The Evening critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1881-1885, 1881-07-07

In VIEW of the constantly improving
chance Of the Presidents recovery, and with
it the growing prospect that General Arthur
will be spared the almost cruel ordeal which
at one time appeared in store for him, 1t
may not be out of place to comment briefly
upon his bearing under the distressing re-
50 suddenly thrust upon his
hands. Under any circumstances the sue
cossion of the Vice-Prcsidcnt to the Chief
Magistracy by death of the President in
wolves n situation infinitely more difficult
and delicate than can possibly devolvc upon
a new President duly chosen and inaugu-
rated Apart from the mournfulness natu-
rally incident to such an occasion, there are
host Of cmbarassmcnts, personal and
political, growing out of such an un-
forseen and unforwarned change in the
directing head of the mighty cnginery- for
good or evil that our Government has grown
to be.
But grave rs these cmbariassmcnts must
be under the most natural and least cxcit-
ing circumstances, they fail to afford the
faintest parallel to what would have been
the situation of General Arthur had Fate
willcd the assassin's work successful. We
should have had the unexampled spectacle
of Vice President succeeding to the Pres
idency in the midst Of the most exciting
and bitter controversy of faction known to
our history; the Vicc-Prcsident having been
closely identified with the faction opposed
to the President, and the President having
been assassinatcd by Il fanatic claiming, in
his madness, to he an adhcrent of the Vice
Presidents faction.
The fact that the assassin was madman
and his declarations the rawlings of frenzy,
while not calculated to primarily impress
the public mind, would still no susceptible
of use as tremendous moral weapon
against the subsequent administration of
the yice-Presidont by the more desperate
and vicious classes politicians, with whom
our country unfortunately abounds. That
this weapon would have proved dangerous
in any revolutionary sense we do not be-
lievc. But that il would have been put to a
great variety of uses calculated to annoy
and exaspcrate we are certain.
| ~. -Drocilapt hag
realized keenly and he has suffered from
their contemplation cxcruciatingly. We
speak from personal knowledge in saying
that the strange events Of the past five days
have developed and made plain to every
fair. unbiased mind traits of exalted man
hood and rare strength in the character o
General Arthur which his career hitherto ha
never brought into view. There was moth
ing in his career as 4 politician, either befor
or since his nomination, to give earnest o
the grand reserve of the best and mobiles
qualities of human nature which seem t
have lain dormant or latent, in default of I
great exigcncy to bring them out.
Those who have had access to his feelings
and his confidence during this ordeal-an(
some of them are men who have never be
fore been his fricnds-join unanimously il
the expression that had misfortune callet
him to the Chief Magistracy the Admins
tration of General Arthur would have bee
marked by patriotic spirit and wis
method far beyond any prior public expct
r tatiOn. 1t is not improper to say that il
the estimation of the general public no les
than in that of many eminent individual
4 not hitherto his friends or associates, Ger
: Arthur stands to-day second to no characte
in our public life. We may add that W
ourselves are among those whose admira
tion for and sympathy with Gen. Arthu
date from observation OF his behavior durin
Q the pending crisis.
b