The Portland daily press., 1883-01-29
AUGUSTA.
AnAugusta Clergyman s Argument
Against the Death Penalty.
THE LEGISLATURE MAKING SLOW
PROGRESS WITH ITS WORK.
The Luckless Town Of Lexington.
[speoIal nesnatoh to the pressa

Especial Despatch to the Press.l
AUGUSTA, Jan. 'S-The question of the
restoration of the death penalty for MURDER in
the first degree is exciting much attention here
in Augusta as well as in the State at large.
There is strong sentiment in favor of the re-
establishment of the gallows in Maine, but
doubt very much whether the present Legsla-
ture will take any such retrograde movement.
A public hearing before the judiciary commit
tee has been appointed for Wednesday after
noon next in the Hall of Representatives.
Rev. Philip s. Thacher, the eloquent pastor
of the Unitarian church here, lectured on
"Capital Punishment" this evening before an
overfiowing audience, which included nearly
all the members of the Legislature who spent
the Sabbath in this city. Mr.. Thacher ia
strongly opposed to the restoration of the
death penalty, and has devoted much thought
and research to the subject. His information
is largely obtained from original sources, and
at the hearing on Wednesday the opponents of
the gallows cannot do better than to reproduce
his argument and statistics. a
At the beginning of his discourse the
reverend gentleman alluded to tie tenet of
the Mosaic law laid down in Genesis, that
"whose sheddeth mans blood hy man shall his
blood be shed, !" to which the defenders of the
affirm atiye of the question attach great i'm
portance. That text, said the speaker, does
not belong to our dispensation, but to the
dawn of the very rudest civilization, when
murder was punished not because it was a
crime but for revenge. Our criminal code is
not framed after this model.
NJ
not accomplish what is claimed for it. When
England punished with death 160 crimes, life
ami property were far less safe than now. In
the reign of Henry VIII 1900 thieves were
hanged, and yet robbers and assassins infested
every city. What then is the use of the death
penalty? If it failed to prevent slight offences
it will not prevent atrocious crimes. Mr..
Thacher then cited legal and historical statis-
tics to prove that crime has decreased where
the death penalty has been abolished and
human life has become more secure For As
years no man has been hung in Michigan; the
death penalty was abolished 81 years ago. In
1879 there were no convictions of murder in the
first degree, and only two life sentences. In
1880 two were convicted OF murder In the first
degree, and four in the second degree In
Wisconsin the death penalty was abolished 81
years ago, and with population nearly equal
to that of Massachusetts, the cases of murder
are less frequent and conviction and punish
ment much more certain. In Vermont, with
population half as large as Maine there were
in 1879 four executions by hanging for mu rider
in the first degree, and one convict was in pri-
son und er sentence of death the same year, and
the off GERS of the State prison report an in
crease of 30 per cent in the two years ending
July 1878. In our own State there were 80
trials for capital offences in the eight years pre-
ceding the abolition of capital punishment and
"a during the seven years that have elapsed
since its abolition, thus showing that the
average is less since than before the death
penalty was abolished. With one exception
the most atrocious murders were committed
when the death penalty prevailed. The fol-
lowing table shows the number of convicts in
State prison for 19 years: