The barbarity and illegality of this conduct of B. Bangs, Esq. (an influential democrat of that day), were viewed with indignation from all quarters. The statute of Feb., 1812, on this subject was not passed to render _illegal_ the arrest of a dead body of a debtor, for that was _always_ illegal, but its object was to fix the punishment, instead of leaving it to the discretion of the Courts. Many undoubtedly recollect the instance at Portland several years before, in which a debtor who was on the limits was suddenly taken sick and carried out of the limits, where he died. It was then decided to be the law that the debtor's bond was not broken unless his body was out of the limits by his own agency and will.
So disinterring dead bodies of men was always a misdemeanor, but in 1815 a law was passed by our General Court to fix the penalties.
The case of Stephen Merrill Clark is remembered by many people in Salem and its vicinity.
At the present term of this Court in Salem, Andrew Dunlap, John Foster, and Solomon Whipple, Esqrs. were admitted Counsellors, and Asa W. Wildes, Esq. an attorney of said Court.
_Capital Trial_.--On Tuesday Stephen Merrill Clark, a lad about 15 years of age, was indicted for the crime of ARSON alleged to have been committed in Newburyport, was arraigned the same day, and pleaded _not guilty_. The day for his trial is not yet fixed.--The Court assigned him Leverett Saltonstall and John G. King, Esquires, for his counsel on his trial.
Clark was subsequently convicted of the crime for which he was tried, and executed upon Salem Neck in 1821. He had made a confession of his guilt; but considering his youth, and the circumstances of his having been instigated by others, as was believed, to the commission of the crime, many humane people thought there should have been some mitigation of the punishment.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments, by Henry M. Brooks