The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-09-10

hAuACuAVuS EAPVuAOueSs
The various expedients for isolating
and guarding the President which have
been suggested since the I'd of July, and
the arguments in support of them. are
all of Them absurd, and some OF them
ridiculous. c
There was none of this after the fu-
tile attempt upon General jackson, nor
after the successful one upon Mr.. Lin
coin. Why the difference? Because
all our people were then sincerely re-
publican, and nobody desired change
either in the form or the substance OF
our institutions. There were none so
rich, and none so accustomed to the
possession of authority and spoils. as
to feel that the Government which was
good for the common people was not
also good for them. But, with the
growth of enormous corporations and
the accumulation of fabulous masses
of money capable of association and
combination in thousand different
ways, new force has appeared in our
political affairs.
This force consists of a body OF men
who desire to form class apart from
the people and to rule them. They
furnish the campaign treasures OF the
Republican party with all the cash it
requires, and they ask only in return
the special privileges which will enable
them to draw sure and swelling profits
from the labor of the land 1t was this
class which seated Hayes after MIR.
Tilden had been chosen, which elected
Garfield, which enriched Grant by its
gifts, and which proposes now to SUBJ
ject General Garfield and his family to
q similar temptation. They supported
Grant for third term, and their pur-
poses were clearly defined by Senator
Sharon when he said that the wealthy
must be recognized as distinct ORDER
and that separate share in the Gov
eminent must be given to them.
1t is natural that such men as these
should seize every occasion to strength
en- the Federal Government. and es-
pecially to heighten the personal pres
| tige and power of the President. They
have already shown their disposition to
clutch permanent advantages from
Guiteau's brutal assault 1t is precise
ly at times like these, when the people
are shocked and dazed by some unex-
pected disturbance, or some great
crime. that such schemes are sure to be
pressed.
It is literally true that "eternal vigil
lance is the price of liberty" and that
vigilance must not be relaxed in conse-
quence of sympathy with the victim of
an assassin or of unreasonable panic.
The propositions to give the President a
body guard, to make assault upon his
person treason. to hold his ministers re-
sponsible for his acts. and to restrict the
liberty of the press, would have been
treated with contempt in the last days
of June. while they have been heard
with patience, if notwith respect, in the
first days of July.
The truth is that the real remedy for
all such disorders is to return to the
purity and simplicity of the Republic as
enjoined by the Constitution. Our Gov
eminent is the most stable in the world
because it rests upon popular consent.
Our President is Of all rulers the least
liable to personal attack, because he is
the servant and representative of the
whole people, and q shot at him is a
shot into every household. No revolu-
ton can be accomplished by his death.
He is instantly replaced by an orderly
succession, and the peace of society is
undisturbed.
These are the reasons why in the
whole course of our history there have
been but three assaults upon the lives
| of our Presidents, and none at all in the
earlier days. while the occupants of
thrones the earth over, despite their
costly measures of repression. have been
in continual peril.-M y Sum-