers by Mr.. Edward
Livingstone, Justly characterized as the
greatest legal genius Of modern times. :"
In his code of reform and prison disci-
pine he provides that sthose convicted
OF murder without any aggravating cir
cunlstances shall be strictly confined to
their respective cells and adjoining
courts, in which last they may be per-
mitted to labor except for two months
consecutTely in every year, commenc-
ing on the anniversary of their crime,
during which period they shall only
come into the court during the time
necessary to cleanse the cell, and on the
anniversary of the commission Of their
crime they shall have no allowance of
food for twenty-four hours, during which
period they shall receive the visit of the
chaplain, who shall endeavor by exhort-
alton and prayer to bring them to re-
pentance. Longer terms of solitary
confinement, without labor, are provid-
ed for infanticide and parricide, re-
spectively. No murders!in any degree,
are to have any communication With
persons outside the prison other than
the inspectors and official visitors; they
are to be considered dead to the rest OF
the world. Their cells are to be paint
ed black within and without, and on the
outside is to be inscribed in large letters
the following sentence;
In this cell is confined, to pass his
life in solitude and sorrow, A B, con-
'icted Of the murder of CD Oby assas-
sination, poison, etc, describing the Of
Tense if Of an aggravated kind; his
food is bread of the coarsest kind; his
drink is water mingled with his tears !;
he is dead to the world; this cell is his
grave; his existence is prolonged that
he may remember his crime and repent
1t, and that the continuance of his pun
ishment may deter others from the in
diligence of hatred, avarice, sensuality
and the passions which lead to the crime
he has committed. When the Almighty.
in His due time, shall exercise toward
him that dispensation which he himself
arrogantly and wickedly usurped to-
ward another, his body is to be dissect-
ed, and his soul will abide that judg-
ment which divine justice shall decree "
The same inscription, changing only
the words. "this cell7 for the words "sol-
itary cell in this prison." is to be made
on the outside Of the prison wall, in
large white letters on black ground.
The inscriptions are to be removed on
the death Of the convict to which thev
relate.
Can there be any question as to which
punishment is likely to have the great
est effect in lettering others? One
change in the law should certainly be
made at once. After sentence for muir
der has been imposed the convict should
be cut off from all communication with
the outside world. His spiritual advis-
er, and possibly his nearest relatives,
should be the only persons other than
the prison officials allowed to have an
interview with him. There was no in
cident connected with the trial and exc.
cution Of Guiteau SO unseemly and dis.
graceful as the mode of his imprison-
ment. This man, whose crime had
called upon him the excavations of the
civilized world, was allowed to hold re-
ceptions in his cell, to write and send
letters to the press, and to dispose of
autographs to curiosity hunters at Is
cents each.-Prof Johnson T. Plat, in
the Neac Haue,2 Palladium.