Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner] ... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.
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Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.
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Three things prompt men to a regular discharge of their duty in time of action: natural bravery, hope of reward, and fear of punishment.
My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality, the death penalty contradicts this.
Moral contempt is a far greater indignity and insult than any kind of crime.
The satisfaction arising from the indulgent opinion entertained by the American People of my conduct, will, I trust, be some security for preventing me from doing any thing, which might justly incur the forfeiture of that opinion. And the consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter.
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