New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1891-10-21

months, and perhaps years, in which
to make his peace with Heaven, and
to arrange his worldly affairs. In the
latter case the victim is in many instanc-
es, permitted no time to either prepare
to leave this world or to enter another.
There are besides, vicious and cruel ma
natures, upon whom no penalty has
any restraint except an absolute sweep
ing them off of the face of the earth. It
is wrong, out of sympathy with the
wicked, to permit the righteous to suf.
Ter. The fear of punishment, by impris-
onment for life, is always accompanied
IN the criminal by the hope of pardon
or escape, and bad men will take great
risks to grati1y their greed or revenge.
On the other hand there is, of course,
always the danger, that an innocent
man may be convicted and hung, and his
innocence afterwards made manifest.
This is dreadful possibility to contemp-
late. In such case the common
wealth itself commits murder. Many
cases OF this kind have occurred. If the
Legislature should abolish capital pun
ishment, the law should be so changed
as 10 take out of the hands of the gov
ernor the pardoning power, in capital
cases, so that the sentence Of imprison-
ment for life should mean all that it's
name implies. There shuld be s. provi-
sion, however, that, in case of after
discovered testimony, the Supreme
| Court of the State should have the right
to review the case and set the prisoner
free, if, in their judgment, the testimony
justified it.
Rev. w. S. Vail of St. Paul in a SER
mon last Sunday: In capital punishment
| the state rises to the act of retribution.
1t says if man sheds the blood of his
fellowman by man shall his blood be
shed. | am sorry to say this principle
| has been taught as tenet of the reli-
gion. and it is found in the Hebrew
Bible, but I could not believe it if it
We're found in thousand Bibles. That
| phase of the question, however, I waive
for the present. Whether capital pun
ishment is deterrent we shall presently
see by the study of history, that best of
all commentaries on any religion. But
in extreme cases we are to initiate God,
we are told, by making punishment ter
rible. II punish heretics,'' said Queen
Mary, with fire in this world, and God
| will punish them with everlasting fire
| in the next. " And Cromwell is reported
to have justified the slaughter of men
by the conclusion that he was only as.
sisting the Almighty. To assist the
Almighty boy was placed by ecclesiA-
sites and officers upon rack. The
wheel was turned until he swooned.
Restoratives quickened him to con.
sciousness. A man with huge biceps
lifted heavy bar and broke his arm.
He swooned again. He was restored
and the other arm broken. And so his tor
ture went on until at last the final scene
came when his breast was broken in by
the bar. But it was all done to help
God! And before we 60 to extremes to
help God, hight it not be well to see
whether we are sure that we are doing
him service or merely following our
preconceived, ideas? I believe that a
change should be at hand for lis in this
regard. Jerrold always said that some
people never could enjoy the new moon
out Of respect for that venerable institu-
ton, ''tbe old one.'' This hope is not
our case. If our methods are wrong I
am sure we are, willing to make them
better. Let me say from positive side,
brutality did never check men from
crime. During the reign of Henry
VIII, men were boiled in oil in Smith
field, at a time when there were nearly
three hundred capital ofenses, when
men were constantly hanging in chains
at Tyburn. When terror was in the
| very atmosphere crime held its widest
carnival. Men were treated as beasts
and the treatment developed the beasts
within them. They were hunted as Ish-
maelites, and their hands we're against
the hand of every other man. In our
own land it is notorious that when exc
cutions were public the effect was such
as to infame the multitudes, and parties
of both sexes, after witnessing the exc
cution, so often ended the day with a
drunken orgy, that shame prompted the
privacy Of capital punishment. II bru-
tality in punishment Woula reform men
then long ago the world would have
been made pure.
The only argument that has any de-
tense is that these men are dangerous
animals, and that as dangerous animals