Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1906-11-09
The Death Penalty,

The Death Penalty.
In discussing the penalty of murder
the Free Press says 1T is perhaps not
necessary to say that Governor Bell is
opposed to the proposition to substitute
llte Imprisonment for the death penalty
in Vermont"
Does the esteemed contemporary mean
that Gov. Bells attitude as to the nro-
posed substitution is so well known that
II needs no restatement. or that if is
sufficiently indicated by his record in the
Mary Rogers affair? If the latter mean
ing is intended, we join issue. The fact
That Gov' Bell stood for Just enforce
lAelt OF existing law predicates nothing
as TO whether he favored the continuance
or repeal of that law. We have diff
c'lty III believing that the editorial re-
TERED to is intended to credit Governor
Bells attitude in that case to his per-
sonal opinions rather than to his DESIRE
to enforce the law, though we think
t''at the words quoted might be so un.
derstood.
Right in this direction if the death
penalty is to remain, let it be Inflicted
III the least revolving manner By all !
means substitute electrocutiou for tba
rope.
But why ktl anyone at all? Has any
human heinS natural right to deprive
another human being of life? A body
corporate has no rights outside its char
ter A Vermont corporation cannot ex-
efclse Its functions in another State
unless there permitted to do 50. The
charter of humanity confines the exer-
else OF its functions to the earthly life
!" men earthly laws encroach upon the
prerogatlve of the divine law and the
jurisdiction OF the Future Life-and
how few but believe in that Sovera;o,-
ty!-ls 1t not ultra ries D.? However if
may ne urged, that humanity must pro-
tect itself, and that the inf1iction of the ,
death penalty will deter Others from
murder. But history furnishes NO war
rant for such contention. This is what =.
noted English historian has to say = j,
-" men, IN the time of Henry VI.
more persons were executed in England II
J" one year for highway robbery than ,
ne "hole number executed in France Fl
II seven years; when, in the reign Of :,
ienry VIII, seventy-two Thousand \,
hleVes were hanged, being at the rate
u Two thousand year: and when, in O.,
he reign of George III, as we have seen a,
"ehty persons We're executed on tba a.
anne morning in London, for privately .o
'e'ii'g - we see the principle of I'M a.
''isated leroclty, the savagery which 70
prlles brute force as the one repod,
u every evil, enshrined on the Judo -
rent seat. The system went on tin
'clety was heart-sick at its atrocities b.,
~ '"e' rose up the equivocating sys- 4.
m which lord chancelIors, and lord
''ei J's'ices' and doctors in moral phi
sophy, upheld as the perfection of -.
ma" wisdom the system of making il,
IL llShtest as well as the most enormous
FENCES capital, that the law might stand NJ,
DIS Scarecrow- an old, ragged, i'll. ~,
htr'ved, and hdeous mawkiu-- that
smallest bird that habituallv niIfarod
{ feids OF industry despised while he !.
mt on plfering. With the absolute =
''"'n'y OF experience that bloody laws -.
'orousI y administered did not diminish M
ma tho l:. "'' '''''' '''Si' wit
me- the legislators of the beginning Of ;,
nineteenth century believe, or affect .
TO pel'eve, that the same laws scarcely :, =,
y carried INTO execution would operate r,.
o"sh 'he influence of what they called
'ague terror. As if any terror. as = " "
'e"'i'e Oh crime or motive to gooI, .,.
ever vague. The system was en- I.,
ny Kept IN existence by the iucon,ne- -
ce and idleness of the law-makars :, law
the observation-disclosures. A we'll. - -
ested system of secondary punish , r,;
TO
nus never seemed to them to be with ~
he possibility of legislation" 'Ae''
y murder the guilty one Justly for " owes "a