Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/500

 Rh

457

cratic ' liberty ' is carried to such an extreme heaven above and in earth beneath, in six days that arrested murderers, by means of appeals and seven nights, I do swear that I will, without and other legal delays, usually secure a period of respect of favor or friendship, love or gain, con from one to two years 'between their capture and sanguinity or affinity, envy or malice, execute their final disposal. The result is that many of the laws of this isle justly between our sovereign them escape conviction altogether, and only one lord the King and his subjects within this isle, in twenty-five or thirty, even of those convicted, is and betwixt party and party, as indifferently as legally executed. In short, the honest citizen in the herrings backbone doth lie in the midst of the the United States is victimized by the so-called fish." ' law ' and by the prison laxity. The results are appalling, as is shown by the following figures (collected by the Chicago 'Tribune'): Six Years of United States Murders (1884-1889, inclusive). Murders. Legal Executions. Lynchings. 1884 3.377 103 219 1885 1,808 108 181 1886 1,499 83 133 1887 2,335 79 123 1888 2,184 87 144 1889 3.567 98 175 Total of six years 14,770 558 975

ftecent 2Deatfj$s.

Hon. Edward F. Noyes, ex-Governor of Ohio and ex-Minister to France, died September 4 in Cincinnati. He was born in East Haverhill, Mass., Oct. 3, 1832. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed in the office of the " Morning Star" newspaper at Dover, N. H, and a few years later he began to prepare for college, earning his way by teaching in the winter months. In 1857 he "Hence, of nearly 15,000 known murders in graduated at Dartmouth, and the same year set the six years, less than 4 per cent were followed tled at Cincinnati. There he took up the legal by legal executions. Further, there were a large profession, but at the outbreak of the war he number of suicides, and probably very many .gave up his practice to enter the army as major unreported murders. In the four States where of the 39th Ohio. Upon the resignation of the capital penalty is abolished, conditions are Colonel Groesbeck, Major Noyes was commis stated by competent authorities to be less sioned, July 8, 1862, to be lieutenant-colonel, unsatisfactory than elsewhere. The lynchings and took part in the battle of Inka and in the nearly all take place in States which retain the engagements at Corinth. Oct. 1, 1862, he was gallows." made colonel. While in command of an assault at Ruff's Mills (July 4, 1864), he received a On an appeal to the Supreme Court in an ac wound which resulted in the loss of a leg. After tion recently brought in Pennsylvania for per partial recovery, he reported to General Hooker sonal injuries received by a passenger while for duty, and was assigned to the command of alighting from a train, the court in its opinion Camp Dennison, where he remained until April says : " An ingenious argument was made, based 22, 1865. He then resigned and became the upon philosophical reasons, to show that the City Solicitor for Cincinnati, the office to which he manner of the plaintiff's fall was evidence that was elected while in the army. In 1867 he was she must have attempted to leave the car while elected probate judge of Hamilton County, Ohio, it was in motion, and that a ball thrown in a par and in 1871 was elected Governor of the State. ticular manner would rebound at a certain angle. In the year 1873 he was renominated, but was This may be so; but a woman is not a ball, and defeated and also lost the United States senatorher rebound is an unknown quantity." ship. It was Governor Noyes who nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency in the The principal duty of a judge is summed up Republican national convention of 1876. The in the oath which in the Isle of Man is admin next year Governor Noyes was appointed Minis istered to the judge: "By this book and the ter to France; and there he remained until 188 1, holy contents thereof, and by the wonderful when he returned to Cincinnati to resume his works that God hath miraculously wrought in profession. 60