Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-02-21

the following lHSeniousty Wrlbben atSiSAe'
It's sophistry, however, is easily de-
tected.
1t is contrary to the principles of hu-
man nature to presume that the fear OF
punishment has not a restraining effect.
This check upon the actions of men is,
in fact, recognized as indispensable to
the preservation of society, as the very
bulwark Of government even. So much
so is this the case that punishment,
practically an "eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth" is the remedy pre-
scribed in every criminal case. With
this dread of ~retributive justice, there
are coupled, in all well regulated commu-
mites, an idea of right and a due regard
for the property, privileges and life OF
others.
A moral sense of duty to our neigh
bors strengthens the influence of legal
punishment for wrong doing; but the
animal in man is mainly subdued by fear
of the consequences of his crime. Take
down the barrier set up in our statutes
against fraud, trespass, arson or murder,
and leave the punishment OF these
offences to q mans own conscience, and
not only would civil government be SUBJ
verted, but morality and religion would
give way to brutishness and the license
which comes of brawls and bloodshed.
Any code of laws, guaranteeing life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness to
all, is better than none, and is to be val
ued according to it's efficiency in punish
ing criminals. Let the administration
of Justice be never SO lax, it is still good
to whatever extent it goes in executing
the ground purpose of criminal law,
which is not so much to correct those
who have offended, as it is to strike ter
ror into those who are innocent, but who
may be tempted to offend.
In any community in which a whole
some fear Of the penalties OF the law Is
inculcated, along with proper notions OF
right and wrong, there will inevitably be
found much less lawlessness than in any
other community, in which, to speak
vulgarly, the strings are taken off.
That crime runs riot in this country
wei which peace reigns profound, and in
which there is no immediate cause for
agitation or outbreak, is easily explained.
There is no proper dread of the Court
house in the United States. A man may
deliberately rob or murder, calculating
that, with influence to shield him, he
will escape every penalty that harmlessly
grins at him from the obsolete statute
books. In other words, there is no terror
in law nor any respect Tor the Depart
ment of Justice. This we give, of course,
as the rule, to which there are remarkable
exceptions.
But we had almost forgotten our San
Francisco logician. Here's his talk. 1t
is our privilege to speak first. He shall
have the benefit of the closing speech
If it were possible to find two nations
with equal population and similar social
and political surroundings, it is very
probable that the number Of murders
during a decade in the one where capital
punishment was not enforced would not
exceed those in the other where it was.
When a man is bent on committing muir
der, he does not pause to consider
whether the penalty of the crime is life
long imprisonment, hanging, breaking
on the wheel, or any Of the barbarous
methods followed in Europe before the
French Revolution cleared the atnios-
phere. 1t is probable that more petty
larcenies, in proportion to population,
were committed in England when the
gallows was the penalty than now, when
they are met with a few weeks durance.
Buckle shows, on evidence there is no
g~ainsaying, that in given periods, suf-
ficientiy long to allow contending infu-
ence to correct each other, about the
same number of murders will be COM
mitted with astonishing regularity-and
this whether two men or a hundred are
executed. He found the same law gov
erning mems actions, not in crime
alone from homicide and forgery down
to petty assaults, but in cases appar.
emily outside the pale of all laws.
He found that the same unvarying
regularity extended to the posting
of undirected letters. From year to
year it was discovered that, in proper
ton to the number OF letters posted in
the United Kingdom, the same percent
age Of ssundirected" epistles found their
way to the Dead Letter Office. Our
Judges and legislators. born and bred in
a community where the gallows is con-
sidered so essential in the repression of
crime, have not risen to a conception Of
this great law of averages. Staid legal
fossils and prosperous churchmen have
always been the stanchest opponents of
change in legal penalties in the direction
of humanity. They were the f~ercest
antagonists. against whom Romilly and
Brougham had to contend. In their eyes
the abolition of the death penalty and
the whipping-p post for numberless Of
fences marked the beginning of the
downward path in England's greatness.