The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-05-10
JACKSON, OHIO THURSDAY. MAY TO- 1883.

Clme, very frankly rop1oQ. 'InaG oXocu-
tions were the best harvests that he and
eyes of the spectators are fixed above their
| pockets are unprotected below"
The Rev. Jas. Beggs in his visits to
prisons in England from time to time has
fallen in with many convicts under SEN
tence of death, in 1877 instances he enquir-
ed of the malefactor whether he had ever
witnessed an execution. 1t turned out
been spectators in the crowd upon these
melancholy occasions which you say are
destined to operate as warning to the
profiigate. You will remember that some
two or three years ago in the State of
West Virginia, at place called "Trout's
Hill" man was being hung for murder,
and while the crowd were returning home,
yet before the victim they had so recently
put to death was cold, there was another
man murdered by his neighbor. We
could go much further in support of this
proposition, but will hasten on to the
next point to be considered.
/ From the vim with which Mr.. J. w. j.
makes his assertions / would infer that
he is about half mad about it. Let us
notice some of his statements. He says
"Let the criminal suffer. the extreme PEN
atty of the law'-so say we. 1t is not the
execution of the law that we combat but
the law itself. He further says that no
moral or religious benefit could accrue
from life of incarceration. Well, how
does he know all this? AS he is on the
affirmative side of the question, we ask
for arguments and not unqualified state
ments.
Mr.. Editor, You say that once upon a
time God punished two persons with
death for telling a lie. Weread in the 5th
Chapter of the Acts. where man named
Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, told lie
to Peter about certain land sale that
they had, and that great fear came upon
them. and that they died suddenly. Is it
not likely that they died of fear as others
died from stroke of Apoplexy or Paral-
ysis? Not only so but We read that God
is just, and that he is no respecter of per-
sons. Does it look to you as if it would
be just in community to infiict the
death penalty on all who might equivo-
cate in regard to buying and selling, and
if you would not. would you be willing to
impute that to an Infinite God which you
would not ascribe to fallen man? And
again, if God did instantly put to death
two people for telling lies, would it be
anything like justice to let all the other
liars live to old age unmolested? You
have no more evidence that God took the
lives of those two parties referred to, than
that he has taken the lives of all who died
before them and since.
You say if Gates had been convicted
and hung it would have no doubt saved
several lives. 1 was talking to one of the
men who sat on the jury in the Gates tri-
al, and he said, eve were almost satisfied
that Gates was guilty as charged, but we
did not want to say he was guilty because
we knew he would be hung, but if we
could have known that he would have
been sent to prison for life we would have
n Of CO %Io
law of Capital Punishment stood in the
way here, and what is true of this case
may be true in many Others.
And again, Mr.. Editor, is it not fact
that the people of this government spend
more money for whisky and riotous liv-
ing than they appropriate for the educa-
tion and moral and religious development
lie houses of licentiOuS character are
tolerated in our midst by the thousands
Is it not fact that the sale of intoxicat-
ing drinks is legallzed even in our own
State?
With all these resources for the devel-
opment of the animal passions which nat
urally predominant in the human family,
is it any wonder that SO much criminality
prevails? Let us first do away with law
that would legaliZe the means by which
criminals are made. Let us cease to af-
ford the means by which the youth of our
country are helped on to commit crime,
and then talk about capital punishment.
We now refer to some of the scriptural
arguments in support of our position:
1t is not disputed that the law of Moses
prescribed the punishment of death
among the Jews of old, not only for MUIR
der, but for great many minor offences.
But who is there this day wonld look to
those laws; code framed under circum-
stances so peculiar, for purposes to be &C
compliShed in the distant course of time,
so wonderfully mysterious, for any model
for the institutions of a nation and age
falling within the scope of the milder of
that Christian Dispensation, by which the
former was superseded and abrogated?
The code Of Moses was scarcely less
sanguinary one than that which the
AtheniaAl legislator was said to have
written in blood. Not only were the
Jews semi-barbarian nation, for whom
rude and severe laws were natural and
perhaps necessary, but that they were a
peculiarly stubborn and stiff-necked" peo-
pie, will not be called in question by any
one. In their fierce and wayward i'm
pulses of evil, even the most fearful res
traintS of supernatural authority was in
sufficient to control them.
For their unbelief we find them con-
demned to strew the wilderness with
their carcaSSeS, general sentence of death
being decreed on all of them above the
age of twenty.
For an otfense by few of their number
nearly the whole tribe of Benjamin, men,
women and children, are put to the
sword, their whole number being twenty
six thousand fighting men, of whom only
a few hundred made their escape. And
similar determination is made of those
who failed to come up to assist at this
butchery, few only of the young virgins
being spared to furnish wives to the rem
nant of Benjamin.
These instances, Intellectual as they
were to curb their fierce spirit, are refer
red to only to illustrate that radical differ
ence of character of the ancient Jews
from our own age and people, which
might well constitute a sufficient reason
to their lawgiver for establishing among
institutions of a stern character, to which
it would be absurd for us to look for
regard ourselves bound to receive our
rules of war from those which dictated to
them the duty of indiscriminate and un
sparing massacre without respect to age,
sex or condition.
You see that reference to the Mosaic
Code for authority proves nothing by
proving too much. If it is to be regarded
who live within the pale of the Christian
Dispensation, the practice of capital pun
ishment for the crime of murder is equal
ly authoritative in reference to great
many other offenses to which it would be
deemed at this day, by the universal NOR
al sense of all Christian nations, perfect
insanity of ferocity and fanaticism to
dream of applying it, Who is there now
SO fanatieal as to advocate capital pun
ishment for gathering sticks on the day
of rest, for being stubborn or rebellious
son, or for unconfessed purity before mar
riage on the part of a female, yet these
offenses with many others of a similar
character, were punishable with death by
the law of Moses here referred to; and if
their authority Is divine as mandatory
upon us, who is to presume to draw be-