Omaha daily bee., 1881-07-07

desired the removal of the president,
many will infer it. The murder Of
Thomas a Beckett will revive the story
Of how hat assassination was sug.
gested. Beckett was archbishop Of
Canterbury, and at variance with
Henry II. king of England. Knight,
in his history of England, says:
There is no evidence that Henry
gave his sanction to assassination,
but it is clear that in his passion he
exclaimed.
els there one to deliver me from
this turbulent priestl' Whereupon
four stalwart knights proceeded to
Canterbury and murdered Beckett on
the alter where he was officiating. 1t
is possible that persons may imagine
that in his baffled rage the 'Primste"
may have exclaimed: SIS there no
man to relieve me from this man Of
Ohiof Beckett was canonized as a
martyr, and the man on whom fell
the odium Of the murder vainly sought
to protect himself by the most abject
humiliations. Should popular feeling
take the form of holding the faction
at Albany responsible, even indirect
ly, for this murder, it will unques-
tionably be unjust and u~nwarranted,
but that will not change the public
mind until long after the parties con-
cerned shall have passed away.
Baltimore American.
TT was but yesterday that we
pointed out, IN the course of an edi-
torial on the third term idea, that the
heresy of secession having been
crushed out, the danger which now
threatens the welfare of the republic
arises from the propagation of a doc
trine which violates the spirit of our
institutions as grossly as that upon
which the confederacy rested, but in
an exactly opposite direction. The
imperialistic idea which o for near
ly a decade has been the controlling
force of one wing of the republican
party, has not yet attained the form
OF a distinct issue; but it is not essen
TALLY different in its object from that
which eliminated in the effort to
overthrow the union. Little did we
imagine, however, that the culmina-
ton of the imperialistic movement
was to come SO swiftly or take
such a tragic form. Whether the
assassin had accomplices or not;
whether his design was known to
those who were to profit by his crime,
or mott the fact glands out in start
ling prominence hat the murderer
was, by his own confession, inspired
with the same motives that have
actuated the Third-term conspirators
from the very beginning, and that he
fred the fatal shot for the distinct
purpose of accomplishing their plots
by the succession of Mr.. Arthur to the
presidency. He may be, as there is
some reason to believe, a monomaniac;
but his monomania is identical, ex-
cept as to its practical result, with
that of Conkling, and Cameron, and
Logan, and Grant. The deliberation
and care with which he planned the
assassination; the wisdom with which
he chose his time and oppor-
tunity: the forethought which
he displayed in providing for his es-
cape, and the cleverness with which
he devised a system of defense = sup
posing, of course, that he is not actu-
ally insane--all go to show that he
had perfect control of his faculties.
If he was not the selected instrument
of others, it will, at least, be admit
ted that a man better fitted for the
work Of an assassin could not well
have been procured. Whatever may
have been the part that this miserable
wretch played, it is, unhappily, but
too certain that the assassination of
President Garfield is the logical out
come of the third term conspiracy.
The stalwarts have, indeed, destroyed
the president at last. What the ulti-
mate consequence of this coup d'etat
will be, it is impossible at the moment
to predict.