Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-02-28

ii Uot stdNtu Will tNtutuaiIN sap Tile very
foundations of the State. The gentleman
from Bangor gave US the solution of this
problem, he said we must educate the rising
generation. etc.
Because larceny. adultery, li,entiousness,
| and all offences punishable by Imprisonment,
have increased within few years in this
State, will it be said that il il because the law
for murder is Imprisonment, for life: or that
if the penalty for murder was death. that
there would be less crime in the State? Other
causes have combined to produce this in
crease of crime, and the increase of murders
within few wears past. The increase OF
other crimes has been greater than the in
crease of murder. You might with as much
propriety say that the increase of all the
crimes spoken ofhas been occasioned by the
inadequate laws upon our statute books ap-
plying 10 them. Some of them surely are too
severe for the crimes they punish and should
be changed, and yet these very crimes have
increased. The great increase of murders
here. and everywhere has occurred within a
few years past. No greater the past years
in this State than in many of those States
where murder is now punished with death /;
and as l understand the facts. in those States
where the punishment for murder is
imprisonment for life, and the Law
is executed. there has not been
any greater increase of murders than in
those States where hanging is the punishment,
but on the contrary the proportion has been
less. The gentleman from Rockland carried
us TO Michigan, and read from the report of
the Inspectors of Prisons, where they speak
against the leniency shown the prisoners
What prisoners? Not those convicted of
murder, not prisoners incarcerated for any
particularly grave offence, but all criminals,
particularly those put in for lesser crimes
than murder. l think l am not mistaken.
Not one word was said about convicts i'm
prisoned for murder in the report referred to.
The gentleman was mistaken. Because they
treated their convicts of all kinds too kindly; /;
gave them too comfortable cells to live in,
and beds upon which to rest their weary
limbs, fed them with luxurious food, granted
them too many privileges-made it habitation
to be sought for and not repnlsve as place
of punishment. The impression l received
of this speech conveyed something like
this Is this reason we should restore
capital punishment in this State. He elo-
quenily and with power, which for the time
carried conviction. related how short the SEN
tences were of murderers convicted in Wis
consin and Michigan; the average being only
very few years. admitting it for the sake of
the argument to be true how will the case
stand? Because Wisconsin and Michigan
are lax in the administration of their laws,
and do not properly execute them. Because
they intict upon the greatest of all criminals.
guilty of the greatest of all crimes, a mild
sentence of but a few years confinement, such
as we would impose upon common thief for
the first offence, and if they do add to that,
the unheard of. unjustifable and tender treat
ment the short time the Government is honor.
ed with their presence as the guests of the
State-that we were given to understand was
the practice. Is this an argument for capital
punishment in Maine?
Is this an argument against imprisonment
for life, where in State every murderer has
been convicted as the gentleman has strongly
assured us they have been and not one escaped
the certain sentence and punishment of im.
prisonment for life?
Is this an argument why the death penalty
should be restoredp
With laws so lax as has been represented to
us, with sentences so light and treatment in
prisons so generous and hospitable az to tax
our credulity, how does it happen that
during the past seven years so few murders
comparatively have been committed in those
States, compared to the hanging States.
In proof of this we have the records from
the State papers-not doubtful newspaper
articles.
In Michigan, in 1879, the warden of pris-
ons says: There have been no convictions
for murder in the first degree during the year
now closed (lS79.) There were two con
victions for murder only in the first degree
in 1880. Vermont the same year US79) had
four executions; Michigan none, and crime
mcre ased so per cent in Vermont during the
two years ending July 81, 1873. From 1889
to 1880 period of AZ years, there were but
80 convictions of murder in the first degree
in Michigan--56 convictions in 90 years, not
lis.
In Wisconsin, the directors in their report
for 1879 say: "1n view Of the renewed dis
cussion concerning the proper punishment for
murder in the first degree. we have deemed it
proper to collect the statistics relative to
convicts sentenced to confinement in this
prison for life" For 81 years there were 81
sentences for life; part of them for desertion
and rape. During that time (3l years. there
were but % convictions of murder in the first
degree. We are told that in 1873 there were
1875 in prison. The inferenca. TO me was
that they were in for ljfa~ TkefsveyesuaS
so life members, Uke report sh0@s, not
1875. There arauaGeen degrees of punishment
for the des1E4etj0n of human life. four for
manslaua <ter and three for murder. IL it
true as eplied to Wisconsin that "there is
nowhergIN this land record of blood like
this? That wisconsin with no death pen
altysoea the list of monstrous crimes?''
Ih9zdirectors recommend for the considera-
tt0n Of the legislature shorter tern for mur-
der in the first degree than impelonment for
life.
l have not gone back to the time
of the war or imms3IeteIy after, when
crime was 90 rife iSsme of the border
States, or re1eDDo 0a to those new States
where the beele Gnife and pistol were daily
play -thinGRoepe4g the rufiians who over
them. 81 v6o for period reiened CUISINE.
But evU4 ekere the evidence u iuty favor
IL { I'm 4iRhtly informed and aGkinst the
maj6 j6rity e the States where the ibbet has
IN Feared - the ne pine 49, Of human
ppishment> the supsar aGuardian'' of
~ commonweGs6G1e angel to hover over
- hearth-stones great purifier Of the
GIorals of the people.
II has not been proved to my mind that the
absence of the gallows in this State has been
the cause Of the increase of murders here,
far from it. Il has not been proved that there
has not been q corresponding increase of
murders in States where the gallows points
Heavenward and blackens the face Of nature.
1t is not true that during the past few wears
the average of murders committed have
been greater in those States where
the penalty for murder is imprisonment for
life. bat the reverse 10 the fact, so far as 1
an able to Judge and sift the evidence. otber