een a temptation to
Dishonesty. Who will fear to be a culprit when a legal sentence is the
argument of pity, and the prelude of pardon? What can the community expect
but growing dishonesty, when juries connive at acquittals, and judges
condemn only to petition a pardon; when honest men and officers fly before
a mob; when jails are besieged and threatened, if felons are not
relinquished; when the Executive, consulting the spirit of the community,
receives the demands of the mob, and humbly complies, throwing down the
fences of the law, that base rioters may walk unimpeded, to their work of
vengeance, or unjust mercy? A sickly sentimentality too often enervates
the administration of justice; and the pardoning power becomes the
master-key to let out unwashed, unrepentant criminals. They have fleeced
us, robbed us, and are ulcerous sores to the body politic; yet our heart
turns to water over their merited punishment. A fine young fellow, by
accident, writes another's name for his own; by a mistake equally
unfortunate, he presents it at the bank; innocently draws out the large
amount; generously spends a part, and absent-mindedly hides the rest.
Hard-hearted wretches there are, who would punish him for this! Young men,
admiring the neatness of the affair, pity his misfortune, and curse a
stupid jury that knew no better than to send to a penitentiary, him, whose
skill deserved a cashiership. He goes to his cell, the pity of a whole
metropolis. Bulletins from Sing-Sing inform us daily what Edwards[1] is
doing, as if he were Napoleon at St. Helena. At length pardoned, he will
go forth again to a renowned liberty!

If there be one way quicker than another, by which the Executive shall
assist crime, and our laws foster it, it is that course which assures
every dishonest man, that it is easy to defraud, easy to avoid arrest,
easy to escape punishment, and easiest of all to obtain a pardon.

12. COMMERCIAL SPECULATIONS are prolific of Dishonesty. Speculation is the
risking of capital in enterprises greater than we can control, or in
enterprises whose elements are not at all calculable. All calculations of
the future are uncertain; but those which are based upon long experience
approximate certainty, while those which are drawn by sagacity from
probable events, are notoriously unsafe. Unless, however, some venture, we
shall forever tread an old and dull path; therefore enterprise is allowed
to pioneer new ways. The safe enterpriser