The subject of this essay is one which demands the attentive
consideration of every enlightened citizen of our free and happy country, for
many and various reasons. First: because it involves the destruction of human
life, the greatest blessing bestowed on us by our all-wise
Creator.
Secondly: It deprives many a human creature, already sufficiently destitute, of
her only support in this world,
Page 2
or involves
numerous young children, too young to work to support themselves, in vile and
intolerable disgrace, or casts them to wander through the wild world alone and
by paths thick-set with snares and tending downwards to destruction. These
weighty arguments, though they be but few, in number, are sufficient to show
that the subject is one of deep and abiding interest and that it behooves every
man, who has the well-being of humanity at heart, to labor strenuously to
overthrow the
Page 3
system, if false and pernicious in
its effects and to uphold it if, on due consideration, it shall be found to be
conducive to their welfare. With these few desultory remarks I must close for
the present my essay on the subject of Capital Punishment