^ $mi^m^ ^ ^= Bofwers Life Imprisonment vs. the Death Penalty LIFE IMPRISONMENT vs. THE DEATH PENALTY To the Honorable Members of the Senate and Lower House of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly and to the Chairman and Members of the Judiciary Commit- tees Thereof. THE BRIEF OF DUKE C. BOWERS, Et Als., Advocates -ON- Sciwtc Bill \o. 242 (/;/(/ House Bill Xo. 235. Untitled ".in .'let to Abolish the Death Penalty in the State of Tennessee, and to Substitute Life Imprisonment Therefor." HISTORY OF CAPITAL Pl'NISHMENT. In the early stages of society the man committing homicide was killed by the "Avenger of Blood" on behalf of the family of the man killed, and not as representing the authority of the State. That was the custom for centuries, till the mischief of this prac- tice was mitigated by the establishment of cities of refuge, and in pagan and Christian times of the recognizing of the sanctuary of the temple and the churches. In the laws of Khamurobi. King of Babylon (2285-2241 B. C.) the death penalty was imposed for many offenses ; the modes of execution specially mentioned are, drowning, burning and impalement. See Capital Punishment. Vol. 5, Enc. Britanica. Draco, the first compiler of the Penal Code of Greece, made death the penalty for all offenses. When asked why he did so. replied : "The least offenses deserve death, and I can impose no worse for the higher crimes." Under the Mosaic Code the law of vengeance was personified in the then prevailing doctrine of "EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH," in many instances that rule being carried out literally. In the dark ages of the United Kingdom, under the rule of the Saxon and Danish Kings, the modes of cap- ital punishment most common were: "Hanging, beheading, drowning, burning, stoning, and precipitation from rocks." William the Conquerer would not permit the execution of the death sentence by hanging but by mutilation. (5 Vol. Enc. Rritanica.) Death was the penalty for the most trivial offenses; for ex- ample, the cutting of a tree or poaching deer. In 1800 there were over 200 capital crimes in Great Britain and t8o in 1819. Men were hung and quartered for oft'enses which now would be re- garded as nn'sdemeanors, while the learned clergy and statesmen looked on with approval and apjilause. During the reign of — 2 — ^L Henry the \'III, 72,000 persons were executed. The first allevi- ation came from the extension of the benefit of clergy to all per- sons who coiilfl read the "Xeck-verse" (Ps. Li. 5, i ). "At the end of the eighteenth century the criminal laws of all Europe were ferocious and indiscriminate," says the author of "Capital Punishment," in Vol. 5, page 279, Enclycopedia Britanica, in its administration of capital punishment for almost all grave crimes. yet such forms of crime were far more numer- ous than they are now." The best blood of England drenched the execution block, and "Kech." the legal executioner, became more infamous than Rob Roy. the banflidt. Death was a panacea for all ills. The States of our Union adopted the common law of England replete with capital offenses, but Tennessee, by statute, has finally limited the number, in practice at least, to two, murder and rape ; but the statute names other oflfenses. and hanging is the mode of execution. In Belgium no execution hasf taken place since 1863 ; in Fin- land since 1824; in Holland since i860, and was totally abolished in 1870. Xo executions in Norway since 1876. abolished in 1905 ; abolished in Portugal in 1867; in Roumania in 1864. Russia abolished capital punishment, except for military ofiFenses, in T750. but later restored it for a short period, only to again abolish it in 1907. Only 7 out of 22 Cantons in Switzerland have it, and Italy revoked the law in 1888. In the United States the number of capital crimes has been re- duced in recent years to only four, and the following States have abolished it : Maine, in 1876, restored it in 1883, but again re- pealed the law in 1887 on the recommendation of the Governor of said State; Rhode Island, in 1853; Wisconsin, in 1853. and Kansas, in 1901, but there have been no legal executions in Kansas since 1872; Michigan in 1847. — 3 — BRIEF AXD ARGUMENT. It is now proposed to repeal the law of blood and vengeance in Tennessee, and make life imprisonment the maximum punish- ment in ^aid State. The two main objects in enforcing our criminal laws are (a) to protect society, (b) to reform the criminal. Some would add a third reason for punishing criminals, namely, to punish the criminal himself, but in this day of brotherly love, when we are taught lo love our enemies, and when charity and love have irium])hcd over vengeance and hatred no one would seri(nisly Insist that the State any more has the right to kill a man to avenge the death of his victim than has an individual. Every man will agree with us on this one point: if social con- ditions will not be made worse by the abolition of the death pen- alty, then it should be abolished. The only way we have to determine this question is by taking the statistics from the States with and without the death penalty. St.\T1STICAL Ai5STR.'\CT. According to the mortality statistics compiled by the United States Bureau of Statistics, and published in 1912. in table 5, page 376, the number of homicides per 100,000 poindation for the eighteen States composing the registration area was as follows : State. 1900 '01 '02 '03 '04 "05 '06 '07 '08 '09 California — Cities 9.0 13.2 10.6 10.2 Rural 6.8 8.3 12.1 9.8 Colorado — Cities 10.4 7.4 18.7 9.0 Rural 13.9 18.0 15.6 12.4 Connecticut- Cities 0.3 0.5 Rural — 4 — 0.6 0-3 1.8 2.0 2-5 3-^ 2.8 0.9 0.9 1-5 17 7^-7 5-1 Indiana — Cities . . . . I.T 2.4 2.0 1-4 31 4-8 5-7 7.0 9.1 8.0 Rural . . . • 1-5 0.5 0.6 1.2 0.7 2.7 30 3-6 2.9 2.7 Maine- Cities .... 1-7 2-5 2.4 3-2 0.6 2.2 0.6 I.I Rural .... '•/ I/) 03 I.O 2.0 0.4 1.6 1.4 I.I Maryland — • • - Cities .... 4.7 7-Z 3-8 3-4 Rural . . . 2.3 2.6 3-9 3-8 Massachusetts- — Cities .... 0.7 r.i T-3 t-3 1-5 1-5 1.8 2.7 2.6 2-5 Rural .... 1.2 1-3 0.6 0.7 03 0.4 0.6 0.4 1-9 2.3 Michigan — Cities .... 0.7 I.I 1-5 1-4 1.0 0.9 1-3 3-2 4.1 2.2 Rural .... 0.7 1.6 1.2 1-3 1.0 0-5 1.0 1-7 2.2 2.2 New Hampshire — Cities .... 1.2 1.2 0.6 1-7 Rural .... 0.4 0.4 0.8 0.4 2.8 0.8 1.2 New Jersey — Cities .... 1-7 0.9 14 0.7 1-3 1.8 2.9 4.2 3-7 4-7 Rural 0.1 0.1 0.8 0.2 0.9 1-4 2.5 3-2 4.6 2.9 New York — Cities .... 2.00 1.8 2.0 1-4 2.2 3-5 5-0 6.1 5-3 4-4 Rural 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.5 05 0.6 1.8 3-3 3-6 3-3 Ohio- Cities .... 7A Rural .... 2.8 Pennsylvania — Cities .... 5-8 6.5 50 4-7 Rural 4.5 4.8 4.9 4.1 — 5 — Kliodc Island — Cities .... 2.5 2.8 2.7 2.3 3.5 2.5 3.9 5.5 4-2 30 Rural J.X 0.7 4.0 1.9 1.9 0.6 2.3 i.i 3.3 2.1 South Dakota — Cities 74 7-2 Uinal 2.1 2.6 3.8 2.2 \ rnnoiit — Cities 2.0 2.0 .. 3.9 3.8 3.8 Riiral 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 2.0 I.O 1.3 2.3 3.8 \\ asliington — Cities II-7 8.1 Rural 6.3 4.2 W'isoousin — Cities 31 1-9 Rural 1.6 1.7 It will thus be seeu by reiorriug to the statistics quoted above that for the ton-year period, beginning- with 1900, the average number *>l" homicides in the States where capital punishment has been alx^lished per hundred thousand population was : Maine. 2.5; Michigan. 3.8; Rhode Island. 5: and for the two years. i<)t">8 and H)c>). for which Wisconsin retorted her homicides, she averaged 4.1. but decreased in 1900 over the previous year. In si^mo of the States where capital punishment prevailed we find that for a ten-year period, beginning with the year 1900. the aver- age number of homicides per 100.000 population was : Indiana, (>.4; New Jersey, .4; New York, 4.8: and for the four years reiH^rted by Tennsylvania an average of 9.8. Ohio reports for the year ux'*!) only, giving 10.2: California for a four-year period .-bows twenty homicides per Ii.k">.o.x"> jx^pnlation. While Massa- chusetts only shows an average of 2:57 for each 100.000 popula- tion, tlie increase in that State from ux>5 to 190*) was 100 per cent. It will bo further seen that California. Connecticut. Ma5isa- — 6 — chusetts. Indiana, New Jersey. New York, Fenniiyhania and \'emK»nt, where capital punishment obtains, and where it is en- forced rigidly, shows an increase in the ninnber ot homicides for the period reported in the above statistics, while of the four States that have abolished the death penalty, only Michigan sIk^ws an increase, which is sligiit. but her general average lor .» ten- year period is less tlian either of the States that have retained the death penaltj-, with the exception of X'ermont and \ew Hamiv shire : ahd that they have increased their homicide rate per annum continually, while Michigan shows a decrease in nx>) over the preN-ious year. Besides, the record shows that the death penatly has been abolished in Wmiont and Xew Hampshire !>v pn»oiioo for twent}' years. The general average for the j^eriod re^x^rted in ilic aUne tabic of statistics for the four States where the death ^xMialty has been revoked is 3.85 per 100.000 population, while for the States in- flicting the death penalty, for the period rejx>rtevl. the general average is S.25. or nearly 115 per cent greater. The avcrai;\? hom- icidal rate in Tennessee was five times greater than in either of the abolition States. While we were unable to got the statistics on this ciuestioil from Kansas, we arc reliably informed that the number 01 homi- cides in that State per capita is comparatively small, and in a recent letter from the secretary of the presem Governor of tliat State he informs us that the pa^ple there arc universally pleasoil with the workings of tlic now law abolisliin>^ tlu- lioath penalty, and that there is no disposition to restore capital punishment in that State. It will be rcmemborod that tlioro has novor boon a legal execution in that State since 187J. tlio liovornors in their discretion failing to sign the death warrants at ilic end oi one year's imprisonment, as the law required. THE RESULTS DRTAIXED IN FOREIGN Gt^^N- TRIES FROM THE ABOLITION OF rill-. Dl-. A III PENALTY ARE NO LESS BENEIHGTAT, Til \\ IM Ol'k OWN STATES. — 7 — We take the folic )\viiii,^ facts and statistics from Report No. io8 on capital crimes of the Fifty-fourth I'nited States Conj^ress, first session, printed January 22, 1896, by order of the House of Representatives : BELGIUM. — "The penalty of death has not been abolished in IJeigium, but since 1866 it has not been executed. In order for one to appreciate the results, the following statistics are given: For the period from 1831 to 1890, in the first thirty-five years there were 321 capital condemnations, which was at the rate of 9.17 per year. In the twenty-five years following the cessation of executions there were 201, which was at the rate of 8.004, showing a decrease of 1.1696." COSTA RICA. — "The results of the abolition of capital pun- ishment for all offenses in Costa Rica are considered very favor- able, thus confirming public sentiment against capital punish- ment." IIATI. — "The Constitution of 1879 abolished the death pen- alty for political ofTenses. Since the period of said abolition political crimes have not been more frequent." HOLLAND. — "There has been no increase of crime since the abolition of the death penalty." ITALY. — "Since the abolition of the death penalty by the new Common Penal Code, which went into force January i, 1890, the results obtained up to this present time have fully realized the expectations cherished by Parliament, by public opinion, and by students of criminal matters ; that is to say, social security has not been (listurl)C(l or diminished by it, and consequently the con- ditions of high criminality have not been rendered worse." NORWAY. — "Since 1874 it is made discretionary with the Courts, of death or hard labor for life, since which time a ma- joi^ity of the latter cases have been imposed, and no bad conse- quences, so far as public safety is concerned, have been observed." PORTITIAL.