be perverted, they will bear witness and keep a record of that perversion." The Pilgrims fled from England to escape the punishment of persecution, and soon they were themselves persecuting 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 before society, but society has no right to punish, it has only the right to protect itself," is recognized as it surely will be, the instrument 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 appreciation of the unchristian and debasing effect 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 possess the people, we have only to consider poor, trembling, unfortunate, irresponsible Guiteau, shambling his weary way from the court to the jail, when a human fiend, saturated with the barbarous 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 notion 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, effectual, and humane, then the sentiments exhibited toward the criminal 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 unfortunate criminal and the unfortunate person afflicted with a contagious disease, but this right should not be deemed the right to
