Year: 1869

Putndm's Magazine for February contains,
under the above title, terse and strong review by MI
E. c. stedman Of the manifold brutates and plumbers
of the system Of official manslaughter known as Capital
Punishment The taking Of human life by society sane
tons rather than prevents the commission OF the same
crime ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The assembling Of aury and
judges and the crossexaminaton Of witnesses by law
yers change the essential right wrong OF the
act These are modes Of arriving at the one result


But argues the private murderer al" Society at large
has the right 10 punish by taking life when 1t does not
claim to know but only to believe the offender to be
guilty then taking life In punishment OF wrongs ana ln
1uIies is right In ITSELF and have only TO know that my
man is guilty. 70 be just In taking his life as Society
would be taking mine." All that the galows teaches
is that 1t is proper and Christian punishment to ake


life The murderer judges OF the question OF guilt OF the
nature Of the OCCASION for himself We do not claim that
men who commit capital crimes always or often rea.
son in this way, for they seldom reason at all ana
when they do they unsoundy this reason
ing would In the main bo sound 1. e.. II would cOmpel
them TO concudelther that individuals have the right
10 punish their fellows by killing them or else that Society
has not But II important to know that tho main
tenance Of the practice of official murder by society "
large lessons the value which individuals upon human


fe lessons the horror with which they contemplate Will


fully taking IT, inculcates spirit and nfuses INTO the
very atmosphere contagion OF murder whch leaus 10
the repetition rather than the prevention ol Violent
crimes Men without reasoning aboutt at al feel thath
Society can Justly kill those who wrong SOCIETY," why can
not one man kill the person who wrongs hnl That men
IN moments OF passion in the brooding Insanity Oh


eyenpefni malice can be deferred from taking life by the
fear Of being hanged II exploded and mischieVOus
blunder The murderer who assaults his victim races
the danger Of instant death from the resist
ance OF his victim Tie stealthy assassin, who
resorts to poison is looking TO escape from all punish
ment Perhaps tho wary murderer knows that consci'
entous jury Will stand in moro dread OF hanging him
than Of being hanged and that the very tors OF
the sentence will deter them from conyicfing him OF tho
crime All the moral forces Of Society the heals VI
witnesses Jurors, counsel judges Governor Jaors ana
Sheriff. tend to facilitate the OF one VINO Is " 10
punished by death. When VIC think now rapuy 'herei 10
growing upon the minds Of class OF scientific men
new science the pathology Of crime, which teaches that
crime is in great measure form Of physical and mental
disease phase OF insanity, how revolving Is the spec
tace society curing its patients by satguaonl An
other class Of scicathc men, the economists and students
Of Social Science, nud that crimo bears liked aY'
erage ratio TO poverty, want, ignorance gloom
and pain. How cruel the example Of Society, like
the Spartan mother srangllng hor children because
they are unfortunate aud deforned sti another class
Of observing and practical philosophers VIII point out
those who from infancy during enfeebled health
have had propenstes toward special crimes as difficult
Of avoidance their part eryspelas or hip dis
ease. How long shall continue to put to
painful death these lunaticsi The Christian Is
appalled, by the reflection that in a myster1ously'
large majority Of cases. persons executed Nr inur
spend their final hours in ecstacy Of rejoicing nj


having found their Savior aud in the prospect OF soon
meeting Jesus! 1t seems at least marvellous tha'
men and women whose presence Society tolerated Win
equanimiy while they were the narlots, runans ahn
scourges OF the Garth the moment they repent ana DO


come good and sincere Christians shond h" hanged by
their neck unt they arc dead Whom We add that tho


jurisprudence of every country full Of instances from
the crueifxion of our Lord TO the execution OF John
Rrown in which advantage has been taken OF tho
death nenaltv 20 rraiify the vilest passions by
putHug 70 death the n0blest persons who
have ever appeared to ennghten, instruct, man


kind, and that IN many thousands Of instances innocent
persons have been executed either the testimony of
those who had themselves committed the crime when


In fact crimo whatever had been commnted-doos 10
not appear that longer stronger arguments can DO
needed 10 send the gaRows-after its yetmsout Of eI
istencoi The article Pndpl rs largely devoted 20
illustrating tho extraordinary and in part needless hor
rors which often attend the inhcton OF this punishment
Society rs II conscious that doing base act does It
bungnngly and badly. The Sheriff leaves the base busl
TO his deputy. The deputy hires substitutes; and
few win cot as substitutes unless they snciArtly
stupid timd haggle and bunder the Job.
Few OF the victims have their necs dslocated Most OF
them expire by slow suffocaton apopeIy breathing
partially and leapng terribly for several minutes-some
for long twelve orIoven fifteen minutesWhen
minute and Ia ago OF torture Mrs. Bllansky,
who executed at st. Paul In 1850 for poisoning her
husband and who died protesting her innocence said to
the Sheriff the scafold Dr. Miller how you
your hands by cutting that rope around my necki"
Frequently the intelligent class OF criminals
struck by tho grim absurdity and wrong OF Capital
Punishment than by fear Of their own fate John w.
Hughes hanged IN Ohio in 1906 for the killing his
mistress while in such frenzy OF drunkenness that he
never afterward reebered the act and who could not
therefore have felt any moral responsibility or reorse
except for the act Of drinking the liquor He made sng


lar speech the scaOd In which he charged that Society
unwse in taking his life, and that It It's duty
reform and not TO murder those who offended against It.
The the victims in the OF intelligence aud
morality, the moro readily they admit that Society Is
right in taking their lives and that they are freely for
gwen, aud are going straight from tho momentary
agones Of the scaod TO the eternal bliss Of Heaven
from the and pity Of men 10 the loving bosom OF
God Both theories have their basis In the hODo-
ness OF conscience which alone enables them to wipe out
a life OF murder by siDgla penitenthl tear, and TO
Justify Society in taking the lives Of those who
odend It by taking the lives OF those who offend
them. When the Sheriff Informed Mrs. Grinder
the LucreEa Borga Of Western low life, that her time
had come she replied, with chirrup Yes and Jesus
is coming for too" We have no objection to these
people becoming good Christians; but IL they suoh
are they not the very last subjects TO whom hanging is
appropriatei And II they are not, is not the religions
ecsacy which precedes their death and makes IL happier
morally and confident than that OF tho most timld
and conscientious saints after ALL Of the most weird
and repulsive hallucnations which cluster around
this relic OF savageryi In England, they have
advanced 80 far to strangle their oulprits
in private instead OF in public. This is an
admission that tho gallows, an example, teaches
murder rath nsn prevents t. In recent execution at


Utica chor administered and the prisoner was
launched into eternity absolutely without pain and con.
ssanently without punishment All efforts TO refine capt.
tai punishment by taking life without pan admit that
murder and not punishment s the object Surely Society,"
with all its bolts bars and PRISONS with all its means Of