Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-02
HANGING DENOUNCED
As a Barbar0us and Unnecessary
Means of Furnishing Murderers.
VESTS DEATH. POINTS A MORAL.
Special Church Services Commemorative of
Wesley's Death.
SOME PULPIT TOPICS OF YESTERDAY

Rev. E. R. Donehoo, of the Eighth Pres
byterisn Church, last evening took for his
text Deuteronomy 21:23, "He That Is
Hanged Is Accused of God" The account
of the colored murderer, West, as it appeared
in The DISPAT H of Friday, SO impressed
the preacher that be delivered a most inter
esting sermon on the subject of capital pun
ishment by means of the moose, during
which he said:
Hanging is not very pleasant topic to dis
cuss under any circumstances. 1t is a mode of
punishment that no person of refined sensibil-
IIes ought ever TO desire to witness. Even
when it is inflicted without any of those disa-
greeable features which sometimes through
accident or want of proper precaution- render
IL revolving in the extreme, It is at the best a
ecene to inspire one with horror, unless his
senses have been thoroughly brutalized. To
me it has seemed that the human countenance
never assumes such repellant aspect, never
so thoroughly loses every trace of sympathy
and humanity and all those tender feelings
which dtfferentlate man from the lower ami
mails as when gazing upon poor wretch, pin
Toned and guarded. ascending the steps of
scafold and covering with unutteraDle fear as
the fatal moose is being adjusted The elbow
ing and jostling of the crowd to get so close to
the victim that single token of his last agony
may not escape them is = scene that can never
be ehaced from my mind the most repellant
that have ever witnessed.
An Argument Against the Scaffold.
The account which came to US last week of an
execution OF miserable colored man, which
took place in the town of Washington. was
more tnan usually interesting. from the fact
that the half-dead creature had to be chloro-
formed and strapped to a plank and swung of
on a little rope that was found to be unequal to
the strain. affording TO the select company who
we're favored by the Sheriff with cards of ad-
which any fancier of such scenes would cheer
fully have given a weekS wages TO have wit
messed. Without casting censure upon the
Sheriff. who doubtless did all in his power to
avoid the very catastrophe which lent to this
execution its chief interest il was Still horribly
brutal and utterly Intellectual SO far as any re-
straininC influence for good upon the public
was concerned. The most that can be hoped
from il is to so draw the attention of the think
ing portion of the community to the horrors of
such method Of punishment that some less
barbarous and more satisfactory method of
melting out punishment to criminals will be de-
rermined upon.
the life of his felowman? OF course many are
ready to answer, DO with him Just as God has
specifically commanded-put him to death"
And they are prepared to give their authority
for such action Whose sheddeth mans blood
by man shall his blood be shed" To suggest a
rereal Of the laws against capital punishment
is in the estimation of those who point to this
scripture, an attempt to annul the decree OF
the Creator, and is therefore rebeliious and
athelstic in principle. Candid criticism will
admit OF this passage being thus rendered
Nv hose sheddeth mans blood, by man will his
blood be she'd prophecy, not precept. 1t
Is simply indicative of the fate that the murderer
may reasonably expect, similar to that long
afterward spoken. He that taketh the sword
shall perish by the swords" not that every man
found with a sword in his hand should be put
TO death with sword, but merely that his end
would most likely be a violent one.
Banishment for Life as a Punishment.
II this was an absolute Decree then all have
TO say is that the Lord himself disregarded it
repeatedly aud that his people treated it with
indifference from the day that it WAS first an
nounceu. without any divine rebuke being ad-
ministered. Cain was a murderer of the deep
est dye, but God did not put him to DEATH nor
did he suffer his fellowmen to do it. He ban
iShed him to the land of Nod for his crime.
And so to-day, from the example of the Lord
God Himself, we mete out to the murderer his
just dues when we banIsh him for life to the
penitentiary. The ends of Justice are satified
and society is protected from his murderous
DTupensities.
The history of the enforcement of capital |
punishment shows abundautly that its influence |
has never heen for good upon society at large
nor has it operated to restrain men from the
commission of the crime of murder. Black
stone himself admits that when executions
were most common 'the dreadful listincreases
the number of offenders" The menace of
death is not deterrent to crime, and there are
many reasons WHY this is So The laws delays
the many loopholes of escape. the great re-
luctance that the ordinary juryman exhibits
toward conslgning man to the gallows, the
very small proportion of those arraigned for
the crime upon whom the sentence of the law
is ever carried out-all these reduce the danger
of the death penalty being enforced to a mini
mum, and neutralIze its power as a warning
against tre commission of murder.
Every country that has abolished the death
penalty has found that it has resulted in the
diminishing of the crime of murder by making
tLe punishment for such an offense much |
the more certain. In our own penitentiary
there are scores of men serving out terms for
murder who Will soon be at large again, who,
but for the death penalty would have been ]
convicted of murder in the first degree and |
sentenced for life 10 prison.
Let us abolish this barbarous method of deal
ing with crime. CoBsignlHg it to the same OBJ
Gyion to which many another harsh and in |
human practice of the ancient people of God |
has been committed, and especially since this
with other modes of punishment, was borrowed
from the heather nations among whom they
were thrown, and let us henceforth consult |
some higher motive than that of mere revenge
which greatly fear is at the basis of all the de-
mands that are made for the hanging of those
WHO are guilty of the crime of murder.