Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-07-14
SHOOTING THE PRESIDENT,
OPINIONS OF TIE Press.

p" w So"H'NNSo Silto uSCu VI hOfTOr Struck
to kill and rejoices in his Internal triumph.
lie claims himself Stalwart of tho Stall
warts and Copklng tnao, and boasts that
tho murdered the President os a political ne !.
ccssity to make Arthur President and rc-
unite tho Republican party Doubtless he
is orazy--the fact is duly certified to by his
anteccdcnts--but not tho most consummate
cratt could have planned political assas-
sinat!on SO opportuncly for the purposes of
the Stalwart chicfs who are benefited by it..
The blow was struck Just in tho nick Of
time to save them FROM utter overthrow. A
single life lay between them aud the full
possession of that power and patronage
which they counted as tho ohiefest Of
earthly goods and for which they had
struggled with tho lirm desperation Of hun.
cry wolves, and that life has been snuired
by murderer"
New YonK, July 4.-.Thc Times says
the Presidents life was assaulted BY a
wretch who represents an distinctly the evil
in our system as President Gorfeld rcpres
sents tho good. For though the murderer
was obviously Of disordercd mind it is
impossible to ignore the causes which led
immediately to this act or which directed
his i'll regulated will to its fiual aim. He
was disappointed oflico seeker and he
linked tho bitterness of his present disaD-
pointment with the passionate aninosity of
a factlop. Ills resentment was iunamed
aud intensified by tho assaults upon the
President which have been common IN too
many circles for the past few months.
Certainly VIC arc far from holding any party
responsible for this murdcrous act, but wo
believe it our duty to point out that the act
was on exaggerated expression of u scnti-
mcnt of parrow and bitter hatred which
has been only too freely iudulgcd
The Staats Zcitung. in the course of an
elaborate article, says: 1t cannot be denied
that kind Of national disease has a great
deal to do with this terrible event. There
may he no just cause for comparing the
decentralization produced by oiicc-scekius
with socialism and philism, but whcn
Office seekers hecome mad just as socialists
and Dihiists do when tho madness Of tho
one drives them to the snme outrage uvainst
civilization us the madness of the other, il
is not to be wondered ut when mankind
condemns oil in the same way. The Amcri.
people have to protect not only their PRESS
dcnts but thcmselves against tho growing
evils Of the spoila system, which ia ut the
bottom Of even this tradegy. Tha, system
threatens to become as destructive to our
institutions as so iuism aud u,hilism to the
institutions of the old world. Mr.. Gar
fields death would be national calamity,
still because his successor is one of tic
worst representatives. Of tho spoils system.
The Tribune says there was not u man
IN this country who seemed at sunrise Sat.
Drday moro safe from murdcrous assaults.
To day the whole nation bows in sorrow;
the noble President, statesman whose deeds
have already houored the nation throughout
tho world; genial iiicud, tender husband
aod loving father has fallen by the shot Of
an assassin There was no personal quarrel.
1t does not appear that the victim had ever
known or seen his assailant. There is
absolutely nothing to account for this
terrible deed, which, to II great nation, is n
terrible calomity, except crazy spirit of
fuction.
The Hcru13 says Should Garfield die
his iatc would be national calamity. :hc
attempt appears to be only the wild act Of
of mEdman. Demonstration could hardly
make the fact rlnjner than it now is that
the assassin was crazy and that he acted
under an insane impu'sa in his conception
that to have refused him an Office was an
outrage that called for deep sense of
irreparahle wrong at his h., art. 1t is a
crlme utterly without excuse, baso and
damnablo. Words will wholly fail to givo
expression to tho feeling that will crowd for
uttcrancc from every honest heart. AS the
news of outrage upon tho human race
speeds from ono branch to another Of the
family of nations, they cannot but sit in
silence aud nurse bitter wrath which they
cannot hope to adequately express.
The World says The whole American
people, without distinction of party, will
breathe moro freely this morning to know
that their elected chief magistrate, who
was yesterday stricken down by the hand of
an assassin, still lives and thut some reason.
able hopes of his recovery arc still enter.
tanned, but if the worst is already over at
Washington lot Us not ubduy estimate, in
our thanktulness, the weight of the blow that
was yesterday struck at the pormanencc Of
free institutions, aud therefore at the honor,
glory and greatness of the United States.
For that blow was struck, not by the
wrctchcd assassin who now awaits the Just
punishment Of his crime, but by the pc, pie
Of the United States themselves. Whom
but themselves can they rightcously hold
accountable if tho person of the American
has ceased to Gc more sacred ip
the eyes of a vulgar and brutal seeker after
place and pay than is the executive Office
itself in tho eyes of myriads of respectable,
prosperous citizens who have abandoned
politics to tho "machino?"
CHICAGO, July 3.--rhe Inter. Ocean to-
day says: Throughout the day and night
Tho people watched with the suffering