Due to Rush's influence in Pennsylvania it became the first state to only permit the death penalty as a punishment for someone convicted of first-degree murder. After his death in 1813, it became increasingly more challenging for those who opposed it without having a powerful speaker and a united coalition against it. In 1840, this changed as Horace Greeley (founder and editor of the New York Tribune) began to express his views against it. It also led to the forming of the American Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment in 1845. .
Michigan, though not a state at the time, was the first to do away with the death penalty. Rhode Island and Wisconsin were the next to follow suit. Soon after the Civil War, Maine and Iowa passed laws against it but their decisions were soon overturned due to the uprising angry citizens demanding severe punishment. In 1887, Maine restored the law to abolish it. .
Throughout this, the beginnings of the conservative elite democrats and the popular democrats began their defining views on the matter. Heading up the elite democratic views were, Greeley and the wealthy railroad executive, Robert Rantoul Jr. The philosopher and political economist, John Stuart from England and renowned United States attorney, Samuel Hand, were proposing the popular view for the death penalty. .
Hand stated that ""capital execution" was necessary for the safety of society (Gottfried, 1997, p. 20)." His fellow proponent thought that a quick death was better for the criminal than a long life in "a living tomb." Their opponents also had separate reasons behind their beliefs. Rantoul believed in life imprisonment as a better "guard against society". Horace Greeley, however chose neither side as to life imprisonment or death, he instead stated that his reasoning against it was morality and that to kill, no matter if it is a criminal or not, and teaches revenge not justice.
