Reverend George Barrell Cheerer: Yankee Reformer As Champion of the Gallows.

George Barrell Cheever was an active reformer from the 1830's to the 1870's, on behalf of temperance, the abolition movement and rights for blacks. He also led the move to retain capital punishment, arguing that it was necessary and attacking its abolition as founded in atheism and destructive to the foundations of society. Traces his opposition to this reform in New York State, and delineates the arguments on both sides. Cheever achieved only limited success.