Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
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Should Capital Punishment be Abolished
Maynard Shipley
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SHOULD
CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
BE
ABOLISHED?
THE
PROBLEM£
OF
THE
HOUR
IN
FRANCE.
MAYNARD
SHIPLEY.'
The
bloody
rioting
in
the
streets
of
Paris
on
July
1st
of
last
year,
and
the storming
of
the
Sant6
Prison
by
an
enraged
populace,
following
the
execution
of
one
Liabeuf,
seem
to
indicate
that
the
recent
restora-
tion
of
the
guillotine
in
France
was
an
administration
measure
out
of
harmony
with
the
views
of
the
more
enlightened
urban
population.
For
while
it
is
true
that
the
revival
of
the
death
penalty
met
with
applause
in
the
backward
provinces,
in
the
capital
and
other
great
cities
the
exe-
cutioners'
renewed
activity
is
regarded
by
a
large
number
of
the
common
people
as
"the
first
step
in
a
new
terrorism
instituted
by
the
ruling
class
for
suppression
of
a
rising
proletariat."
Despite
the
action
of
the
parliamentary
commission
which,
in
1906,
voted
for
the
abolition
of
capital
punishment,
and
notwithstanding
the
fact
that
the
budget
committee
of
the
same
year
struck
out
the
salary
of
M.
Deibler,
Jr.,
the
public
executioner,
the
Chamber
of
Deputies
resolved,
in
Decembbr,
1908,
by
a
vote
of
320
to
201,
that
death
sentences
should
henceforth
be
strictly
enforced.
It
was
so
well
known,
however,
that
both
Premier
Clemenceau
and
President
Falli~res
were
deeply
averse
to
capital
'Penologist,
Oakland,
Cal.
The
author
of
this
article
has
written
extensively
on
the
subject
of
capital
punishment.
Among
his articles
are
the
following:
"Justice
and
Crime
in
Danish
Greenland;"
The
Juridical
Review
(Edin-
burgh
and
London),
March,
i9o5.
"Results
of
the
Abolition
of Capital
Punishment
in
Belgium;"
Jour.
of
the
American
Stat.
Assn.,
Sept.,
19o5.
"Abolition
of
Capital
Punishment
in
Switzerland;"
American
Law
Review,
Sept.-Oct.,
19o
5
.
"The
Abolition
of
Capital
Punishment
in
Italy
and
San
Marino
;"
American
Law
Review,
March-April,
igo6..
"Capital
Punishment;"
Harpers
Weekly,
Sept.
8,
i9o6.
"Homicide
and
the
Death
Penalty
in
Austria-Hungary;"
Jour.
American.
Stat.
Assn.,
March,
19o7.
"Should
Female
Murderers
Be
Hanged
?"
The
Green
Bag,
April,
1907.
"Homicide
and
the
Death
Penalty
in
Mexico;"
Annals
of
the
American
Academy
of
Political
and Social
Science,
May,
1907.
"Plato
On
Capital
Punishment;"
Harper's
Weekly,
Dec.
29,
Iqo6.
"Homicide
and
the
Death
Penalty
in
France;"
Harper's
Weekly,
June
15,
907.
"The
Abolition
of
Capital
Punishment
in
France;"
American
Law
Review,
July-Aug.,
1907.
"Does
Capital
Punishment
Prevent
Convictions?"
American
Law
Review,
May-June,
Ipo9.
"What
Shall
We
Do
With
Our
Criminals
?"
The
World
To-Day,
Oct.,
igio.
SHOULD
CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
BE
ABOLISHED?
punishment,
that
many
thought
the
law
would
remain
a
dead
letter.
Al-
though
M.
Briand,
then
Minister
of
Justice,
succeeded
in
convincing
these
two
statesmen
that
a
majority
of
119
members
of
parliament
had
voted
for
a
literal,
not for
a
theoretical
revival of
the
guillotine's
activity,
when
called
upon
to
sign death-warrants
for
quadruple
execution
at
B6thune,
in
Pas-de-Callais,
it
was
with
great
reluctance
that
President
Fallires
yielded,
saying,
"If
France
wants
blood,
she
shall
have
it."
