James Haughton

“ It is clear to the apprehension of all, that death punishment has not secured society from the crime—the most horrible crime—of deliberate murder. This, our opponents all admit; but they support the law of capital punishment on the negative argument, that but for it, that crime would be much more frequent; rejecting altogether the positive evidence of its hurtful tendencies,brought forward by the friends of the abolition of the death penalty. ”

“ There is one practice almost universal amongst us, which, more than any other evil habit that prevails, impedes the social and moral elevation of our people. It is a habit which does more to degrade men, and keep them low on the ladder of life, than any other, or perhaps than all other bad habits put together, and yet few preachers and few writers condemn it in their teachings or ministrations. ”

“ One hundred and thirty thousand licensed houses in Great Britain, and probably twenty thousand in Ireland, in which the appetite for alcoholic poisons which madden and degrade, is kept alive by legislative sanction, are found too strong a counteractive force against the good influences of education and other benevolent labours of every kind. We must "take the bull by the horns," and banish the evil thing, and thus prove that we are in earnest, or the elevation of our working classes will be the work of future generations. If we lack the virtue, the honour will not be ours. ”

“ Gentlemen, intemperance and ignorance are the great promoters of crime. So long as these predisposing causes are allowed to exist, so long will the statistics of murder fearfully attest the inefficacy of the scaffold as a deterrent from crime. ”

“ All the authorities of learning, of science, and of experience are against the use of alcohol in any quantity, by men in health. It is appetite alone—treacherous appetite—that leads us astray. All who indulge in its use are injured both in body and in mind. The elevation of the working classes is hopeless until they are taught to overcome this fatal propensity, or until the legislature steps in and banishes the temptation. ”

“ I would not convey the idea that jurors should not in all cases weigh well the evidence which comes before them; but it is a fact, which we may not set aside in the consideration of this question, that the irremediable punishment of death is one which many men will not consent to inflict upon any human testimony; which proves the uncertainty of any punishment for the crime of murder. ”

“ There is but one elevation for the labourer, and for all other men. The only elevation of a human being consists in the exercise, growth, energy, of the higher principles and powers of the soul. Whoever seeks truth with an earnest mind, no matter when or how, belongs to the school of intellectual men. The more of mind we can carry into toil the better. I am asked, whether I expect the labourer to traverse the whole circle of physical sciences? ”

“ Is it not clear, from the foregoing statement, that death punishment is not a deterrent from the crime of murder, and that it affords no adequate safety to society? The scaffold has reeked with blood in these lands during the past year, and yet we find that murder is rife amongst us notwithstanding. ”

“ It in my conviction that ignorance is the chief cause of the many social and moral evils which interrupt human happiness, and retard the civilization of man. It seems to me that men act pretty generally up to their own ideas of duty. I do not apprehend that there is any very large amount of diabolical wickedness in the world. Men do wrong because their moral nature is neglected. ”

“ Man's guide is a much higher and nobler faculty, which we call reason. But this faculty needs to be carefully educated; and because this necessary education is neglected, we are continually going astray and wandering out of the road to true happiness. Education of a high order is therefore the first matter to be attended to, if we would elevate ourselves and our working classes. Leave them in ignorance of the laws which govern their being, and they must ever remain at a low point in the social and moral scale. ”

“ For my own part, I conceive that a full justification of such a course is to be found in the fact, that innocent men have been found guilty and executed, the evidence of whose guilt was apparently so clearly set forth, that no man could have reasonable doubts on the subject. This is one of the grounds on which I contend that death punishment must ever render the conviction of the accused a matter of greater uncertainty, than in cases where that extreme penalty is not present to the minds of the jurors. ”

“ It is a habit destructive of comfort and virtue; its injurious effects are patent to all men; and yet all, as if by common consent, avoid all allusion to it, even when they seem most earnest to improve the condition and elevate the character of their fellow men. This habit is the use of alcohol, which alike endangers the peer and peasant, the monarch and her subjects through all grades, down to the poorest wretch who ekes out a miserable existence from the most sordid occupations of humanity. ”

