The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-05-24
Assassination as "a Political
Remedy
From the n. o Times.l

lAAphA lLAS 49, - AALNF
Assassination never redressed a pub
hc wrong or established a peoples
liberty.
There Is no truth more indeEblv re-
corded in history than the utter futiliEv
of resOrting to q system of personal
cline as q remedy against a system of
political oppression.
In every inst ace where the assassin's
hand has struck q fatal blow in the
name Of delivering q class or a com
munIty, 1t has only taste, bound the
throw off.
Yet in times of profound POLITICAL ex-
element, attended by some eGualIv
profound political movement, the"e are
certain natures in which passionate on
position to the movement always tends
to run into criminal violence.
Those who are possessed by such a
frenzy see the evolving force which
hurts or yexes them, not as a subtle
sp1IrlC qualifying the age to which they
nelong' p~erVadlng the society of which
t4ey are a part, at work in the inexor-
aoie i9glc OF events upon which they
borne like drift and frOth upon the tide
But they see it only in it's asnects Of -
personal manifestation, as embodied IN
a lew odIous individuals, or perhans in
n supreme object of fear and hafrad
1t was this sort of fury and infatua-
ton that impelled the c0nspiratOrs who
wrought the assassination of ,TnIiI1S
caesar. Ihey imagined that this single
man, ana he only, stood between them
ana the restoration of the old rpnnhIic
OF t4elr fathers, with its impassahio
g s3nniIL,oe between &c ne patrican and plebian
classes Therefore, though he was the
most magnanlm0Us of their political
enemies, though he had spared and be-
Irlended when he could have DESTROYED
elen' tney advantage of his elem
ency and confidence to slay him.
And what did those fanatinoI rooo-
tlonists : %3cOmplish by Cp1aT's taking
Oft? 1t BROUGHT speedy and iTrefrinT97
able ruin to them and their adherents.
and precipitated the establishment for
centuries to come, of the imperial rnIn
Which they thought to avert by Killing
this one man. 9
Examples of a like import might he
multiplied. But the enumeration wouid
be tedious. One of the latest is also
the most eloquent. The shot that laid
Abraham Lincoln low added intenser
bitterness to the fate of the defeated
PROSTATE people whom it was in
tended to avenge, and hurried on, with
a remorSelesS progress, the revolution
which a few desperate plotters dreamed
OF arrestlng by putting out of the way
In such cases, it may be possible for
assassination to work its will mon q.
fey persons cOnspicuously Identified
with a detested state of things and
course OF events. But a system, a
movement, the expression Of mental,
moral and social conditions and ten
denotes that mark the historic
OF the time, cannot be assassinated, II
IS only ideas, not brute force and brute
fury, that i'll the end rule the world.
Let 1t be repeated, then, that assassi-
nation eve redressed a public Wr0nr
OF established a peoples liberty. The
gospel of assassination never did and
never can prove the vindication of n
holy cause, the guarantee of necessary
oder, or the fulillme1t of a salutary
reform. Whenever it becomes largely
installed in popular faith, it leads inevi-
tabI5y to the rig0rs of an iron despotism
or h horrors of a chronic anarchy.