Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-21
Post Hoe. Non Propter Hoe.

Although it has become q trulSm to say
that " history repeats itself,' there are
few individual facts in history of which
one would care to prophesy an exact repe-
tition !; for as the great facts arc generally
the logical outcome of peculiar circum-
stances, SO, as the circu I, st ances can never
take place again, the sulating fact can
never happen. The ass assination Of Mr..
Lincoln, forslnstance, u nexpected as it was
does not seem SO very unnatural persO hen
consider the tone and temper of who We
were opposed to him. As the any nal
head Of the nation, upon him was concen.
trated the hate which could lot be visited
upon that impersonal called the govern
ment." 1t was believed by fanatic that
if the president were removed the govern
ment perishes. 1t was never thought that
Booth had any personal grudge towards
Mr.. Lincoln as man. He loved the
South and hated the North, and the meas.
ure of the crime was the measure of that
love and hate. 1t was an awful crime,
brutal and cowarily, yet not to be entirely
unexpected when the state Of the times is
considered.
Just as brutal was the attack on Presi-
dent Garfield, while at the same time it
was utterly unexpected; there was not
seemingly, the shade of a shadow Of rea-
son for it. \ flash of lightning out of the
clear blue sky, the ground opening and
swallowing up our city, would not seem
more unnatural occurrences. There was no
excitement, as in the old war times, out of
which the possibilities of such crime
might take their growth. Mr.. Garfield is
not known to have any personal enemies,
and even those who opposed his election
for political or party reasons have accept
ed the fiat of the popular will, and have
been tOlerably content. So far was
any motive for the deed from being
apparent that the first conclusion
to which men jumped was the
manifest insanity of the perpetrator.
Afterwards they cndeavored to find a re.
mote cause for the crime in the exciting
conditions of the civil service and the
mode of distributing what are called the
"spoils of office. but hero "the wish was
father to the thought )" they have earn
estly desired to find the cause there, and
they are convicted that it is there. They
have found the post hoe. which they
want to make the propter hoe: they have
discovered u sequence which they turn
into consequence. Who killed Cor tried
to kilI the president The 'spoils sys-
TEN !" Now "spoils system is good !;
it is phrase to conjure with, it is COM
pact, it is sOnOrOus, it is alliterative, it
sums up the whole matter it settles the
question without delay.
Grant for a moment that Guiteau was
maddencd by his failure to obtain an Of
flee. Suppose that Offices were conferred
upon some other plan, that of competitive
examination, for instance, and that after
several trials he had failed to pass, and
conceiving himself personally injured. had
killed one or two of the examiners. Now,
would everybody who objected to that
mode of comforting office raise the hue aud
cry that the service was ut fault, and de
mand an immediate change? If they did,
they would be just as consistent and lOgl.
cal as the men who say that the present
civil service system has anything to do
with Guiteau's act. 1t happened, of course.
while certain system was in vogue, just
as it happened while tho comet was in
sight but it would he just as logical to
say it was the result Of tho comet as to
claim that it was the result of the system.
There is no need to search for remote
aud recOndite reasons for the crime, or to
charge it upon this or that system. When
things are quieted and men begin to con-
slider the matter calmly and dispassiOn-
ately, We shall be very much surprised if
it is found necessary to go outside of the
general character of the man to search for
motives to such decd. Inordinatc vanity
is motive enough to such 4 ono as he.
Here is a man acknowledged by every one
to be nuisance, lOafer, who makes what
precarious living he gets by what little
wits he has. He bcgs, borrOws, spOnges,
and perhaps steals. He is reduced to tho
last extremity. He owes for his daily sub
and nobody will trust him any
more. He cannot dig, and if he begs no.
body will give to him. Nothing remains
for him but to die. His only solace is sui
eide. But he is too much of 4 coward to
kill himself directly; and then, too, his
vanity clamors to know
what the people would say of him, and
there are no reporters in the place to which
his suicide would consigu him. Now, if
he kills another, that will bc virtually
killing himself. And if that other bo the
president, the greater will be the excite
nent and the notoriety. If he hangs for
it he will at least have made figure in the
He prefers to die as Il hero
on the scaffold rather than rs beggar in
4 garrct. lie is i dime novel HerOstra-
tuS.
Vanity, love of notoriety, was tho sole
reason. In OxfOrd's attack upon Queen
the jury, indeed, found him mot
guilty Oh the ground Of insanity" very
likely because they shrank from the terrible
of a verdict of guilty Oh i
charge of high treason. Taylor, in his
work entitled "Mcdical Jurisprudence"
by the English one of the best
in such matters, expressly de-
clares that with the exception of ono other
case, "there is perhaps none on record,
where tho facts in support of the plea of
were so slight as in that of Ok
ford" After Oxford had been confined
for ten years in the "Bedlam," he was
visited by gentleman to whom he talked
very freely about his crime and its punish
ment. On being askccd why he commit
ted the assault, he replied: go, l was
, fool; it was just to get myself
talked about, and kick up Il dust.
good horsc-whipping was what l
These were his exact words, his
luestioner says. lie admitted to his WIS.,
tor that he had committed a very great
offence in having done anything to alarm
the queen, and attributed it entirely to a
and foolish love of notoriety.
He said 81 thought it would set every
body talking and wondering. l never
dreamed what would como of it-least of
Ill that was to be shut up all my life in
;his place." When asked, "That list of
and letters from them that
we're found in your lodgings-werc they
not real ?" his answer was " o, no all
mere sham, only nonsense. There never |
was anything of the sort. 1t was
. very absurd joke. 1 did not think it