The Osceola times. [volume] (Osceola, Ark.) 1870-current, 1881-07-16
The QucstiOnings Of the
Hour,

The ASSASSINATION OF the Presl-
dent has stricken every thoughtful
man with paralysis Of horror. The
mind is absorbed and overwhelmed,
and all other thoughts and interests
excluded. The first impulse is one
OF consuming Indignation, and the
mind Of every one looks round for
the proper object of vengeance.
The assassin is q scoundrel and a
hypocrite, with sufficient brains TO
be a successful swindlcr--but no
one is content to look to him alone
as the responsible party. Even if
he were partially demcnted tho IN
spiratlon is not his own, and all
eyes have turned TO q well-known
malignant Mephistopbilcs, who is
distinguished for selfshness and
cgotism and intense personal ami
mostly to all who oppose him-for
q mental and moral bitterness which
leads him TO pour out in public, and
especially in private, torrents Of
vituperation and utter scorn upon
the best men, Of all parties, OF the
country-and who was engaged in
a desperate and reckless contest up
TO the very hour in which the as.
sassin fred his shot, IN attempting
to wrost from the government the
prcrogativos which the people had
rcposcd in the President. These
facts could not but fall in line with
the apparent fact that nothing but
the lite of the President stood be-
tween him and the qualification of
his political ndpcrsonal vengeance.
We are expressing no opinion. We
are only recording historical facts
and facts which have flashed
through the mind of every reader
and of every citizen.
How much is there is this white.
hot and lightning-like process Of
logic? We answer, not all that the
fash seems to indicate. Like light
nng 1t displays the surroundings
in sudden and lurid relief, and like
lightning an intonser blackness fol-
lows the sudden apparition, and
from tins we recover by more care
ful thought. Whether the ASSASSIN
were u lunatic or were sane, it is
true that he took his inspiration
from his surroundings. 1t is true
that he took from political precop-
tors the idea that the objective
point of politics and craftsmanship
was public 'plunder-that the gov
ernmont was not for the good of
the people but for the benefit Of the
oilicc-seekers, and that if the Presi-
dent failed of subscrvience he ought
to be resisted and compelled. The
assassin carried the idea further
and decided that he ought TO be
retired"
But there is another influence
from which the assassin, whether
sane or insane, drew his inspiration.
There could not be better Illus.
tration of the tendency of the fash
ionablc Goddess theories that fill
the public press and the public
mind. A low estimate of tho sa-
crcdness of human life; y disregard
or denial Of responsibility to God i
a disposition TO give free rein TO
greed and ambition, without any
regard to the judgment to come,
and without weighing the interests
of time against the interests of eter
NIFTY; q nihilistic contempt of au-
,horty and restraint-n short, the
sapping Of all ideas Of obedience
and responsibility which comes Of
practical inGdclity.
1t rs said that two presidential
assassination IN twenty years shake
the stability of free institutions. 1t
is not so. Tho nation is greater
than any man or party, and free in
stiiutions are Gods ordinance, and
they will prevail unless God aban-
dons the race OF man, and man gives
himself over to lawlcss ambition,
greed and lust. But these terrible
events point to the dangers which
bosct FREQ institutions. The dan
ger pointed out by the present dire
calamity is that an attempt is made
10 override the principle that our
| government is "of the people, for
the people, and by the people -
that the chief executive is the en-
bodimcnt of the viii and tho author
ity of the people, and that he who
reslsts him, in the just exercise OF
| HIS prerooatives, by any other