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for gain, that he does not think of conse quences, and the punishment is the last thing that is in his mind? The history of England will greatly aid the student of the philosophy of crime. An English clergyman talked with one hundred and sixty-seven men who were sentenced to death. Out of that number all but three had witnessed executions. It is also related upon good authority that a certain man had been executed for counterfeiting. His body was turned over to his wife and friends. In the very house where his dead body lay, his wife and his confederates were discovered using counter feiting machines for the purpose of making money, and when the police raided the house, his wife was discovered in the act of thrusting the counterfeit bills into the mouth of her dead husband. It is also related that, in olden times, picking pockets was a capital offense; that while executions were taking place upon the mountain side, in the presence of a vast number who had come from the country all around to witness the great festival, and while the prisoner's body was actually swinging from the gibbet, pickpockets were plying their nefarious trade on the out skirts of the multitude. It is very patent to the ordinary observer who gives this matter but slight reflection, that a law has no power to deter a man from committing the crime of murder if, at the very moment of committing it, he is wit nessing an execution for an exactly similar offense. Another strong reason for the abolition of the death penalty is the present diffi culty of securing the conviction of men accused of the crime of murder. Statistics show that, in Rhode Island, where the death penalty has been abolished, sixty-three per cent of those accused of the crime of mur der are convicted, while in Massachusetts only seventeen per cent are convicted. This is due to the aversion of the ordinary jury to sentence a man to death, which is
exactly the meaning of a verdict of murder in the first degree. The tendency of the law has been to help the weak and prevent crime rather than to punish offenders. A notable illustration of this is the Massachusetts probation system. The prison population of this common wealth, five years ago, was eight thousand; to-day it is sixty-one hundred. One of the crimes which was formerly punished by death, namely, adultery, is now most fre quently not punished at all, but the offend ers are placed on probation. We should learn to construe our laws upon the principles of reason and from a knowledge of human nature, instead of con stantly copying what was intended for a character unlike our own, it is our duty to imitate our forefathers in the great trait of their characters, the courage of reform. I believe that a large majority of the people of Massachusetts want the death penalty abolished. It is not because of any sympathy for a murderer, but to advance the cause of civilization. We look back with shame to the days of witchcraft in Massachusetts. We recognize that many great men of that time had much to do with securely establishing the foundation of this government, but we view the spectacle of Cotton Mather, the great divine, riding on horseback around the mul titude who had gathered to witness the exe cution of a witch, inciting them to further lawlessness, to punish others accused of the same crime, as a blot upon our civilization. I firmly believe that in the future, this generation will be pointed to also with shame, because of the continuance of this wretched relic of barbarism. I am very glad that the Senate of Massa chusetts has passed a law, for the first time in its history, which permits a jury to discharge its duty and satisfy its conscience, and at the same time be merciful to a man who would otherwise suffer the punishment of death. I believe that the abolition of the death penalty will soon come in Massachusetts. Boston, Mass., May, 1907
