Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-07-06
A Great Calm.

The mad crash of political rivalries is
hushed. Tragedy, appalling and incompre-
hensible, has placed the seal of deathly ST.
lence upon warning ambitions. The gaunt
and fills the breast of royalty with feverish
unrest has, without note of warning,
stalked into the capital of republican Amer
lea and launched his devilish shaft against
the president. A second time, within the
brief space Of little more than decade
and half, president of the United States
has been stricken down by an assassin's bull
let A second time man of noblest in
stincts, whose humble early life, whose
great brain and loyal heart made him
the ideal friend and advocate of human
rights, is made the assassin's shining mark
The man of tenderest sympathy, of kindli-
est purpose, the man who would thrust his
good right arm into the consuming fire and
compel it utterly to perish, rather than that
it should offend the liberties or restrict the
heaven-given rights of one of the humblest
of the human race, is shot down like dog
by the hand of a frenzied villain in public
place of the national capital. 1t is pity
ing spectacle The crime is so stupendous
the human mind cannot grasp the colossal
enormity and wickedness of the deed. The
life OF an American president, the great al
moner of Gods greatest boon to oppressed
humanity in every land, the toy of the friv-
olous purpose of wretohed assasin's disor-
dered brain and Satanic nature
The president of the republic, where the
oppressed of all nations have found an asy-
lum, has been deemed, by the very nature Of
his position, to be clad in triple armor
against personal violence. He has needed
to protect his life no Cossack guard, none
of the elaborate precautions which kings
and emperors employ to hedge around their
safety. The heart of the people who have
freely chosen him, his great benefcent office,
throw over such ruler the agis OF a stronger
protection than coats of mail or bristling
body guards can give. Under such guaran-
eoSo Vi POioohdi odiCu1 thC Chlcl dtc
of this nation has gone in and out before
the people since the foundation of the repub.
lie, and he should need no other. Insan-
ity and individual villainy, too monstrous
for any of the precautions that men Of pru-
dence take against dangers which are insep
arabic from any active or public life, are the
evil forces that can disappoint the guaran
tees of personal safety which the character
of the presidents office throws around him
President Garfield is undoubtedly the vic
tim Of a combination of these two malig
nant agencies. The whole history of thu
assassin shows the possessor of an unbal
anced mind, but his mental obliquities art
by no means of that class which should re
lieve him from the responsibility of his acts
His innate wickedness was the source o
gravest parental solicitude, and years ag
drew from his father Characterization o
his son, prophetic in its terrible severity
The deed was the conception Of individual
and total deprayity. 1t has no political @
general significance, no more than If tn
president had been the victim of railwa
accident. 1t is great, overwhelming, al
palling disaster, but its occurrence at
time Of intense local political feeling ca
ries with it no impeachment of the charat
ter either of political opponents or of fire.
institutions. The individual whose ments
unbalance drives him TO conclusions so hast
and unwarrantable is himself almost fit sui
ect for that incarceration which, had it bee
visited upon Guiteau after his mental an
moral depravity had been conclusively show
by numberless acts in Chicago, New York {
Boston, would have saved the nation tn
great shame and disaster. Injustice bege
injustice. In this hour of terrible trial /
no citizen forget his solemn obligation to |
just to his fellow-citizen, lest by indulgir
in unworthy suspicious or unsupported a
cusations he SOW TO the wind to reap IL
whirlwind.
The republic can receive no lasting i
jury from the mad hand of an assassin wi
has no constituency, who represents no c
ganized force. Unlike the wretches wi
recently brought woe to Russia, Guite
represents no cancer growth of nihiis
lie is small though vicious pimple on t
fair face of the republic which the hal
of Justice will remove and leave no scar |
hind. The republic will go on to fulfill
grand destiny, admonished by the eve
that God reigns, and that personal aims a
ambitions or partisan success must not
allowed to usurp the government which o
fathers established for all peoples A
prayer akin in fervor to that which v
heard of old in "the place called Gethse
ane," will go up increasingly from eve
heart that the bitter cup which the ass
sins hand has pressed to the presidents l
may be allowed to pass from him.
BosToN Post (democratic); " Conkling
at.oa0 anti monnnaliat axoant In oauaa ,.,h