The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-09
MONDAY, AUGUST @, 1869.
POLITICAL ASSASSLNATYOMs.

In Spain and Mexico villainous politicians
have recently concocted plots for assassi-
mating Serrano and Juarez, and the recollec-
tion of the brutal murder of the late Prince
of Servia is revived by the reported refusal
of the Emperor of Austria to prevent the
proper tribunals from Furnishing one of the
alleged assassins, Prince Karageorgewch
Thus it is evident that the wicked disposition
to advance a desperate cause or promote an
eager ambition by assassination is by no
means extinct. We have still "Macbeths"
upon the stage Of action ready to slaughter
sleeping 'Duncans." The world yet contains
moro than one Brutus who would draw a
dagger against a Caesar, and more than one
Booth bad enough to slay Lincoln The
lessons of history are lost upon these despe-
radoes. They fail to see how rarely cause
dies with it's leading official champion, and
how futile is the effort to kill principle by
destroying single life.
Political conspiracies based on the central
idea of assassination appear to be equally dis
astrous whether success or failure attends
the cowardly attempt to send the soul of a
hated Emperor, King, Dictator, or President
suddenly into the presence of its Maker.
When they fail, they help to strengthen the
. power of the party attacked, and to give him
new hold upon his partisans. The
schemes concocted to assassinate Oliver
Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte, and
Napoleon III we're not merely abortive, but
they gave new pretexts for increased power.
Guy Fawkes' gunpowder plot to blow up the
British Parliament inflicted an injury to the
cause he wished to promote from which it
never recovered and for centuries the Catho-
lies of the realm were compelled to pay con-
slant penalty for his rash scheme. The ten
dency of the baffled schemes to assassinate
Juarez and Serano is of the same character.
Politicians and statesmen are often strength
ened much more by the injudicious or brutal
attacks of their enemies than by
the laudations of their friends.
If the popularity of the President of
Mexico has been waning, nothing could have
done more to revive it than the attempt to
destroy him by means which make every
manly and generous bosom despise and hate
his despicable enemies. If Serranos foot
hold in Spain is unsteady, the attempt to hurl
him from his high post by insidious violence
will rally to his support all doubtful and
wavering spirits. 1t will give new zeal to his
friends, and make all honorable enemies
anxious to prove that they are in no way iden-
titled with the plots of his dastardly foes
When the ruler against whom the
dagger of the political assassin is aimed
expires, the cause rarely or never
dies with the man. The great Caesar
fell only to be succeeded, after brief inter-
regnglm, by representative of his family and
hio opJ tho baca aHOrt of Rrutuc and
Cassius to rescue the Roman republic resulted
in its total destruction. Booth in killing
Abraham Lincoln gave the Presidency to an
unworthy successor, but even his treachery
did not prevent the triumph of the principles
which Lincoln represented. Indeed, there is
little doubt that the assassin struck a terribly
injurious blow at the Southern interests he
was most anxious to promote. After the
triumph of the national armies, the martyred
President was anxious to complete the work
of reconstruction on a liberal and generous
basis. His heart overhowed with charity for
his vanquished foes, and he could have exer-
cised an influence over Congress, in inclining
it to adopt a lenient policy, which Johnson
was wholly unable to acquire. All the harsher
features of reconstruction are directly attr
butable to the assassination Without it, the
establishment of negro suffrage would have
been extremely difficult, if not impossible
The South would not have been cut up into
military districts and placed under the stern
rule of the officers of the late war The
wishes of the leading Rebels would have been
consulted, and their suggestions would have
received a favorable consideration whenever
it could have been justly granted. Booths
crime, followed closely by Johnson's stubborn
treachery, inevitably led to the adoption of a
widely different policy Indignation was
aroused in millions of patient Northern
breasts that might easily have been moved
by ths> gentle promptings of pity, and Con-
g5fess faithfully represented public sentiment
IN insisting upon every restriction and every
guarantee that the nature of the case enabled
the wisest of radical statesmen to devise.
Thus in our own time and country has his
tory repeated one of its most frequent and
impressive lessons A curse seems to accom-
pany cowardly conspiracies. They carry with
them their own condemnation. The onlypossi-
BILE pretext for them is in those countries
whose government is defined to be "a despot-
ism tempered by assassination, but they
rarely result in even seeming good IN SUCH
nations; and in every land where there Is a
semblance of freedom left, or the slightest
chance for promoting reforms by legitimate
means, they are as suicidal in their conse-
quences as they are base and wicked in their