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ORIGIN OF PRIVATE EXECUTIONS.

of New York, investing sheriffs of the respective counties of the state with discretionary powers to conduct the execution of criminals publicly, or privately, as they should deem expedient either in view of their own or of public opinion. Doubtless the petitions in favor of the private execution of criminals, and all the reasons urged for the legal enactment of that measure, were the result of the sentiment, that the punishment of death is a species of the barbarism of antiquity, which ought not to exist in this enlightened and refined "Age of Reason ;" and that the method of private executions might possibly operate, eventually, as an incipient step to bring about the legal repeal of that alleged inhuman, antiquated law, originating merely from the Bible, and the God of the Bible, to punish men with death for murder.

The amount of the principal reasons assigned in opposition to public executions, and in favor of their change to the privacy of a jail-yard, was, for substance, once argued publicly thus: "That public executions tend to call a numerous concourse together, from various motives, many of which are presumed not to be good; that the time and money thus expended are a heavy tax on community; and that the scene has a tendency to demoralize spectators, and prepare the way for the perpetration of other crimes, rather than to soften the human heart, and render it susceptible of penitent feelings and virtuous principles." But however plausible such reasons may ap pear, it is evident that the nature and design of the penalty of death for murder require the execution of that penalty to be performed publicly; and that to change the order of the execution into privacy, tends

*“Civic,” an Anonymous Correspondent of the Ballston Spa Gazette, some years agɔ.

ABSURDITY OF PRIVATE EXECUTIONS.

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to subvert the design of punishment, and leads to dangerous consequences.

There are two special reasons why murderers are required to be punished with death. One is, to preserve the safety of community, by cutting off the man from life, whose existence endangers the life of his fellowman. The other is, to administer a public admonition, by an inflexible regard to justice in the execution of murderers, that others may be deterred from the commission of a crime which dooms the perpetrators to an untimely death. Such being the design of the execution of the murderer, it is obvious that public executions are necessary to promote the object. There is just as much reason why the execution of malefactors should be public, as there is, that the indictment and trial of the culprits should be public. And, who ever heard the sentiment advanced, that the public trial of a murderer is so hostile to the feelings of humanity, that the tender sympathies of our nature require the whole process for his conviction and sentence, to be transacted in private? The idea is preposterous.

Murder is a public offence against the whole community. The sovereignty of the people is insulted. Their peace is broken, and their laws outrageously violated. The cry of blood-guiltiness originates from the people. The indictment against the murderer is found by the people. The people form the only proper board of trial to arraign the culprit, and investigate the charges against him. The people only, have the power to convict, condemn, and sentence him to death. All this is the work of the people, by their officers of justice, each and all of whom, from the witness on the stand, to the judge on the bench, are servants of the sovereign people, and bound by

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PRACTICAL ATHEISM.

the oath of God to maintain the justice of the laws of their country. When an individual is legally convicted of the crime of wilful, malicious murder, the sentence of the law is," that he shall be hung by the neck till he is dead." Now, shall the sovereign people, against the majesty of whose laws the crime of murder was committed, and at whose expense the whole process of the trial and conviction of the criminal has been sustained; shall they, or any of them, be legally debarred from witnessing the execution of the malefactor, if it is their pleasure to attend? Shall they be told that their motives in attending a public execution of a criminal may be evil; that their time and refreshments amount to a heavy tax; and that the awful scene of the execution of the just sentence of death upon a murderer, in conformity with the law of God and the land, is of such a demoralizing nature and tendency, that their attendance on a public execution will be likely to result in an increased disposition to trample under foot all human and Divine laws, by committing murder for sport, in addition to avarice and malice? No; not so, indeed. But, let them rather be told the truth, unmasked from the wiles of practical Atheism; viz., that opposition to public executions originated from an Atheistical opposition to the Bible, to the God of the Bible, to the religion of the Bible, and to Capital Punishment; that the legislative enactment which invested sheriffs with discretionary power to conduct the execution of criminals in public, or as private as the jail-yard could be rendered, was evidently designed as an incipient step to obtain a legal enactment for the abolition of the penalty of death for murder, which would amount to a virtual repeal of the Moral Law of God; and that the reasons assigned for obtaining the discretionary

SHERIFF'S DISCRETIONARY POWERS.

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law to commute public executions into private jailyard performances, were mere subterfuges of Infidelity, and must have been so considered by the Legis lature of the state of New York; who, instead of enacting a bona fide law, that executions of criminals should be performed in the county jail-yard, excluded by law, from the public gaze,-ingeniously washed their hands from responsibility, by just passing a law that the sheriffs should have discretionary power to have the execution of criminals conducted in public or in private, at their pleasure. The amount would be this, that if both the sheriffs and the public were in favor of public executions, the sheriffs were vested with discretionary power to conduct executions in public, and the public had discretionary power to be present and witness them if they pleased. And, if both the sheriffs and the public were of the opinion that executions should be performed in the jail-yard, the sheriffs had legal discretionary power so to conduct them, and the public, at their discretion and pleasure, could stay at home. But, if the sheriffs were opposed to public executions, and the public sentiment was in favor of public, and opposed to private executions, why, then, in such a case, of course, the sheriffs were vested with legal discretionary power to conduct executions in private, ad libitum; and the public, who were of a different opinion, had the liberty of being legally debarred from witnessing an execution, nolens volens.

Thus, through the combined influence of party-interest, relationship, bribery and other causes, many a convict, deservedly sentenced to death, may be pretendedly executed privately, but really set at liberty, and transported to another clime; as, it has been strongly suspected, has been the fact of notorious

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SAD SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

murderers, who have been assisted in their escape, by bribery, or by the sympathetic spirit of Infidel philanthropy.

Although of late years, agreeably to the statute, some executions have been conducted in private, and others in public, in conformity with the diversity of opinions of the sheriffs of the respective counties in which executions have taken place; yet one thing is certain, namely, that all executions, whether conducted publicly or privately, have been improved to increase the popular sympathy in favor of the poor murderer's alleged cruel sufferings, and the expedience, if not necessity, of abolishing the punishment of death for murder, as an ancient law of barbarity!!

And, although there has been no legal enactment to that effect, yet, the disposition to have it done, is still untiring in all possible endeavors to accomplish the object. And, as if the stock of patience was exhausted by delay, the expedient has been resorted to, in more than one instance, of commuting the sentence of death, legally awarded to criminals adjudged to be guilty of murder, and thus changing their punishment to imprisonment for life, which is averred to be a flagrant violation both of the Law of God and the land, originating from Atheistical principles of men who are avowed enemies to the Bible; enemies to the Christian religion; and unbelievers in the very existence of the Christian's God!!!

Such are the men who say in their hearts," There is no God!" No Divine Creator of the visible universe! No Divine Author of the Bible! No Divine Lawgiver, Supreme Ruler, nor Judge of the world! No Divine Saviour of lost man, for no man was ever lost! No Divine Comforter for the dying Christian to ele

his hope of endless life, and peace, and joy be