— "The death penalty was abolished bv the law on the first of July, 1867, and the number of homicides to which this penahy was apphed lias diminished durins^ the succeedino^ years." SWITZERLAND. — "Since 1874 capital punishment has been abolished in fifteen of the twenty-two Cantons in Switzerland." The only light we have to guide our advancing footsteps in enacting ])rogrcssive legislation is the unerring light of experi- ence. The record shows that the death penalty has been abolished in Michigan for sixty-six years; in Rhode Island for sixty-one years; in Wisconsin for sixty years; in Maine for thirty-seven years, and in Kansas by i)ractice for about fifty years, and re- cently by statute, and yet those enlightened and progressive States have discovered no good reason for repealing these laws that have been in force for over a half century in most instances. That alone should be sufficient to convince that the abolition statutes have vindicated their existence. Besides, is it a mere coin- cidence that the States that have so long foregone the death pen- alty have less than one-half the number of homicides of the States that foster executions ? Is it only a coincidence that homicides in Connecticut, Massachusetts, \'ermont and New Hampshire have increased over previous years, while in their sister State of Maine, where life imprisonment is the highest penalty, the num- ber of homicides have decreased in the same period. In 1909 the three States named above registered a total of homicides per 100,000 population as follows : Massachusetts, 4.8 ; Connecticut, 7.9 ; Vermont, 7.6, while in Maine, for the same period, 2.2 for the same ratio is shown. Making further comparisons for the year 1909, we find reg- istered homicides per 100,000 as follows: Michigan, 4.4; Wis- consin, 3.6, and Rhode Island, 5.1, as against the death penaltv ■States as follows: Indiana, 10.7; Ohio, 10.2; Pennsylvania, 8.8; New York, y.y; New Jersey, 7.6; Colorado, 21.4; California, 20; Maryland, 7.2; New Hampshire, 2.9; South Dakota, 9.4; Wash- ington. T2.3. Can all of the above facts, so favorpbic \^ tho — 9 — States that have abolished the death penalty, be attributed to mere chance? In the same year the number of homicides per million people in the four abolition States was thirty-five; there were eighty- five in the death penalty States per million population. While in 1904, taking the whole United States, the ratio was 104.4 per million, while Maine, for the same year, registers 24 for each million inhabitants; Michigan, 20, and Rhode Island reports 51, or nearly one-half the general average for all the States. The record further shows that from 1885 to 1904 homicides increased from 32.2 per million people to 104.4 for the same ratio. This is the face of the facts that capital punishment was in full force in every State in the Union but four or five. The foreign States that have abolished it not only refuse to reinstate it, but the reports above quoted show that criminal con- ditions are in all instances as good, and in some reported better, than before the abolition of the death penalty. After centuries of observation and experience, the learned Judges of England and America established a rule making a pre- ponderance of evidence in civil cases the guide for tliemselves and juries in deciding questions of disputed facts. That is the only true rule. Then, have we not proven our case by an over- whelming preponderance of the proof? The evidence based on actual experience in our States and in foreign States is so near unanimous in favor of its abolition that it is a mere exception to a general rule that a fact militates against it. BUT YOU ASK, "WHY WOULD LEGAL EXECUTIONS INCREASE CAPITAL CRIMES? Because crime is largely a disease, and the demoralizing eflfect of a legal execution, and the example thus set by the State ■ arouses the criminal natures and cheapens life in the estimation of the criminally inclined. Like begets like in this respect, as sure as night follows day. We cannot put it better than to — 10 — quote from Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox's beautiful poem on cap- ital punishment : "And last the people, frenzied o«r dejjressed By sight or sound, or knowledge of the deed. Are wronged and injured by the law's effect ; Crime follows executions ; thought breeds thought, And as from thistledown new thistles s])ring. So violent actions to disorders lead. That vengeful God of Hebraic Lore Has blocked the progress of the world too long. When Science seeks the cause, and Love the cure, Then crime will vanish from the human race." Did you ever for a moment contemplate the moral wrecks, and devastation, and depravity that follow in the wake of war and of active armies? If anything, it is worse than the active warfare itself. Notwithstanding the guerrilla, if caught either by the Federal or Confederate, knew he would be shot by his captors, hundreds of formerly honorable men, or at least apparently so, became sutlers, ghouls, horse thieves and common robbers, and even little value or respect was placed on the virtue of our wom- anhood. Some of the women themselves were contaminated by the general moral stagnation, and many yielded to the degen- eracy of the times. Human life, especially, became so cheap, in the estimation of the people, that murder became the rule instad of the exception. The Government itself was engaged in the vocation of killing; the citizen, or at least the criminally inclined, put no higher value on life than his Government, and that is always true. If we are to teach our citizenship that life is sacred we must not take it by law, nor even by law sanction it. As an example, the Quakers even refuse to go to war or for any reason take life, and they do not commit nmrders. But you may say it deters others from committing crimes. If that is so. why have States that do not kill the smallest homi- — 11 — cidal rate per capita? Why are such crimes increasing while the death penahy is beings enforced? If it deters to kill by hanging- or electrocuting, it would cer- tainly act as a much stronger deterrent if you would, as of old. torture and mutilate the murderer? You say that would be too cruel and barbarous and would demoralize the public and even brutalize men. Well, the majority of the people think inflicting the death penalty is too cruel and barbarous, and that the ma- jority of people think so is proven by the fact that the great majority of the people want the condemned man cummuted to 'ife imprisonment in each instance. Our descendants a century hence will look back on our legal executions with the same aver- sion and horror, and denounce us as we do our ancestors who burnt at the stake and mutilated the body of the condemned, or caused it to hang, for weeks, as a warning. Dr. A. B. Martin, Dean of the Lebanon Law School of Cum- berland L^niversity, gives a demonstrative illustration from his own observations, that hanging does not deter others from com- mitting crimes. A man was to be hanged on the Public Square, in Lebanon, Tenn., and the gallow^s was erected; two enterprising (we think infamously so) young men erected an arena around the scaffold, and on the day of the hanging were present and collected a great deal of money for their seats. W^tihin one and a half years both of the men were hanged for the same offense for which the victim that they had exploited was executed. Some of the most shocking crimes follow closely the most notorious executions. For example, the Aliens murdered Judge Massey and four others in the Court House at Hillsville, Va., while the papers of said State were heralding the news of the execution of the noted wife murderer, H. C. Beattie. The assassination of Rosenthal in New York City followed closely on tlie heels of the execution of four men in \ew York State within one hour. — 12 — Instances are reiJ(jrtc(l in which the spectators at a hanging in luigland for picking pockets committed the same ofifense for which the victim was being executed. ANOTHER REASON WHY CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE ABOLISHED IS, THAT INNOCENT MEN ARE SOMETIMES EXECUTED. Says Horace Greely : "I dread human frailty. Men are prejudiced, passionate, and too often irrational. Today they shout. 'Hosanna,' and tomorrow howl' 'Crucify him.' I would save them from the harsher consequences of their frenzy. Our .Savior is by no means a solitary example of the unjust execution of the innocent and just. Socrates, Cicero, Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney. John Huss. Michael Servetus, Louis XVI, the Due d'Enghine, Mar.shal Xey. Riego, Xagi Sandor, ]\Iaxi- milian. are among the conspicuous instances of victims of the law of blood. We have recorded instances of innocent men con- victed of murder on their own confession, of men convicted, sentenced and hanged for offenses whereof they were in no wise guilty. Men may suffer unjustly, even though death be stricken from the list of penalties, but to be imprisoned and stripped of property is quite endurable compared with the infliction of an ignominious death in the presence and for the delectation of a howling mob of exulting human brutes. So long as man is liable to error I w^ould have him reserve the possibility of correct- ing his mistakes and redressing the wrong he is misled into per- petrating." Mr. B. Paul Newman, writing for the Eortnightly Review, September. 1889, says: "Some time ago Sir James Mcintosh, a most cool and dispassionate observer, declared that, taking a long period of time, one innocent man was hanged in every three years. The late Chief P>aron Kelley stated as the result of his experience that from 1802 to 1840 no fwer than twenty-two inno- cent men had been sentenced to death, of whom seven were actu- ally executd. These terrible mistakes are not confined to Eng- land ; Mittermaier refers to cases of a similar kind in Ireland, — 13 — Italy, France, and Germany. In comparatively recent years ther have been several striking instances of the fallibility of the most carefully constituted tribunals. In 1865, for instance, an Italian named Pelizzioni was tried before Baron Martin for the murder of a fellow countryman in an affray at Saffron Hill. •After an elaborate trial he was found gfuilty and sentenced to death. In passing sentence, the Judge "took occasion to make the following remarks, which should be remembered when the acumen begotten of 'sound legal training' and long experience is relied on as a safeguard against error: 'In my judgment, it is utterly impossible for the jury to have come to any other con- clusion. The evidence was about the clearest and most direct that, after a long course of experience in the administration of criminal justice, I have ever known. I am as satisfied as I can be of anything that Gregorio did not inflict this wound, and that you were the person who did.' "The trial was over. The Home Secretary would most cer- tainly, after the Judge's expression of opinion, never have inter- fered. The date of the execution was fixed. Yet the unhappy prisoner was guiltless of the crime, and it was only through the exertion of a private individual that an innocent man was saved from the gallows. A fellow countryman of his, a Mr. Negretti, succeeded in persuading the real culprit (the Gregorio so ex- pressly exculpated by the Judge) to come forward and acknowl- edge the crim-e. He was subsequently tried for manslaughter and convicted, while Pellizioni received a free pardon. ".Vgain. in 1877, two men named Jackson and Greenwood were tried at the Liverpool Assizes for a serious offense. They were found guilty. The Judge expressed approval of the verdict and sentenced them to ten years' penal servitude. Subsequently fresh facts came to light and the men received a free pardon. "Once more, in 1879. Hebron was tried for the murder of a lK>liceman. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. An agitation for a reprieve immediately followed. The sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. Three )'ears after, the — 14 — notorious Peace, just before his execution for the murder of Mr. Diason, confessed that he had committed the murder for which Hebron had been sentenced." Mr. Charles Burleig^h Galbraith, writing for Friend's IntelH- gencer for October 6, 1906, says : "Juries and Judj^es are still falliable." Maud Ballington Booth, writing- under date of Sep- tember, 1908, gives details to two interesting cases: "A man was sentenced to life imprisonment and served sixteei, and a half years. Most of the evidence had been purely circumstantial and he was convicted mainly on the testimony of one witness. He was saved from the gallows only by the earnest efforts of those who had known of his previous good character. Last winter the woman who had been the main witness against him came to whal she believed was her death bed, and, sending for a priest, con- fessed that she had committed perjury. The matter was brought to the attention of the Governor, and the man at once liberated. He still lives. The State took sixteen years of his liberty, but did not shed his innocent blood." "At present I know a man." continues Mrs. Booth, "who has served nine years and is still in prison, where he has been visited by the boy whom he was supposed to have murdered. "The fact that, in our day, justice may thus miscarry, must give men constant pause before they seek remedial vengeance in the death penalty." Mr. Buttram, present .Attorney-General for the Second Judi- cial District of Tennessee, in talking to me recently, said : "I am against capital punishment because men are too liable to err. Be- fore I was elected Attorney-General, a white man was convicted in my county of murder in the first degree. He pleaded acci- dental killing. He v.as a ]xwr fellow, and the C fellow was once an innocent, helpless babe. His whole life may have been one continuous stru.fjf^le against