“Such knowledge in my opinion is this: The knowledge of what is man, what his surrounding world, what his destiny; hence, what man can and must do, and principally what he cannot and must not do.
“Therefore, we should oppose capital punishment by inculcating this knowledge to all men, especially to hangmen’s managers and sympathizers who wrongfully think they are maintaining their position, thanks only to capital punishment.
“I know this is not an easy task. The employers and approvers of hangmen, with the instinct of self-preservation, feel that this knowledge will make impossible the maintenance of the position which they occupy; hence not only will they themselves not adopt it, but by all means in their power, by violence, deceit, lies and cruelty, they will try to hide from the people this knowledge, distorting it and exposing its disseminators to all kinds of privations and suffering.
“Therefore, if we readily wish to destroy the delusion of capital punishment, and if we possess the knowledge which destroys this delusion, let us, in spite of all menaces, deprivations and sufferings, teach the people this knowledge, because it is solely the effective means in the fight.
“Leo Tolstoi.
“Optina Monastery, November 11, 1910.”
“Remember Crittenden”
If not a will, the last writing of William Logan Crittenden carried with it a wealth of sentiment and affection; he was a member of the celebrated Kentucky family, and a graduate of West Point. In the year 1851, he joined General Narcisso Lopez, who sought volunteers in the United States to aid in the struggle then going on for Cuban independence. The expedition had intended to land at some remote part of the island of Cuba, but a heavy gale drove the vessel to a small port barely twenty miles from the city of Havana. Crittenden and his party were captured: cruelly bound, he was taken to Havana and imprisoned in the grim Atares Castle; on the following day, he and his companions were shot. Shortly before his death, he was permitted to pen the following pathetic lines to a friend: “This is an incoherent letter, but the circumstances must excuse it. My hands are swollen to double their natural thickness, resulting from having been too tightly corded during the last eighteen hours. Write John (his brother), and let him write to my mother. I am afraid that the news will break her heart. My heart beats warmly for her now. Farewell. My love to all my friends.” When one of the Kentucky regiments was in action during the Spanish-American War, their battle-cry was, “Remember Crittenden.” At Santiago, Cuba, there is placed a commemorative tablet, which serves to recall another ill-fated attempt to aid in a Cuban insurrection, that of 1873. The Virginius, a steamer carrying the American flag, was captured by a Spanish man-of-war, the officers, crew and passengers were shot: the tablet reads: “Thou who passest this place, uncover thyself. This spot is consecrated earth. For thirty years it has been blessed with the blood of patriots immolated by tyranny.”
Confucius
History does not record that the great Chinese philosopher and sage made a testamentary disposition of his worldly effects; but we find that just before his death in 478 B.C., with his hands behind his back, dragging his staff, he moved about his door reciting: