Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1881-07-07
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THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1881.
What 1t Teaches.

What 1t Teaches.
Let whatever may, have been the
motive power of the act Of Saturday
last; let it be the rash and irresponsi.
bic act Of maniac; let it be political
plot based on supposed wrong or sup.
posed necessity; let it be the first out
cropping of the plant but lately root
ed in our soil, communism, socialism
or nihilism, let It be any of these or
another, none can fail to appreciate
the power to do evil vested in one un-
scrupulous man, even though alone, to
PROSTATE government, to unsettle a
nation Of people and to turn or stop
the course of peaceful and prosperous
business. That there is required a
more powerful motive, than mere per-
sonal pique or disappointment to drive
one to the committal Of so reaching
an act, we must believe. We cannot
conceive, nor do we admit the posi-.
bility Of simple individual hatred, be-
gotten by disappointment or other
causes, as being Of itself sufficient mo-
tive power to drive any oue to the act
of assassinating ruler. While it may
readily and does furnish criminal cas-
es beyond enumeration in ordinary
life, we can yet see that more is re-
quired to commit the same act on the
person Of President or King than
persons in ordinary life. The Presi,
dent and The King, in the mind of ev-
cry being, becomes the embodiment
and persouiieation oflaw and govern
ment, and his life is vested with q
charm or protection, by virtue Of his
official position not possessed by 9th
ers and for the breaking Of which
charm or the defiance Of which pro
lection, is required a motive deeper
seated and more enduring than can be
any begotten by individual or purely
personal feeling.
If Giteau be maniac, he is but a
monomaniac and has become such not
alone, but by extraueous teaching, di,
rect, or indirect, and has absorbed and
brooded over ideas Of others until his
mind naturally Of a vicious bent has
become morbid and his sensibilites
blunted to a degree sufficient to &C
count for his atrocious act.
That he has been the cats paw of
any domestic political plot, we can
never believe, without direct and pos
tive evidence; that a simple refusal
to appoint him to Office will account
for the act is not probable; or that
there is any determined or generally
organized effort on the part of Com
munisn, Socialism or Nihilism in this
country is to us equally incredible.
Not TO anyone Of these sources do
we attribute the motive that impelled
Giteau to assassinate President Gar
field, but that combination Of the
three it may. we think, be readily as
cribed
In the first place, he is disap.
pointed ofice-seeker and this furnish
es the personal motive: again, the
war against the President, in his own
party. had for ITS casus beM the iden-
tical principle that furnished Giteaus
personal ill-will; and further, his past
life shows that he lived and acted in
accord with the principles Of all the
vicious "isms" to which we have re-
ferred His late importantly at the
White House, in quest Of Office proves
our first proposition; his own words
in his letter proves our second and
Lis past life furnishes ample proof Of
our third, hence, we are ready to &C
cept these three, jointly as the inau.
ences that impelled him to the horr-
bic deed
The duty Of American citizens in
their treatment of these three evils
need not be enlarged upon, for if we
ere right IN our judgment, as to what
led Glteau to bis act Of murder, that
act in itself speaks more eloquently,
than can any language, pointing us
to our path of duty through the by
dtas that are rearing their heads in
our land.