disease, against poverty and tning circumstances, against temptation thrown in his way by society and perhaps against his own natural inclination to do evil. "Reason speaks with no uncertain voice as to the advisability of abolishing the dealh penalty and in demanding a more humane method of dealing with felons, and it seems to me there can be no good reason why every man should not oppose the cruel law and why this present Legislature should not erase it from the statute books of Tennessee. Capital punishment is a disgrace to our age. to our race, to our civilization. When society insists that it must still strangle some of its members in order to im- press others with the value of life, that it must teach peo])le the sacredness of life by maintaining a school of murder, it con- fesses itself a lamentable failure and a jM-etentious fraud. I. for one. will give the best of my ability to aid in amending our pres- ent laws on the death penalt} ." — Xashznlle Tennesscan and Ameri- can. DUKE C. BOWERS' ARGUMENT AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. The first case of nuirder of which we have any record was that of Cain killing Abel. In this instance God himself was the judge, the jury, and the whole court. He did not put Cain to death, neither would he allow the people to do it. In God's commandment to man he said : "Thou shalt not kill." There were some man-made laws after this that stated : "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ' — likewise a life for a life; but these same Mosaic laws made it a capital offense to pick up sticks on the Sabbath. Christ came and changed the old law, "an eye for an eye." declaring that vengeance belonged to God. He also taught that it was better to do good than evil on the Sabbath. The difference in the teaching of Moses and Christ was that Moses shed his ene- mies' blood, while Christ shed His own blood for His enemies. Imprisoning a person and trying to reform him exemplifies the teachings of Christ to overcome evil with good ; while taking — 61 — one's life is wreaking vengeance, and vengeance is the Lord's so saith Jesus. Because we are Southerners is no reason why we should favor lynching or hanging. Christianity should be the same all over the countrv. Life belongs to God in the South as well as in the North. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away' should apply to the whole world. Ella Wheeler Wilcox says, "Thought breeds thought." and this power of suggestion is strongly illustrated in a story ex- Warden Rice tells. A hanging took place one morning at the Xashville penitentiary; all was gloom about the prison; yet that very afternoon a prisoner slipped up behind a fellow prisoner and killed him. Who is able to say whether or not the murder committed in the morning by the state did or not put the idea into the man's head to commit the second murder ? Some people argue that if capital punishment is abolished crime will increase. Brand Whitlock tells in his lecture. "Thou shalt not steal." that in the debate of the House of Lords on the bill to abolish the death penalty for stealing from a dwelling to the amoiuit of 40 shillings, Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough declared that if the bill passed, the property of every householder in the kingdom would be left wholly without protection, but his Lord- ^■•hip's fears have not been justified in England. The experience of those of our states that have abolished capital punishment proves that if anything deters capital of- fenses, it is by the state not doing what it says its citizens shall not do. Burning at the stake did not prevent the spread of the Christian religion. If putting people to death could not stop a righteous cause, how^ can you expect it to stop an unrighteous one? From a statistical standpoint, as gathered from the United States Mortality Report in the states reporting for ten years previous to 1910, those in which capital punishment prevails show one and one-half times as many homicides per 100,000 population as against those states that do not have capital punishment. For 1909, the last year reported, those states that have capital pun- ishment had two and one-fourth times as many homicides as did the states in which capital punishment does not obtain. — 62—" Another, and perhaps the strongest argument against cajjital punishment, is that the innocent are sometimes hanged. Follow- ing is a letter I received a few days ago from a friend : Columbus, Ky., Feb. 7, k^i.v Mr. Duke C. Bonrrs, Drcsdent, Tenn. : Dear Duke — I will try and state a case to you that Mr. Otis Peehles told me happened in Milburn some years ago. Two negroes by the name of Duvall and Clapp were arrested for rape on a white woman by the name of Warden. She could not state whether her assailants were white or black. They tried, convicted and hanged the two negroes at Blandville, Ky., Their last words were that they were innocent of the crime. Some years later a white man by the name of Gossop moved to .Vrkansas from Milburn, and shortly after- wards took sick, and on his deathbed made confession to the crime. But two innocent lives' had gone to meet their Maker. Your friend, Harry Pearson. Now, if life imprisonment had been the maximum punish- ment in the above case, then these two men could have been given their liberty and the state would not bear the stain of having mur- dered two innocent men. Isn't it better that ninety-nine gnihy ones' lives should be saved than for one innocent life to be taken? Rev. J. O. McClurkan of this city told me that he had talked with nearly every person that has been hanged here in the past fifteen years, and that according to his judgment, there were only about three or four cases out of the whole bunch in which there were no mitigating circumstances. Some people are against capital punishment because of the pardoning power resting in the (k)vernor's hand. Warden Rim- mer of the state penitentiary at Nashville wrote me that within the past ten years 151 life prisoners have been received; of this number only seven have been pardonerl and ten commuted, leav- ing 88 4-5 per cent to serve out their time. Anyone familiar with the courts of our state knows that a great number of men who would make good jurors are disquali- — 63 — ficd from service on account of their conviction on the subject of capital punishment. To aboHsh the death penahy would, to my mind, give the speedier convictions, save money for the state, be more in keeping with the progressive spirit of this era. and be the best advertisement the State of Tennessee could procure. There are people in the North who think that we of the South are a lot of hot-heads, blood-thirsty murderers. Let us abolish capital punishment and show these people that they are mistaken. It will be the biggest boost Tennessee ever had. I believe it will help to bring capital and investors into our midst. Let's quit em- ploying a man to hang people — rather let us give them to under- stand that we want them to take a man and reform him. Believing that my judgment is right in this matter, I appeal to you to rally to the support of Mr. Gilbert and his bill to abolish capital punishment in Tennessee. Duke C. Bowers. Editor The News Scimitar : The campaign being waged before the Tennessee Legislature by Mr. Bowers, of Memphis, and others, has aroused much in- terest throughout the state and elsewhere. In nearly every news- paper in Tennessee communications are printed as often as the papers themselves appear. All of which is well. So far as the writer of this is concerned, he has never cared to go deeper in his antagonism to capital punishment than the conviction long held that no community of men has a right to go further than an individual, and that neither community nor individual has a right to take from a man that which God gave him, and which he is entitled to retain until God's finger of finality touches him and he gives it back. Nearly two thousand years ago the Old Teatament became a back number, an interesting but obsolete reminder of an era when men were in the formative state, and needed the supreme penalty for mundane misdeeds. Since that time there has come the New Testament, God's latest pronouncement, making love and mercy the basis of men's deeds. We have long been growing away from capital punishment. No more than four generations ago, in England, the world's — 64 — most progressive and advanced nation, there were a hundred or more crimes which called by laws for the death penalty. These have one by one been changed, until today only murder and trea- son, save perhaps in war times, are punishable by death. In many other countries, even the murder of a sovereign calls for nothing severer than life imprisonment. A few years ago in our Western States, when Isolated communities were their own law-makers, horse and cattle thieves always left the country by the noose route. Certain states have recently done what Ten- nessee is considering, abolished the death penalty entirely. Sta- tistics show that in those states the crime of murder has dimin- ished instead of increased. The theory is that the convicted criminal has the chance of being prepared for eternity. It also secures to the convicted one the privilege of a restoration to liberty in the event that exculpatory evidence later comes to light. In 50 per cent at least of murder convictions there is the possi- bility of juries' errors, either as to the guilt at all of the defend- ant, or as to the actual degree of his guilt. This percentage of uncertainty is itself sufficient to relegate the custom, were that the only argument against it. It is no surprise to find a majority of lawyers against Air. Bowers in his fight. Lawyers, and there's a pity to it, become, from their earliest legal training, inoculated wath the virus of precedents and custom. I call it virus because it has been a bane to society. There is as much wrong done society and the law by the antiquated and obstinate adherence of the legal pro- fession to precedents and procedures as by any one class of criminals in the world. You may shake up the profession, but you can't wake it up. It's for the people, with visions unre- strained and minds free, to do the work of radicalism in law- making. I don't know whether the present Legislature will abolish capital punishment or not. ] do know that some future Legis- lature will, if this one fails. And it will be for two reasons: First, that it is not necessary as a preventive of murder ; and. Second, because it is an unholy and a barbarous crime in itself. Walter Cain. Gen. N. AI. Curtis, in his speech before Congress to abolish the death penalty, among other things, said : "Those who claim — 65 — it to be our duty to continue the law of past ages are of the same class of men Sir Thomas More spoke of as those who thought it a moral sin to be wiser than their grandfathers." They have lived in every age. valiant defendants of established customs and laws. They suppressed Galileo Galilei, and sent him to a dungeon, 'guilty of having seen the earth revolve around the sun.' " AGAINST DEATH PENALTY. Rev. Green P. Jackson Op|X)ses Capital Punishment. "Capital punishment should never have been u-ed before the coming of Christ, and it is an outrage to civilization that it has been used since then." said Rev. Green P. Jackson, a Methodist minister, who has been preaching in Middle Tennessee for fifty- five years, while talking with a reporter for The Democrat yesterday. "Man has no right to take what he has not given — man has no right to say to this man, 'Thou shalt die,' when God himself has ordained, 'Thou shalt not kill.' 