Illinois vs. August Spies et al. trial evidence book. People's Exhibit 42. Transcript of article.
Assassination is stigmatized as barbarous and cowardly.
This is sometimes true, especially when one government employs assassins against another, or when one person adopts this course against another. But there are instances where assassination is both brave and humane, and wise also. The effort to abolish government cannot be done by the accepted methods of warfare, because it requires the organization of a government to abolish it, stronger than the one abolished, thus leaving a stronger government in existence than before. Such a method is literally foolish, for all the blood, treasure and effort has been worse than wasted. The moment the abolition of a government is suggested, the mind pictures the uprising of a hundred little despotic governements on every hand quarreling among themselves and domineering over the unorganized people.