The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-12-09

legislature meets every two years for
the purpose OF giving relief in just such
cases and it is not on record that any
attempt was made at the last session
to curtail the powers of the board or
to change the personnel of its men,
bership.
Those who criticize the board on
any and every occasion know but lit
tie of the work of those men in Tai
lahassee and many care less. All they
want to know is that a man has been
pardoned and they set up their howl
| about turning out criminals.
This. matter Of condeming the PAR
doning board is not a new one; IL
has been going on for several years;
il will perhaps continue as Ions as
this pardODing power is exercised by
any one in authority, but heretofore
the protests have come mainly from
the press. 1t is a iamentable fact
that these scurrilous attacks should
lave found their way to the pulpit;
The sacred altar from which we re-
ceive the message that tells us of for
giyeness.
A legitimate criticism comes as
well and proper from a pulpit rs
from an editors desk, but when a min.
lister so forgets his calling and the
cause for which he is working as to
| brand an honest, honorable and hon
ored set of officials as murderers be-
cause in the discharge of their duties
they suspend the judgment of a court
long enough to satisfy every doubt of
mans innocence before swinging
him into eternity, or open the doors
OF a prison and let some mothers
son go home to die in her arms, we
believe that he is doing injury to his
noble calling. SensationGliSm is not
for the pulpit; if harsh words are to
be used or scurrilous abuse INDUCED
in let it come from any place but the
pulpit-the sacred shrine where we
are taught that God is love.
In a recent issue Of the Tampa
Tribune there is an account of a SER
mon delivered in that city a few days
ago by a Tampa minister. His sub
ject was Our Carnival of Murder and
its chief Cause and during the course
of his remarks he is credited with
having said: The pardoning board
is directly responsible for many MUIR
ders. The assassin is the object of
their tender solicitude. Their course
; incites to lynching. encourages crime,
and is itself the very essence of law
| lessness, however shielded by official
position and responsibility. Their
hands are dripping with the blood of
innocent men, and they ought to be
behind the bars"
How many people of Florida believe
that the hands of Napolean B. Bro
ward, H. Clay Crawford, A. G. Groom,
W. H. Ellis and B. E. McLin are
dripping with the blood of innocent
menu" The infamous attack is I'M
worthy of any decent man and COM
ing as it does from so sacred place
as the pulpit it is to be deplored by
every one. .,
The Journal does not pretend to de-
fend the pardOning board. If they did
not err occasionally in the discharge
of their duties and in the almost un-
limited discretion allowed them
they would form a very remark
able board. They are servants Of
the people and are subject to
criticism, but in dealing with
such a complicated question that
criticism should be above suspicion
and should be uttered in manner
becoming the dignity of the high Of
ficials who by the law of the people
are given the power to open the doors
of the prison or close them against
one convicted of crime in this state