'When the Christ of Galilee came to earth it was to preach the kingdom of God upon earth — and it was his wish that man should not slay his fellow-man. "The Son of God suflfered the excruciating tortures of capital punishment. Is it not enough that the Son of Man was put to death? Why should we wish U> kill men in this day of enlight- ened civilization? "It is my hope and prayer that the bill against capital ]jun- ishment will be passed in this session of the I.egislature." Yesterday Mr. Jackson called upon Duke C. liowers, of Memphis, who is here to trv to get the bill passed, and handed Mr. liowers a petition signed by some of the most prominent men of the city against capital punishment. — The Nashville Democrat. AliOLISH BARBARISM, SAVS RABBI LKWINTHAL. "The bill for repealing capital punishment in Tennessee may pass or may not, but it is a good sign of the progress of humanity, — 66 — justice and civilization. This strujjgle is not merely a passing sensation — it has been going on for a century, and even if the bill is defeated, the agitation will be resumed." said Rabbi l.ew- inthal of this city in a masterful sermon ag^ainst capital punish- ment a day ago. "To the credit of the human race it must be said that in every generation and every clime people were anxious to practice jus- tice. Their will was good and their heart craved justice, but the trouble was they were not advanced enough intellectually to know what justice was. They believed they were practicing justice, but in fact they were practicing barbarism. In our days we know better: therefore, let us drop all prejudices and refomi our penal codes. "Let us alK^lish capital pimishment. Just alx^lish it. and the people of Tennessee will be satisfied. They will be satisfied be- cause humanity demands it. justice demands it. experience de- mands it, and civilization demands it. Away with capital punish- ment, away with it now, and away with it forever." — 77;c Xash- z'illc Democrat. lUSIXESS Ml-.X FAVOR AROLITIOX OF DEATH PENALTY. I'nanimous endorsement was given by the members of the Nashville Business Mens Association, at the regular meeting Monday night, of the campaign which is being waged before the Legislature for the abolition of capital punishment. IL \V. Lewis. M. S. Ross and other members of the association spoke in reganl to the bill i^^nding before the Legislature, and told of the gixul effects obtainetl where capital inmishment has been abolished. — Xasln'illr 7V»/»t\\\\«'a;j and .hucricaii. EDITORLXL FROM THE LEXINGTON PROGRESS. Duke C. Howers. who has residence in the town of IVesden since retirement from active and personal management of the chain of groceries he established and conducted for several years with signal success in the city of Memphis, has been in Xashville since the convention of the Fifty-eighth General .\ssenibly for the sole purpose of pushing to passage if possible a bill abolishing the death }>enalty anil substituting therefor life imprisonment. — 67 — Mr. Bowers, prompted by humanily alone, is bearing; the whole expense of this work and says that if he can be successful in the Tennessee Legislature he is s2:oing to carry the fight before the legislative bodies of all the states in the Union. He is conducting a vigorous, persistent and intelligent cam- paign and that his cause is gaining ground is known to all who know the facts as they existed before the convention of the Legislature and at present. Air. Bowers shows by statistics that the number of homicides per year is greatest in the states in which the death penalty is inflicted, but he thinks his greatest argument was made by Judge Greer, who spoke before the legislative committee, depicted a legal hanging and at the close asked this question : "(Gentlemen of the committee, if Jesus of Nazareth could have looked down on that scene and spoken do you think he would have said, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant?'" Air. Bowers says that if his bill passes and is amended by the exception of any crime, it will be like a fellow saying, "Yes, I will get religion — with the sole exception that I will keep on stealing." Air. Bowers has the help of some of the best members of the Legislature and still others suggest that his plan in the punishment of criminals might safely be given a trial. \IGOROUS FIGHT AGAINST CAPITAL PUNTSHAIENT. An effort is being made to abolish capital punishment in the State of Tennessee, which has brought out very conspicuously that there is a large element of people who oppose the taking of human life for any reason whatever, those holding to this view contending that the individual crime of shedding blood does not justify the shedding of blood on the part of the State as an ex- piation. They contend that nothing should be taken from a human being that cannot be restored ; that only the Giver of Life has the right to take the life of a human being. The discussion of this question has developed a lofty senti- ment among the peoi:)le. It has shown that in their sober mo- ments and mature judgment they look with horror on the legally sanctioned i)ractice of killing those who kill. It is commendable in those who are making this light for — 68 — the abolishment of capital punishment that their contention is that the real and only object of the law in punishing^ criminals is to prevent a repetition of of their crime, and to hold out the punishment of them as object lessons to deter others from com- mitting similar crimes. These zealous and active opponents of capital punishment take the position that confinement for life, without the hope of j)ardon or esca])e. would be just as effective a deterrent to crime as the death penalty. They contend that it is the certainty and not the severity of punishment that is effective in preventing crime, and that if this be true it is the duty of the State to do away with the gallows altogether, and in its stead provide a mode of punishment for atrocious crimes that would be free of the horrors of the gibbet. Though capital punishment has the sanction of the ages, there is much to be said against it. Divested of all the moods and pass'ons that inflame us in the presence of an atrocious crime, we can with, good reason argue the wrong of legal death and show that solitary confinement for life would serve the same end in giving protection to society, but there is a spirit of resentment and a passion for revenge, which, if aroused, leads us to invoke the ^Fo^aic law of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Whatever policy, with respect to the solution of this problem, may be determined on as wise and expedient for the Legislature to follow, we feel sure the discussion of the question which has been engaged in by a large number of people will have good re- sults, for it has brought out the finest sentiments of the people, showing that they not only want to be just, but merciful as well, and that if they can be l)oth just and merciful in the abolishment of the death penalty they will at least have soothed fheir own consciences in deferring the taking of human life to a higher ])ower than that which has been created at the hands of man. — .Xashfillc Tcnncsscan and American. OPPOSES CAPIT.AL PTXISHMEXT. Jiditor Tcnncsscan and American: Allow me to say. T heartily approve of your stand against capital punishment.. Of course. T am not surprised to find you — 69 — on this side, as you have always been for the right and against the wrong. Since I commenced to think about it I have been opposed to capital punishment because, first, it is not the best correction of crime ; second, it appears to me a savage practice — a relic of savagery ; third, shall the state commit cold-blooded murder to offset the same crime committed by the individual? The latter commits his crime for some real or imaginary grievance ; the state does it in the nanie of civilized law and decency ; fourth, as I see it, there is nothing in Christ's teachings that sanctions capital punishment. His prominent characteristic was that ''He did not resent evil," and His example is to be taken as final. I am praying that this Legislature' of Tennessee will do itself the honor to pass a bill abolishing capital punishment. Martin, Tenn. Rev. J- J- Thomas. OPPOSES THE DEATH PENALTY. Editor Tennessean and American: As a mother and one who would be rejoiced to see capital punishment done away with, let me say through your columns that I heartily endorse what Mr. Duke C. Bowers and Rev. ]. J. Thomas had to say on the subject. As a people who believe in the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us unite in one strong battle array against capital punishment. Have the lawmakers of a great commonwealth the right to plunge immortal souls into hell — even if under provocation one had committed murder? Give time for repent- ance. David, the man after God's own heart, committed murder, and yet, after all, was restored in His sight. And then in the name of her, who in the valley of the shadow of death bore the son her heart cherished so dearly, and whose love can penetrate prison walls, let our legislators do away with capital punishment. "Am I my brother's keeper?" Yes, and as you seldom hear of the rich, or well-to-do being electrocuted, and as justice sel- — 70 — clom reaches the influential; hut as the weak and erring-, un- tutored and unprotected, are often the victims of injustice, we pray that imprisonment, say without the chance of pardon, be substituted for death penaUy. Life is sweet to even the lower animals. And how much more precious must be the life even of one imprisoned for a life sentence? There is chance of and op- portunity for repentance. Mrs. Rodert E. Link. Cottonwood, Tcnn. Tllh: JI'DICIARV eO.M.MlTTEh: HEARINGS. Judge Greer, of Memphis, opened for the Gilbert bill, the first considered. "I state on the threshold," he said, "that a private citizen of the State has been the most active recent mover in this matter. I have been working on this matter for thirty years. He has done more in thirty days to get it before the Legislature. I wish, therefore, to ask Mr. Duke C. Bowers to either read or make a statement of the faith that has moved him in this humane work." bower's suggestion. Mr. Bowers suggested that Judge Greer be heard, and that the committee then postpone the hearing to Tuesday, when there would be more time and other speakers to present the matter. Mr. Bowers referred in this to K. T. McConnico, of Xashville, who sat beside him. .Mr. liowers' suggestion was followed by judge (ircer, who said in part: "T have come away from the beside of a sick wife, so deeply am I interested in this matter. It is therefore im- perative that I must, if 1 am to speak at all, speak to you now. "I have been so immensely gratified after all the weary years of waiting at the assurance that there is a probability of this measure, for which I longed since my childish eyes looked for the first and only time on the judicial murder of a fellow-man. becoming a law^ "It has been the longing that has caused me to send to each Legislature a bill to do away with this relic of barbarism. I have been turned down and turned down, but I have seen the thing grow to a point where there is a proba])ility of passage. — 71 — "I am not going to put my reasons for this step as mere sen- timental reasons. A little reflection will show that the object of punishment is twofold, with a third and subsidiary consideration. First, there is the reason of restraint, to protect society from the man who has outraged it. The second is to deter crime by the example of the punishment. The third has come of late years, to reform the criminal and make him go forth a better man. "There are some, indeed, who go back to the old law of vengeance, or an eye for an eye, but every thinking man knows that punishment can have but two reasons, protection by re- straint and prevention by deterrents. "If the killing of a man by law served either of these pur- poses, I would say let them die. But if the figures show, as they incontrovertibly do, that wherever that form of punishment has been abolished and the experiment of milder punishment has been tried, the percentage of homicides has decreased, the per- centage of convictions increased. If this is true, gentlemen, that the aim of punishment is better subserved by the milder form, is there any shred of excuse for shedding human blood? Tf this is not true, why have vou ]>rohibited public execu- tions? If you wanted to deter by brutality you would see that all saw the executions. If it is right to take life, always there would be volunteers to cut the trap door from under criminals. Can you imagine such a thing? "You have no public execution because oi the norrf:>r of it and because of the brutalization of other men witnessing it. If you can deter without shedding blood, why shed it? "I can tell you something of the horrors of it. I was only a boy. I went to the jail and saw a man brought from ihe jail in his shroud ; saw him sit on his cofiin in a wagon and ride a mile through a glorious day to the place of execution. "With bound arms, he half staggered up to the scaiTold. The black cap was put on. The legs were bound. The trap dropjied, and the figure dangled in space, arms and legs struggling to rise. Can you imagine Jesus of Nazareth saying to )^ou and to me, to the instruments of the law about that dangling fellow, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant!'" — Xashz'illc Tcnncsscan cnuj American. — 72 — ABOLISH PENALTY OF DKATII. 15y a vote of 8 to 3 the Judiciary Committee of the House ^^onday afternoon recommended for passage the Gilbert bill. House bill Xo. 235, abolishing- the death penalty for all crimes in Tennessee. This action was taken following a short address by Duke C. Bowers and a powerful presentation of the objections to capital punishment by K. T. McConnico. of the .