Samuel Joseph May and the Death Penalty
We often think of Samuel
Joseph May in terms of his work with abolition, women’s rights, and even
education. However, he also was very vocal in his repudiation of capital
punishment.
From Donald Yacovone’s Samuel
Joseph May and the Dilemmas of the Liberal Persuasion, 1797-1871,
“May’s opposition to slavery,
war, and capital punishment rested upon the Unitarian rejection of orthodoxy’s
view of human nature as innately depraved. Unitarianism stood for the liberation
of humanity and equality and affirmed humility, meekness, and love,” p. 55. “He
would not officiate at the execution of criminals since he opposed the death
penalty,” p. 29.
From the
Capital Punishment: Six Reasons Why It Should Be
Abolished
By Samuel J. May
He wrote a long article for
this newspaper. Here is a summary of the points he made.
We should take every suitable
occasion to expose the inhumanity and uselessness of Capital Punishment. To
such, allow me to address some of the reasons why I think Capital Punishment
ought to be abolished.
1.
Capital
punishment should be abolished because it is cowardly and mean to inflict it.
The wretched men who can be made to suffer it, are
already subdued, already in the hands and at the disposal of the State. There
is nothing more to be feared from them, and the safety of no one requires their
death.
2.
The Death Penalty
ought to be abolished, because the infliction of it ever has been, and ever
must be cruel and demoralizing. Is it not cruel, extremely cruel to take a
human being, one who like ourselves can feel so exquisitely, physical pain and
mental anguish, to his death.
3.
Capital
punishment ought to be abolished because it generally falls upon those who have
been depraved by the customs and institutions which society maintains. A very
large proportion of the murderers are found to have been brought up in
ignorance, to have been driven to desperate courses by oppression, or made
insane by intemperance.
4.
Capital
punishment ought to be abolished because, although it be
the highest penalty the Law can inflict, it is not denounced against the
highest offenses. Death is inflicted upon him who kills, or with violence
defiles the body, not upon him who kills or defiles the soul. Yet, need I ask
which is the greatest offense.
5.
Capital
punishment ought to be abolished because it is vindictive, not reformatory. If
there be any class of our fellow beings who should excite our deepest
commiseration, and call out our best efforts for their relief, they are they
who have been hurried by their passions to commission of crimes that awaken
general horror. These are fallen men, but they are men for all that.
6.
The Death Penalty
should be abolished because the State has, and can have, no adequate authority
to take the life of a human being. It is universally conceded that we have no
right individually to take the life of a man except in self-defense. Whence,
then, did the Government of the State get the right to deprive one of life in
any other case.
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