Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-07-04

and affection of bis people, and Is no safer
from the assassin's hand, than the autocrat
OF Russia. We hope that later accounts
will give q more favorable aspect to the
deplorable affair. In the meantime, the
President will have the warm sympathy and
heartfelt wishes of all the people for his
speedy recovery"
NEW YORK, July 2 The Sun, in its arti-
Gle on the attempted assassination of Presi-
dent Garfield, says: ''No event since the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln has ere.
ated such shock. The sensation of pro
found sorrow is universal. The American
people have but one heart to day, and it is
overwhelmed with grief at this sudden, un-
expected and tragic striking down OF their
Chief Executive Magistrate. Fortunately,
deplorable as this terrible event is, and al.
though it will be attended by important per
sonal consequences, the death of General
Garfield will have no political significance. II
was not the work of party or of faction,
but was perpetrated by one man, who is un.
dersrood to have been In state of mental
ALTERATION at the time"
The Times says: "The Presidents life was
assailed by wretch who represents as dis
tinctly the evil in our system as President
Garfield represents the good. For, though
the murderer was obviously of disordered
mind, it is impossible to ignore the causes
which led Immediately to this act-which
directed his III regulated will to its final
aim. He was disappointed oflce-seeker
and he linked the bitterness of his
present disappointment with the passionate
animosity of faction. His resentment was
inhamed and intensified by the attacks upon
the President, which have been common In
too many circles for the past few months
Certainly, we are far from holding a party
or a section of party, responsible for thil
murderous act, but we believe It our duty
to point out that the act was an exaggerated
expression of a sentiment OF the narrow and
bitter hatred which has been only too freely
indulged."
The Stats ZeitaGm9, in the course of an
elaborate article, says: "It cannot be de-
MED that a kind of national disease has q
great deal to do with this terrible event
There may be no just cause for comparing
the Generalization produced by ofice-seek.
ing with Socialism and NihiIism, but when
Office seekers become mad, lust as
Socialists and Nihilists do, when the mad
ness of the one drives them to the same
outrage against civilization as that Of the
other, it is not to be wondered when man.
kind condemns all in the same way. The
American people have to protect not only
the growing evils of the spoils
system, which is at the bottom Of even this
tragedy. That system threatens to become
as destructive to our institutions as Social
ism and Nihilism to the political institutions
of the old world. Mr.. Garfeld's death
would be national calamity, still the more
so because his successor is one of the worst
representatives Of the spoils system"
The Tribune says: president Garfield has
been shot down, not by political faction,
but by spirit which a political faction has
begotten and nursed. But for that spirit
there was hardly a man in this coun-
day more safe from murderous as
saults. To-day the whole nation bows
in sorrow. The noble President-statesma
whose deeds have already honored the
nation throughout the world; the genial,
tender husband, and the loving father, has
fallen by the shot of an assassin. There
was no personal quarrel. It does not ap-
pear that the victim had ever known or seen
his assailant. There is absolutely nothing
to account for this horrible deed, which, to a
great nation, is terrible calamity, except
the crazv spirit of faction"
The Herald says: "Should President Gar
field die his fate would be a national ca
lamitY. The attempt appears to be only the
wild act OF madman. Demonstration
could hardly make the fact palmer than it
now is, that the assassin was crazy and that
he acted under an insane impulse in his con-
ception that to have refused him an Office was
an outrage that called for the sacrifice of a
life. 1t lie plain and clear enough to our
people that the tragedy has no
political relations and is only an expression
OF an insane impulse of an individual. But
abroad, where they imagine US from our
late agitations to be in fever of revolution,
and where they don't know that the limit
of party passion never rises to this height,
the event will be misunderstood and mis-
interpreted and commented upon as one OF
the growing evils of our system"
BosToN, July 2.-The Traveller, speaking
OF the assassination, says: "It is unuttera-
bly, shameful aud inexpressibly sad. Every
friend of reaction, every enemy of liberty,
every champion of strong absolute gov
ernment will take encouragement from this
iniquitous deed. It is plea for the rule of
the Romanoffs and Bonapartes presented at
the bar of history from the land of George
Washington. Every citizen of the republic
will feel to day the hot blush of shame on
his face and deep sense of irreparable
wrongs at his heart. 1t is a crime
utterly without excuse, evil, base and
damnable. Words wholly fail to give ex-
preston to the feelings that will crowd for
u5terance from every honest heart, as news
of this outrage upon the human race spreads
of nations. They cannot but sit In silence
and nurse the bitter wrath which they can
not hope to adequately express"
The World says: "Fhe whole American
people, without distinction of party, will
breathe more freely this morning to know
that their elected Chief Magistrate, who
was yesterday stricken down by the hand
of an assassin, still lives, and that some rea-
sonabie hope of his recovery is still enter
tanned. The worst is already over at Wash
iDgton. Let us not undulY estimate in our
thankfulness the weight of the blow yeeter.
day struck at the permanence of free
institutions, and, therefore, at the honor,
glory and greatness of the United States;
for, that the blow was struck not by the
wretched assassin, who now awaits Just
punishment for his crime, out by the people
of the United States themselves, whom but
themselves can they righteously hold ac-
countable II the person of the American
Executive has ceased to be more sacred in the
eyes of the vulgar and brutal seeker after
place aud pay than is the Executive Office
bic, prosperous citizens, who have aban-
doned politics to the machine"
CHICAGO, July 2.-Hon. Henry Waiter
son, who is IN this city, telegraphs the fol-
lowing editorial to the Courier Journal: at
is hard to say whether the country will be
more appalled, or distressed by the CHASTITY
tidings which comes to US from the nation
al capital. The assassination of the ruler
of people, at all times and under all cir
cumstances dreadful to contemplate, is in
this instance attended by domestic sur
of so touching a description
Il relates to a man of such gentle character
as to carry with 1t sense of personal
bereavement. The President of the
Gfofn hos cfr RI
down in the early morning of what
promised to be a career of political
usefulness, personal honor, happiness and
health, and at least of sinaere devotion to
bis country. 1t is fortunate that the hand
which dealt the blow was not that Of a
Southern man, because If it had been we
should have from one end of the land to the
other a stalwart outcry against the South.
The author of this dire crime seems to be
The merest vagabond, yet he claims to be
and what is there in the character
Of the men In whose name and interest the
Iced was done, and whose desperate for
.unes it saves from destruction, to
rescue them from the suspicion which
would, by change In that authors nativity,
irmly attach itself to the most innocent
people. Mrs. Surratt was hanged on less
evidence than occurs to the
mind as to Roscoe Conkling and Chester A.
Arthur. The vile nature of the contest at
Albany, the despicsble rancor of
.he combatants, and the base methods
adopted by both parties, render mur-
Ter as likely weapon as any
1ther; and whilst we should be slow to
lccuse anybody, and prayerful that this
nan Guiteau is not the instrument Of a
we should not be eager to as
,ume the innocence of body of political
Tretches, whose hands are stained by every
,ther crime, nor precipitate in wishing to
hurry into power a band Of bandits and
who may have planned this as
fhofr lao of