Arizona republican., 1913-02-03
Catch up With J Jefferson

CBy J. J. Sanders, Parole Clerk, State
 Prison)
 "The reformation of offenders, though an object worthy the attention of the laws. is not affected at all by capital punishment, which eXterminates instead of reforming, and should be the last melancholy resource against those whose existence is become incOnsist- ent with the safety of their fellow citi-
 zens. which also weaken the state by cutting off so many, who. if reformed, might be restored sound members of
 society, who, even under a course of correction, might be rendered useful in various labors for the public, and
 would be living and long continued
 spectacles to deter others from com
 hitting the like offenses. And fOras
 much as the experience of all ages and
 countries hath shown that cruel and sanguinary laws defeat their own pur
 pose, by engaging the benevolence of mankind, to withhold prosecutions, to smother testimony, or to listen to it with bias, when, if the punishment were only proportiOned to the injury, men would feel in their inclination, as well as their duty, to see the laws Ob- served. d."-Thomas Jefferson.
 There is much food for thought in the above words of the great Jeffer- son. There is much food for reflection among our citizens who boast of being Jeffersonan democrats or JeffersOnian
 proglessives. The spirit of progress | is permeatng every avenue of our na- l {; EfrrI,+ t,,,t made against the Arizona constitution
 al Washington has started something. I Even the most rabid standpatters in l the United States senate are casting | their votes for the recall of judges by 1 impeachment. The battle for woman | suffrage is all but won in the United 1 States, for no longer can any great 1 party in the nation ignore the issue; 1 no longer. can any national party hope ! for success if they fail to declare for WL man suffrage in their national plat ! fa:m. Popular government features l will soon be embodied in our national constitution The initiative, referen- 1 dun and recall of all national off cials. including the election of our 1 president by direct vote, will soon be i lIlc ldW OI lne idllu HOIlIoiS Jelltl 1 son, the most far seeing statesmen that our nation has produced, believed | in all of these features of popular gov ernment Catch up with Jefferson. you | who are ObSCeSSed with instincts in herited from our savage and barbarOus ancestry. You who do not believe in individual murder, but who do believe in collective murder by states and na- tions by legal executions and war. catch up with Jefferson. No longer may you boast of being a Jeffersonian democrat or a JefferSonian progressive if you favor the taking of human life i by the states. Thought is creative and when you think legal murder you can
 not get away from the fact. a funda- mental law of psychology that you are
 premcditating murder in the very depths of your soul. If you believe in
 the Jeffersonian principles of govern
 ment, if you believe in progress, if you
 believe in the truths of Christianity, if
 you believe that we should have peace on earth then cast off those Tory in
 stincts, cast off all reactionary influ
 ences, throw aside your organisms, lay
 aside all thoughts of war, all thoughts
 of legal executions, and be a true Jeff fersonian progressive, a true Christian.