1To James Madison from G. F. H. Crockett, 24 September 1823 (Madison Papers)
...Legislature of Kentucky, on the Abolition of Capital Punishments in the United States, and the...
2To James Madison from George Joy, 17 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
...that there has been no capital punishment for high treason? A better cause of satisfaction...
3Giovanni Carmignani to Thomas Jefferson, 7 April 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
...1808 because of his opposition to capital punishment. Carmignani became a professor of...
4To James Madison from Benjamin Rush, 30 January 1806 (Madison Papers)
...many philanthropic works, condemned capital punishment, espoused prison reform and...
5To Thomas Jefferson from "Friend," 23 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
...(David Brion Davis, “The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787–1861...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Carroll Brent, 10 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
...a “great tenderness” in cases involving capital punishment, was surprised that the jury...
7John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1801 (Adams Papers)
...penalties for many crimes and limited capital punishment to first-degree murder. To...
8To Alexander Hamilton from Josias Carvel Hall, 4 October 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
...but I believe that a few examples of capital punishment, perhaps one in each regiment, will...
9To Alexander Hamilton from Josias Carvel Hall, 11 September 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
a few examples of Capital punishment perhaps." In the margin of the first page there...
10Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
...with more vagabonds, if the states go on to abolish capital punishmentsCapital punishment was...
11Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
...Pennsylvania law restricting the use of capital punishment to cases of first degree murder (...
12To Thomas Jefferson from James Wood, 3 March 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
...which specified prison terms rather than capital punishment for crimes other than first-...
13To John Jay from Benjamin Rush, 9 July 1796 (Jay Papers)
...1796 that diminished the use of capital punishment and established Newgate Prison. He...
14Charles Adams to John Adams, 7 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
..., on 25 March. The act allowed for capital punishment in the case of murder and treason but...
15Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 21 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
...within the law, which decreed a capital punishment. There were circumstances, too,...
16To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 24 February 1790 (Adams Papers)
..., especially his public protest of capital punishment, attracted sharp criticism in the...
17To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 February 1789 (Adams Papers)
Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865
18From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785 (Franklin Papers)
all capital Punishments...the deterrent effect of capital punishment. Madan was trained...
19To George Washington from Samuel Huntington, 16 November 1780 (Washington Papers)
...hath not already been done to inflict capital punishment on all such persons as shall directly...
20From George Washington to Colonel Lewis Nicola, 5 February 1780 (Washington Papers)
...on account of the frequency of capital punishments and from General Woodford’s representation...
21To George Washington from John Hancock, 22 August 1776 (Washington Papers)
...murdering Samuel Holden Parsons’s brother, capital punishment for persons “found lurking as...
22Cash Accounts, December 1773 (Washington Papers)
...with intent to poison were to receive capital punishment “without benefit of clergy.” Those...
...it may apply to statutes imposing capital punishment for homicide, which statutes receive...
24Crime and Punishment in Federalist New York: Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Jay reviewed recent capital punishment cases in the months prior to the passage of the...