The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-11
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
A Plea For the Adjustment of the
Death Penalty

off. France is a civilized and enlight-
ened nation, where Christianity, the
arts and sciences have sway; and an
incident like the above does but show
that our advance along the social scale
is neither sure-footed nor in all cases
well defined. The veneering of impro-
we'd humanity is in places so thin that
the scratch of pin penetrates it and
lays bare the old original savage. A
century ago that same nation was con-
trolled by trimuvirate, one of whom
/ at least was striking representation
of how easy thing it is for mankind
to retrogress to the point from which
| he started some ages ago--that is, the
advancement upward is like any other
kind of climbing, but coming down
again is quite easy; we can do as much
| of the latter in one minute as we did
| of the former in a lifetime
Robespierre was so sensitive and
spirituelle in his nature that the spec
tacle of bleeding nose gave him a
! fit, so we may imagine what a terrible
shock to him was the first decapita ton
that occurred to "vindicate the law
under his regime. But the law at that
time-and it hasn't improved very
much since-proved to be an insatiate
monster whose appetite grew by what
it fed on when once the feed contained
a seasoning of human blood; and thus
it happened that another and still
other decapitations followed the first
in rapid succession. Familiarity breeds
contempt, and the sequel shows the
French despot to have become so ac-
customed to the monotonous wherr and
whack of the guillotine that he could
see a mans head chopped off with as
much composure as though it were a
stage performance; he even relished
the CHASTITY business and kept on in
Pra ocir1 hot Of
his own head rolled into the basket.
What is true of Robespierre is possible
with anybody.
! 1 have seen several executions both
by shooting and hanging. On the first
occasion-and it is doubtless the same
in some degree with verybody-the
nervous system is worked UP to a pain
| full tension, more than is the case on
| the second occasion: and on the third
or fourth there is a marked falling off
in the feeling of nervousness and re-
pugnance. The road travelled by the
French tyrant is not closed thorough
fare by any means; it is open to all.
But is it the part of humanity to make
| the pace? Is it the part of lawmakers
to encourage it? Killing a man in eX-
piation of a crime, we are toldx is at
once punishment for the offence and a
warning and protection to society.
] That is, performance which shocks
the heart, chills the blood, unstrings
the nerves and eventually indurates
| the conscience-which in detail and in
essence is barbarous, brutal, horrible
and enervating-is a safeguard and an
exemplar for our race! Perish the
thought
| In short time a few of our fellow
citizens will be called upon to commit
one of these murders without the poor
incentive of a grudge or the harboring
of malice. The better judgment will
say they do it for pay, albeit they will
doubtless entrench themselves behind
the rickety defense above outlined, that
they are the evangels to whom is COM
mitted special dispensation for the
melting out of punishment and protec-
ton in one fell stroke. When man
| is willing to take another's life he
! should have some reason satisfactory
to himself for so doing, such as saving
| life or valuable property; l believe even
the law, bad as it is, does not permit
such a thing to be done for revenge,
and am quite sure it does not author
| ize any one to do it for money. How,
| then, will the man who takes deliberate
aim at another whether that other be
John Smith or Enoch Davis need not
matter in this instance) with deadly
weapon and discharges it with fatal
effect be able to square himself even
with the law? 1 am aware that the
statute authorizes the infection of the
death penalty in such cases and will
shield those who carry it out pursuant
to their contract to that end; but
how does it shield them? Only from a
like fate so far as this particular per-
Torrance is concerned. 1t cannot
shield them from the workings of that
inner consciousness which until COM
pletely perverted or oVerthrown inf1ictS
punishment amounting to damnation
intensified and prolonged, and when
overcome there is no longer anything
human to damn.
The man who is controlled entirely
by statutory enactments and hath not
within his own breast code of ethics
which guides and guards him through
life, is one of the most dangerous of
men and least likely to live an honor
able and upright life. To do a thing
wrong in itself because it is not for
hidden, or refuse to do a thing essen
tally right because not required in
terms, is not the department of good
man or a just one. Besides, the laws
themselves are quite frequently as bad
as they can be and have any standing
at all. The statute books of Utah ter
ritory today contain more than one law
whose provisions are subversive of JUS
tice and provocative of inequality
showing with painful plainness how
true it is that even good men cannot
always accomplish good results. What
for instance, could be more inequitable
! than a law which requires the poor
man who enjoys the natural right of
walking over the soil ito pay as much
for the privilege as one who rolls by in
thousand dollar carriage? Or one
that permits a Judgment creditor to
take half of all that man earns who
works for $1.50 a day and has a large
family to support, while making ex-
empt as large proportion of the one
who receives thousands and has no de-
Tendencies? SO let us not rely exclu-
Isively upon the law as it is, but rather
analyze each enactment as it stands in
order that remedies may be applied
wherever and whenever we can do so.
1T is said that the mind that sympa-
thizes with crime is diseased, and no
doubt it is. SO also is the mind dis
eased or dethroned that revels in bar
barous infections because some rem
nants of the barbarism which we may
never entirely Escape find expression in
our books of law We are supposed to
outgrow those things which are essen
italy vicious and would have long since
have done away with the most vicious
| of all of them-cap ital punishment-bu
for the cowardice of one part of the
people and the inertness of another
part. Let us advance; let us punish in
the light of modern civilization and
Christianity rather than remain in ac-
cord with the heathenism and savagery
of the dark ages; let US. in word,
STAY the slayer not after his own fash
ion, but after ours, by excluding him
forever from the society Of his fellows
his days being unnumbered and his
death unwritten. Man being a gregari-
Gus animal, instinctively seeking the
presence of his race and the sound of
voices like his own, would not such