Premier
Clemenceau,
at
the
same
time,
was
quoted
in
the
Aurore
(Paris)
*as
saying:
"I feel
an
inexpressible
disgust
for
an
administrative
murder
committed
in
spite
of
personal
repugnance
by
officials
acting
upon
order.
The
spectacle
of
all
these
men grouped
together
to
kill
one
man
under
the
command
of
other
officials
who
are
quietly
asleep
at
the
time,
revolts
me,
as
a
piece
of
horrible
cowardice.
The
murderer's
act
was
that
of
a
savage.
His
execution
by
the
guillotine
strikes
me
as
a
low
kind
of
vengeance.
I
can
understand
savages
being
savage.
But
the
only
ex-
planation
I
can
give
of
the
fact
that
civilized
men
of
good
education
are
not
content
with
hindering
the
wrongdoing
of
the
malefactor,
but
virtuously
insist
upon
cutting
him
in
two,
is
that
we
are
reverting
to
a
primitive
state."
Soon
after
the beginning
of
the
year
1909
"Monsieur
de
Paris,"
the
trim,
blackbearded
headsman
of
the
Third
Republic,
dropped
work
on
his
"Memoirs"
and
was
seen
to
saunter
unconcernedly
toward
the
Rue
Folie
Regnault,
where,
in
a
small
brick
structure,
lay
"La
Veuve,"
the historic
guillotine,
grown
dull
with
neglect
and
aged
with
rust.
The
philosophic
executioner
was
joined
by
two
aids,
who
assisted
him
in
putting
"the
wood
of
justice
in
order,
with
knife
sharpened
and
machinery
well
lubricated.
Thus
quietly
was
rehabilitated
this
"mysterious
agent
of
authority,"
without
which,
according
to Joseph
de
Maietre,
and
other
advocates
of
Force,
"thrones
are
engulfed
and
society
disappears."
Then
the
headsman
took
his
departure
for
B6thune,
a
town
made
memorable
in
French
literature
by
Alexandre
Dumas,
whose
story
of
"The
Executioner
of
B~thune"
forms
the
climax
of
that
wonderful
series
of
adventure
in
"The
Three
Guardsmen."
In
this
romantic
little
town,
only
a
few
miles
distant
from
the
bleak,
stricken
mining
country
of
Courrisres,
30,000
people
had
gathered
in
the
dawn
of
a
cold,
rainy
day
(January
11,
1909)
to
witness
the
revival
of
an
ancient.
and
popular
diversion.
2
Four
noted
criminals
were
to
be
decapitated
for
the
benefit
of
the
public-and
the
innkeepers.
Long
ago
Victor
Hugo
had
declared
2
Details
of
the
several
executions
described
were
obtained'
from
accotints
which
appeared
in
French
and
American
newspapers.
MAYNARD
SHIPLEY
that
"The
law
that
dips
its
fingers
in
human
blood
to write
the
com-
mandment,
'Thou
shalt
not
murder,'
is
naught but
an
example
of
legal
transgression
against
the
precept
itself."
Ignoring
Victor
Hugo's
logic,
the
French
Government
was
about
to
teach
the
rabble something
of
the
sanctity
of
human
life, and
of
the
horror
of homicide.
And
what
an
inspiring
lesson
it
turned
out
to
be!
Each
time
the
slanting
knife
was
seen
to
fall,
the
savage
crowd
yelled
with
delight
as
they
kept
count
of
the
heads.
The
night
preceding
had
been
one
long
debauch.
Cafes
and
drinking
shops
remained
open,
that
no
one
with
the
price
need
go
thirsty,
nor
hungry.