\ashville bar. and was taken on motion of Lee \\'inchester. of Shelby, who himself had a bill before the House, leaving the death penalty in effect for rape. Speeches against the bill were made by Repre- sentatives Chamlee. Creswell and I'n'ant. who were the onlv members of the committee opposing it. -Mr. McConn:co's argument, which was so remarkable that it actually convinced men who had made up their minds the other way, was devoted almost entirely to the legal aspects of the case. He based much of it upon reported cases in which actual confessions had revealed, after men had been executed upon cir- cumstantial evidence, that they were innocent. He had with him a volume of 550 pages filled with such cases, and while he re- ferred to only a few of them, the presence of such a volume, which only covered the cases up to T()oi. was in itself a tre- mendous argument for the passage of the bill. "The main objection to capital punishment from the lawyers' standpoint is the liability of judicial murder, of mistaken execu- tion through the honest mistake of the courts and juries. This book here is the graveyard of only those cases we know about. How many others there are which have never come to light no man may say." The most |;owertul case cited by Mr. McL'onnico was the l^urand case, from California. Uurand. ablv defended by Del- phine M. Delmas. who afterward defended Harry K. Thaw, was convicted of the murder of his sweetheart in the tower of a church on what appeared, so far as human eye could tell, to be an absolutely perfect and unbreakable case of circumstantial evi- dence, and executed. One year later the pastor of the church in which the murder occurred confessed the murder, when it was too late. — 73 — "And vet." said Mr. McConnico, "we must use circumstantial evidence in criminal cases. Were it otherwise, all a man would have to do to go free would be to get his victim off by himself." "Fifty per cent of the acquittals in homicide cases are due to capital punishment. I am speaking now from my experience in defending half a hundred homicide cases. I know that in cases where the lawyer knows there will be no hanging, he lays his plans from the beginning and fights to convince the jury that the case is 'either hanging or nothing.' The jury naturally revolts at hanging the man, and acquittal results. I have profited by that myself. IN TENNESSEE. "Capital punishment increases crime, for the state sets the example of taking life. Not to go so far from home or so far back as the days in England when men were hanged for 300 crimes, in the State of Tennessee, in 1858. men were still hanged for burglary, robbery and arson. Do we have more of those crimes now that capital punishment for them is done away with ?" Mr. McConnico took up the arguments of those who base their opposition to the bill on the pardoning power of the Gov- ernor. One class, he pointed out, objected to it because the Gov- ernor could, through the exercise of the pardoning power, correct errors of the courts, while the other objected on the ground that the Governor would have power to overturn the decrees of the court. Mr. McConnico criticised both views, citing law and ex- perience- on his side. Tn regard to mob law, he pointed out tliat hanging does not prevent the horrible crime for which lynching is committed in the South, but that capital punishment really increases lynching by furnishing an excuse for it. on the ground that the state would take life. "We have all the lynchings that we can have or are going to have as it is," he added. Two impressive facts were brought out in Mr. Bowers' speech for the bill, that homicide in six states which have abol- ished capital punishment is only 48 ])er cent what it is in the cap- ital ])unishment states, and that back in England two such great authorities as Lord Elgin and Lord Ellenborough predicted ruin and increase of crime if the death penalty was removed from petit larceny. — 74 — CHANGRD HIS VIEWS. At the close of Mr. McConnico's speech Mr. Winchester, ex- pressing^ his conversion and conviction, moved the ])assajje of Mr. Gilbert's bill. Other members of the committee speaking for the bill were Mr. Gilbert and .Albert E. Hill, who stated that years ago he had three times voted against a similar bill, but that he now realized that he had made a mistake in so doing. Mr. Chamlee and .Mr. IJryant o])iK)sed the bill, particularly as it removed the death penaltv for rape, and Mr. Creswell oj^posed it on the ground that it removed the ])rotection from crimes of violence. He cited the whitecappers of Sevier County, who. he declared, had been checked only by the execution of two men. Mr. Fuller somewhat took issue with Mr. Creswell on this point, maintaining that the man really responsible was never punished. The final vote of the committee follows: For the bill — Bejach, Collier of Sumner, Fuller, .\bernathy, Neely. Taylor of Jefferson, W'illiamson. Winchester. Against the bill — Creswell, Chamlee, Bryant. — Xashville Ten- nesscan and .luicrican. EX-WARDFX SAYS "D( )X"T HAXc;." "Relative to the bill now j^ending before the Legislature to abolish capital punishment for any crime I wish to say that I heartily endorse it and think the stand and work of C. C. Gil- bert, Duke C. Bowers and others in endeavoring to effect the abolition of capital punishment is highly commendable," said B. M. Rice, former Warden at the main state ])rison, talking with a reporter for The Democrat. ".After having been connected with the state penitentiary for twenty years, I feel fully war- ranted from this long experience and close touch with the crim- inal class that any man of whatever vicious or criminal disjxisi- tion can be cured under the rigid discipline observed by the oflficers of the state. The rules imposed upon prisoners school them to such obedience that their conduct necessarily becomes changed from their former life. The mind meets these conditions and accordinglv the influence of such environments changes the criminal disposition. "Under the merit svstem of commuiation of sentence over — 75 — seventy-five per cent earn this and not one per cent of the remain- ing twenty-five per cent are convicted of oflfenses of such nature that could have resulted in capital punishment — that is, they are not capital crimes. The twenty-five per cent spoken of as not meriting commutation are, as a rule, convicted of minor oflfenses. "The record also shows that after a convict has served ten or twenty years and has been released, he becomes a law-abiding citizen, as a result of the rigid discipline imposed while in prison. The practice of capital punishment was not inaugurated under the old barbaric teaching of an eye for an eye, but solely as a pro- tection to society. It is not to punish the oflfender. No man wants the blood of his fellow-man on his hands, nor should I think he would want it on the hands of his State, of which he is a citizen. "The responsibility of the State is merel_\- the responsibility of its citizens. Are you willing to assume this responsibility? "Capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime. I have known of murder being committed almost under the shadow of the gal- lows. The rapist never reaches the hand of the law. The assassin who lies in wait to kill reasons at the same time that this con- cealment will avoid the discovery of his connection with the crime. If capital punishment does not deter further crimes and is not a protection to society in this respect, then confinement for life in prison meets every demand of a Christian world." — Nash- ville Democrat. HITS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 'T am heartily opposed to capital punishment," said Dean A. B. Martin of the Cumberland Law School, talking with a reporter for The Democrat. "It does not carry out the true aims of justice — the deterring of the crime. Crime, to a large degree, is a disease, and should be treated as such. When capital punishment takes place there is no opportunity for reformation. "I am further opposed to capital punishment because man is not infallible. Mistakes are occasionally made, which, under the present system, cannot be rectified. "Finally, I am opposed to capital punishment because no man has a right to take what he did not give." — Xaslwillc Democrat. — 76 — CAPITAL PL'XISHMEXT. To the Editor of The Banner : How a Christian minister, who has spent his hfe attem])tinj? to preach Christianity, can favor capital puni'^hment is a mystery to me. To cut the murderer off, behevins^ that he is doomed to eternal punishment, seems to be committing- the same crime that the murderer did, and i)erhaps he did it in the heat of pas- sion, while state does it deliberately. When Cain slew Abel. G(jd was the only arbiter between men. He was both the political and moral governor of men. Did God kill Cain? No; he gave him a life sentence. .\ fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be. and when thou tillest the earth it shall not yield her strength, and added, in order to prevent an- other murder, whosoever slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold. Lamech also, one of Cain's descendants, said to his wives : I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven. God. who was all-wise and merciful and changeth not, was not then in favor of capital pun- ishment. Lamech confessed to murder, and Cain denied it. When a man commits murder his own conscience is a con- tinual tormentor while he lives. When the state hangs a man she sets a bad example to her citizens, and need not expect any better of them. Would it not be far better to let a murderer be a servant to the state the balance of his life, and give the proceeds of his labor to the bereaved ones of the murdered man? Think of eternal punishment ! Has the state or any indi- vidual a right to send any one there? I can hardly see how Lazarus could be so happy while he saw Dives and heard him calling for water to cool his parched tongue. And how ministers now can favor sending their fellow-men to hell does not agree with the teachings of Christ who said: T say unto you that ye resist not evil. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." Now, was he only talking to his chosen twelve and allow- ing all other to resist evil? This seems ridiculous; the New Tes- — 77 — tament was given to the world of men. When Cain slew his brother would have been the ver\^ time for God to set an ex- ample of capital punishment, if he had thought it best. J. H. Ogilvie. 104 Neil Avenue, Nashville, Term. JOEL B. FORT ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. To The Editor of The Democrat: The article of Dr. G. A. Lofton in Tuesday's r)anner causes me to come forth and make reply for the simple reason that such sentiment as therein expressed by so good and devout a man should not go unchallenged. That the laws of the liible are bloodthirsty no one will deny; that the rule of life for life prevailed then goes without dispute ; but the question is not whether they were laws then, but should such laws prevail now ? If we are to be governed by the law of life for life, why not also follow the rule of its execution? God gave the law, so the Bible says, and told the Jews how to execute it. Cities of refuge were set apart, and when a man committed murder and outran the "avenger" and got in the city of refuge safely, then he could have a trial ; otherwise the avenger was to kill him. Does any one think such a law just or right? How many oflfenses were punishable with death? Just think of the horror of it. If a man and woman were caught in adultery it was not a trial and death, but they were stoned to death by a mob. If a man's wife thought to change her religion and wor- ship any other God but the God of the Jews her husband was directed to kill her. I might go at length into the horrible de- tails of those old Jewish laws, but it is not necessary. Our own ancestors brought a list of death penalties to this country that would shock the sensibilities of an average Tennessean — put a man in jail for preaching anything but the orthodox theory of religion, had to go about on Sunday with a look of sanctity that was frightful and forbidden to kiss his wife or babe under pen- alty of the law. Times have changed and laws to be wholesome and beneficial must bf* changed to suit the times. — 78 — I care not what good men may think on this subject. After practicing law in the courts of Tennessee for thirty years I know that today human hfe is held more sacred than at any time in all the history of the world. So true is this that it is hard to get a jury that favors inflicting the death penalty. Talk of England and her enforcement of the law. it has been but a few score of years since there were more than a hundred offenses punishable with death, and for years it was a nation of king and queen killers, and the laws there are no better enforced than here if you consider the difTerence in the poi)ulation. That is an old, settled country, and immigration in that land is all emi- gration ; from all lands come the lower classes to this country, and of course we have a liardcr criminal proposition to deal with. There is only one justification for taking the life of an indi- vidual in our law, and in the great heart of justice as enthroned in the present day civilization, and that is in necessary