The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-10-06

drous changes has been the theatre of MANY moment
events; has since witnessed the brilliant rise
splendid and fatal fall of the great Napoleon
the more polite reign and abdicaton of his kinsman
Napoleon. I'LL, yet to-day, from that land of beauty
and magnifcence, of polish and refinement, comes
message of coincidence and sympathy. Republican
France, through its President Grevy, tenders heI
sympathes to Republican America, and to-day, per-
haps In the United States of America, upon the very
ground sanctifed by the blood of Lafayette in ou1
Revolutionary struggle, patriotic Frenchmen mingle
their sorrows with the citizens of this Union. In
this the hour of saddest calamity ancient ally
remembers us fondy, feels for in bereavement
and dispenses with no sparing hand the oil of
lation.
Beautiful land of the Olive and Vine, OF romance
and flowers may thy of Liberty no more go down
in blood and dissension, but ever continue in the
midheaven of thy horizon, guiding thee forever upon
the pathway of enlightenment and reform. France
was our ally and support at sorest need has
been our firm and consistent friend; she has reoced
with us in hours of joy and deliverance and now
weeps with us in our moments Of dOlor and gloom
And while our American lips may not voice the
words, yet every true American heart feels the i'm
pulse of her national rallying cry Vive la France
Vfve In Republique:' To her be applied the motto
adorning own Constitution, "Esto Perpctua!,
III.
These Kings whose lives were terminated by meth
ods violent fell before the onward march of events
that no kngly power could stay. Gods hand through
human mind up to its full emancipation-and devel-
oping thought, growing mental activity could not be
limited to the ancient reutines of subservience and
blind obedience When these rulers fell, there was
no loving nation of subjects to sit down in sackcloth
and ashes to mourn the untimely death of friend.
When Charles L. was beheaded, the English people
felt thrill joy, because they had felt Charles to be
an opponent of progress, and that his removal was
but the taking away of impediment from that road
to greatness to which England believed herself pre-
destined.
When Louis XVI. perished in the sharp embrace of
the guillotine, the French people frenzed with
joy. They regarded his death necessity to the
glory of the French nation, and had tears to shed
for him. Nor may without stint condemn either
the English or the French. Although the death OF
Charles was accomplished by very irregular and ille
gal methods is not for say that 1t wrong;
the exigencies of the times seemed to demand itit
was not averted-his methods of government not
again attempted; tyranny received staggering blow,
and the cause of the people triumphed.
Although the death of Louis XVI. was revolution
ary and irregular yet cannot say that he had
fulfilled his destiny. He the firm antagonist of
needed reform in his government, he outraged the
rights of his subjects increased their burdens and
abridged privileges, and in the inscrutable wisdom
Divine Providence he required to surrender his
life and his kingdom at the early age of 3s years. and
the cause of humanity advanced.
Looking back over the history of the times both
preceding and following these two legal assassina-
tions now justify them because of the effects we
recognized as having been produced by these two
causes, we seem to see here the working of Infinite
wisdom developing definite plan for He doeth ac-
cording to His will In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. and none can stay His
hand or say unto Him, ''What dost thour'
w.
Not understanding the primeva causes that lead to
the tremendous events transpirng around and not
having the ability to say to their author What
Thou? Poor humanity, in these great crises, alarm
ed at the unseen terrors and frightened the awful
shadows of the impending future, turns upon and
rends itself, and the wisdom of the past seems as
nought. In our own land freedoms fairest home but
recently the fires of discord kHdled; civil war
arrayed herself in all her manifold terrors; great
mics were levied immense and bloody battles fought
State stood arrayed against State; friend against
former friend; brother against brother; the shock
came on, the cannons thundered; the musketry
blazed; the bayonets cleaned; the red fountain OF
life flowed down the hi1sides in ensanguined rills
the ground thundered to the shock of charging
squadrons, as the fierce horse and his fercer rider
dashed the blood stained plains, trampling the
faces of the dead into unrecognizable of quv
erng cory flesh the confusion lessons; the noise sub
sides the dust settles; silence ensues broken only
occasionally by the shrek of the wounded
the dying; night comes down by one in the deep
heavens the stars forth, and through the long
watches of darkness look down with their calm white
the upturned faces of ten thousand of Gods
images forever broken and cast down and cold
the clay Of the inhospitabe battlefield And this is
called war; this tearing rendng, mutilat-
Ing breaking destroying of human bodies is human
ity rending itself because it yet get
to the question: 'What doest Thou?"