Repeated
efforts
were
made
by
half-
drunken
revelers
to
break
through
the
lines
of
the
soldiers
that
sur-
rounded
the
inclosure
in
which
the
guillotine
had
been erected.
When
the
prisoners
were
at
last
led
to
the
State's
temporary
shambles,
there
arose
a
murmur
of
delight,
followed
by
hooting
and
jeering
as
the
four
condemned
men
were
led
to
the
guillotine.
When
there
was
a
moment's
delay
in
the
falling
of
the
knife
on
one
neck,
the
mob
set
up
a
howl
of
impatience.
3
On
August
5,
1909,
occurred
the
first
execution
seen
in
the
capital
since
the
beheading
of
Peugnez,
ten
years
previously,
on
the
Place
de
la
Roquette.
At
that
time
such
an
event
in Paris
as
a
guillotining
was
a
gala
day
for
lovers
of
the
brutal
and
sanguinary.
The
streets,
houses
and
wine
shops
were
crowded
with
dehumanized
men,
women
and
chil-
dren,
singing
and
shouting
hysterically,
while
the
half-drunken
mur-
derer
hurled
oaths
at
the
spectators
as
he
was
hurried
to
the
scaffold.
"Respectable"
people,
too,
looked
gleefully
on
from
rented
balconies,
cracking
jokes
to
the
popping,
of
champagne
corks.
A
party
of
excur-
sionists, among
whom
was
Lord
Roseberry,
came
all
the
way
from
London
to
view
the
elevating
spectacle;
and,
on
account
of
their
superior
social
positions,
were
allowed to
stand
close
to the
victim,
that
no
detail
of
the
decapitation
might
escape
their
gaze.
Last
year
all
this
was
changed.
The
brutality
and
debauchery
still
permitted
in
the
provinces
could
not
now
be
tolerated
in
the
streets
of
Paris.
The
public
might
watch
I.
Deibler
at
his
work,
but
only
at
a
distance.
Attracted
by
an
official
announcement
that
a
public
execution
would
take
Place
at
4:30
the
following
morning
(August
5,
1909),
in
the
boulevard
Arago,
fronting the
Sant6
Prison,
immense
crowds
began
at
midnight
to
gather
at
the
scene
of
the
expected
beheading,
but
were
kept
back
from
the
guillotine
by
heavy
details of
police
and municipal
guards.
From midnight
till
after
the
execution,
all
the
streets
leadinr
to
the
prison
were
closed
by
Republican
guards
on
foot
and
on
horse-
'This,
on
authority
of
Mr.
Vance
Thompson.
50
SHOULD
CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
BE
ABOLISHED?
back,
and
by
cordons
of
gendarmes.
Only
journalists
were
permitted
to
pass
the
line;
even
deputies
were
debarred.
During
the
night,
M.
Deibler
and
his
two
silent
assistants
erected
M.
Castillarde's
panacea
for
crime.
At
the
break
of
day
the
chief
of police
and
his
assistants
made
their
appearance,
accompanied
by
the
magistrates
in their
robes.
Then
followed
the
victim,
a
stolid,
stupid
butcher
of
twenty-three
years,
who
had,
in
1908,
stabbed
and
strangled
his
own
mother,
robbery
being
the
motive.
Manifestly,
the
man
was
a
moral
imbecile,
a
much
more
fit
subject
for
the State's
care
in
an
asylum
than
a
proper
sacrifice
on
the
altar
of
"justice"-itself
atavistic.
There
in
the
pale
dawn
this
victim
of
society's
arrested
development
stumbled
to
his
doom,
dressed
only
in
a
shirt,
and
blinded
by
a
black
cloth
which
entirely
veiled
his
face.
Close
behind
him
hurried
a
priest,
whispering
prayers
into
his
ear.
Under
ordinary
circumstances,
the
condemned
would
have
been
at
once
thrown
upon
the plank
and
the
whole
miserable
business
terminated
in
a
few
moments,
sans
ceremony.