self-defense. When the State kills a man. does she do it in necessary self- defense? That is the great question. I don't suppose I am as good a man as Dr. Lofton, but as weak and imperfect as I am, there is nothing that so saddens and horrifies me as all the cir- cumstances and details that are enacted from the Criminal Court to the hangman's noose, an unfortunate creature with the day and hour .set for his execution, manacled and carried to the dungeon, with all the blood of his victim red on his hands and reeking and rankling in his heart. Ministers are sent for to aid him in his preparation for his last long journey. They open the Book and tell him of the two roads, one leading to a blissful, eternal life, and another leading to eternal hell fire and torment. He has got to take one or the other, and always takes the heavenly route. A few days of singing and praying and then the fatal hour, and he is consoled by the good men while the black cap is fastened over his eyes and he is sent shooting into eternity. How a Christian man can see that this method of punishment is just and Christian-like passeth my understanding. If the wolf is not all out of humanity, and they still cry for blood incited on by ministers of the go.spel of Christ, let them mob the culprit as did the Jews of old, and let the State set the example of reforma- tion by life imprisonment. But the Doctor says: "Sickly sentimentalism is even trying — 79 — to change the penitentiary into a mere reformatory." Now, doesn't that look strange for so good a man to condemn the efforts of all the good people who are devoting time and talent to alleviate the condition of the under-class of society? I have never been a supporter of Governor Hooper, but every time he does anything to relieve the distress of these unfortunates I feel kinder to him. Sickly sentimentalism. Well, I am glad that I am sentimental and I am glad that I have a forgiving heart, for it is written "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Most astounding of all I see in the article is this : "Those who rail at capital punishment for those who murder God's image, rail at God, and make Him out a liar and a tyrant of archaic ignorance and stupidity" Now, what do you think of that ? A good man comes to Nashville at his own expense to beg the Legislature to repeal this brutal law of Jewish barbarism, and he, with all the good men, Dr Vance included, are "railing at God and making him out a liar" But the pity of it is that the Doc- tor sees that we are growing worse all the time, and says, "and yet the twentieth century has not changed human nature one whit. Vice and crime, murder, adultery, divorce, monopo- listic robbery, gambling, political graft, the white slave trade, the saloon and assignation house iniquity, maladministration of jus- tice, lawlessness — all this and more is on the increase in the twentieth century." I am afraid the Doctor is growing too pessimistic, for a truth I can see that the world has grown better in my day. If what he says is true, what profit has been all the efforts of good men and good women? Away with such an idea! We are climbing higher up the mountain and are leaving the putrid bogs farther behind each year. Civilization has declared against war of concfuest, and we have no nation which would stand for a moment to see a Joshua go uj) and murder the people of Ai and plunder and burn for no other motive than because those ])eople defended their homes. •' The banner of the Red Cross in the hands of Christian women floats on every battlefield, and tender arms are outstretched to every uunfortunate soldier on either side of the contest. Tt is — 80 — humanity that calls for help, and it is the glorious spirit of the advancing age of civilization that is everywhere responding. Physicians are struggling to stamp out the disease that num- bers its victims by the thousands, and right in your own city is a home for those who are in the grip of the great white plague. The Governor and the prison officials and good men and women are at work on the convicts in penitentiary, trying to make them better. Consecrated men and women are baring their breast to every danger in every clime, all working for the uplift of human- ity ; everywhere orphan asylums managed and cared for by patri- otic, Christian men and women, old women's homes, old soldiers' homes, pensions for soldiers on their crutches. My ! my ! I am glad I live in an age of humanity, when there is not so much prating about the tortures of an endless hell of fire and brim- stone, and more unselfish labor for the cause of suffering human- ity. The Doctor says further : "Love and law are correlatives : love alone fulfills or keeps the law — it is love that insists on vindicating the law." This kind of logic may well be advocated in his theology, but I fear the Doctor cannot see daylight when he puts his theories in practice in the criminal law of the State. Keep the law from love ! Is that the way you expect the law obeyed, just for love, and when a man doesn't love the law he won't keep it, and| he outrages a beautiful woman, and then the State from love hangs him higher than Ilaman. It is this way : An honest man does not steal because he stands above the law. It does not affect him. The thief is be- neath, and if he refrains from theft it is not for love of the law, but for fear of the law. So with nuirder. I love the life of my fellow-man and do not murder. I am above the law, and all the good people stand above the law and are trying to raise others above it, and they are reaching down and helping those who are in the underworld to a higher plane and to a new and better life; and so the tendency is in prisons to make the culprit an honest and good man. Is this sentimentalism. If it is, God bless all the thousands of sentimentalists who are today fighting for the uplift of humanity ! The minister stands every Sunday and teaches that though the sins of man are "as scarlet" and of the darkest and deepest dye, that repentance will bring forgiveness. So God will even — 81 — forgive the murderer and save him in the eternal haven of hliss, the wise and merciful and g-ood God who knows the secrets of the heart, will do this, but when it comes to the State of Tennessee, she must not forgive, nor even confine the murderer for life that he may have time to remedy and repent of his evil deeds, but must cry for blood and must send the murderer from this to an- other world in a disgraceful manner. "And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot." (Deut. xix.. Chap. 21.) Why ! I do not believe if one should advocate such a horrible and barbaric law as that one written, it is said, by the direction of God, in this progressive age, on any inquisition for lunacy he would safely land in the asylum for the insane. It is brotherly love now ; it is pity for the unfortunate now ; it is mercy and charity now ; and with such grand and powerful influences coming from these virtues, the world is growing better and is becoming a place where every man can have enjoyment in knowing there is work for him to do in raising the fallen, cheering the faint and ministering to the unfortunate. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Joel B. Fort. Adams, Tenii,^ February 13. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. (Editorial from the Nashville Banner.) Mr. Duke C. Bowers, retired merchant, capitalist and hu- manitarian, has brought into the present session of the Legislature a unique interest apart from politics and not connected with other public matters to which the attention of the solons has been most deeply directed. Mr. Bowers has a deep conviction that the taking of human life is wrong and not to be justified even though it be in the form of legal execution, and he is making ^ very energetic efifort to have the Legislature pass a bill abolishing capital punishment. The remarkable feature of his work is that it is purely an in- dividual efifort and does not come from any humane society or other organization after the manner that such movements are usually fostered. Mr. Bowers makes the impression that he is — 82 — very much in earnest, wholly sincere, and there can be no doubt that he is ahogether disinterested. The nature of the effort would hardly permit an interested motive, and the man behind it is so entirely dissociated with politics that no such motive can be imag^ined. It is indeed rare that so determined an endeavor is made in behalf of the supposed public good by an individual of his own initiative, and it is this fact that gives Mr. Bower.-?' ex- ertions in behalf of the bill he has caused to be introduced a peculiar interest. He has at least succeeded in attracting public attention to the measure and has brought about quite a warm discussion of its merits through the daily press and otherwise. The sixth commandment of the decalogiie very plainly says, "Thou shalt not kill." This was given, engraved on stone, directly from God to Moses in the thunders of Sinai, and seems both explicit and imperative, but some liberal translators have made it read, "Thou shalt do no murder," and this seems war- ranted by the laws laid down in the next chapter, Exodus 21 :i2, w'hich says, "He that smiteth a man so that he die. shall be surely put to death." and the death penalty is also prescribed for lesser offenses, concluding with the familiar citation, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," etc. Still this was under the old dispensation. The language of Jesus, who overthrew the doctrine of ven- geance and taught non-resistance of evil, is used to refute it. This is the manner in which the religious argument on the subject has gone, but the position is presented in practical guise and the gist of the whole matter is, can society adequately pro- tect itself against crime if the terror of the death penalty be not before the eyes of the evil-doer? As Sir Roger de Coverley was wont to remark, "Much can be said on both sides." Much has been said both pro and con, and the arguments are all interesting and enlightening, if not wholly convincing. This much is certain, the offenses for which capital punish- ment is prescribed by civilized nations have very much diminished in number, and crimes formerly so punished have not increased under a lighter penalty. It was, for instance, once a capital offense to steal a sheep in England, and more sheep were stolen then than now. In Tennessee the death penalty is prescribed only for two offenses, murder and rape. Both certainly deserve the utter rigor of the law. It has appeared to many that the law against mur- — 83 — der is now too lightly enforced. At least there have been too many who escaped conviction where the crime was flagrant and the evidence convincing. In England and other countries where justice is surer, murder and all manner of homicides are much more rare. It is arg-ued by those who oppose capital punishment that the certainty of punishment rather than its severity prevents crime. 'However that may be, assuredly nothing should be done that would have any tendency to increase homicides in this state. The record of such crimes here is now disgracefully high com- pared with other parts of the world where the criminal laws are better enforced. The proposed abolition of the death penalty for rape presents a problem peculiarly incidental to conditions in this section. If it should be abolished lynchings would likely increase. The same might be true in cases of very heinous murder. Capital punishment is very revolting to refined sensibilities. The world today will not permit the horrible spectacle of a pub- lic execution on which in the past gaping crowds made gruesome holiday. The military executions and pohtical death penalties with which history abounds are, it is to be hoped, a barbarism that is entirely past. There can hardly ever be a recurrence of the horrors of the guillotine. Today neither Major Andre, Nathan Hale or Sam Davis would be put to death. The world is advanc- ing to higher thoughts and milder practice in matters of this kind, Init the conclusion is not yet fixed that Tennessee can better its condition by abolishing capital punishment. