[Rarebooks] FS: 1845 Anti-Death Penalty, Rev. Soldier Copy

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: “Essays on the Punishment of Death”

By Charles Spear.
Published by the author, in Boston, in 1845. 11th edition.

DISCUSSION: A famous anti-death penalty text by a Unitarian minister and
reformer. Perhaps most famous today for its dramatic frontispiece,
illustrating a condemned forger, bound by chains to a stone pillar in a
dungeon, his prostrate wife and three young children at his feet. The
Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography notes-

"Charles Spear [1803-1863] took up the idea of abolishing the death
penalty at a time when the idea was widely regarded as a hopelessly
impractical, even utopian notion. For years Spear campaigned without stint
to change public opinion and the laws, especially in Massachusetts and
other New England states, but also throughout the country by means of his
newspaper, The Prisoner's Friend. His long, unremitting and sacrificial
efforts had their longed for effect. Application of the death penalty did
come to be greatly restricted by law and custom. As Spear had engaged in
the practice of his ministry, he had devoted increasing amounts of time to
speaking out in one way or another on behalf of various issues of social
reform. Then he read and was inspired by a report of the Marquis de
Lafayette's speech before the Chamber of Deputies in France. 'I shall
ask,' said Lafayette, 'for the abolition of the Penalty of Death until I
have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me.' Spear began
himself to write critically of capital punishment in 1830. 'Spare the
criminal,' Spear pleaded. 'The taking of his life will not bring back his
victim; it will not prevent others from the commission of crime.' Early in
1845 Spear began to edit and publish the Hangman, soon retitled The
Prisoner's Friend, a journal devoted to transformation of the purpose of
prisons from punishment to rehabilitation. From this time Charles gave his
life to the advocacy of prison related reforms. During the last decade of
Spear's life, his reputation suffered from his being confused with his
brother John, who in his middle years turned to spiritualism and also
became an outspoken apologist for free love. Some of Charles's
contemporaries in the field of penology considered him, in his passion for
reform, a strident, meddling, self-serving amateur. On the other hand
William Lloyd Garrison, with whom he worked, wrote that Spear 'did the
best he could, with very limited means.'

This copy has the ownership stamp and signature of Isaac King, dated
"Sutton, March 8 1847". The Kings are an old Sutton, Massachusetts family,
and Sutton's Revolutionary War Cemetery lists Isaac King [1762-1859], who
served as a private in the Revolution. Benedict & Tracy's "History of the
Town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1704 to 1876" (1878) notes that Isaac
was a hale and hearty man almost to the day he died, and was haying his
own fields barefoot at age 90.

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 5"x7.5", xii + 237 + 10 pages; lithographed
frontispiece of "The Condemned Forger"; woodcut "Preparing for the
Execution" in the text. Publisher's blindstamped cloth.

CONDITION NOTES: Covers somewhat soiled and worn, contents with some
toning, scattered foxing, and rumpled.

PRICE:  $65 -

SOME PICTURES =>
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