American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-08-06

lawyer, sometimes rs a theologian, but
whenever an election ycai came
around he turned up instantly as
a politician. To be politician meant
to him simply to put himself in the way
of getting an Office. and of getting an
office which he would never have
dreamed of aspiring to under Il sys en-
of competitive examination wherein his
character would have been tested. Thus
"the 81 oils system made Guiteau Il
"pOlitician, and the fact that Guitcau
was "a politician" made the man
ayers of the Republican MACHINE AFRAID
during an election to offend him. Now
the Republican managers all agree that
he is bad man in every way-a weak
and worthless villain. OF course lie is.
But so he was, too, when he made
campaign speeches against General
Hancock, and so were and so are now
IA great many more political tramps in
both parties. Yet the party managers
listen " them and contiliate them and
get offices for them aud pet them never
theless. These political tramps attend
political meetings, form the body guard
of the machine and applaud the party
orators. Now, suppose the law made
it impossible for these political tramps
to aspire to offices. is it not clear that
they would cease to exist as politicians
and be compelled to do the best they
could. if not as Lawyers and theologi-
ans, then as navvies and street-sweep-
ers? Guiteau believed, and for aught
that appears he had some reason to be-
lieve, himself quite as intelligent rs
many OF his fellow tramps appointed to
fill cOnsulates and clerkships either by
No hn al A RI is,f,
ton.
When the trial of Guiteau comes off
we shall doubtless be told that the av-
age political tramp who fails to get an
Office does not attempt to take the life
of the President or the Governor from
whom he hoped to get it, and therefore
that Guiteau, being an exceptional po-
litical tramp. must be accounted insane
and his life not be forfeited to the law.
Can office-seeking in America become
such an insane impulse? To hold that
it can would be comfortable doctrine
for the political tramps. But Judges
may eXpound whatever law they like
to expound to juries. and experts may
expoiind whatever novel theories OF in
sanity they can concOct, but no jury,
unless a Jury made up of political
tramps will ever acquit Guiteau.
What the statf,tes defines as murder
the lawyers and Judges of each State
may be left to say. But do not many
political partisans, even above the rank
OF tramps, in holly contested Partisan
canvass or in condition of affairs like
that in Albany to-day, commit that
crime in the realm of the thoughts and
wishes and make themselves guilty of it
as it stands defined, fol. example, in the
Sermon on the Mount? In that code
murderous temper is murder. "Who-
soever hateth his brother is a murder
err If men are to be Judged by that
law, what shall be said of the half breed
hatred now so distinctly manifested
within the Republican party against the
stalwartsp And is not that hatred
fruit of 1.-THE spoils system?'' What
else is there to give it birth? There are
no issues of doctrine or of patriotism
adequate to divide the Republican party
as it is now divided. Are not these fu-
rious party factionists in and out of the
press, each and all of them as clearly
mad as Guiteau can be proved to be, if
intense hatred born of the greed of Of
fec can be accounted as madnessP-N
\. World.