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. To the Editor of The Banner: In your editorial today, entitled "Capital ]\mishment," you refer very kindly to me, but I was extremely disappointed when I read on further and found that you do not concur with me in my tight to abolish the death penalty. Mr. Gilbert's bill to substitute life imi)risonment for the death penalty is, to my mind, one of the most important bills before the Legislature. The decision of this body will be to either dis- continue this barbarous practice or else in effect say to the judges, juries and officers of this state, you must continue murdering the state's enemies. — 84 — You state toi^ few escape conviction. If you will take the trouble to look u]) statistics. y(3U will find those states that have abolished the death ix-nalty secure, by far, more convictions than do those states which as yet, luifortunately, have not abolished it. If the abolishment of capital punishment would cause us to have an increase in the number of homicides, then there might be some argument in favor of retaining the death penalty. But no one is able to say whether there would be an increase or decrease. We can, however, take as an example those states that have abol- ished the death penalty. In those states homicides have not in- creased. And a fact very much in our favor is that during the year 1909. which is the last one reported by the United States Mortality Statistics, there were more than twice the number of homicides in the states that retain the death penalty than in those states that have abolished it. Now, if such a condition is a mere "happen so," it is certainly a peculiar "happen so." It surely does give us reason to at least 1)C willing to give the life imprisonment proposition a trial. As regards "lynchings would likely increase." That is an- other proposition that can only be definitly determined by trying the life imprisonment plan. To my way of thinking, individ- uals will come nearer having respect for human life by precept and example from the state than by the state's committing murder and at the same time saying to its citizens, "Thou shalt not kill." If such a thing as the fear of punishment deters rape, it is the fear of the mob and not the fear of the gallows ; but I doubt if the fear of the mob or the fear of the gallow^s, either, ever enters into the heads of those of that vicious class. Ex-Warden Rice states "that after having been connected with the Tennessee penitentiary twenty years I feel that any man of whatever vicious or criminal disj^osition can be cured under the rigid discipline observed by the officers of the state." If there is a chance to cure a man. then isn't it a crime to kill him and deprive him of this chance. If it is a crime to kill, then do we not. as citizens, almost commit a crime if we neglect to raise our voice or make an effort of some kind to tv}' and put a stop to this legalized murdering of our fellow-citizens. We may not win in this fight, but we shall at least be con- soled with the thought that the blood of these pcx)r unfortunate — 85 — liiiman beings would not be on our bands if it was in our power to sotp it. Duke C. Bowers. p_ s. — A friend told me tbat Elbert Hubbard says "that so long as the state continues to kill its enemies, individuals are going to continue killing theirs." B. Dresden, February 9, 1913. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. (Editorial from The Public. Mr. Louis F. Post, Editor.) Five men were strangled at a legalized hanging in Chicago last week. The gallows-trap was s])rung by the peo])le of Illinois ; for it is true, as one protestant writes to his newspaper, that what we as citizens require of the Sheriff, in conformity with the law upon our statute books against which we make no protest, nor any attempt to alter or abolish it. we do ourselves — all of us and each one of us. Xot many reasons appear for perpetuating these barbarous laws. One of them is that the hanging of murderers is neces- sary as a deterrent of murder. The weakness of that excuse is well illustrated in this very case. Swift and relentless was the law's execution, and notorious the fact. Yet "hold-ups" with deadly weapons, the very crime in committing which those hanged men had resorted to murder as an incident, were perpe- trated on an ambitious scale (and under circumstances which made murder almost an incident in one and within the intention of the criminals in both) twice within forty-eight hours after these horrible executions and within the sphere of their influence. Lesfal homicides do not prevent tho=e that are illegal. The former foster the latter, if there is any influence. So completely is this indicated bv experience with both, that it is difficult any longer to consider the contrary contention as at once in good faith and intelligent. As an argument it has become only an excuse for that real motive for capital punishment which is rooted in the spirit of revenee — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If the vicious spirit of revenge were exercised, and love for morbid excitement were given vent through some less brutal sport, all arguments for capital punishment as a preventive of crime would be abandoned. The sentimentality which pities the murderer on a gallows re- — S6 — gardless of his crime, is bad enough to be sure ; but the senti- mentality which hangs him out of pity for his victim is worse. If the one is spineless, the other is revengeful. Xever should it be forgotten that the great fact which tells against capital punish- ment is not that it is a disagreeable experience for the murderer, but that where tolerated it is degrading to the community lx)th in- dividuallv and collectivelv. STATES OBJECTION TO DEATH PENALTY. J. E. McCulloch. General Secretary of the Southern Sociologi- cal Congress, has written the following reply to a query by Duke C. Bowers as to his stand on the question of capital punishment : "Dear Mr. Bowers : I hasten to reply to your query in re- gard to my ideas on capital punishment, and state that I am opposed to the death penalty ; first, because it is unworthy and barbarous for a civilized state to practice revenge; second, because statistics do not justify the conclusion that capital punishment de- ters crime; third, because the state has no moral right to destroy human life — only God. who gives life, has the right to take it; fourth, because the chief function of the state is to save and im- prove life — whereas capital punishment arbitrarily cuts off all possibility of reform ; fifth, because crime at worst is a symptom of social disease rather than simply the result of individual wrong- doing — the real crime is in our social conditions that make it pos- sible for a murderer to be reared at all." — Nashi'tllc Tcnncsscan and Atnerican. EDITORIAL FROM THE MARTIN MAIL. All honor to Duke C. Bowers, the man that is not afraid to do things. If the bill to abolish capital punishment in Tennessee does not become a law he has not failed, for the work he has done will be as bread cast upon the waters to return many days hence. He has attracted the attention of the L'nion in his fight for the uplift of humanity — the abolishing of capital punishment. It has caused men to put on their thinking caps, and dig deep into the history of capital punishment. It is true that there are man that are opposed to the abolition, but there are more, yea, hundreds to one. that favor the abolishing of capital punish- ment. It is just and right. The old law. "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," is of prehistoric days — the old Mosaic laws. — 87 — and none of those hold good today. Why take life — it is murder — whether done by the law or the individual. It is better to for- give them ninety and nine times. Men that in the heat of passion have slain their fellow-man can and will become great and good citizens if given a chance, but with a hangman's noose there is no chance. Man's humanity to man cries out for the abolition of the law. Will the gentlemen from Weakley County and every other county in the state take notice? During 1909 the average number oi homicides committed to the one hundred population was : Maine i.i No capital punishment. Massachusetts 2.4 Capital punishment obtains. Xew Hampshire 1.4 Capital punishment obtains. Rhode Island . .' 2.6 No capital punishment. Connecticut 3.9 Capital punishment obtains. New York 3.8 Capital punishment obtains. Michigan 2.2 No capital punishment. Ohio 5.1 'Capital punishment obtains. Indiana 5.3 Capital punishment obtains. Wisconsin 1.8 No capital punishment. South Dakota 4.7 Capital punishment obtains. Colorado 10.7 Capital punishment obtains. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. EDITORIAL FROM LAFALI.ETT S MACAZINP:. "Do you believe in capital punishment?" asked a L'nited Press reporter over the telephone a few days ago. The occasion for the "interview" was that seven men were to meet death in the electric chair at Sing Sing and that two prisoners were con- demned to be hanged here in the District of Columbia. Some way I cannot get accustomed to the fact that the law and practice that prevails in the District of Columbia are so apt to be an example of unenlightenment. They are subject to the revision of Congress, and if there is a place where capital pun- ishment should not exist, it is here in sight of the capital dome. I do not object to the death penalty because I think it such a terrible thing for the individuals to whom it is administered, provided they are guilty of deliberate murder. Thousands of — 88 — innocent people die daily from wrecks, drowning, and catas- trophes of all kinds, who snffer more, ilistory i^ives many ex- amples of men and women wh(j-liave met the headsman with a jest. And observers say that the average man. when he goes to his execution usually keeps his nerve, even to eating a good break- fast. Nature prepares us all for the inevitable end. Rut capital punishment is a survival of barbarism and its existence is contrary to the l)est thought and practice of modern civilization. The old idea was that it was humanly possible to retaliate a crime, and to mete out justice to the criminal; that penalties of great severity served as a warning and were a preventative of crime. It is said we need go back only one hundred years to find two hundred offenses punishable by death under the English law. \\'ithin twenty years there were seventeen offenses sub- ject to death i)enalty under the civil code of the I'nited States. The extreme penalty did not obviate these lesser crimes nor does it deter murder. Tn our country today the extremely small number — something like two per cent 1 think il is — of executions, as compared with the number of nuu-ders, must give the hard- ened criminal great confidence in his chances of escape. .Vnd as for those who commit murder in the heat of passion, they take no thought of consequences ; the large number of those who thus kill, who turn and commit suicide, or give themselves over to the law, shows how little the fear of death influences their acts. If cai)ital punishment is to deter crime it should be admin- istered in its most revolting form and given the widest possible publicity. ( )nly a few vears ago. hangings were witnessed by thousands of spectators. The practice no longer prevails. The public is excluded. .Vnd whatever deterrent effect there is from execution, is produced by the filtered newspaper accounts, rhere is a growing sentiment against these news features. It is well recognized that these recitals suggest many crimes where one is prevented. The substitution of the electric chair for the gallows was to lesson the horror of capital punishment. In that degree it diminishes its deterrent effect. In view of the change in sentiment which demands that execu- tions shall be as i)rivate and free from terror as possible, the only argument that remains for the death sentence, is that it — 89 — relieves society of the burden of support of the criminal and, per- haps, that it is easier for one who has committed murder not to have his life prolonged. But this reasoning applies equally to many crimes, for which capital punishment has been abolished — rape, for instance. Some wardens say that life prisoners, particularly those who have committed murder under extenuating circumstances, who perhaps might never again violate the law, are much less a men- ace than those habituated to lesser crimes — professionals so to speak. Broader understanding of the cause of crime and responsi- bility for it, is tending slowly to revolutionize the plan of dealing with it. The higher authorities recognize that the struggle is social, not individual; that retaliation and retributive justice is impossible and the attempt to administer it, does not lessen the evil-doing. Anyone who stops to think, must realize that a definite amount of punishment cannot be measured out for a speci- fic ofifence and that there are many long sentences, even life sentences that might be more safely suspended than to permit the habitual ofifenders — the incurables— to go free at the ex- piration of terms as fixed by inflexible statutes. Investigation and experience have proved, what common sense ought always to have told us, that solitary confinement, or worse, promiscuous herding of criminals in idleness and under harsh conditions, makes the savage more savage, and destroys the hope of improving those not wholly degraded. Humane and scientific conditions in places of detention — sun- light, air, cleanliness, and methods of reformation — regular em- ployment in healthful and varied and useful occupations, with a degree of compensation as an incentive together with inde- terminate