356 Debate on Capital Punishment. [April to man's feeble vision; in short, that the ways of God are inferior to those of man. This others have done. Within the last hundred years, has arisen a race of beings, professing to be men, who have claimed for themselves infinite wisdom, and who have even dared to annul, and abrogate as far as possible, the divinely-appointed and immutable decree of the Eternal. And, shall I say it,-even here, within these walls, on this very day, have we seen and heard a portion of these wise ones, priding themselves upon their own self sufficiency, contemning the name of the Most High, rejecting his immutable ordinances, and, need, I say it, depicting by their own example, in a manner not to be mistaken, the folly and frailty of man. We have been told that the passage "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," is a mis-translation; I will not question the source whence this information proceeds; I will not deny but there is some foundation for such a theory; but I would refer the gentleman to an anecdote which I heard not long since, which will very forcibly show, I think, in what a situation we place ourselves when we attempt to amend a translation, which, for correctness has never been surpassed. A young man was travelling in a stage-coach, and, being ignorant whom he had as company, commenced the conversation by an attack upon the translation of the Bible, which we possess, stating that a passage, which he named, had been interpreted falsely. This he satisfactorily proved, as he supposed, by adducing two reasons. After he had finished speaking, an aged gentleman, who sat near him replied; "Young man, your reasons are perfectly correct, and had their due weight with us when the passage was under consideration, but there were fifteen other reasons which induced us to translate it as we did.” But, Mr. Chairman, if we reject this passage, by no manner of means is it proved that Capital Punishment is not sanctioned by scripture. Nay, even in the preceeding verse, we have not only the positive command of God that the murderer shall not pass unpunished, but also a hidden yet express declaration that he who shields the murderer from condign puuishment, shall reap his reward hereafter. There is an immense importance resting upon these two verses, as the objections which are sometimes raised against the Levitical law, on account of the commands therein contained being made to the Jews, a nation entirely distinct from us, do not apply to these, since they were given to Noah, at a period long anteior to the time of God's covenant with Abraham. Those commands were given at the second creation of man, if I may so express it, before even a distinction or a promise of one hereafter, had been made between the different families of the-human race. Those commands are just as stringent and immutable at this hour as at the moment in which they were utterred, and it is a detraction from the majesty of Jehovah, and a sin of the blackest hue, for man to rescind in the slightest degree those eternal and unchangeable decrees of the Most High. It has been said that Capital Punishment is opposed to the Gospel Dispensation, under which we live. This I utterly deny. And I cannot, I must confess, see, for my part how the gentlemen of the opposite side of the question can pass over passages of such momentous importance as some in the New Testament, without perceiving their proper bearing and signification. They deny that Christ has given his sanction to Capital Punishment. I would ask how the gentleman explain the words "I came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil." What is this but a direct acknowledgment by the Redeemer, of the entire validity in their full length and breadth, of the commands of Jehovah to mankind, which I have endeavored to prove are imperative? Or what is this "For all they that take the sword, shall perish by the sword," but a direct command of the Savior that he who takes the life of his fellow man, shall yield his own in expiation? Shall we annul these laws also? May it be far from us. Whatever objections may be brought against certain of the Levitical laws, those objections do not apply in the slightest degree to the laws of the Messiah which were made for all nations, indiscriminately, through all future generations. But let us look at the words of Paul, that great apostle to the Gentiles, and of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul, speaking of the ruler, says, "for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." And John, in the Apocalypse, says, "He that killeth with the sword, shall be killed by the sword." What can be more binding than this command, coming from one whose authority is, I think, next to that of the Savior? And who beholding these things, can doubt for a moment, that the punishment of death, for premeditated murder, is an institution emanating from the Most High? Who can we ver a moment between the short-sightedness of man, and the Omniscience of Jehovah, his Creator? With this, I conclude. ROBERT S. RANTOUL, in reply.