This 1845 publication, written by a prominent reformer of the day, argues against capital punishment from several perspectives, including historical, philosophical and biblical arguments. It is broken into 3 chapters: Expediency, Justice, and Sacred Scriptures (although it has Scripture references peppered throughout). Burleigh frequently references and argues against George B. Cheever, a prominent death penalty advocate of the time.

"If it shall thus be the means of helping on in a humble way the progress of that humane reform whose principles it advocates; and of hastening, however little, the coming of that time, when the penal statutes of a "christian" and "civilized people," shall have ceased to be written in blood, I shall be richly repaid for the time and labor spent upon this task."