ARTICLE XVI.

Life of Michael Martin, who was Executed for Highway Robbery, December 20, 1821; as given by himself. Boston: Russell and Gardner. 8vo. pp. 102.

WE deem a notice of this book important, because of the views which it gives of human nature; in this respect every biography is valuable; and next, because of its immoral tendency.

This is the history of as adroit and accomplished a villain as can be found in our prisons, or in the records of our criminal courts. Michael Martin was born in Ireland in 1795. His early youth was marked by disobedience to his parents, malignity of temper, dishonesty, strong and ungoverned passions, and by an impetuous curiosity and spirit of enterprize in vice and mischief. His early habits were those of intemperance and debauchery; and becoming acquainted with a most artful highwayman, they pledged themselves to each other, and pursued for some time in Ireland, and afterwards in Scotland, an almost unexampled course of successful and bold robbery. Obliged by the fear of apprehension to leave his own country, he took passage for the United States, and arrived in Salem in 1818. Here he resided for some time in a respectable private family in the capacity of a labourer; after which, being enabled by a legacy from his father, he commenced the profession of a brewer in Portsmouth; but failing of success in this business from his own miscalculations, he went into Canada, where he engaged again in his former habits of plunder and highway robbery, until The returned to the United States the last spring; here after several successful robberies, he was apprehended in Springfield in August last; and at the session of the supreme court in October was convicted of the robbery, with an intent to kill, of a gentleman on Medford turnpike. The evidence against him being full and conclusive, and the crime a capital offence, he was condemned and executed at Lechmere Point, Cambridge, on the 20th day of December last. This narrative is represented as having been taken from his own mouth by the gentleman who has given it to the public. Although a very extraordinary history, and very much doubted by many sensible men, yet it contains nothing absolutely incredible. It should. however be recollected, that a man capable of such atrocious crimes may be easily conceived to be ready, from very light motives, to represent his own conduct in a manner to give it an air of heroism.

It may be justly said that no kind of writing is more universal- ·· ly interesting than biography; and none may be made more instructive and useful. This last remark however applies much rather to the lives of good than of bad men; unless, in the latter case, their vices are exhibited in a way to excite that strong disgust and abhorrence with which they ought always to be regarded'; and the connexion between their vices, and their ignominy and suffering and punishment, is made so apparent, as in fact they are always invariably associated, that men are com-" pelled, at every step in the progress of the history, to feel and acknowledge, that it is as foolish as it is criminal to do wrong; and that every motive of interest and duty combine to dissuade men from vice. But where the vices of a man are so garnished over, that we can look at them without any powerful alarm to our moral sensibility; where the circumstances by which they are accompanied, make them appear rather as the brilliant efforts of genius and enterprise, than as the gross crimes, which they actually are; where, in speaking of them, an effort is made to soften them by the use of terms, by which without doubt those who commit them endeavour to conceal their deformity from themselves, and to quiet their own consciences; as when in the case before us robbery is termed only lifting, and picking pockets only borrowing money; and where especially their vices are represented as associated with virtues, which serve as a compensation, and the character of the crime is attempted to be softened by the bestowment of the plunder in charity; and finally, where the story of an almost unparalleled series of crimes is given in a way rather to make men laugh than to make them' shudder; there the effect must be bad. This is the objection that we make to the book before us; and it is applicable in all its extent and force.

T

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We have another objection to this narrative of a kind not unlike the foregoing. The writer seems to have taken particular pains to persuade us, that the death of this wretched man was that of a hero and a good christian. He repels the suggestion that Martin discovered any emotions of fear or alarm as the last hour drew nigh, as he witnessed the preparations for his execu

tion, or as he ascended the fatal platform. He would

"us believe, that after this atrocious villain had made his last extraor dinary but unsuccessful attempt to escape, and had given up all hopes of afterwards accomplishing it, his mind underwent a most favourable change; and having made his confessions to his priest and received the holy sacrament, which to our views appears to be nothing short of a profanation of this sacred rite; New Series--vol. HI.

58

and having obtained absolution, the bestowment of which, though claimed as a privilege on the part of the Romish church, is, in the opinions of this protestant community, an unhallowed usurpation; he deems his crimes expiated, and is prepared to die with the self-complacency of a good man; satisfied, according to his own account, from which we think something may be infer red as to the sincerity of his penitence, that the continuance of his life would only restore him to the same course of crimes, which was now about to be cut off by the righteous judgment of the laws. On the whole, we can hardly conceive of any thing of this nature of a more pernicious moral tendency with a considerable part of the community; or more likely to encourage and embolden men in the commission of crimes than such a history as this; in which we see a young man, after a long course of most atrocious and bold iniquity, always successful in his crimes, and always escaping detection in a most extraordinary manner until the last act; and, when apprehended and condemned, and there remained no chance of escape, represented as suddenly atoning for his crimes by his confessions; receiving a sentence of forgiveness and an assurance of future felicity from a minister of religion; expressing his wish that others could know how easy and happy he felt; and then departing in a manner adapted rather to excite sympathy and admiration, than that detestation and horror, which his crimes and their terrible consequences ought to inspire.

