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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
'F&at ^ trcOmtenent produce the effect xoqTftteGf it is sufficient that tbe evtl it occasions feliould exceed the good expec ted from crime * including in tlie calculation the certainty of the panishment , and the privation of the expected advantage . All severity beyond this is superfluous , and
therefore tyrannical / ' And are not Beccaria and Montesquieu right ? Surely their arguments are no less supported by experience than by enlightened theory . In framing penal laws , the force of human passions , urged and s trengthened by various circumstances , seems to have been forgotten . But , ki fact , few persons after proceeding some time in a vicious course can be
induced by terror t& draw back . If they have subsisted by plunder or dishonesty , they becoti * e na # re and more unfitted for obtaining subsistence by honest means , and those means soon became barred against them ; unless they could avail themselves of the
poor-laws * Actuated by long-indulged vice s not restrained by religious or moral principle ; encouraged by vicious companions ; and stimulated by want , real or factitious ; will they think of the severity of punishment , with which they are threatened , further than to
elude * if possible , the denunciation of tl ^ e law , and perhaps to prefer the offence , if it will answer their purpose , to which the lighter , rather than that to which the heavier , penalty is attached ? If robbery and fraud , in
every shape , were made capital crimes , tfae practised offender , in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred , would despise the penalty , or avert his eyes from the view of it . This \ ve may hold to be an incontrovertible truth . And the
first inference to be drawn from it is , the importance of a corrective process early applied to offenders . The next inference is , that if severity will not deter from crime , neither can it be justly applied in a mere penal way , as if to avenge society . Admitting that thefe is a class of offenders who , to human
view , are incorrigible , or nearly so , and , therefore , that it is expedient to disable them from continuing to injure the community , it does not follow that we can ^ e justified in consigning them tt > the executioner , and hurrying them unprepafced ^ to the b&r of Divine jus * , ti&Bt k fest > m various motitfetf , * hownvei ^ the penally of death hivs numeFoue
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and p ^ i ^ ri \ il advoc ^ tegy an < J many of these Wfill plausibly afgue , that if it be allowable to punish murtler with death , other crimes that may lead fw their consequences to murder , or that in their natrlre are almost equally injurious , deserve a& equal punishment . And others cling to the notion ^ th at
the mere denunciation of such a penalty must excite the hi g hest degree of terror , and so most effectually dete * from crime . A distinguished -senator is reported to have maintained , m a recent debate , that nto penalty could be so teiWMe as the punishment of death , and that the feUr of death
was the greatest of moral restraints . This at the utmost is mere opinion . And though a contrary opinion is not capable of being established by demonstration , it is supported by Bee *
caria and other enlightened men , and reason and fact appear to be decidedly in its favour . Men who voluntarily embrace the military profession can have no very strong habitual fear of death . The force of attachment to
life must surely be greater or less according to the principles , habits , Condition and prospects of a man . At all events , the punishment of death will not effectually deter men from committing crimes , tfa is evinced every
day , and even among criminals not tbe most abandoned . The question , whether society have a right ta take away the life of an offending member will not be here examinecf $ but it deserves the most solemn
consideration on the part of legislators ; for if it may be properly determined in the affirmative , there are at least objections and difficulties which ought to make us very cautious and forbearing in the exercise of the supposed right . Every truly wise ana good
man will admit that the punishment of death should never be inflicted , unless it answer a salutary and adequately important purpose . It seems , then , that before this highest of penalties is denounced , we ought to be well assured , that by this , and this
alone * certain crimes can be prevented or restrained . Not many will seriously contend that this is the case with respect to scores , of -offences ( sutfh as breaking down the head of a ! nsh-pond , destroying trees or hopvines , demanding money biy < au ©* iy mous letters ^ soldiers or mariners
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1823, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1780/page/29/
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