Year: 1872

The Synod of The Presbyterian Church for
Northern Iowa, lately III session at Dubuque,
passed a resolution declaring that the action Of
the lust Legislature il aDo1ishing capital punish
ment and substituting therefor imprisonment
for. life. was hssty and unwise, and recommend
ing to ali Christian people that petitions be cir
cn1ated looking to tho restoration OF the law as
it formerly stood. Their action has been in
dorsed by most Of the leading Journals Of the
State, one Of whom, the Waterloo Journal, states
that, eince the repeal OF the death penalty, only
six months ago, the increase in the ratio Of
crime has been enormous, and this fact,
coupled with the interpretation Of the
lnW by the courts in the cases
OF capital felonR, has already created in sonic
places determination to resort to lynch law.
and administer unauthorized vengeance. The
fact that q body Of Christian men meeting to-
gether for religious purposes has felt compelled
to recommend the reinforcement OF the
death penalty shows the folly Of that legislation
which abolished it. The sentiment Of the
Church has usually been against that PEN
atty and in favor OF philanthropy,
even in the case Of murderers, but the terrible
increase in crime has SO shocked the public
mind that even the Church is compelled to
abandon any sentimental ideas OF cle1nency,
and demand that society shall be protected from
n1urderers by enforcing the death penalty,
now that imprisonment for life
hns not only failed to diminish
the number Of murders, but has absolutely in
creased the ratio in a manner hitherto un-
paralle1ed.


The action Of the Synod is heartily to be COM
mended, an d, coming from body Of religious
men, it ought to carry conviction with it. The
people Of iowa, as well as Of other States, ere
confronted by rapid and terrible increase OF
crime, which imprisonment for life is powerless
to arrest. It il time that this sick1y aenti-
mentalism came to m end. In our own State,
the delays in enforcing the law have produced
terrible fruit. imprisonment for life
does not protect society, and is no hindrance to
the brutal instincts of the murderer. Life or
death is the stern fact which has to be settled.
Amy other consideration is simply the outgrowth
Of maud1iu sentimentalsm, If either one Of
the deliberate murderers III this county, better
still, if all OF them, now awaiting sentence ahall
happily be hanged, the lives Of people will be
far safer. If they are not hanged, murders will
increase here just "a they have in Iowa. In the
light Of the results in that State, it ia evident
that the worst possible use to which YOU can put
q man who has deliberately committed murder
is to imprieion him for life. His enforced ab
sence from society is no protection, becauEe two
others will take LIS place. If q murderously-
disposed person knows that his crime involves
only Imprisonment for life, with possibility Of
escape from the punishment by tho techuicali-
tics and delays Of the laws, aud an equal possi-
bility Of pardon at some future time, even il the
penalty is enforced, he will not hesitate to COM
nit the crime. IT he knows that he will paJ the
penalty Of that crime by the forfeiture Of his
own life On the gallows, the chances are that he
will not commit it. The death penalty is not &
matter Of sentiment. It is q necessity, and is
infinitely preferable to the alternative of mob
violence, which deprires man Of life without
the process Of law, to which every man is enti-
tied,