Murders in Philadelphia.—
It is our painful duty to record three deliberate and atrocious murders committed within the bounds of the city of Philadelphia since our last issue.
The first was committed in broad day, in one of the most frequented parts of the city, upon a man in his own store, and was attended with circumstances of ferocity rarely equalled. The perpetrator of the deed has not been discovered.
The second was the wanton butchery of an unoffending man, apparently without any motive, except the indulgence of a blood-thirsty malevolence.
The third was committed upon two unprotected females, and with a ferocity of which we should hope few human beings are susceptible, even in their most savage state. The only apparent motive for the cruel and dastardly deed was a pittance of money. How far the wretched monster on whom the guilt of this double murder has been fixed by the law and the testimony, may have been implicated in other deeds of blood ascribed to him by popular rumor, it is not for us to say, but we suppose there is no doubt that he was not long since a convict in the State Penitentiary at Sing Sing, N. Y., and was pardoned by the Executive of that State!
How much of his term of punishment was abridged by this interposition of extraordinary clemency, we are not informed; but if the full execution of his sentence would have carried the period of his confinement beyond the 10th of March, 1853, it is clear that the abridgment of it opened the way for the terrible deed which we have now recorded. And are we not justified in holding the pardoning power responsible, in foro conscientiæ, at least, for the consequences of taking a convict out of the hands of the ministers of justice, while he is undergoing wholesome discipline by their order, and sending him back into the community as one whose punishment was greater than he deserved? Who knows but that an ill-judged interposition of Executive power may sometimes breed a contempt for public authority, and stimulate a reckless convict to more audacious violations of law!