Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1914-12-31
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
AGAINST GODS LAW
BY W. Connolly.


imperative command was issued:
"Thou shalt not kill" Ii was sue
cinct, positive, direct. 1t left no
room for debate or doubt. There
was no space for quibbling or dissem-
bling. 1t came direct from the Father
and, unlike much of the Old Test
ament, it did not come to us second
hand, or through the agency of the
lips of another. No matter what the
provocation, no matter what the ex-
cuse, no matter how ingenious may
be the attempts at justification, the
command is still there, immutab elm
perishable, ineluctible: "Thou shalt
not kill" In spite of this, at the
present time eleven nations, madden
ed and enraged, and LISTING for blood,
are attempting to destroy eacn other,
and the misery of it is that nine of
these nations profess to be Christian
and followers of the Master. The
units and individuals composing these
nations would recoil in horror from
the taking of life, but collectively
they seem to have adopted the philos-
ophy satirized by the poet; Bellby
Porteus:
Zone murder made villain,
Millions hero. Princes were privii-
eyed
To kill, and numbers sanctified the
crime"
What seems strange is not only
the trained and seasoned soldier, but
the statesman, the scientist, the pub
licist, the poet, and even the prelate
and sacerdotalist condone and conse-
crate this human slaughter on the
part OF their own people, and hail
with glad acclaim the genius that can
invent and put into operation the
most horrfic and effective engines of |
death. They have much to say about |
civilized warfare, and in their pro.
nouncements and preachments put
forth logic that would be amusing
were they not dealing with subject
SO terribly tragic and brutality bloody.
They approve of and applaud the
taking of life, if it be done according
to certain plans and specifications of
their own-as if it mattered to the one
deprived of life what means were
used in taking it from him.
Long lines of. trenches are dug in
which soldiers conceal themselves
for protection while firing upon the
enemy, and these trenches, many
miles in length, are often utilized as
almost endless graves of thousands.
Deadly missiles are sent hurting to
explode very often over helpless peo-
pie and, and the latest triumph of
science, bombs are dropped from the
skies to fall upon and destroy human
life. Besides this, those who go down
to the sea in ships have learned
the art of submarine navigation, and
by a demoniacal skill dive under
great ships and send them, together
with hundreds of lives, to the bottom,
by the explosion of single torpedo.
War is stalking over Europe, and
we have no sure means of telling how
long 1t will keep its iron hoof from
our own land. we are appalled, at the
wholesale shedding of blood and TAX
ing of life. For this reason we be.
lieve that wars should be avoided and
we all look forward to the happy day,
pictured by the poet, when the war
drum will beat no longer and when
there will be parliament of man
and federation of the world. This
to our larger vision will be the con-
OF spiritual growth and
rescue of mankind from the last traces
of atavistic savagry. We who are en-
joying peace and plenty imagine that
we are right minded and humane be-
canse we decry war and pray for
peace and the conservation OF human
life; but, if we should make proper
and candid assessment OF our own
delinquencies and the sins of COM
mission, we will find that we are not
doing our part towards the preserva-
ton of that human life which we pro.
TESS to prize so highly. On our own
motion, and in obedience to cruel laws