Daniel Webster Quotes
Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life.
Webster, Daniel. "The Murder of Captain Joseph White." The Works of Daniel Webster, Vol. 6, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851, p. 51.
He referred to the Biblical injunction for capital punishment which mandated the death penalty for murder. However the Bible also requires the death penalty for adultery, heresy, blasphemy, homosexuality, and a number of other offenses including a son being disobedient to his father where death was also proscribed. This quotation is an excellent example of a rhetorical political technique where the speaker selectively provides the truth. Taken at its face, this argument would persuade many people, few of whom would still support the argument if they knew that it applied equally to a host of other behaviors many of which are not even regarded as crimes in a modern civilized society.
This has been the case in EVERY jurisdiction that has had capital punishment. Capital punishment does provide vengeance for victims, relatives and society. And in many societies execution is less expensive than prison for life. But it has never curtailed crime despite the example. In London, they used to have public executions as examples to inhibit crime. While the crowd was watching a pickpocket be hung, other pickpockets were relieving many spectators of their wallets and watches.
Her view was only held by a few British citizens. Capital Punishment was ended in Britain.
Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. As one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, he argued over 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1814 and his death in 1852. During his life, he was a member of the Federalist Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party.
