Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-10
AssAss1Ns A pR1v1LEaED CLASS.

II the sacredness of human life is the
real test of civilization, the American peo-
pie in general, and those of Texas In par
ticular, are not quite as civilized as they
fondly imagine they are. Human life was
never before quoted as low in the Amer.
can markets as now. 1t is getting to be so
cheap that any man of moderate means
can take it. We suppose that similar
causes produce similar effects the world
over. The cause, or at least the principal
cause, of the daily homicides in Texas is
to be found in the fact that murder and
homicide are not punished as they should
be. In no other ciyilized country il the
petty criminal punished as cruelty and as
remorselessly, or is the great criminal pun.
ished as lightly, as in Texas. For the
theft of miserable little pony the lowest
term for which man has to serve at hard
labor in the penitentiary is five years, and
that institution is swarmiDg with that class
OF criminals but it is next to impossible
to convict and punish the murderer who
has money and friends. The columns OF
the daily papers are reeking with
blood. The State specials OF the
Galveston Neacs show from two
to five murders. or attempts at murders,
daily, until the heart grows sick over the
daily record of blood. 1t is not surprising
that there should be great deal of vio-
lence in Texas. 1t is frontier ate, and
is still place of refuge for lawless men
from other States, but the growing evil
might be mitigated, if the Courts and
juries did their duty, which they do not
by any manner of means. We do not
hesitate to aver that when an assassin has
money OF influence, in nine cases out of
ten the trial. from beginning to end, is
purely farce, and it is so regarded and
spoken of by the general public. The
popular belief, which is fully justified by
the results, is that there is no law in Texas
to punish the wealthy homicide. We have
not space in this issue to explain at length
how it comes that a judicial hanging ia
such rare occurrence In Texas, and why,
when one does take place, the doomed man
is always, without exception, poor devil,
without money or friends, but will en-.
deavor to do so in our next issue. There
are several reasons for this CHASTITY mockery
of Justice, which has well nigh destroyed
all reverence for the law in the minds Of
the people. The ease and facility with
which our moneyed assassins can
obtain continuances and changes of venue
has much to do with the immunity
granted this class. Our jury system seems
to have been devised for the special
purpose of defeating the ends of justice.
Again, the fact that when jury does find
yer lict of guilty, it is tempered with or
reversed by either the higher Courts or by
the Governor himself, which frequently
means turning over the jurymen to be
slaughtered by the professional assassin.
To this cause feuds and lynching may be
attributed. We are aware that the thor
ough ventilation we propose to give this
most important of all questions will pro-
cure us some very cordial enemies, but pre-
fer to do without the money or the good
will of criminals and their apologists. We
know very we'll that we will have the
moral support of all those whose good opin-
ion is really worth having. Now is the
time for the Legislature to do what it can
to rescue our criminal jurisprudence from
the deserved contempt into which it has
fallen. 1t would almost appear that. sooner
or later, the assassin would become a sacred
animal, like certain breed of monkeys in
India that are permitted to do whatever
they please, it being a crime, punishable
by death, to any way exasperate or modest,
much less destroy them. The American
assassin is already worshiped in his cell by
silly women, and it would almost seem 80
if, eventually, murder might become a
sacred calling, and the murderer receive
the honors of deitY-TTeXas Siftings.