Jamestown alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1882, 1881-09-30
MEMORIAL ADDRESS
Delivered Mt the Presbyterian Church,
jamestown, Sunday, Sept.
25th, 1881, by
Re v. n. ID. flaming.

The names Of Abraham Lincoln and
James A. Garfield are radiant with the
lustre that years cannot etface. The for.
mer passed over sixteen years ago
with eye undimmed and vigor un-
abated to his realm of activity on
the unseen shore A great nation melted
into tears, stood with bowed and uncover
ed heads by the side of the casket which
bore all that was mortal Of the great mar
tyred president to It's narrow home. Now,
after months Of alternating hope and fear
that nation awakes from the slumher
of the night to hear the bells tolling the
mournful tidngs that the latter, after
heroic struggle for life, has yielded to the
inevitable and waved his final adieu to
wife, and children, and mother, and
friends, and the nation he loved and hon
orcd, and gone to rest from pain These
great names stand linked together in clos
est brotherhood. From lowest walks of
humble life they sprang; by the self-de-
nying discipline of honest toll they rose !;
with statesmanlike breadth of mind and
sagacious practical common sense were
they endowed; with a stalwart pride of
character which disdaincd the arts of the
demagogue and with a genius for liberty
which made them representative men
gathering into their own personality the
foremost thoughts and impules Of human
freedom that lie crude and uniformed in
the great popular heart. they were rccog-
nizcd everywhere as a standing menace to
every form Of tyranny and faction of the
people and for the people their lives were
associated with the cause of the masses
true children Of the Goddess of Liberty
and worthy of that illustrious
parentage. Each stepped to the
summit of power in the nation
when the spirit of usurpation was wildly
demanding the perogativcs of sovereignty
and with q mad infatnation was deter
mined to seize them or perish in the at
tempt each resisted because his large and
intense individuality so filled the throne
to which the s,ltfrages of the people had
raised him that there was no room for
other men to stand there. The choicest
gem Of literature and morals and pO!itlcals
science glitter in their published speeches
and public documents like polished pearls,
and their great deeds will live while men
endure. And to seal their brotherhood
each was singled out as the victim Of the
assassin s shot. Aud for what cause?
When ferocious tyrant gains an as
tendency over Il people and crushes them
under his relentless sway; when he as
sails all the securities Of life, liberty, and
property; tramples under foot all human
rights; and subjects all interests, public
and private, to cruel and bloody caprice,
it is to be expected that the Instinct of
self preservation, strong in human nature,
and wisely bestowed for the preservation
Of the race and OF its institutions, will en-
| body itselfin man. and execute vengence
and dcliverancc by the swift methods Of
assassination. Yet such is the sanctity
! with which human life is hcdged about
and 50 profound is the oft-unuttercd and
and unconscious belief in the sway of
experimenting Providence among nations
ald SO deeply dangerous is such Il prccc-
dent that it is q question whether, even I'M
! der such coalition of circumstances i'm
possible within the range of our modern
! civilization, the pistol shot or the dagger
stroke which laid low the public enemy,
could be justified. And it is certain that
the genuine Christian spirit VIII hesitate
! long before it will consent, under any cir
! cuElsancCs, to be an apologist for asSassi-
nation. And certainly there is no justiii-
cation for it i'll land Ike ours, where
constitutional guarantees are SO effective,
! and balances OF power are maintained
with such Jealous care and by such pow
Crful checks, and where such a man as
James A. Garfield was, whose heart was
! as gentle as q woman's, and whose impul
scs were as kindly, and whose life was as
guilcless as that of child, is the ruler
and the victim.
The murder of our Chief Magistrate
bears deeper significance than simply d
sad result of all insane mans chance
freak AS the thunder bolt lcaping from
the bosom of the gathering storm and
shifting the lofty object which by its very
| n1+ fn tto ind fno
the existence and unsettled condition of
invisible foes threatening the demolition
of the work of years in moment of time,
so this daring and ferocious deed points
to the deep and urgent perils floating in
the social and political atmosphere which
envelopes our institutions. That usurp-
ing spirit that would seize upon vested
rights by unscrupulOus methods and per-
vert them to selfish and ambitious ends
that artful, sly-working spirit that would
organize voiceless but potential rebel
lion in the ranks of party against the con-
stitutional prerogatives OF the presiden-
tial incumbent; that arrogant spirit that
chafcs restively under legitimate restraints
and loudly clamors for, or maliciously
plots after, or sternly demands place and
patronage, furnish the adequate inspira-
ton for such deeds as this; and it needs
and grasping ambitions to make them
probable
Had it not been for the issues and dis
sensions which this naughty and domi-
ncering spirit had prccipitatcd into the
councils Of the nation the assassin would
not have stumbled upon his prcteXt, nor
have been fired with the murderous in
tent of violently ending this particular. life
"a life which with heroic intrepidity was
set over against the rising tide of political
intrigue and chicanery.
But if this bloody sacrifice laid upon
the altar of the nation and for
the natiou and held there through
eleven long weeks in the agony
minds Of the people sense of national
peril and guilt, and shall deepen the hith-
erto faint calls for reform into stentorian
mandates that must be obeyed, some little
atonement will have been made. But
so long as honest efforts at reform are met
by the cold, sinister sncer Of naughty men
by the cunning intrigus of witty, weak
men-by the skillful distractions OF trained
diplomats-and by the cross fire of vicious
and determined men; so long as admins
trations that presume to seek earnest re-
form are loaded to the very waters edge
by all the burdens that an ingenious NAL
ice can manufacture or devise, and arc
pclted with an inccsSant storm Of petty
prosecutions too small to be noticed in de.
tail, but overwhelmingly burdensome in
their aggregate; while other administra-
tions either too indolent to do the work or
too obtuse to see the infinite disgrace of
such an abdication of official duty and
power, are petted and caressed and lauded
to the very brink of absurdity, so long
will the conflict in federal politics contin-
ue; and if ever Augean Stables needed
cleansing, our national politics do But
time and again have the questions re-
cured, 'sWh here is the Hercules to do this
work ?'' and, 'sWhere are the rivers AL
pheus and Peneus whose purifying waters
can be turned into them p
Ii our dead president shall prove to
have been the Hercules accomplishing by
his tragic death the grand design which
Illuminated his noble life-if his blood and
the tears of stricken and penitent peo-
pie shall arouse sufficient moral energy to
sweep away the accumulated filth and
| hind o1osnr ,,r,ity pf ctataS