Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-08-25
The President.


and his wife is mingled with universal
admiration for the manly courage with
which he has borne himself Throughout
the prolonged doubt and struggle. What
ever the event, his name will always be
mentioned by Americans with grateful
pride as an illustration of these quail
ties which they are fond of believing to
be peculiarly American, and which
charm the popular heart. Like Mr..
Lincoln. President Garfield is noble
representative of the true American, of
those whom Lincoln himself called the
plain people. By that phrase he meant
those who honestly make their own way
WITHOUT the aid of fortunate circum-
stance, and by the force of their own
intelligence. This Includes the great
multitude of Americans. They are the
people who composed the town-meetings
century ago, who, without fury or ex-
travagance of any kind, but with the
most patient endurance and persistent
heroism. overthrow the Kings govern
ment, and organized themselves into a
nation. They had noble leaders, of
course; but leaders must have sOme-
thing to lead. A true leader is but an
advanced figure of men of his own spirit.
Prescott did not win at Bunker Hill by
telling his men to withhold their fire
until they saw the whites of the British
eyes, but by commanding men who were
capable of doing it. D.
| AS the President has lain upon his
bed, between life and death. his strong
body. mspoiled by excess. fayuring at
every point the healing energy of ma
ture. his strong mind cheerfully weigh
ing every chance, and playfully encour-
aging every one around him, has been
as grateful figure to his countrymen
as any of those old heroes whom they
justly and gladly honor. The daily and
almost hourly bulletins from the bed
side at the White House have stirred
every heart as they are stirred by heroic
poetry and tradition. Every generous
man is instinctively proud of a hero.
His herOism is tribute TO the common
humanity. A man is exalted by seeing
what he also may be and do. We do not
live-or die-to ourselves alone.
The universally of the feeling is one
of the striking incidents of this most
critical time. The Chief Magistrate of
a nation lies wrestling with death. But
amid the general and sincere grief there
is no terror or foreboding. Stocks do
not waver or decline. Nobody has the
The vague fear which followed the dis
asters of the war, and especially the as-
sassination of Mr.. Lincoln. The reason
is that the blow is not that of one party
against another, which would tend to
show that we had reached the end of the
republic, the bloody prescriptions of
Sulla and Marius. 1t is the result, in
deed, of an intense and malignant spirit,
of faction; but the cause was at once
seen, and knowing the cause, the patri-
otic good sense of the country can deal
with it. The assassin is of the Presi-
dents party, but he believes that the
President has wronged him and the par
ty by his distribution of patronage. That
is the bitter root which breeds faction
within party, and fans the fires of party
spirit to fury. The remedy lies, of
course, in extirpating the root. e-
Senator ingalls,, of Kansas, in a Com
mencement address at Williams College,
which it was expected the President
would hear, announced that the substi-
tuition of proved fitness for mere favor
itism in appointment is un-American.
1t is painful to hear Senator of the
United States stigmatize opening the
public service to every qualified citizen
as un-American, because it implies that
in his judgment the present despotism
of patronage, which excludes an i'm
mense proportion of Americans from
any chance whatever of entering the
public service, is peculiarly American.
Before Senator Irgalls spoke, however,
1T had been supposed that if there is any
thing peculiarly American, it is fair
play, or, as Jefferson said, equal and
exact justice to all men"-a justice which
if absolutely denied by the system which
Senator ingalls, indirectly and by impli-
cation defends.
But as the President lies low, Demo-
Gratis and Republicans equally share the
sorrow. Indeed, the Legislature of
Georgia, which is Democratic, at once
declared its sympathy and horror; and
in the Republican Legislature of New
York the Democrats, even before the
Republicans forcibly expressed their de-
testation of the deed. Democrats and
Republicans also agree upon the signi-
ficance of the crime and upon the prop
er remedy. One observer says that the
pistol of Guiteau has fatally wounded
the spoils system. However that may
be, it has imperativelY drawn the atten-
tion of the country to the necessity of
abating the fury of factian by obvious
and practicable means.-EDIoR's EASY
CHAIR, in Harper's Magazine for Sept.
THE farmer who waits until after
breakfast to decide what he will do that
day is likely to change his plan half
dozen times before he really gets to