American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-07-30

!
bride takers and spies and sneaks in
Albany, nor by murderous and fanatic
fool in Washington. 1t is to the de.
mcanor of the people in the face of a
great and sudden crisis in National af
fairs that we must look il we are to
Judge how far the moral sOundness and
the moral self-restraint of the American
people have been affected by the I'M
questioned degeneration OF the race OF
American politicians.
1t must be admitted that the ordeal
which the American people have thus
been called upon to so through has
been braveiy sustained. The first and
most striking fact to be noted is that
the miserable scramble of our current
politics is absolutely ignored by all de-
cent persons in discussing the public ca
lamity. Tie tone in which men and
and of its victim is the same whether 1t
is taken by Democrats or by members
OF either faction of Republicans. The
Presidents position as a political leader
is forgotten altogether in the presence
of this crime. 1t is remembered only
that he is the President of the
United States, aud that in his person
the majesty of the Nation has been out
ragged. What is technically said of all
crimes of violence is felt to be especial
ly and intensely true of the dastardly
crime of Guiteau. tits crime against
the peace of the people of the United
States and their dignity" The uni
versal and unaffected sorrow which pre-
vailed on the last Fourth of July had this
of brightness and of promise in it, that
not for many anniversaries of our indie
pendeuce had the bond of patriotism
! Col = fa1t IN
this anniversary. The calamity of q
foreign war has this compensation, and
this is the compensation which has also
now been brought with it by public
crime. For Nations, as for men, it may
be better to 90 to the house of mourn
ing than to the house of feasting; and
the sudden SOLDERING of what would
otherwise have been the unrestrained
jubilation of the country in its mate
rial prosperity should induce more use
full and more wholesome re fections than
any that the Fourth of July orators
might institute upon the rapid agrand-
izement of a-couutry, the greatness of
which does not protect its chosen chief
fromsthe assassin's pistol. al 10,
TheFevival, OF rather the disclosure
of patriotism as practical and positive
sentiment in a community of eager men
of business, is in itself most valuable.
But it is not more valuable than the
self command which the attempt upon
the life of the President has demon
strated to exist in all classes of the COM
munity. 1t is this general habit of self
! control which is, in the last resort, the
security for the permanence of Gov
eminent founded upon universal suf-
frage, and which many observers have
feared would give way before the in
creasing tides of immigration from
countries of which the political institu-
tons neither require or develop that
republican virtue. Not since the MUIR
der of Lincoln has the self-contrOl of
the American people been so severely
tried as the attack upon Garfield. At
no time has it ever withstood trial more
successfully. For the detestable crime
of Guiteau, if it should fail of Guiteau' s
| intention to do murder, the pun
ishment provided by law is evil
IDENTIFY and confessedly inadequate. And
yet no suggestion has been made
| from any responsible press or person
that the failure of the law to provide
giving unlawful sway to the common
sense of Indignation and the common
impulse to revenge. In this the de-
meanor of the American people is more
/ digniiied in 1881 than it was in 1865.
The drum-head court-martial which was
organized to try the assassins of Lin
coin was unknown to the law, and not
only did justice not according to law,
but, as is now acknowledged, did in one
case cruel as well as lawless injustice.
The assassin of Garfield turns from his
crime to be collared by a policeman
and treated precisely as if he had at
tackled the humblest instead of the
most highlyrplaced man in Washington.
And the people. therefore. in one OF the
most exciting crises of their history,
have made it clear that tho disturb ance
of the war period has passed away and
that they live, and mean 70 live. under
Government not of passions but OF
laws N. Y. World.