Spurious sympathy is a more
prolific evil than sanguinary rigor, useless and pernicious as the
latter is, in our humble opinion. Public executions do more harm than
good,--but are not worse than morbid public commiseration and entreaty
for criminals, to whom the real justice of the law has been applied,
after fair and merciful trial....
Many of the worst criminals, who, in different ages and countries,
have justly suffered ignominious death on the wheel, the block, or the
gallows, were men of "extraordinary character," of singular acuteness,
of the most decided spirit. To acknowledge this fact is not to applaud
their conduct, or admire their general ultimate character....
We have constantly remembered what we early read in the works of Mr.
Burke, that it is the propensity of degenerate minds to admire or
worship _splendid wickedness_; that, with too many persons, the ideas of
justice and morality are fairly conquered and overpowered by guilt when
it is grown gigantic, and happens to be associated with the lustre
of genius, the glare of fashion, or the robes of power. Against this
species of degeneracy or illusion it has been our uniform endeavor to
guard ourselves, and our conscientious practice to warn and exhort
others.
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