The Portland daily press., 1878-05-08
The Lesson Of Vera SassuIitch.

Vera Sassulitch, he girl who was arrested
and brought to trial for the attempt to assas-
sinate the Russian chief of police, General
Trepoff, has already come to be national
heroine, and the Nihilsts find in her the
symbol of the new Russia for which they so
ardently long. The man whom she at
tempted to kill was looked upon with
deeper hatred than any man in the empire.
He has been an absolute tyrant in bis de-
partment, arresting without evidence and
condemning without appeal, sending his vic
tins to the mines OF Siberia or sentencing
them to the block or the terrible ignominy
of the knout, as the fancy seized him. He
began his detestable career in Poland, where
he made himself notorious among cruel Of
ficers of the law by condemning the noblest
ladies of Warsaw to be fogged. In the in
surrection of 1868 he achieved monumental
infamy, and hunted conspirators down for
pastime. 1t is said that so terrible was his
rule that the Polish priests absolved in ad.
vance any Pole who should have the courage
to assassinate him. His cunning, zeal and
courage led to his promotion, and when the
Nihilst conspiracies were first suspected he
was appointed chief of the St. Peters burg
police. In that Office he has equalled Fouche
in efficiency and tar surpassed him in cruelty.
No feeling of mercy found place in his heart.
He was as brutal as merciless in his methods.
The man became an object of universal de-
testation, ard the Nihilists have long sought
his death. Perhaps they had it in mind to give
new application to the old definition of the
Russian monarchy, that it is "a despotism
tempered by assassination" But the reck.
less courage Of Trepoff has for long time
defeated all attempts upon his life. The lat
est attempt, and the boldest, was made by the
young girl, Vera Sassulitch, who appears to
have acted like Charlotte Corday, on her
own volition. She had never seen Trepoff
before the day she shot at him. She was a
fanatical Nihilist, but does not seem to have
confded her project to her friends. Unsuc-
cessful, she was arrested. But the arrest
was the signal for an outbreak of sympathy
which the Government did not dare to with
stand. The system which made Trepoff pos
sble was denounced on every hand. The
| Russian press was nearly unanimous in its
expression of exultation. The Gear wisely
took warning, and declined to treat the Of
fence as a political one. She was tried for an
attempt at murder, and the jury, in face Of
the most direct evidence of her guilt, unani-
mously acquitted her. The Government
went even further in its Difference to public
opinion. Trepof has been removed from
office and disgraced.
| The Government has been wise in yielding
to the popular demand for the removal OF
this universally detested official; but it is a
| question if its concession has not come too
late. The Nihilists have made the name Of
Vera Sassulitch rallying cry, and her attempt
at murder is regarded as a heroic act by the
majority of Russians. The feeling of revolt
is deepening instead of lessening. The en-
thusiasm with which the people regard this
young girl indicates some great uprising oil
the oppressed in what the French journalists
felicitously call "the empire of discomfort" !"
The Chicago papers are enjoying them
| selves hugely these spring davs airing thei,