1To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 February 1789 (Adams Papers)
Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865
2To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 24 February 1790 (Adams Papers)
Rush’s political views, especially his public protest of capital punishment, attracted sharp criticism in the press. Writing as Philochoras, the Presbyterian minister Robert Annan (1742–1819), who presided over Philadelphia’s Old Scots Church, lambasted Rush throughout the fall of 1788. Another squib claimed that the...
3Charles Adams to John Adams, 7 February 1796 (Adams Papers)
...Criminal Law of This State and for Erecting State Prisons.” Debate over the bill continued until 19 Feb., when it passed the senate. The assembly concurred, after various adjustments, on 25 March. The act allowed for capital punishment in the case of murder and treason but, after debate, excluded burglary, arson, counterfeiting, and a variety of other crimes (
4Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
. While used satirically in both cases, the line is a reference to the 1794 Pennsylvania law restricting the use of capital punishment to cases of first degree murder (Albert Post, “Early Efforts to Abolish Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania,”
5Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
at Milton they keep a Nightly Watch. it is really a Distressing calamity, but we shall be infested with more vagabonds, if the states go on to abolish capital punishmentsCapital punishment was an increasingly contested issue in the 1790s. Between 1794 and 1798 five states restricted the use of the death penalty to cases of murder or murder and treason. Virginia and New Jersey joined New York...