.The brothers, Stephen and Jesse Boort), of Vermont, were convicted, in the year 1819, chiefly upon their own confession, (made too under circumstances that gave it pe culiar force,) of the supposed murder, some years before their trial, of Russel Colvil, who, after being advertised in the newspapers, was found alive, in Monmouth county, New-Jersey, tune enough to prevent their suffering from their self-condemnation.
The motives leading to this wanton courting of death and punishment, are, commonly, disgust of fife, religious enthusiasm, delusion of the imagination, or the strange fancy of persons perpetuating their names by falsehood against themselves. This fact of the self-devotion of per sons to death was adduced by Rush, as his second argu ment against " the punishment of murder by death." " The punishment of murder by death," he says, " produces mur der, by its influence upon people who are tired of life, and who, from a supposition that murder is a less crime than suicide, destroy life, and often that of a near connexion, and afterwards deliver themselves up to justice, that they may escape their misery by means of a halter." No re ferences were made to support this position, which was, doubtless, founded upon facts he had met with in his ex tensive reading, and from his recollection of others, that lax] occurred in his own time. For want of cases in point, the probability of the event was denied by the advocates for sanguinary punishments, and the force of the argument was weakened with others, from the supposition of its be ing founded upon an extreme case. The following fact in Williams' " View of the Northern Government," (London, 1777) was one of those on record to which it is highly pro bable he alluded : " Some years ago, there were a set of melancholy people in this capital (Copenhagen) who en deavoured to persuade themselves that the most certain way to go to Heaven, was to die upon a scaffold or a gal lows : weary of leading a wretched life, and struck with the courage which some of their fellow-suhjects had shown in their last moments, in the like circumstances, and regard ing the preparation which is made for an approaching death, as the most sure means to make their peace with the Divinity, they even committed murders in cold blood, to arm the hands of justice against them, and then demand ed death as a means to accomplish their ends, rather than as a punishment. But the length of the time they were
kept in prison, and scourged continually, before they were brought to the gallows, soon put an end to this enthusiasm." An event that took place in Philadelphia, when Dr. Rush was a boy, and which must have been often recurred to in conversation, for many years after it happened, was, doubtless, another which he had in his mind's eye when he wrote. I allude to the wilful murder of Mr. Scull, the geographer, who, between the years 1750 and 1760, was shot by a fanatic, to insure a speedy end to his own life, of which he was tired, hut of which he did not choose to be the direct executioner. The particulars I have long since given to the public4 It was, probably, a conviction of the truth of the maxim in penal jurisprudence under consideration, that in duced the Imperial Catharine II., in her " instructions to the commissioners appointed, in 1767, to frame a new code of laws for Russia," to caution them against inflicting cor poral or painful punishments upon those who arc infected with enthusiasm, and either pretend to inspiration, or coun terfeit extraordinary sanctity. Enthusiasm, she says, is engrafted upon pride, and will flourish by punishment. We have seen instances of this in the late secret chancery, where such persons used to come voluntarily on particular days, merely for the sake of suffering punishment." 4. The number of inspectors might be reduced from fourteen to six, and they ought to be chosen from that class of citizens whose standing in society would be a pledge for the faithful discharge of their duty, and whose intelligence, firmness of character, and knowledge of the human mind, would prevent them from becoming the dupes of the art ful. They ought to serve during good behaviour. A small number of men, thus associated, would act in har mony and concert ; their decisions would be prompt, and the knowledge of the condition upon which their appoint ments were held, would evince to them the possibility of their being able to sec the full operation of any measure they might adopt for the regulation of the prison, and be a stimulus to their energies. The solitary system urged in these papers, if adopted, would so greatly diminish the labours of the inspectors, as to render more than six totally useless.