The Brookhaven leader., 1883-11-01
Drunkenness and Crime.

Judging from verdicts of the juries,
the decisions of courts and the testi-
mony of "society," one would infer
that man who puts an enemy into his
mouth which steals away his brains
and then commits a crime is more ex-
cusable than he who, in the sudden I'M
pulse of passion, lifts his hand and
deals injuries to the man who has in
suited him. The latter has been mas
tered by his surprise, and his repent
ance is as sudden as his crime. The
former has been coolly going onward,
perhaps for years, repeating daily the
sin of which he has ceased to repent,
and putting himself in such a condi-
ton of body and mind as to be ready
on the slightest provocation to break
the laws of the land and inlure his fel-
lows. The common law of England,
which has become the law of this coun-
try, has always held that drunkenness
is an artificial, voluntarily contracted
madness which. depriving men of their
reason, puts them in temporary
frenzy and is an aggravation of the Of
fense rather than an excuse for any
criminal miSbehaviOr. "A drunkard,
says Sir Edward Coke, "who is rotun-
tarius demon hath no privilege there
by, but what hurt or ill soever he doth
his drunkenness doth aggravate it,"
A law of Pittacus in Greece enacted
that he who committed a crime when
drunk should receive a double punish
ment, one for the crime itself and the
other for the inebriety which prompted
him to commit it. The earlier statutes
of Massachusetts, regarded the first ex-
cess of an inebriate as criminal and
punished it as a crime, but our present
laws only allow fine for the first Of
fense and a fine or imprisonment for
the second. Our Judges, taking their
tone from this moderation, are very apt
to "let eff" persons who have COM
mitted another offense against the law
with mild punishment when the ex-
cuse of intoxication is offered.
A case in point occurred in Pittsticld
recently, where Justice Gamwell let
young man off with fine and costs who
had "taken enough liquor to make him
mean and ugly" and in that condition
kicked pail of berries out of an old
mans hand and put his finger out of
joint, on the young ruffian's pleading
that he would not have done it had he
not been drinking! Under the common
law and the statutes of this and other
States this violent depriving man of
the use of one of his fingers is a crime
called mayhem, and punishable by inn
prisonment or by fine and imprisOn-
ment; and Judge who listens to such
an excuse as intoxicatiOn for so grave
an offence degrades the majesty of the
law and brings his own office and him
self into disrespect. Nearly every day
we read Of if we do not witness, some
brute who, for the sake of base per-
sonal qualification. gets himself into
such condition - becomes the
voluntary demon" of Lord Coke
that he has to vent his
passions on all about him, beats
his wife and children almost, if not
quite, to death, and if they are only
manned he is ''let off, with fine, or If
they are killed, the chances are about
equal that maudlin jury will either ac-
quit him or find him guilty with rec
ommendation to mercy! Beyond all
controversy, drunkenness is only re-
garded Alright when it is considered and
treated as a crime. "As a vicious and
| inexcusable selfishness, hateful to man,
abhorred of God, destructive of virtue
and ruinous to happiness, it has within
itself all the sin and misery and infamy
of a crime" and should be so treated
by Judges, juries and the community;
and not until then will it cease to be so
common, and its baneful influence SO
extensive. Il is wonderful that whole
communities are stirred to their founda-
tions, and wholesale laws enacted
against the manufacture and sale OF in
t0xicating liquors when even in such a
State as Massachusetts religion, philan-
thropy and all the best interests are set
at defiance by the passions of those who
drink, and the interest of those who
supply, and the cowardice or incom-
petency of those who execute the law?
-Spr1nqfeid Mass. Republicans.
BY nonnlar vote eighteen counties