But
in
the
case
of
parricides,
it
is
the
duty
of
the
usher
of
the
tribunal
to
read
the
culprit's
sentence
to
him
at
the
very
edge
of
the
guillotine.
Conformably
with
that
ancient
practice,
the
usher,
in
a
trembling.voice,
now
read
the
medieval
sentence,
whereupon
the
half-witted
matricide
was
seized
by
two
aids,
and
the
hooded
figure
flung
swiftly
upon
the
plank.
The
cruel
knife,
gleaming
dully
in
the
dawn,
was
soon
released,
and
the
head
of
this
"free
moral
agent"
toppled
into
the
basket.
Al.
Deibler
resumed
his
active
duties
as
public
headsman
on
the
morning
of
January
11,
1909,
when
occurred
the
quadruple
execution
at
B6thune
already
described.
During
the
month
of
March,
after
several
executions
had
taken
place,
no
less
than
fifty-seven
murders
and
189
robberies
were
reported
by
the
French
press.
During
the
preceding
November,
before
the
revival
of
the
"lean
widow,"
as
the
guillotine
had
been
facetiously
dubbed,
when
cold
and
hunger
were
gripping
the
joor
and
driving
them
to
crime,
fewer
than
twenty
cases
of
murder,
and
only
forty-three
cases
of
robbery
were
reported.
4
'These
statistics
were
compiled
by
Miss
E.
H.
Beyer,
of
Chicago,
from
the
columns
of
the
Parisian
daily
papers.
A
press
dispatch
from
Paris
on
February
8,
of
the
present
year,
gives
the
following
account
of
a
festivity
at
Lille
on
the
occasion
of
the
execution
of
a
murderer
in
that
city.
Paris,
Feb.
8.-One
morning
last
week
Antoine
Favier,
the
young
wine
merchant
who
murdered
and
robbed
a
bank
messenger
in
his own
house,
was
guillotined
at
Lille
.
. . .
On
the
eve
of
the
execution
the
city
wore
quite
a
festive
aspect.
Windows
overlooking
the
little
square
before
the
Palais
de
Justice,
where
the
guillotine
was
erected,
were
let
for
remarkable
prices,
a
Lille
merchant
offer-
51
MAYNARD
SHIPLEY
Just
exactly
one
year
to
the
day
from
the
morning
that
"Monsieur
de
Paris"
left
his
ugly
little
villa
on
the
outskirts
of
the
capital,
and
started
for
the
Rue
Folie
iRegnault,
bent
on
sharpening
the
Govern-
ment's
homicide
machine,
a
dispatch,
published
in
the
morning
papers,
brought
the
following
news
to America:
"Paris,
January
10th
(1909):
The
continuation
of
the
increase
in
shocking
crimes
has
spread
alarm
not
only
in
Paris,
but
throughout
France.
A
wave
of
tragedy
seems
to
be
sweeping
over
the
country,"
etc.
Four
days
later
appeared
the
following
additional
evidences
of
the
value
of
medieval
repressive
measures:
"Paris,
Jan.
12.-According
to
an
official
,report
just
issued,
crim-
inal
aggressions
have
been
greatly
on
the
increase
in
the
last
year,
the
number
of
premeditated
murders
having
nearly
doubled,
and deaths
caused
by
assaults
having
increased
forty
per
cent.".
Again:
Paris,
Feb.
11.-The
Parisian
police
are
unable
to
cope
with
the
crime
that
is
disgricing
the
city.
Indeed,
it
has
become
so
dangerous
that
they
have
to
travel
in
pairs
and
trio§
at
night
in
certain
sections.
-,
The
people
had
been
assured
by
such
journals
as
the
Temps,
the
Gaulois,
and
the
Figaro,
that
crimes
of violence
in
France
had
become
frequent
through
the
"morbid
sentimentality"
of
the
Government,
which
had, they
declared,
"feebly
shrunk
from
necessary
social
surgery,"
an
opinion
which
received
the
endorsement
of
certain
conservative
crim-
inologists.
