The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-08-20

| ical position oe found to avow their
! complicity in such rascally piece OF
espionage as that which was practIf CT
recently in Albany. In no other civil
lied country would public journals
which pretended to responsibility have
given detailed reports of such per-
formance.
But such things as these, disgusting
and discouraging as in themselves they
are, at least give us the assurance that
we know The worst that can be credibly
charged of the rascalities as well as OF
the corruption of American politics.
Republican institutions are not really
put in peril by a knot of bribers and
bride takers and spies and sneaks in
Albany, nor by a murderous and fanatic
fool in Washington. 1t is to the de-
meanor of the people in the face OF o
great and sudden crisis in National al
fairs that we must look If we are to
Judge how far the moral soundness and
the moral self-restraint of the American
people have been affected by the un-
questioned degeneration of the race OF
American politicians.
/ 1t must be admitted that the ordeal
which the American people have thus
been called upon to go through has
been brayely sustained The flrst and
most striking fact to be noted is that
the miserable scramble Of our current
politics is absolutely ignored by all de-
1 cent persons in discussing the public ca
lamity. TIE tone in which men and
newspapers speak of Fuiteau's crime
and of its victim is thelsame whether 1t
is taken by Democrats or by members
OF either faction of Republicans. The
Presidents position as p political leader
is forgotten altogether in the presence
| of this crime. 1t is remembered only
that he is the President of the
United States, and that in his person
the majesty of the Nation has been out
ragged. What is technically said of al
crimes of violence is felt to be especial
ly and intensely true of the dastardly
crime of Guiteau. tits acrime against
the peace of the people of the United
States and their dignity" The uni
versal and unaffected sorrow which pre-
vailed on the last Fourth of July had this
of brightness and of promise in it, that
not for many anniversaries of our indie
pendeuce had the bond OF patriotism
been so sensibly felt as it was felt on
this anniversary. The calamity of a
foreign war has this compensation, and
this is the compensation which mas also
now been brought with it by pub ic
crime. For Nations, as for men, it may
be better to go to the house of mourn.
ing than to the house of feasting: and
the sudden SOLDERING Of what would
otherwise have been the unrestrained
jubilation of the country in its mate
rial prosperity should induce more use
full and more wholesome re lections than
any. that the Fourth of July orators
might institute upon the rapid agrand.
izement of country, the greatness oil
which does not protect its chosen chiel
from the assassin's pistol.
The revival, or rather the disclosure
of patriotism as practical and positive
sentiment in a community of eagermer
of business, is in itself most valuable
But it is not more valuable than the
self-command which the attempt upor
the lie of the President has demon
strated to exist in all classes of the com
munity. 1t is this general habit of self
control which is, in the last resort, the
security for the permanence of Gov
eminent founded upon universal sui
frage, and which many observers have
feared would give way before the in
creasing tides of immigration from
countries of which the political institu
tons neither require or develop thai
republican virtue. Not since the muir
der of Lincoln has the self-control o
the American people been so severed,
tried as the attack upon Garfield. A
no time has it ever withstood trial NOR,
successfully. For the detestable Grim,
of Guiteau, if it should fail of Guiteau'
intention to do murder, the pun
ishment provided BY law is evi
IDENTITY and confessedly inadequate. Ant
yet no suggestion has been mad,
from any responsible press or person
that the failure of the law to provide
full justice shall be supplemented BY
giving unlawful sway to the common
sense of Indignation and the common
impulse to revenge In this the de
meanor of the American people is more
dignified in 1881 than it was in 1865
The drum-head court martial which wa.
organized to try the assassins of Lin
coin was unknown I'd the law, and moi
only did justice not according to law,
but, as is now acknowledged, did in one
case cruel as well as lawless injustice
The assassin of Garfield turns from hi,
crime to be collared by q policeman
and treated precisely as if he had at
tackled the humblest instead of the
most highly-place man in Washington
And the people. therefore, in one OF the
most exciting crises of their history
have made it clear that the disturbance
of the war period has passed away ant
that they live. and mean to live. under
a Government not of passions but o.
laws NJ Y. World