-Mr Chairman: The sentiments which we have just heard urged with such vehemence, would lead us to forget the era in which we live. Do the gentlemen propose to return to the Jewish code, that they argue so strongly on Jewish rather than Christian grounds? The law that required an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, was repealed by Christ himself in the Sermon on the Mount. Shall the world, at this day, suffer the darkness of an obscure Hebrew text to eclipse the Divine radiance of that spirit of love that shines through the whole New Testament? Shall the golden rule be postponed to the old law of retaliation? Said the illustrious Lafayette, "I shall ask for the abolition of the PENALTY OF DEATH until I have the Infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me." And shall we hesitate to adopt such a sentiment today, when we know on the authority of Fitzroy Kelly, in the British Parliament, that since the commencement of this century, fourteen innocent persons have been hanged in England!-when we know on the authority of Victor De Tracy, in the French Chamber of Deputies that in the year 1826, in the short space of six months, eleven sentences of death were reversed by the Courts of France, for errors of fact!-when we know that during the Spanish inquisition more than one hundred thousand human beings perished in the single presidency of Tcque mada, on the strength of an obscure scriptural text!-Do the gentlemen, detect the finger of an all wise Deity directing such irreparable errors as these "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner that repenteth, but rather let him turn and live." By putting to death the criminal we insure the increase of crime. I need not exceed the walls of this our City for proof of the statement made in the opening, and which has not and cannot be controverted, that the Death Penalty increases the crime which it strives to repress. Here, in this City of the Puritans are capital crimes increasing with fearful strides! In the three years, 1845, '46, and '47, you had one trial for murder,-in the single year 1848 youhad seven,-21 times that number-a result not paralleled, not even approached in the case of Michigan! Let us inquire what is the effect of this "safe-guard of society," the gallows, in cases where it has been applied. A single instance will suffice. When stealing from a dwelling, to the amount of forty shillings or upwards, was punished with death five hundred and fifty-three perjured verdicts of stealing to the amount of thirtynine shillings, eleven pence, were returned in two years. What possible motive, I ask, save a desire to spare the life of the convict, could have actuated these jurors in their perjury? And, yet, in the face of thousands upon thousands of such facts, those who agitate the abolition of this ineffective code have been accused of a desire to screen the culprit from punishment; and a reform which has merited the benediction of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a LAFAYETTE, & LAMARTINE, a LIVINGSTON and a CHANNING has been denounced here to-day as an unprofitable theory, and as blasphemy in, t'e sight of Heaven! Sir, the burthen of proof is upon the supporters of this penalty, and if there be a doubt as to its justice, that doubt must weigh in favor of its opponents THOU SHALT NOT KILL is the divine command. Let those who assert this right, prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the necessity of such a penalty, or obey the call of progress and reform. Have they so proved it? Sir, they abandon at the very outset, the hopeless task of defending this right in any case save murder! They admit in silent acquiescence that this penalty defeats its own objects, and increases the crime for which it is inflicted-And they make it their highest ambiiton to prove, by an interpretation directly opposed to that of Michaelis and of Calvin, that a sanction may be found in the Scriptures for the infliction of a penalty which is to increase the crime and degradation of our race, and which is to prove by taking life, that life should not be taken! Sir: Humanity is with us! Religion is with us! And I have been astonished to hear the antiquity of an institution dragged up in its defence in a country like this—in a country, the corner-stone of whose existence was laid in a revolution-the whole 358 Debate on Capital Punishment. [April edifice of whose liberty was reared of the demolished materials of time-honored and time-rotten institutions! Cannibalism is an institution alike venerable for its antiquity and for the universality of its observance. The offering of human sacrifices is an other well established custom of antiquity. From Phonecia to beyond the Ganges, from Egypt to remotest Thule this admirable institution has had its numerous advocates. The good and the wise, Priests, Druids and Holy men sanctioned it with their presence and participation. Shall we then, it is urged, level our lances at the time-honored customs which the experience of ages has established and sanctioned? Revive then the horrid practice of glutting the appetite with that flesh which is the image of its author!