When
it
was
seen
that
crimes
of violence
had but
increased
with
the
restoration
of
the
guillotine,
it
was
then
contended
that
what
was
needed
was
more
social
surgery!
The
history
of
crimes
and
penalties
the
world
over,
however,
shows
that
"more
social
surgery"
has
always
been
followed
by
more
social
violence.
Witness
the
history
of
capital
ing
$400
for
one
window,
while
as
much
as
$ioo was
paid
for
a
single
seat.
The
two
little
cafes
on
the
square
were
packed.
The
prices
for
refreshments
were
trebled,
and
each
customer
was
charged
a
50-cent
entrance
fee.
The
doomed
man
was awakened
by
the
noise
of
the
crowd
during
the.
night,
but
went
to
sleep
when
the
warders
mercifully
assured
him
that
the
din
was
due
to
the
arrest
of some
criminals.
At
6
o'clock
the
public
prosecutor
awoke
him
with
the
news
that
he
had
to
die.
Favier
did
not
move
a
muscle.
He
merely
said gently
to
the
warders:
"You
knew
yesterday
and
would
not
tell
me."
Then
he
calmly
gave
some
directions
about
his
papers
and
heard
mass.
The
guillotine
being
just
outside
the
prison
gates,
the
doomed
man
came
in
sight
of
it
immediately
on
emerging
from
the
prison.
He
did
not
flinch
for
a moment
He
looked
at
the
crowds
on
the
housetops,
at
the
immobile
lines
of
police,
at
the
little
group
of
reporters
and persons
with
special
"permits,"
among
whom
were
the
father
and
brother
of
his
victim,
and
then
of
his own
accord
stretched'himself
on
the
plank.
Deibler
touched
the
catch,
and
justice
was
-done.
SHOULD
CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
BE
ABOLISHED?
crimes,
and
penalties
among
the
Romans,
the
Anglo-Saxons,
and,
later,
among
the
English.'
What,
in
fact,
do
the
judicial
statistics
of
France
reveal
relative
to
the
course
of
grave
crime
during
the
years
of
few
capital
executions?
In
the
first
quarter
of
the
nineteenth
century
the
annual
average
of
persons
guillotined
in
France
was
about
one
hundred
and
twenty;
in
the
second
quarter,
about
forty
culprits
were
beheaded
annually.
From
1850
to
1860
the
yearly
average
of
executions
did
not
exceed
twenty-eight,
and
from
1860
to
1879
the annual
average
was
reduced
to
about
ten,
falling
to
eight
during
the
fifteen
years
ending
in
1890.
From
1895
to
1901
the
annual
average
of
culprits
beheaded
was
but
five.
Of
eleven
criminals
sentenced
to
the
guillotine
in
1900,
only
one
met
death
at
the
hands
of
"Monsieur
de
Paris"
8
Concurrently
with the
above-noted
decrease
in
the
number
of
crim-
inals
executed,
the
number
tried
for
murder
materially
diminished,
falling
from
879
in
1885
to
439
in
1895,
and
356
in
1900.
During
the
five
years
1891-95,
there
were 3,127
persons
tried
in
France
for
capital
offenses,
and
but
si:ty
of
these
were
executed,
an
annual
average
of
twelve
only.
Yet,
the
number
of persons
brought
to
bar
on
charges
entailing
the
death penalty
fell
to
2,392
during
the
next
five
years, a
decrease
of
735,
and
"social
surgery"
was
resorted
to in
twenty-seven
cases
only.
In
eleven
years,
out
of
246
culprits
condemned
to
death,
the
sentences
of
156
were
commuted. Despite
this
"morbid
sentimen-
tality
of
the
Government,"
the
number
of
persons
charged
with
capital
offenses
was,
as
we
have
seen
735
less
during
the
five
years
1896-1900
than
during
the
preceding
five
years.