To the life is subjoined the will of the criminal, by which he undertakes to dispose of his property and his body: for this last he expresses his earnest solicitude that it might not fall into the hands of the surgeons; and the writer of this narra. tive, to whom the execution of this will was intrusted, is care ful to inform us, that his wishes have in this respect been most scrupulously complied with. We hope indeed for the ho nour of our community, that it is not true, as is confidently reported, that a mob composed of the countrymen of this misera ble man, whom no doubt they regarded as a kind of martyr, went to the jail on the night of the execution and demanded his body; and, having buried it at low water mark, placed a guard to secure it from those to whom, it is certainly a defect in our laws that our courts of justice are not authorized to award it by their sentence.

Having said thus much of this book, we hope we shall not be considered as departing from our province, if we come now to our principal object, and with all due deference to the opi nions of the wise and good, express our serious sentiments on a

subject, intimately associated with the political and moral welfare of our community.

There exists among us, it is every day apparent, a morbid sensibility as to capital executions; and the state of public sentiment in regard to them strongly tends to defeat the great purposes for which we resort to so dreadful an alternative. Far be it from our wish to encourage a spirit of cruelty; or in any way to allay or hinder that truly christian humanity, which forms a remarkable characteristic in the present state of civilized society, and of our own community in particular. But our pity is often very much misplaced; and what we call mercy is only cruelty to the community, and perhaps even to the of fenders themselves. That we have a right in some cases to take the life of a fellow creature is a position we shall not un dertake to maintain, deeming it sufficiently established; at least so long as our laws enjoin on courts, juries, and officers, the duty of inflicting death as the penalty of certain crimes. The infliction of such a punishment seems in many instances to be a necessary part of self-defence; since there cannot be a doubt that the fear of it often affords the only preventative against crimes, by which our own lives would otherwise be continually put at hazard. The love of life is the strongest passion of our nature; and is often found in all its vigour in cases, where it would seem that life could have no value. No substitute that could be devised would be as effectual in preventing crimes. Corporal chastisement, hard labour, perpetual imprisonment, have few terrors compared with a public and ignominious execution; and nothing is wanting to render this punishment as effectual as we should suppose it would be, but the certainty of detection and of the punishment following the detection. If it be said in reply, that in England where so many offences are made capital, the fear of death contributes little to the prevention of crimes, we only reply, that there the severity of the punishment is so dispro portioned to the nature of the crimes, for which men are in many cases exposed to suffer death, that the class in the community, on whom they are designed to operate, are driven to a kind of desperation in vice, and feeling, after the first offence, which is per haps comparatively trivial, that they are already liable to the severest penalty which a human tribunal can inflict, they consi der the Rubicon as already passed, 'the worst as over,' and proceed without concern to the excesses of vice. These remarks do not apply to our penal code; in which the number of offences made capital are few, and of a nature of all others to render such a penalty just and necessary.

Since then, such penal laws exist among us; and our penal code has received all the improvement, which as yet the wisdom and mercy of the wisest and best men in our community after most anxious study have been able to give to it; the public safety demands, that it should be peremptorily and rigidly carried into execution. Every man should feel himself interested in the detection and punishment of the guilty. The end of capital pu nishments is not the expression of public resentment of the crime; not the infliction of pain or death upon the guilty, as though this pain or death could make any compensation or atonement for the criminal acts; but solely by such tremendous examples of the consequences of vice to deter others from its commission. But penal laws which are not executed, or which are easily evaded, or which are executed in a manner that indicates on the part of those persons, by whom they are established and enforced, a distrust of their justice or propriety, are likely to fail entirely of their proper purposes, and to do more injury to the community than if no such laws existed.

The only way, in our humble apprehension, to make such laws effectual, is as far as possible to make it certain that they will be executed, where the guilt is clear; and without indulg ing in any refinements of cruelty, than which nothing tends more to injure the moral character of society, to make the circumstances of their execution as terrible as possible.

In regard then, first, to the conviction of a criminal, we think it is to be lamented that the sentiment seems every day to be gaining ground with us, that men are only to be condemned upon direct and positive testimony; and that proof, which is merely circumstantial and presumptive, will not justify a conviction. We have only to say in this case, that crimes seek concealment; that men can seldom be induced to commit a crime in the presence of others; and that, from the nature of the case therefore, direct evidence can hardly be expected in any instance of capital crime, unless it be from an accomplice, whose testimony is certainly to be received with great distrust. We answer next, in the common language of the law, that circumstances will not lie; and although no man should be willing to bring in a verdict of guilty as long as there remains a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused, or a reasonable presumption of his innocence; yet that often indications of guilt, which are in themselves trivial, speak most eloquently; and upon a mind intelligent, considerate, and accustomed to weigh evidence, a connected series of circumstances will be even more convincing, than the most positive asseverations on the part of those who call themselves eye-witnesses, or even than the confessions of the ac