Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-21
THE MAJESTY OF THE Law.
An Earnest Letter from General Sherman
Regard TO tho Assassin.

| An Earnest Letter from General Sherman II
| Regard TO tho Assassin.
The following letter from General Sher
man in the interest Of law and order II
dealing with tho assassin Guiteau, appears
in the Washington Republican
| WAsHIEGToN, Sept. 10, 1SS1--a r. NJ.
Hon. George C. Gorham, National Repu6
lican.-Dear Sir You and l have been
comrades in civil broils and strife in Cali
fornia when vigilance committees assumed
rule, and we know, or think We know, how
good. honest, people have done some acts
| of violence under an honest conviction that
they were doing the right thing, and We
believe that in time the Great Physician
! will cure all things to the patient.
l have occasionally and recently heard
the same arguments on the streets, the
same scraps of wisdom enunciatei, and
now, at this dread hour, when our noble,
brave president is lying in the very agonics
of death at Long Branch, and the coward.
ly, miserable wretch Guiteau is covering
in his cell at the public Jail, it occurs to
me that you and should in our respective
spheres make profitable use of our past
experience.
No man on earth holds in higher esteem
the noble qualities of James A. Garfield
than myself. was on the point of de-
parting for Chattanooga tonight to do
honor to the heroes of Ckickamauga, OF
whom he was one of the most prominent,
but was stayed by the unfavorable report
from his bedside at noon, and shall re-
main here at my post of duty till the last
moment of hope.
At Chickamauga eighteen years ago
Garfield was chief Of staff to General Rose
Grams, whose right wing was broken back
by the vehement charges of Bragg's
forces, and was carried along with the
broken masses into Chattanooga, when he
begged for the privilege Of returning to
join General George H. Thomas, whose
guns told him that heroic man still stood
fast with his left wing. General Rose
Grams gave him the leave, and he did re-
turn, running the gauntlet, joining Gen.
cral Thomas and serving close to his per-
son until night enabled them to fall back
in good order to Chattanooga.
That was General Garfield's last fight,
in which he felt especial pride and /
know that he intended to be at Chatta.
nooga next Wednesday to celebrate the
event but it is ordered otherwise. for he
now lies by the seashorc on his death-bed,
from wound inflicted by the miserable
wretch Guiteau.
For this man Guiteau 1 ask no soldier,
no citizen, to feel one particle of sympathy.
On the contrary, could make my will the
law, shooting Or hanging would be too
good for him. But, do ask every soldier,
every citizen, to remember that we profess
to be the most loyal nation on the earth
to the sacred promises of the law. There
is no merit in obeying an agreeable law,
but there is glory and heroism in submit
ting gracefully to an oppressive one. Our
constitution reads
"No person shall be held to answer for
a capital or otherwise infamous crime
unless on presentmtnt or indictment of
a grand jury, and in all crimina! prosecu-
tions the accused shall enjoy the the right
to a speedy and public trial by an imnpr-
tial jury of the state and district wherein
the crime shall have been committed
This is the solemn contract of govern
ment binding on the conscience OF all.