It
may
be
safely
assumed,
on
the
basis
of
the statistics
available,
that
in
so
far
as
adult
crime
is
concerned,
the
decline
of
the
death
pen-
alty
in
France
had
been
accompanied
rather
by
a
decrease
than
an
increase
in
homicide.
Official
reports
show
clearly
that
it
is
from
among
the
thirty
thousand
or
more
"Apaches"
of
Paris,
and other large
cities
of
France,
that
the
murderous
criminals
are
recruited,
and
these
are
mostly
"Asked
his opinion
on
this
point,
Prof.
E.
Durkheim,
the
distinguished
sociologist,
replied,
in
part,
as
follows:
"I
know
of
no
facts
that
permit
me
to
think
that
abolition
of
the
death
penalty
results
in
encouraging
and
reinforcing
homicidal
tendencies.
The
experiments
made in
several
countries
of
Europe,
namely,
Italy,
Holland
and
Portugal,
show
the
opposite
. . .
The
criminal,
especially
the
violent
criminal,
does
not think
of
the
possible
consequences
of
his
act
when
it
is
accomplished.
On
the
contrary,
however, capital
punishment
has
necessarily
for
effect
to
develop
homicidal
tendencies.
. . .
The
true
means
for
the
enforcement
of
the
desired respect
for
human
life
is
that
society
itself refrains
from
taking
human
life
for
any
reason."
'The
figures
quoted
to
i89o
were
furnished
the
writer
by
the
lamented
,Prof.
G.
Tarde,
and those
from
I89i
to
i9oI
by
courtesy
of
the
Ministry
of
justice.
MAYNARD
SHIPLEY
adventurous,
fearless,
desperate
boys
who
would
snap
their
fingers
in
the
face
of
M.
Deibler.
7
An
overweening
confidence
in
their
ability
to
escape
both
jail
and
guillotine
is
part
of
their
essential
mental
equip-
ment."
S6me
statistics
given
by
Dr.
Paul
Gamier,
an
official
of
the
Paris
Prefecture
of
Police,
show
for
that
city
an
increase
from
twenty
juveniles
arrested
for
murder
in
1888
to
fifty-five
in
1894,
one
hundred
and eight-
een
in
1898,
and
one
hundred
and
forty
in
1900.
Dr.
Gamier
ascribes
the
increase
of
murders
among
the
youth
of
Paris,
not
to
inactivity
of
the
guillotine,
but
to
certain
definite
social
causes,
among
which
he
mentions
"alcoholic
heredity
and
want
of
educa-
tion."
9
It
may
be well
to
mention
in
passing
that
the
educational
facilities
in
the
crowded
districts
are
notoriously
inadequate.
The
latest
official
report
on
crime
in
France
0
shows
that
out
of
274
murders
for
the
last
recorded
year,
sixty-five were
committed
by
youths
between
the
ages
of
sixteen
and
twenty-one.
The
same
class
of
offenders
were
guilty
of
thirty-five
out
of
one
hundred
and
sixty-eight
assassinations
or
premeditated murders,
and
of
twenty-six
out
of
one
hundred
and
seventy-one
assaults.
The
total
French
population
of
both
sexes
over
twenty-one
is
24,406,244,
and
that
of
minors
between
the
ages
of
sixteen
and
twenty-one
is 3,248,598,
so
that
the
percentage
of
juvenile
criminality
is
higher
than
that
of
adults.
That
this
percentage
is
grow-
ing
rapidly
higher
is
attested
by
the fact
that
whereas
in
1830
the
number
of
offenses
against
common law
committed
by
minors
was
but
6,979,
the
last
recorded
estimate
gives
the
number
as
31,441,
an
increase
of
450
per
cent
in
seventy-five
years.
Obviously
the
remedy
for
this
grave
situa-
tion
lies
rather
in
the
hands
of
French
statesmen
than in
the
hands
of
M.
Deibler
and
his
two
assistants.
1
Now who
are
they
who clamor
so
loudly
for
the
guillotine
in
France
?