-Again let the Druid search in vain for glad omens in the vitals of his fellow creature!-Again exterminate your prisoners of war, slaughtering by thousands the innocent tools of another's ambition!— Again burn at the stake the child of your common Father, and cry to Heaven to approve the unearthly deed!-Drag up from the heaps of human bones in which they are imbedded, those engines of Feudal torment that bad sunk forever! "Go to your bloody work again!-bring back Smile o'er the gaspings of spine-broken men!" Sir: I have that estimation of the defenders of this penalty which does not allow me for an instant to suppose them desirous of such a consummation;-let their arguments have all due weight in the deliberations of this assembly; but above all things let us tread firmly on in the path of progress marked out for us by our Puritanic origin! Let us have laws founded in justice and equity,-Laws on whose enforcement we may rely for our security,-Laws on whose executiou we may invoke with confidence the blessing of a just God! But let us no longer tolerate a BLOODY RUBRIC, inefficient-nay, worse than inefficient in itself—and attended in its results by a train of enormities, enough to SHAME EARTH AND SHOCK HIGH HEAVEN! The following note accompanied the foregoing debate: MR. EDITOR.-I send a Report of a Debate at the Hall of the Boston Latin School, on the third of March. As those who took part in it spent considerable time in its preparation, it has been thought not improper to submit it to the Public through the pages of your journal, the audience before whom it was delivered being necessarily small. This is done the more readily in the hope that it may attract attention to the novel idea of substituting original debates instead of extracts as an exercise in Declamation, combining practice in Composition and argument with Elocution. It vill not be expected that entire justice will be done to the subject, as the advocates on either side are not very deeply read in criminal jurisprudence; were closely restricted as to time; and were writing for declamatory effect, rather than for logical efficiency. Your ob't servant, R. S. R. ANECDOTES.-A sailor once had a high dispute with his wife, who wished him to the devil. 66 Plague on me, Peg," said he, "if I don't think I should fare pretty well with the old fellow as I married into his family." An exchange coutains an advertisement of a farm. As an inducement to the purchase, it says, "there is not an Attorney within fifteen miles of the neighbourhood." I NUMBER you by thousands, unseen friends, Far as the noble brotherhood extends Of Saxon hearts and tongues o'er land and sea; For all whatever little else' of pain Some few unkindly cause :-most rich in love, Yea, let me thank you; let my heart outpour To all whose yearnings follow me with good,- O generous friends! a cordial multitude Hived in the West, upon that busy shore Where fair Columbia, Britain's child, is throned "Well done, good and faithful servant."-MATTHEW XXV. 21: 360 Poetry. O, generous friends! Another cordial band Ay, blest, indeed, above the lot of men, And rich in joys that reach the true sublime; Hath won such wealth of love in every clime, And, as his growing dynasty extends To children's children, reigning in the mind, Is he not great- a monarch of his kind? Ah me! not so; this thought of pride destroys; Give God the praise; His blessing sends this store A Seraph by the Throne In the full glory stood. With eager hand He smote the golden harp-strings, till a flood Of harmony on the celestial air Welled forth, unceasing. Then with a great voice, He sang the Holy, Holy, evermore, Lord God Almighty!" and the eternal courts That blended with the seraph's rushing strain, Even as a fountain's music with the roll Of the reverberate thunder. Loving smiles Lit up the beauty of each angel's face At that new utterance. Smiles of joy that grew More joyous yet, as ever and anon Was heard the simple burden of the hymn, "Praise God! praise God!" And when the seraph's song Had reached its close, and o'er the golden lyre Silence hung brooding-when the eternal courts Rung but with echoes of his chant sublime, Still, through the abysmal space, that wandering voice Came floating upward from its world afar, Still murmured sweet on the celestial air, [April |