A CONTRAST OF CRIMES.

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crimes, would render him liable to trial, and sentence for life to the punishment of a state prison.

So, if a man steals a turkey, or a pair of shoes, or gloves, and, on conviction in court, pays his fine, more or less; and, subsequently steals a shilling, or any other trifling article of pilfery, he is liable to trial and sentence to the state penitentiary, a term, not less nor more than the law specifies to be determined by the judge, or judges. After atonement for this offence, by imprisonment during the period of his sentence, and on obtaining his liberty, if he still manifests a disposition to steal, and does in fact repeat and reiterate acts of petit larceny, regardless of legal consequences; although the articles stolen are fish-hooks, mittens, finger-rings, penknives, sheep, or even tobacco-boxes, his repeated pilfery would subject him to confinement and punishment for life in a state prison.

Thus, we have arrived to the degree of guilt and punishment, even for repeated acts of petit larceny, which, (on the principle of commutation of Capital Punishment,) is adjudged and awarded, as the only punishment due to the murderer, who has invidiously and wilfully shed the life-blood of his fellow-man; stained his own hands with blood-guiltiness; defiled the land of his whole country with blood; and, by the weapon of death, in revengeful hands, has maliciously hurried a soul into eternity, without a peaceful moment for solemn reflection, devout meditation, and prayerful preparation for the sudden and dread exchange of worlds!!! Here, then, is a Divine Law for the prohibition of the worst of crimes, and the penalty of death which God affixed to it, both frittered down and reduced to the level with crimes, and guilt, and punishments of comparative insignificance.

But, who has thus virtually changed the nature of a

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HUMAN ASSUMPTION

crime worthy of death in God's estimation, by mitigatting its penalty down to the degree of far inferior guilt; and by what authority, and on what principle was it done? With all due deference, both to the honored personage, and highly dignified office of the Executive, it must in verity be answered, that his excellency, a RENOWNED GOVERNOR of the Empire State of New York, has done it!!! For such it is verily believed is the amount of the official act of his excellency in commuting the sentence of the law which the court had awarded to Abram Wilcox.

By virtue of what authority the act was done, matters not, if it originated from man. The act itself is averred to be an assumption of power, which belongs not to the Governor of the State of New York, nor to the State Legislature; nor to the Congress of the United States; nor to any monarchical government; nor any national authority on earth of any form of government whatever; but to God the Creator only, as the Supreme Ruler and only Sovereign Lawgiver of the universe. A Governor of the State of New York has done the official act of commuting the penalty of a DIVINE LAW, changing it into a mode of corporal punishment short of the death of the murderer. This is explicitly taking satisfaction for the life of the murderer, which God has expressly forbidden to be done by any human being, or power, in any case whatever; and no appeal to any human authority for justification can avail any thing, unless that human authority can be shown to be paramount to the authority of the God of heaven Himself. Hence, it is fearlessly averred, that an official commutation of the sentence of death for murder, to an inferior degree of punishment in manner above described, is an infraction of God's Law; an extra-judicial act, transcending the bounds.

OF DIVINE POWER.

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of all finite powers of earth; an act which no human authority by virtue of any form of human government under heaven has any right to assume, and cannot assume, without an arrogant usurpation of Divine authority. And, to abolish Capital Punishment for murder, by human legislation, (which has long been in contemplation,) would, in effect, be no less a crime than an act of HIGH TREASON, committed against the Government, the Crown, the Throne, and the Majesty of Almighty God, who holds the destiny of kingdoms, and empires, and generations of men, and worlds, and systems of worlds in his hands; and will “bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."

The motive which moved the Governor to commute the sentence of death awarded to the murderer Wilcox, is comprised in the following laconic sentence, stated in a public paper to have been from the pen of his excellency in a letter to the Sheriff of Saratoga county, from which the following sentence is extracted :—“ From the testimony, there might, at least, be a possibility that Wilcox was INSANE, and for this reason, I felt constrained to lean to the side of mercy."

The expression of these kind and sympathetic feelings of the Governor towards the malefactor, needs no comment. Every person of like humane sensibility could not but thus look upon the poor, wretched man with feelings of commiseration. Doubtless, all the civil officers of the court, and the numerous spectators; with all concerned in the trial, felt similar emotions of pity. during the painful investigation of his dismal case! This was admissible.

But, what has possibilities, or probabilities, or sympathy, or pity, or any congenial feelings to do, in deciding on the guilt or innocence of a culprit charged

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TRUTH MUST PREVAIL.

with murder; when both justice and mercy themselves are to be weighed in the balance of TRUTH with even scales; and when every man concerned in the trial is under the oath of God to act, testify, weigh testimony, judge, and determine on the guilt or innocence of the culprit, according to law and evidence? If truth undauntedly, without equivocation, or ambiguity, affirms that the culprit did kill a human being with a weapon of death; with evident signs, by words or actions, of malice prepense; wilfully exemplified by the violent shedding of blood, without the appearance of any other insanity than the rage and fury, or subtle wiles of a human fiend, bent on the destruction of the life of his victim; can mere possibilities, or probabilities, or sympathetic feelings, or streaming tears of pity confront the force of truth, and change it into falsehood? Never-never!

The man who has enviously, malignantly, and designedly murdered his neighbor, is, in fact, a murderer in God's sight, whether human witnesses saw the deed or not. But, if truthful witnesses saw and heard the circumstances of the murder, and so testify the facts on trial, that all attempts to invalidate their testimony prove unavailing; and the verdict of the jurors and judgment of the court so decide; the murderer is not only so, in fact, in the sight of God, but he is legally proved to be a murderer to the understanding, judg ment, belief, and consequent knowledge of man. And the penalty of God's Law says, "The murderer shall surely be put to death. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of the murderer."

Now, who among the sons of men in such a case as the last above described, has a right, or can have a right to say, (without invading the rights of Jehovah,) that “there might at least be a possibility" that the

ABSURDITY OF COMMUTATION.

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man who was proved and adjudged to be a malicious, wilful, and sane murderer, might, at least, "possibly be insane," and for this reason feel constrained to" lean to the side of mercy," so far as to set aside the testimony, verdict, judgment and sentence of a human court, and commute the penalty, and annul the authority of a Divine Penal Law, by wresting the malefactor from the hand of public justice, and by taking satisfaction for the life of him whom God had condemned to death?!!!

In applying the above case to that of Wilcox, it may, with verity and safety be remarked, that he was either a malicious, wilful, sane murderer, and by the laws of God and our country, deserved the punishment of death for his crime; or, he was an insane, and consequently, an innocent man, and an object of the deepest commiseration. If he was a murderer, as he was legally proved to be, why commute his sentence of death to an inferior degree of punishment, on the plea, and for the reason assigned, that there might, at least, be a possibility that he was not a murderer, but an insane, and an innocent man?!!! And, if he was in reality INSANE, an innocent, pitiable idiot; or, if there was a probability, or even a "possibility" that he was such! why, in the name of common sense, why punish him at all? If innocent, justice, as well as mercy, forbids punishment! and humanity shudders at the very thought of it!!!

The very plea, therefore, for the commutation of the sentence of death to imprisonment for life, in the case of Wilcox, is the very plea, above all others, to show why the sentence of death should not have been commuted. For, if the man was not insane, but a wilful, guilty murderer, surely, he ought to have been