The Republican., 1890-06-14
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Senator Ingalls, Views on the InhictIon
of the supreme Penalty.

Senator Ingalls, Views on the InhictIon
of the Supreme Penalty.
We are all under sentence of death.
By some mysterious and inexorable law
it is appointed for all men to die. Other
incidents may or may not occur, but
death is inevitable. There is no re-
prieve, no new trial, no pardon, no ex-
ecutive clemency. Life, the most sacred
of all natural rights, is the one of which
all are deprived by an arbitrary decree
of nature. The verdict is pronounced
and judgment rendered before we are
born.
The right of man to live is sacred and
incontestible, and yet it may be re-
nounced. If / am attacked, 1 have the
right to kill my assailant, if his death is
necessary for the preservation of my
own life. This is not denied by any
code of morals or of laws. Life may be
legally taken not only in self-defense
but in the protection of property, of
honor, and the State. If the right to
slay exists, then the right to live is
forfeited, because two contradictory
rights affecting the same individual can
not exist.
Civil governments are established
among other objects, to dispense with
private vengeance, and to punish crimes
against individuals as offences against
tho social compact. The citizen relin-
quishes his right to kill the man who
has slain his father, his brother, his
wife or his friend, upon the agreement
that society shall avenge the wrong,
and punish the offender.
This seems to be the rational iustifica-
tion of the death penalty, which has
been universally recognized from the
beginning of history.
And vet it can not be denied that as
the conscience of nations becomes more
sensitive and the sacredness of life more
apparent it's infiiction grows more re-
pulsive. Tribunals, juries and legisla-
lures are perceptibly reluctant to en-
force the fatal right of retaliation.
Limitations are imposed. The cor.
demned criminal becomes the object OF
excessive and ineXplicable sympathy.
Philanthropy strives to devise less ter.
rible methods of execution. The bar.
barous torture of the stake, the gibbet,
the wheel, of beheading and mutilation,
once deemed essential to the safety OF
society, are regarded with horror, and
have been definitely abandoned. HUI
manity shudders at the contemplation,
and inquiries whether the sacrifice OF
life is not indefensible if the isolation
of the felon is sufficient for the protec-
tion of the State from the repetition of
the crime.
The public sentiment for the abolition
of capital punishment is evidently grow
lng stronger in all parts of the civilized
world. For political otfenses, except in
actual war, it has been finally sup
pressed. Had Waterloo occurred two
centuries earlier Napoleon would have
been sent to the block instead of to St.
Helena.
The right of government to infiict the
death penalty must be conceded. The
objects of punishment are to reform
the offender and to protect society. The
idea of vengeance has been eliminated.
No gentleman can be considered as re-
formed by being hanged, and the only
remaining consideration, therefore, is
that of social utility. This is debatable
ground, and is not susceptible of demon
stration. There are some incorrigible
and predestined criminals, the wolves,
tigers and cobras of the human race,
whose execution gives general satisfac-
ton; but the victims of heredity, OF
want, of sudden rage, of upgovernable
impulse are regarded with compassion
The indications are strong that society
will ultimately be reinforced with suf
ficient intellectual and moral guaran
tees to enable it to dispense with this
supreme penalty.
At present the general conscience
would probably reflect the sentiment oi
the challenged juryman in Montana
who declared that he was opposed tc
capital punishment, except when in
flicted by a vigilance committee.
The Legislature of Kansas has adopted
the ingenious device of ordering crimi
nails condemned to death to be confined
for one year after sentence to the peni-
tentiary, and then executed at the pleas
ure of the Governor. The result is an
accumulation of job lot of convicted
felons, whose lives having been judi
cially forfeited, instead of being abbre-
waited, are indefinitely prolonged by
improved diet, scientific sanitary regu'
1ations, and enforced good habits, at the
expense of the State.-John James In