Executions Quotes
One of the first actions after the revolution was to abolish the capital punishment used so arbitrarily by the Czars. It was even abolished for the army. Later, when more control over the population was needed, it was reinstated.
General Howe was the Commander of British Troops in the American Revolution. The early American Army was neither professional, experienced, or well officered. Execution as a means of punishment was much more common than in the larger, professional British army. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.
Yuliy Osipovich Martov
The U.S. was at war with Spain and Filipino insurgents for the control of the Philippines. During this war there were a few senior U. S. Officers who in later times would have been tried and jailed for war crimes. The men under them were brutal and committed atrocities at their orders. See {615368}.
Vladimir Lenin. One of the claimed benefits of Capital Punishment has always been the inhibition of others, but it turned out that it was never very effective at that. However, prevention was Lenin’s major objective so he ordered public hanging instead of shooting—the usual method of execution at the time. This infamous quotation started the new Russian government off on a horrible record of civil and human rights. The people hanged were not particularly guilty of any crime. They were just people who had gotten, or whose family was, rich under the Czar. The disregard for rule of law was most dramatically evidenced by this Lenin order. Needless to say, rich people the world over, saw a great threat to their lives from this new state wanting to export its philosophy.
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning
The reference to “hanging the Irish” referred to the attempted French invasion of Ireland with Irish Roman Catholic complicity. The English went on a campaign of terror {639231} and there were many hangings such as {639272}.
