5577. MURDER, Degrees of.—
Manslaughter
is the killing a man with design,
but in a sudden gust of passion, and where the
killer has not had time to cool. The first
offence is not punished capitally, but the second
is. This is the law of England and of all
the American States; and is not now a new
proposition. Those laws have supposed that a
man, whose passions have so much dominion
over him, as to lead him to repeated acts of
murder, is unsafe to society; that it is better
he should be put to death by the law, than
others more innocent than himself, on the
movements of his impetuous passions.—
To M. de Meunier. Washington ed. ix, 263.
Ford ed., iv, 169.
(P.
1786)