Out of this thing called are born discords that
never harmonic this side the grave; hatreds that
burn until the dampness of the sepuchre extiDguis
them, heart-burnings that cannot be assuaged, and
remorse and woe and broken regulations and disor-
derly habits and all the long train of evils to which
man can in this age be subjected.
Four years endured such an experience. For
four humanity rent and tore at itself until
exhaustion compelled the one party to yield, and
then just we in selfish sef-congratulation had
set all the bells ringing, and were shaking the welkn
with shouts of rejoicing, tidings more terrible
than the wrath of battle field came. He who had
through these four years of gloom aud blood and
fierce anger, stood so bravey at his post mitigating
in far he could the rigor of guiding with
steady hand the ship of state through the mighty
tempest that surrounded her and beat her from
all sides, was suddenly prostrated by the assassfns
hand. Amid the tears of victory Lincoln died-died
by Violence died just at that supreme moment when
human wisdom was saying tina he could begin
to reap the reward of patient patriotism-ust when
his gentle disposition would be able to exercise be-
nignans influence upon the heated passions of men,
and soothe by his the ranking feel
ings of defeat the too jubilant rejoicing of victory
The nation put on its sack-cloth and mourned then
but the lamentations unlike the grief of to-day
Men said and felt that might be Tor the Dest tna
Mr.. Lincons kind disposition might stand in the
way of justice; that his gentle mind might not be
adequate the gathering together of the broken and
discovered fragments of the country and cementing
them fnto 4 new and healthier Union; thus they
sorrowed but they sorrowed In hope that the
had passed into hands that would not permit the
sacrifices of four years OF war to be made In va1n
Men say now that Mr. Lincoln died for Reconstruc-
tion. 1t may be SO. The time since elapsed Is ye1
too short to enable to judge of the extent to which
his death affected the general cause of human pro-
That he did not live in vain is apparent to all
that his is entitled to of the brightest pages
of history is conceded by all in his grave may he
rest in peace until the accomplishment of the Eterna
purposes he may be called to receive the final reward
He goes down to the immortality of fame as the frs
of Martyred Presidents. He died while mems minds
were yet hot with and brutalized by the contem
plation of bloodshed-he died at the hands of de-
feated and broken faction by the hands of man who
might however mistakenly, plead that he did it fol
his country, whose education had taught him to be
lieve that Mr.. Lincoln was in some way accountable
for his friends defeat in Short it is safe to say tina
Mr.. Lincoln's death directly brought about b,
the rebellion, and saying this must suffice; neither
time ability is given me to analyze and enumer
all the conspring to produce so deplorab
| an end.
Precisely s3l years after the birth of the roya
Stuart at Dunferm,i Inc, Scotland, there was born o
this side the Atlantic another destined ruler jaime
Abram Garfield. Thus according to the superstition
| of our ancestors, might account the 18th day o
| November portentous and forecast that the rule
born upon that day destined to die by violence
The condolences and contrasts i'll the lives of tn
two men, and the circums tances surrounding the tw
rulers ought to be eminently suggestive to tn
thoughtful student of history but the parallels her
| will not be enlarged upon.
| President Garfield assumed the duties of the hig
| Office under peculiar circumstances. The campaig
preceding his election of intense anger Part
animosity high. SANDER rioted over the assaie
regulations the otiest names In the country, an
corruption counted its victims in every hamlet Th
intensity of the strife seemed permanently to hav
estranged the people, and this estrangement cor
tinued without diminution until after the inaugurs
tion. Notwithstanding the election practically SCI