to spring up in the bosom of society ferocious
prejudices, which, in their turn, reproduce others.
The idea of murder inspires much less dread than
before when society itself presents the exhibition
of it j the horror of crime is diminished when
society punishes it only by another. ’'
Again, if taking the life of a criminal makes his
fate a warning to others, such as to prevent crime,
why would not death by torture make his fate a
still more effective warning, and hence further re
strain from crime ? Or, why would not torture
alone be an effective punishment for lesser offenses,
and worthy of being re-instated in the criminal
codes of civilized society ? This natural and logi
cal extension and development of the plea for the
continuance of the death penalty would meet with
little favor even from the most pronounced advo
cates of that institution; and yet every argument
in favor of capital punishment might be made to
apply equally well to the revival of all forms of
torture, the most hideous, cruel and unnatural of
punishments. .
The danger of taking innocent life need only
be mentioned, with the observation that, although
the imprisonment of the innocent is equally prob
able, yet when discovered a partial reparation can
be made, while in the case of an innocent man
executed none whatever is possible. But I believe
we should also take into consideration, at least as
a secondary matter, the family and immediate
friends of the criminal. It is terrible enough to
see a near relative or dear friend a criminal and
imprisoned for his crime ; but when his life is
taken, who can measure the depths of woe and
bitterness brought to the heart of a loving wife, a
a devoted mother or a fond father, sweetheart or
sister ? What if it were your father, your brother,
your sweetheart or husband whom a civilized so
ciety had murdered in cold blood and called it
justice! When the oft repeated formula, “the
fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man”
comes home to us so fully and vividly that “when
we see an execution we shall say ‘there goes my
father, my brother or my son’ ’ ’ perhaps the real
THE FREE LANCE.
nature of the cruel, barbaric institution of capital
punishment will become clear to us j and with
horror and loathing we will cast it away forever.
Another argument sometimes offered in favor of
continuing the death penalty is that the struggle
for existence is so hard with many of the lower or
laboring classes that the prospect of prison life has
no terrors for them, but may even appear as a sort
of luxurious rest from the toil necessary to keep
body and soul together outside of prison walls.
The possibility of such an argument is a sad com
mentary on the present social order, while the ar
gument itself indicts the community as an accom
plice in the crime for forcing or allowing the masses
of men to enter such an unrelenting struggle for
existence. And to argue that the death penalty
must be retained to restrain from crime these so
ciety-made criminals is, to say the least, a harsh
and cruel gospel, while the same argument carried
to its logical conclusion would require the death
penalty for all crimes, for short-term imprison
ments could not be more forbidding than life ser
vice. But, no matter how much more arduous
than prison life a man may think his struggles in
the world, there are very few who would volun
tarily exchange freedom for the penitentiary, and
those who would, would undoubtedly prefer to do
so by means of the least crime that would bring
them to their desired haven. This argument, as
well as most others of the advocates of capital
punishment, it seems to me, carries the false as
sumption that men are naturally bad and require
threatening laws to restrain them from crime,
whereas I believe the truth to be the reverse, that
they naturally desire and prefer to do right, and
only force of circumstances and great temptation
lead them to crime j and hence the laws that will
most effectually restrain from crime are those that,
together with the ordinary perfection of their en
forcement, will leave the least possible probability
that the criminal can enjoy the fiuits of his crime
as they appear to him useful or good.
Another matter to which attention must be di
rected, in settling this question, is the actual con-