'Dr.
Pierre
Janet,
the
eminent
French
psychologist,
observes,
in
a letter
to
the
writer:
"For
one
who
has
been
accustomed
to
disciplining
in
the
schools,
or
asylums,
it
is
easy
to
see
that
what
influences
most
of
the
individuals
capable
of
com-
mitting
criminal
acts
is
not
the gravity
of
the
penalt
to
which
they
expose
them-
selves,
but
the certainty
of
the
penalty."
'It
is
stated
by
Dr.
Gustave
Le
Bon
that
many
of
the
bands
of
"Apaches"
consist
of
boys
from
14
to
17,
and.
their
chiefs
are
often
not
more
than
19
or
20
years
of
age.
"Ainales
d'Hygiene,
Dec.,
igor.
"Published
in
19o7.
"Dr.
Garnier's
contention
that
alcoholism
is
a
potent
cause
of
crime
in
France
is
borne
out
by official
statistics,
which
show
that
the
amount
of
alcohol
con-
sumed
by
the
French
people
more
than
doubled,
per
capita,
-during
the
last
half
of
the nineteenth
century,
and
that
the
amount
of
alcohol
employed
for
the production
of absinthe
and
similar
liqueurs
had
almost
tripled
between
1874
and
i9o5.
SHOULD
CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
BE
ABOLISHED?
Who
are
the
"constituents"
who
demand
a
"literal
revival"
of
this
social
and
moral
anachronism?
Precisely
those
who
still
live
mentally and
morally
in
the
feudal
ages,
unmindful
of
the
advances
of
modern
penology
and
criminology.
Behind
these
reactionaries
stand
the
country
dis-
tillers,
the
"bouilleurs
de
cru,"
and
their
agents.
Is
not
every
execution
an
occasion
for
a
debauch
of
alcohol
as
well
as
of blood?
The
eloquent
Jaur~s did
not
spare
his
opponents
of
the
Chamber
on
just
this
point
when
the
question
of
the
guillotine
was
up
for
debate.
Turning
to
those
whom
he
had
dubbed
his
"alcoholic
friends,"
Jaur~s
ended
his
scathing
rebuke
in
the
following
words:
"You
who
claim
that
economic
servitude,
hostility
between
races,
crimes
and
savage
repression
are
inevitable,
you
wish
to
place
the
guillotine
in
that
dread
category.
You
wish
to
say
that
progress
shall
never
permit
an
end
of
murder
or
social
assassination.
You
wish
to
hoist
the
black
banner
of
despair.
But
we
have
put
up
a
barricade
through
which
your
dripping
red
fingers
cannot
reach,
and
we
say
that
hope
shall
not
pass
away
from
the
human
race."
Let
it
not
be
thought
that
Jaur~s
and
the
left
side
of
the
Chamber
were
'alone
in
the
fight
against
restoration
of
the
guillotine.
At
the
conclusion
of
Jaur~s'
impassioned
speech,
Abbe
Lemire,
from
the
right,
broke
away
from
his
colleagues
and
marched
to
the
tribune,
his
priestly
robes
fluttering
as
he
mounted
the
rostrum;
and
there
he
denounced
capital
punishment
as
an
unwarranted
reversion to
barbarism.
He
said,
in
part:
"Jaur~s
has
said
that
Christianity
is
not
enough.
Yet
I
say
that
Christianity
is
full
of
pity
and pardon for
the
unfortunate,
and
that
on
this
occasion
every
Christian
should
align himself
with
Jaur~s
and
his
colleagues.
This
question
is
too
big
to
let
bonds
of
politics
or
party
separate
men.
I
cannot
lend
my
voice
to
the
assistance
of
a
social
order
which
has
as
its
pinnacle
a dripping
scaffold.
This
nation
cannot
go
back
to
barbarism."
France,
however,
did
take
the
backward
step,
and
with
what
results,
we
have,
it
is hoped, clearly
shown.
