St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-27
High School Pupils Debate
the Question Of Capital
Punishment.
Sanity City Orators Claim
That Hanging Is Mere Ju- .:
dieial Murder. :
Minneapolitans Maintain That
the Mosaic Law Is So
ciety's Safeguard.
Judges Come to the Conelu-
sion That Man-Killers .
Should Swing.

The question of the abolition Of capfi
tai punishment was debated by the st.
Paul and Minneapolis high schools last
evening. MesSrs. Leavitt Corning go,
and Frank III. Griggs go, of st. Paul,
took the affirm ative, while Arthur
Helliwell go, and Miss Jean Blaisdell
80, of Minneapolis, argued in the mega
tive. Messrs. Mckay and Baxter, of
Minneapolis, and DR.. S. G. Smith, of
St. Paul, were the judges. The large
assembly hall of the high school was
crowded to its utmost capacity by vast
concourse of young people from both
schools, standing room being unobtain-
able at s O'Clock. The chairman an
nounced that the debate was arranged
in order to bring about some friendly
relations between the two schools.
Leayltt Corning, opening the debate.
said it seemed very strange. with all
the progress made since the Middle
Ages, that man.cOuld not find better
punishment than the gallows. Capital
punishment should only be inflicted to
protect society and not for vengeance.
Most crimes were the OffSprings of pas
sions willing to run the gauntlet of the
law. He quoted John Bright OH bar
barism, saying that if the law disre-
garded human life the subjects were
liable to do the same. Often prisoners
were let go free because juries were
afraid to convict. Mittermeyer said
crime is greatest. Charles Sumner said
the time had gone by when the
state had to protect itself by hang
ing individuals. If it is not right
for one man to kill another it cannot be
right for the state. Governments are
always liable to err. If one man is
hanged wrongfully in hundred years
1T would be enough reason to abolish
the death penalty. He characterized
the death penalty as judicial murder.
Society, ashamed of the execution, con-
ceals it. The pubic thinks crime
slight when the horrors are
Simmons, of Minneapolis, thinks
it would be cheaper and easier and
better to imprison them. Benjamin
Franklin said that laws which prescribe
the death penalty are relics of barbar-
ism. Punishment by hanging is not so
severe as by Imprisonment. He pic
tured the woes Of a prisoner haunted by
his crime; the possibility for his redemp-
ton, drawing an optimistic picture of a,
reformed murderer. He characterized
a hanging as fit sight for the late En-
peror Nero. ''What an eternity you
are sending him to-" The majesty of
the law called forth cutting sarcasm.
Which, he asked, was the most MAJ
iestic, to send a pinioned man to his
maker by force, or to reform him and
give him chance? He fOretold that
modern reform would soon sweep away:
this relic of the Middle Ages, this bar
barous institution. Il .
Arthur Helliwell said that capital
punishment had been used from
antiquity. In this. country, with its
popular to think criminals can be res
formed. Capital punishment is au-
thorized by God in the Old Testament,
and was not one OF the Mosaic laws.
God commanded it in several places,
even allowing a murderer to be taken
from His altar to execution. If the I'M
changeable God had repented from His
command Christ would have made
some explicit declaration. Christ'S
commands were simply guides to in
dividuals and not directions for legal
procedure. He fully recognized the
death penalty and never condemned it.
He did not intend the Sermon on the
Mount to be applied to law. Society
has the right" he said, ''to do what it
can to protect itself. If it is necessary
to kill few to preserve the many
THIS KILLING Is JUST.
Ii man attacks me it is my right to
kill him in protection to myself. If
foreign nation attacks us it is our priv
ilege to NOW him down with the ut
most rapidity. Government protects
the life of man and has right to take
that life. Is it not more just to send
fpn int of wit Fl,
months or years preparation during
which they have had time to repent
than to allow ten more murdered to 60
into eternity without minutes prepa-
ratiOnF The most degraded nations
and the most civilized recognize the III
StitutiOn, and where the government
will not make use of it, Judge Lynch
does. He showed the excess of lynch
ingS over legal executions in America.
Man may forfeit his right to live by
deeds Incompatible wi tn public safety.
1t is not the mode of execution, but
the fact of death that terroriZes. He
advocated electrical execution If |
there were no greater penalty than life
imprisonment why could not muir
derer kill the witness for the proSecu-
ton. the jailer and others with no
further punishment? Thoughts of i'm |
priSonment are tame compared with |
those of death. The law should be such
that every murderer would be killed
under any circumstances. He brought
statistics to show that capital punish
ment is preventive of crime. Another
evil of not hanging is that
PRISONERS ARE OFTEN PARDONED
out. If we do not hang murderers
they are liable to come out in few
years better Schooled in wickedness
and ready to murder again. The death
penalty is a benefit to mankind.
America invited the people of the
world to come here, and is being men
aced by socialists, anarchists and other
wild theorists against whom the death
penalty is the only safeguard.
Frank ii. Griggs quoted number of
celebrated men as being in favor of the
abolition of capital punishment. He
admitted that restrainSt was necessary
by the state. Mob law arose from the
emotional nature of man; then Judge
Lynch comes in. with feelings of re-
venge as his guiding star. Some time
ago countless crimes were punishable
by death. In the near future this relic
of barbarism will be done away with.
He could show that less than
10 per cent of the men in
dicted for murder in the first de-
gree were convicted. Any jury by
eloquence can be worked upon so as to
fear the rendering of verdict of
guilty. LII the majority of cases YER
dict of murder in the second degree is
rendered, and by misuse of executive
clemency the man gets off in few
years. He would suggest, as remedy.
to make life imprisonment effectuaI
and irrevocable. Popular sentiment
was against hanging, as was shown by
the secrecy of the executions. He dis