CONDEMNATION OF CBIMINALS. 535 



be perverted, they will bear witness and keep a record of that 

 perversion." The Pilgrims fled from England to escape the pun- 

 ishment of persecution, and soon they were themselves persecut- 

 ing with dire punishment those whom they called witches, and 

 also those who disagreed with them. Is it any wonder, therefore, 

 that the Constitution of the United States should be marred by 

 conferring the right to punish ? When the truth of the axiom 

 laid down by M. Ferri, in 1889, that " all men are responsible be- 

 fore society, but society has no right to punish, it has only the 

 right to protect itself," is recognized as it surely will be, the in- 

 strument on which our liberties are built will not confer this 

 pain- inflicting power, and the distinction between judgment and 

 punishment will be clearly understood. That wise, wrinkled, and 

 homely face of our martyred President masked a soul whose ap- 

 preciation of the unchristian and debasing efi:ect of public anger 

 and vengeance was expressed when he uttered the immortal words, 

 "Malice toward none, charity for all." To realize how the old 

 ideas of punishment with its remorseless vindictiveness still pos- 

 sess the people, we have only to consider poor, trembling, unfortu- 

 nate, irresponsible Guiteau, shambling his weary way from the 

 court to the jail, when a human fiend, saturated with the bar- 

 barous notions of penalty and the spirit of vengeance inherited 

 from past ages, fired at the helpless, unconvicted prisoner, and the 

 awful echo of public exultation which followed his outrageous 

 attempt. But this whole painful episode simply indicated a bitter 

 spirit that will continue to dominate the people as long as the no- 

 tion prevails that our courts of justice are to mete out retribution. 

 Abolish the notion that society has the right to inflict pain, then 

 the voice of the people calling for execution will be hushed. 

 Eliminate from our courts the spirit of vengeance, and from the 

 dire and sad necessity of taking human life remove the idea of 

 punishment, implore God's pity alike on the executor and the 

 executed, and human society will be kinder, better, and safer. 

 When the idea of punishment is abolished, then the emotional 

 attitude toward the criminal will disappear. None of the other 

 dreadful, morbid conditions exhibited in the human being appear 

 to elicit the kind of feeling we see very often demonstrated toward 

 the very lowest murderer. When our courts of justice recognize 

 that their functions are not to avenge, but to cure society of its 

 diseased members, and that the treatment must be scientific, effec- 

 tual, and humane, then the sentiments exhibited toward the crim- 

 inal will be the same that we display toward the person afflicted 

 with smallpox, typhoid fever, and the like. As organized society 

 we have the right to protect ourselves both against the unfortu- 

 nate criminal and the unfortunate person afflicted with a conta- 

 gious disease, but this right should not be deemed the right to 



