Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-23
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1888.
THE CRIME OF CAPITAL PUNISH
 WENT

fer with you on topic involving all the three considerations. Your leader Saturday elo- quently advocated the abolition of capital punish ment for the murderer Where would be the limit to lawessness if the terrors of the galows were taken away? Where would the reckless criminal stop if the wholesome restraint of the hangmans rope did not interpose: Iadmire your philanthropy-bu your philosophy is at fault. If we are to abolish capital punishment, let the murderers first abolish murder.
 This is an extract from a long and elo- quent letter coming to us from Winsted, and having signature that would com mand respect if anonymity were not i'm posed on us. The writer uses as cpl graph to his communication the Scriptural decree that 'whoso sheddeth man's-blood, by man shall his blood be shed;" and pro ceeCs to argue on moral grounds against the position we had taken up on grounds material as we'll as moral We confess that we are unconvinced We believe that the divine decree, "thou shalt do no mur- der," is of greater force in respect of what they call the judicial taking of life than as applied to the deed of an iddividual assas- sin. In the one case there is sober judg ment, deliberate design and unimpas- stoned forethought-i the other, in most cases, uncomfortable impulse, and an i'm petuosity that disregards the criminality and takes no note of consequences. The taking of human life is the material mat ter for considerations and this, in onr view, is murder whether by the authorized hands of the hangman, the assassin's poison or poinard or that wholesale process of bull let and bayonet, dignifed as ''the pride, pOmp and circumstance of glorious war "
 Our correspondent bases his views on the practices under the Old Law, before the principles of comprehensive mercy had come to supersede them; he would cling to the ''lex talionis'' of the dark ages, regardless of the light of humanity which civilization has, or should have brought us; and he would uphold the bar barism of making human life dramatic spectacle on the scaffold just as the gladi- ators of old were ''butchered to make a Roman holiday" The Lord gave and the Lord shall take away is of higher and holier force than Mans mandate: "Sus- pendatur per collum. "-Hanged by the neck until you are dead with the perfunct- ory addendum, "And may the Lord have mercy on your soul," by men in whom according to Jaw there is no mercy
 Some oneSf&d said: "The worst use you can put man to is to hang him. , <, And the inconsistency of this Capital Pun ishment idea is that the victim is done to death when he is most fitted to live. Take the instance of that unfortunate man hanged in the Tombs yard of New York this morning. Daniel Driscoll had lived life of recklessness and rowdyism: de- veloping at last into murder. Gods laws as we'll as mans were unknown to him o1 tions and ministrations of the good pries of the prison, and the visiting Sisters o1 Mercy he was professedly brought to a state of grace; and then Society killed him when, according to his own account, he was for the first time in his life elevated into condition to dignify Society.
 And then of the oppressive efficiency of example. There is no exemplary power in the gallows. When in the old country men were hanged for highway robbery highway robberies were committed il view of the dangling rope and the sus pended culprit. When the crime impulse shows itself the probability of the punish ment is never present. And again on the question of example it is matter of statis tical record that as Capital Punishment for crimes of other degrees than murder had been abolished the particular crimes decreased in number and in violence Highway robberies are not so frequent a. when hanging was their penal conse quence; forgeries have diminished without the agency of the rope as a de terrent; so with all crimes formerly pun even though population has become quad rupled and the incentives to offence no decreased. Would it not be we'll on DO litical grounds-avoiding altogether tn plea of morals and the appeals to humani ty-to try what a like mercy would do i diminishing the murder roll.
 Capital punishment does not deter tn criminal, for no thought is taken of con sequences when the crime is committed The very shadow of the gallows does no excite terror for the doomed culprit is re garded as a hero; and the only speculatio in his regard by pals and professions sympathizers is whether he shall ''di game. 'The interests of society would be bes subserved by abolition-public decenc would be promoted by the desuetude the judicial revenge of blood for blood morals would be advanced by a repudi, ton of the most immoral spectacle of col blooded murder; and Society would none the worse-in security or in satisfa tions-because there still remained to
 the protection of a punishment for the v olatiou of law more enduring and more e ficacious-whether regarded in the light example or atonemeut.
 THE NEW HAVEN DEMOCRATIC DI
 FICULTY.