sentences, boards for pardon, probation, are all indica- tions of the changed attitude of society toward those convicted of violations of the law. Society is beginning to recognize its responsibility for crime and its obligation to at least administer the law so that its operation will not further degrade the of- fenders. It is wise economy — even though the first cost be somewhat greater — to direct the effort formerly expended in "punishment" of those imprisoned to fitting them to live and to earn a living, so they may return to the world better prepared to cope with temptation and with less likelihood of being a further menace to society. — 90 — CAPITAL PUXISHMENT. Editor Tennessean and American : In The Tennessean and American of January 29 I see my old friend McKinney and others have introduced a bill in the Senate to abolish ca])ital punishment in Tennessee. I am sure this is a step in the rig^ht direction, and will be encourajj^ed, and doubtless will receive the full ajjproval of a majority of the best people of the state. When a child at my mother's knee, beinij instructed in the cardinal principles that enter into this life, the obedience or the disobedience of which brinj^s lii(ht, joy and sunshine, or dark- ness and shadow in our path, she pointed me to the law of which, which says : "Thou shalt not kill." Under her guidance I made u]) my mind in early life that capital punishment was wrong, for if I did not have the right to kill under God's law and also under the laws of my state, then the state did not have the right to deliberately and coolly murder one of her citizens. Under the law of Moses it was "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." but we are living in the light of the Christian era, and God says, "vengeance is mine ; I will repay, sayeth the Lord God."' Under the Jewish law a man was stoned to death for picking up sticks on the seventh day of the week. Xow, in the noonday splendor of the Christian dispensation, we tnay gather all the brush on the Lord's day that we wish to, and we have done no harm and have violated no principle. We are living under the law of love, and should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. I shall be glad if Mr. McKinney gets his bill through the Leg- islature and our dear old state will quit murdering her citizens, and let those who commit first degree murder, repent all the rest of their days. J. C. Humphreys. Bells. Tenn. — 91 — COPY OF A CIRCULAR I DELIVERED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATRES THE MORNING OF THE DAY THE BILL TO ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT WAS VOTED ON. ADDRESS BY D. C. BOWERS. To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly of Ten- nessee : In your hands today is placed the Hfe and death of the future unfortunates accused of capital offenses in this state. If you keep the death penalty on the statute books, the judge, the jury and the executioner, if they keep sacred their oaths, have got to follow your edicts. An ex-sheriff told me he had to hang two men while he was in office ; that he was opposed to capital punishment, yet he hanged those men because it was the law. A present attorney-general of this state, who believes in the enforcement of all the laws made by you gentlemen and your predecessors, says that he prosecutes capital offenses because it is his duty, but he wishes that the death penalty was done away with. Gentlemen, there would be mighty little chance of any of us getting to heaven if merit was the only route. If we get there, there will have to be some mercy shown us. We cannot afford to be merciful to only those who are guilty of the same things we have been guilty of. God Almighty has not been guilty of any of our sins, yet it is to be hoped that He is going to be merciful unto us. . Our sins are as horrible to Him as the criminal's are to us. Don't you believe as we spare others He will spare us? l^lease give this Anti-Capital Punishment Bill your most care- ful consideration, and ask yourself if you can afford to take the responsibility of voting to retain a law that means the taking of a human life. You don't want the stain of human blood on your hands, do you ? Most respectfully, Duke C. Bowers. — 92 — PENALTY OF DEATH STANDS. By a vote of 56 to 36 the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon rejected the Gilbert bill to abolish the death penalt> in Tennessee, and tabled a motion to reconsider their action. The defeat of the bill in the House means, beyond doubt, that so far as the present Legislature is concerned the death penalty will re- main in force, in spite of the vigorous light waged against it by Duke C. Bowers and others. The decision of the House was reached after the longest de- bate of the session, extending through both the morning and after- noon sessions of the House. The bill was taken up as a special order at 1 1 o'clock in the morning, and a vote was not taken until nearly 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Gilbert, in moving the adoption of the bill, said crime had been on the increase in Tennessee because of lack of law enforce- ment. Mr. Raulston declared that the advocates of the bill ap])eale(l for sympathy for the criminals. Dr. Boyer, who as sheriff of Cocke County hung two men, and the only two men ever legally hung in that county, spoke for the abolition of capital punishment. "Those two men were, like ninety-nine out of every hundred men, poor and without money. That is why I am opposed to capital punishment — the law is not enforced, as it stands, equally upon all classes alike, if there was equal enforcement of the law I would support it. There is a law for the rich and one for the poor." Mr. Winchester spoke for the bill as a progressive measure. Mr. Stone, of Lincoln, closed the argument for the bill. His argument was general, covering the entire subject. He attacked the theories in support of the practice, and cited the statistics, showing that one innocent man is known to have been hanged in the United States each three years. At the afternoon session the discussion of the bill was re- sumed. Mr. Mullens argued against the bill, and was followed by Mr. Todd, also against the bill. Mr. Todd declared that the fact that it was difficult to enforce the law was no reason for abolishing it. He attacked Mr. Stone's argument. Pie argued especially along the line of protection from rapists. — 93 — j\Ir. Wilson, declaring that Mr. Todd had been appealing to prejudice and passion and nothing else, strongly supported the bill. i =i; Mr. Spears made a powerful appeal against the bill. He de- clared that sympathy for the criminal was obscuring the interests of the state. Mr. Rickman spoke against the bill, declaring for law en- forcement. Doing away with the gallows would add ten-fold to crime, he said. The previous question was called for and carried. The bill was defeated — 56 to 36. A motion to reconsider was tabled. The detailed vote on tlie i)ill follows : Aye — Abernathy, Bejach. Royer, Byroni, Chamlee, Childs. Collier, of Sumner, Dannel. Dorsey, Emert, Fleeman, Fox. Gil- bert, Hill, Kirkpatrick, LeFever, Link, Love, Malone, McCormick, IMcFarland, ^filler, of Lauderdale, Mitchell, O'Brien, Park, Parkes, Pierce. Royston, Shaw. Stephenson, Stone, of Lincoln, Taylor, of Jefferson. Walker, Weldon, W^illiamson, Winchester. Total, 36. No — Acree, Albright, Argo, Ausmus. Babb, Barnett, Bryant, Bullard, Campbell, Cardwell, Cochran, Collier, of Humphreys, Cox, Creswell, Davis, Denton, Drane, Duncan, Dunn, Fisher, Fuller, Gallagher, Green, Harpole, Henderson, Hughes, Hunt, Johnson, of Madison, Johnson, of Shelby, Long, Matthews, Alayes, Miller, of Marshall, Moore, Morris, Mullens, Murphy, Myers, Nichols, Ouenichet, Raulston, Rickman, Riggins. Roberts, Robinson, Scott, Schmittou, Smith, Spears, Taylor, of Madison, Testerman, Thompson, Todd, West, Wilson, Stanton. Total, 56. — Nashville Tenncssean and American. KILLING OF \.\\\ FROWNED UPON. The Duke Bower's bill, which he worked so faithfully and so hard for was killed in the House Wednesday, by a vote of 56 to 36, showing conclusively that Tennessee is not ready to join the progressive states of the union. The Senate Judiciary Committee recommended the rejection of the bill in the Senate. Thus flies the hopes of good and true men, who worked indefatigably for the abolition of capital punishment in Tennessee. — Editoral, Mar tin Mail. — 94 — REJECTED. After an arduous and expensive campaign covering the whole time the Legislature was in session from the first Monday in January until the 226. of February, Mr. Duke C. Bowers, of Memphis and Dresden, saw his bill to abolish capital punishment in Tennessee defeated by much larger odds than he was prepared to expect. Prompted by humanity alone, Mr. Bowers spent several weeks in Nashv41e working to pursuade members of the Legislature that legal murder is not good for the country, and at one time he seemed considerably encouraged that our law-makers would abol- ish what he considers but a relic of barbarism and substitute what he considers a more effective means toward the redemption of ihe bodies and souls of men. All honor to Mr. Bowers who has done as noble and deserving work as though he had carried his point in more legislatures than one. Unselfishly he spent his time and his money laboring for that which he deeply believed would meet the approval of Him who tempers justice with mercy, notes the sparrow's fall and doeth all things well. In view of the fact that the states having capital punishment show the greater num- ber of homicides it seemed to us that a trial of Mr. Bowers' plan might safely be tried in Tennessee. — Editorial, Lexington (Tcnn.) Progress. FIGHT NOT ENDED. SAYS DUKE C. BOWERS. Duke C. Bowers, who was behind the bill to abolish capital punishment in Tennessee, which failed in the present General Assembly, sends the Democrat the following letter : To the Editor of The Democrat : It seems a pity to me that presumably good men construe the Scriptures in such a way as to cause them to believe that the state is justifiable in taking a human life. The horribleness of the thing itself is enough to condemn it, regardless of the doctrine of the law of mercy and love as taught by Jesus. As to whether the world is growing better or worse has noth- ing to do with the awfulness of hanging or electrocuting a man. He is some mother's boy ; he has sinned, that is true, yet to hang him is only doing the worst thing the state can do to him. The crime can't be undone by taking the offender's life; nothing that — 95 — society can do can heal the wounds of the hijured one ; hence where is the common sense in making^ other wounds, in bring- ing double disgrace on the parents, brothers, sister and possibly wife and children of the offender? Any man that reads the New Testament knows "for whoso- ever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty in all." How such a man can feel that he is able to sit in judgment and cast the first stone is something beyond my un- derstanding. "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy : who art thou that judgest another?" Surely you are too enlightened to feel "God, I thank Thee that I am not' as other men." "Let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth." "Love worketh not ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." "If we love one another God dwelleth in us." "He that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" To my mind the following scripture sums up nearly the whole of Christianity, and there is no capital punishment taught in it. Read carefully. "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sin- ners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be children of the Highest ; for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is also merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condenm not, and ye shall not be condemned ; forgive and ye shall be forgiven : Give it and it shall be given unto you ; good measure, pressed down, and shaken to- gether, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." If I am wrong in my fight to abolish the death penalty, then — 96 — it is wronc; to be merciful. It my fiijht to save the criniiii:ir> life is wronj^, then the law of love is wrous^. If I myself was without sin then maybe I could see this ihiui,'- differently, but I am weak; I try to be ^i>o(\. but it kxjks like the harder I try the worse 1 fail. Hence my only hope for life eternal is doino; good for others, helpino" the unfortunate and trying to .save the lives of misguided men. Therefore my fight to al)olish the death penalty is not ended, and the abusive language heajK-d upon me by some of the opponents to the measure is not going to stop me. "I am not bound to win. but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but 1 am bound to live up to what light T have." Di'Ki-: C. IJowi'.Ks. Dresden. Tcnn., February 28. — i)! 1 ..