Good work,sir. A very interesting and musing story.Plenty of food for thought and to think all the time and money we waste on criminals like him today! Swift and terrible punishment is needed today as to deterence.The reason we have so much crime today is that the criminal knows he has a good chance of getting off with a suspended sentence or scott free. O.J. Simpson is a good reference to this point.Thank you for this work for it has taught me to spend more time with my children and to teach them to walk the straight and narrow path that leads to righteousness and good standing before man and God.

  On your webpage, I noticed a speculative reference to the use of the word "hanged" by Caleb Adams. It was not exactly a slang usage. Strictly speaking, "hanged" is the past participle used in reference to the hanging of persons. A man was hanged, while a picture was hung. However, given the present lack of hangings, this usage passed out of spoken american english quite some time ago. However, during the lifetime of Caleb Adams, "hanged" was still quite current and would have been the only proper past participle for use in this context. At that time, it would have been quite improper to say "they hung him." Just thought I would fill you in...

  Perhaps a timely reminder of times gone by when the guilty really did pay for their crimes without plea bargaining! When most of us had a fighting chance of remaining safe in our houses. Before the bleeding hearts and politically correct took over the justice(!!!!!) system.

  This was an interesting story! However, it never ceases to amaze me how CHRISTIAN people stand by and allow this to happen. In this story, the CHRISTIANS forgave and HOPED that God too had forgiven Caleb...but never once seemed to question the punishment of death as the recourse for his sin.
  It amazes me how CHRISTIAN accept this as OKAY. It is not! God himself after giving the commandments to Moses DID NOT require the DEATH PENALTY for CAIN who had killed his brother Abel.
  Then on top of it GOD sends his SON to die for SINS that he was quite confident that we would continue to make. After all he had tried to find the PERFECT people.. and very few measured up...NOAH did, LOT did...and that isn't very many people. So...he sends a blood sacrifice and tells us all we have to do to be forgiven of sin is to say we are sorry in prayer and he FORGIVES...but MAN still does not!
  Unbelievable!

  With a mind somehow bent upon the subject of execution this grey day in Washington, DC, I located your site through Yahoo! It is indeed an interesting presentation. The man sounded as if he had given up on finding peace in the world, and was utterly relieved at his death, since he was of the conviction that it would finally rest in his Savior's arms. How many, in contrast, fight a vain struggle to live a vain life, then become stricken against any conscious will, only to be lauded in retrospect as heroic in all of their ways! It should be better that this kind also adopt the serenity of Caleb Adams, since their own paths are just as torturous and prone to the excesses of temptation, even when they do not become condemned outright by the mores of society.

  Did the people waiting for the execution fall asleep while they listened to this sermon?

  I would love to know what happened to make him feel remorse for what he had done. Today it seem people never accept responsibility for their actions. God seems to have interceded and forgave him. Maybe OJ should read this story.

  It was actually quite normal until well into this century for American executions to be public events, complete with extended speeches and a sermon. This comes from our Puritan heritage, in which an execution was considered an appropriate time for reflection on the crime on the transgression of God's law, and for the criminal to repent and be forgiven prior to his death. Executions, as in England of the 17-19th centuries, were public events that often drew massive crowds. Ironically, in England they were plagued by pickpockets, who themselves would be executed if caught. (so much for the concept of executions preventing capital crimes).

  I was born and raised in Marblehead, MA (est. 1639), and spent much of my childhood in Marblehead and Salem. These towns are rich with colonial history -- including stories of inquisitions, torture and executions. From all appearances, Caleb Adams was justly executed. But there were countless hundreds, even thousands, who were wrongly killed under harsh Puritanical law. Perhaps your site should make mention of this, and put the "just" execution of Caleb Adams into some context.