Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-02-28
i.a.ion Of the Union Accident Insurance Co. !:

ization Of the Union Accident Insurance Co.
resolve establishing the valuation of the towr
OF Presque Isle; an act to authorize county
commissioners to cause repairs upon county
| roads and bridges in unincorporated town
| ships and tracts of land, in cases of sudden
injury; an act to amend sec. chap. 50 of the
public laws of 1878; an act to further pro
vide for the construction and maintenance OF
bridges; an act to amend sec. Il chap. So OF
the revised statutes relating to the employ
ment of constsbles at meetings of county and
local agricultural societies; an act to amend
see. chap. % of the revised statutes of 1871
relating to bowling alleys and billiard rooms
an act to amend sections and chap. SO OF
the public laws of 1878; an act to amend an
act entitled an act TO amend sec. 55 chap. ~
of the revised statutes relating to foreign
insurance companies.
PASSED TO BE ENGRossED.
An act to amend see. :. chap. l36 of the
revised statutes relating to trial justices and
judges of municipal and police courts an act
1877: an act relating to immigration: re-
solve in aid of repairing bridge over Fish
river; an act to repeal chap. POI of the
private and special laws of 1850 relating to
the taking of fish in Dexter pond; an act to
authorize the removal of distractions in
Sebasticook river.
Mr.. Barrows of Vassalboro, opposed the
passage of the bill. Remarks hereafter.
Mr.. Freeman of Cherrsfield then spoke
against the bill. His remarks will be found
on the first page of this paper.
Mr.. Smith of Ninalhaven. said he should
do violence to his sense of duty if he did not
protest against the restoration of the nhu-
man practice of strangulation of persons
convicted of murder. He regarded the gal
lows as a relic of barbarsm, and said that
civilization should pause before restoring this
form of punishment. which until few years
was a blot on our criminal statute. The law
had been repealed upon the demands of hun
dreds, vet the proposition was now to restore
it without petition. He maintained that the
burden of proof was upon the advocates of
the bill to make out their case, and show that
society would be better protected with the
death penalty than without it. When the
death penalty for larceny vas abolished in
England the cry was that that crime would
increase. but the result was that it was les
sened. History shows that a mitigation O!
penalties has lessened crime, and that sever
ity of punishment does not retard its COM
mission. Certainty and not severity
of punishment is the better restraint
upon criminals. The abolition Of
whipping from our navy had elevated not
only the navy but the merchant marine. The
spirit of revenge, in melting out punishment,
he was sorry to say, still exists among civil
lized nations. All law, after giving protec
lection to society, should be reformatory in
its nature. Capital punishment precluded
reformation. He urged upon the attention of
the House the difficulty of obtaining convic-
tons with the death penalty in force, and
thereby the escape of the guilty. He main
tanned that if the public could be fully pro-
tected by Imprisonment for life that it had no
right to take life. To Deity belongs the right
to determine when the brittle thread of life
shall be severed, and it not for finite
man to assume the prerogative of an Infinite
God. He was amazed that ministers should
advocate the doctrine of ian eve for an eye.
and a tooth for a TOOTH rather than that
later dispensaton of Him who was an exam
pie worthy of our study and admiration. He
referred to the execution of Gordon and Wag-
ner as a scene calculated to brutaliZe and
deprave the public. and declared his belief in
the innocence of Wagner. He closed by ask
ing the House in the name of civilization,
humanity and christianity to pause and re-
fleet ere it again blorted the statute book of
the State by return to the barbarous and
inhuman practice of strangulation.
Mr.. Talbot of Machias spoke in favor of
the death penalty. Remarks hereafter.
Mr.. Spotford of Deer Isle did not share
in the alarm of the gentleman from East
Machias Mr.. Talbot which that gentleman
bad endeaAOred to impress upon the House.
He also did not think the argument of Stats
tics would forcibly impress the minds of
members. The statistics were mixed, IN
certain and unreliable. But there was one
thing upon which all could agree; that the
question of the death penalty was of the
greatest and gravest Importance. He felt
a painful sense of responsibility from
which he would gladly be released and
from which he instinctively shrunk. The
right of human government to take life
he had discussed in village lvceums fifty years
ago, and he had run over that in his mind as he
had listened to the arguments. man has
no right to take his own life. He could not
therefore, surrender any such right to human
government in the organization of human
society. But it was claimed that human
government NAV take life for the preserva-
ton of society under the law of self-proec-
ton. He would grant il, but not when socie
ty could protect itself in any other way. A
man NAV take life when he is assaulted, in
defence of his life, or when he is in danger
of any great bodily harm. but he is not al
lowed by human law to do that when
he can protect himself in any other
wav- 1t was admitted that if So
ciety could protect itself by imprisoning a
murderer, then society and human government
have no right to take away his life. He crit-
cised the manner in which the friends of the
bill had carried on the argument, and said
that the argument of the gentleman from
Rockland Mr.. Hall was not the calm
and dispassionate argument of the law
giver. but the heated. denuncatory
plea Of the prosecuting officer for a
conviction. The revengeful feelings of
the human heart had been invoked by the
gentleman against the murderer, while he
regarded all the tender feelings and sympathy
for a human soul in his last extremity a.
weak and womanly. He thanked God that the
human heart was constituted that it could
not look upon human being struggling AMI
bleeding for his life without deep sympathy.
When his friend from Rockland had invoked
the galows as the guardian angel of the
innocent, he had been at q loss to conceive
what there was in the loving sympathy and
attributes which entered into his conception
81 L.