“ At all events, whatever may be the cause, we find, from the history of man in all ages, and in different countries, that the infliction of death punishment, attended, as it has necessarily been, with the excitement of an interest in the criminal, has had a tendency to call into activity this morbid feeling, and to place the lives and property of men in jeopardy, instead of affording them adequate security.
The death penalty is still resorted to in these countries in cases of wilful murder ”

“ Our desire is, first to create a strong public opinion in favour of our views, and then to call on Parliament to embody and enforce the general sentiment, as it does under all similar circumstances, by prohibitory enactments, such as have been applied to lotteries, and other kinds of gambling, and to the removal of various other nuisances inimical to the well-being of society. In a word, to carry into effect this just principle of human action, all practices more injurious than beneficial to society should be given up, or, if need be, prohibited by law. ”

“ In a word, our object is to do as much good as we possibly can, on the principles of our association, leaving a reasonable latitude for digression to our members; still expecting from them such an adherence to our specific objects, as that all the papers read before the Society shall be mainly conducive to these objects. I have endeavoured to keep this idea in view, and I believe I may say for the Council of the Society, that they are most desirous to receive papers from such members of the general body as may be disposed to aid, in that way, the useful ends we all have in view. ”

“ A good deal of attention has, of late years, been given to an improvement in the habitations of the poor. This is a matter of vital importance; without it, their social and moral elevation is hopeless. Model lodging houses have been erected, and attention thus called to so desirable an object. I entertain a high respect for their projectors, but I doubt that they will ever prove extensively advantageous. The regulations by which they must be governed interfere too much with the freedom of action which is a great charm of life ”

“ It treats the subject in a masterly manner, and proves to demonstration that the "safety of society" would be best secured by the entire abandonment of capital punishment. Without at all referring to the moral and religious aspects of the question, it does seem to me extraordinary that, in the face of the most incontestible evidence in proof of the fallacy of a resort to violence for the prevention of murder, intelligent men are yet to be found who advocate its necessity. ”

“ It will be perceived, as far as I have now proceeded, that I think highly of education even in the common acceptation of the term, as a means of elevating the social and moral condition of our people.
I have shown that our criminals are drawn from among the least instructed of our population; which fact tells us plainly that, in contemplating the means of social and moral elevation, we should ever keep steadily in view the necessity of attending to the intellectual improvement of the people. ”

“ The "feelings of humanity," or some kindred sensations in the minds of jurors, have frequently—I might almost say universally, of late years—tended to render the punishment of our greatest criminals a matter of so much uncertainty, that there is good reason for supposing murderers are not unfrequently influenced by that consideration, when balancing the amount of chances in their minds, before giving way to their revengeful feelings. It often happens that jurors cannot bring their minds to be in any degree instrumental in the infliction of an irremediable punishment. ”

“ And again, "The liberal, the public-spirited, those who see in our public school system the great upholding principle of all our institutions, and the means of advancing the civilization of the race—who see in it both the conservative and the progressive principle of society—will advocate a generous appropriation." ”

“ It requires no argument to prove that death punishment is not conformable to those principles, and that therefore, if we assume them to be correct, all such punishments should be abandoned. So long as human judgment shall be found fallible, some or all of those principles are outraged when we take the life of man. ”

“ Much has been attempted, and much has been done during the last fifty years, to improve the condition of our working classes. A deeper interest in their welfare has been manifested by those classes of society whom fortune and other circumstances surrounded with more of the comforts and luxuries of life. A better, a truer education of the wealthy, has taught them to acknowledge a closer tie of consanguinity with the poor ”

“ It is to me matter of deep astonishment, how men, who believe in an eternity of punishment so severe that we have no words in which to convey an adequate idea of its horrors, are found to be the advocates of hastening their guilty brethren out of life, and away from the possibility of repentance ”