Year: 1879

These have been unusually frequent
within month past In two instances
they have been attended by circumstan-
ces that excited intense interest. In the
case of Hunter, at Camden, there was an
accident which raised a great outcry
against the Sheriff and against capital
punishments. But the accident was not
a ground for just complaint. One might
have occurred under any Sheriff's care
And it is certainly, no argument against
the penalty. In the Pennsylvania exc
cution reprieve arrived a minute too
late, and it is loudly proclaimed that this
shows the danger of putting men to
death. They may be innocent.


This outcry is designed to promote
that unhealthy sentiment which would
abolish capital punishment altogether.
1t will be a dreadful day for this city
when the people are told they may kill
one another with the assurance that
hanging issplayed out"


late District-Attorney of this city
said to us: mo man can be District-A
torney of New York without seeing the
necessity of capital punishments.


The question is very old, and has been
sufficiently discussed Men who do not
feel the force of the duty to do justice in
sist upon the inexpediency of the death
penalty. We hold that it is the duty of
governments to administer justice; that
it is Just to put to death those who slay
their fellows; and that in all ages justice
is the highest expediency. 1t is always
expedient to do right; it is never expe-
dent to do wrong.


If government draws its sanctions from
the consent of the governed, then the
Righteousness of capital punishment has
been attested by the common consent of
men in all ages, under all forms of gov
ernment Philosophy and sentimental
humanity have here and there suspended
justice for time, but the common con-
sent of mankind has been in accord with
the divine precept whose sheddeth
mans blood by man shall his blood be
she'd"


And If government, as we believe, de-
rives its authority from the will of God,
then the verdict of common sense and
the human race is in harmony with the
law that condemns the murderer to the
death he deserves.


Our observation and comparison of re-
suits serve to strengthen the inference
we would draw from these principles
The unwearied, intense and extraordina-
ry efforts made by prisoners and their
friends to procure a substitution of i'm
prisonment for death, make it obvious





than a sentence of a thousand years in
prison, if life were assured for that time.
Until murderers stop killing, we hope
that governments will do their duty.


The N. Y. Tribune regards the tenden-
cy OF modern thought as in the direction
of the divine precept and gives the fol-
lowing facts in support of its opinion:


about forty years ago. philanthropic
Englishman prophesied that the gallows
had not twenty years life in it. The op-
ponents of capital punishment in this
country were equally sanguine; and we
suspect that even Mr.. Garrison thought
that hanging would be abolished much
sooner than slavery. The event has shown
that arguments against the death-penalty
have really made but little impression
upon the public mind, except that the
number of felonies capital by statute has
been much diminished. There is rarely
an execution now save for the crime of
murder or for crimes resulting in MUIR
der. Thus, it is important to notice, the
penalty has been reduced to the strict
theological basis upon which its strong
est advocates rested it, and to an acquies-
cence in the formula 'Whosoever she'd
deth mans blood by man shall his blood
be she'd Public opinion seems now
definitely to stop here.


"In this country, during the year 1878,
the number of capital executions was
ninety-six. Very nearly all these were
for murder. A large proportion of them,
it should be stated occurred at the South,
where society has been in an unsettled
condition. and the hanged were mostly
blacks. But, on the other hand, there
were six executions in Pennsylvania,
where the Quaker feeling against hang
ing used to be so strong, while there were
none in New Jersey, where there has
never been any opposition worth men
tioning to the gallows. Forty years ago
it was next to impossible to hang any
man in Massachusetts,. In 1878 the
State had one execution. The agitation
against capital punishment which was
formerly so considerable, has had the ex-
cellent result of ameliorating the capital
code, but the race with the instinct of
preserving life, still adheres to the pun
ishment when life has been feloniously
taken. To hang for larceny was cruel
and absurd; but to hang for murder the
world continues to consider quite other
wise"