The Portland daily press., 1868-04-25

Assassination n Political Expedient.
Assassination is hopelessly out of fashion
1t is nothing to the purpose to reply that
President Lincoln was murdered in Wash
ington only three years ago; that General
Flores was stabbed on his way to the Govern
ment House in Montevideo on the 10th of
last February; that Ashburn was shot in his
bed, at Columbus less than four weeks ago !;
that Darcy McGee's blood is hardly yet dry
in the streets of Ottawa; and that two or
three "probable fiends" carrying pailful of
Greek fire were arrested near Buckingham
Palace at 2 o'clock last Wednesday morning.
The dainty playactor who shot his enemy
from behind and recited Latin quotation
over his dead body, was brought to bay in a
| barn and shot between the boards like mad
| dog. The "Blanco" insurrection which be-
| gan with the assassination of Flores, ended
witha general massacre of the conspirators,
Don Bernardo Berro, their leader, being es.
peclally riddled with pistol shots and sliced
with knife cuts. The Kuklux Klan which
sent its emissaries to murder Ashburn in his
sleep, was promptly outlawed by General
Meade and condemned by the public without
distinction of color. McGees murderer is
rather more likely than an ordinary malefac-
tor to grace a gibbet. As to Messrs. Barney
and Keef who are supposed to havehad in view
the incremation of the British Queen, hang
ing will be considered too good for them if il
shall turn out that their purposes have been
rightly construed. In fact there is neither
honor nor profit in assassination nowadays
and young gentlemen looking out for career
will do well to observe that this particular
avenue to fame is and has long been plainly
marked No thoroughfare."
1t was not so two thousand years ago. Who
that once hears forgets the glorious Greek
drinking song, which keeps alive the memory
of Harmodius and Aristogeiton:
I'll wreath my sword in myrtle bough,
| The sword that laid the tyrant low
| When patriots, burning to be free,
To Athens gave equality.
Yet personal enmity mingled with the mo-
tives of these patriots burning to be free; and
Brutus, notw outstanding the beauty OF Plu-
tarch's narrative and Shakspeares poetry
was all arstocrat and SO excessively conserv-
ative that he not only faced but marched to
the rear. Charlotte Corday, the most enthu'
siastic and pure-minded of assassins, even
she was a little aristocrat in her way, belong
ing to an ancient though decayed family, and
despising old Marat quite as heartily because
he belonged to the canaille as she hated him
becadse he was scourge and curse to his
fellow men. In fact assassination is essen
TALLY an aristocratic expedient for effectine
political ends. 1t is suited to an aristocratic
social structure in which much depends on
the few and very little upon the many. The
violent death Of Caesar changed the des.
tiny of Rome. The violent death of the
President of the United States, while it senl
shock of grief to every hamlet in the land
did not for moment disturb the settled
course of events.
1t is because the spirit of the age is demo-
cratic, because nations now stand where
once were only reigning families and SUBJECTS
that assassination has gone irrevocably out OF
fashion The fact that misguided and igno-
rant men still continue to repeat an obsolete
act which has at length lost all color or pre-
tence of virtue or significance, no more shows
assassination to be still in vogue than the ap-
pearsnce of last years bonnets on the heads