Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-21
lanrastcr f,,telIlQenrer.

lanrastcr f,ltelIiQenrer.
wErNssDAY EVENING. SEPT. n, 1881.
Let the Law Avenge Us.
General Sherman speaks very sensibly
to those who burn to summarily dispose
Of Guiteau and they are great many.
It Is startling to notice how unreason-
able people become in times 0f excite.
ment. 1t is certainly every ones inter-
est that the laws shall be venerated.
They have been framed for the protec-
tion Of society and we depend upon
them for our safety. Guiteau violated
the law in assailing the president and it
is the Office of the law to punish him.
1t is one that it is amply. capable of
discharging fully. Tosuppose otherwise
would be a serious reflection upon its ad-
ministration. Yet many, if not most
people, would like to take the law in
their own hands and work out upon
Guiteau the satisfaction of their indi-
vidual animosity. They would then be
law-breakers just as he is. If such pri-
vate vengeance could be permitted So
ciety would he resolved into its original
elements. If any individual has the
right to take the life of Guiteau upon
his own judgment of the virtue of
the act, the same right must be con-
ceded to Guiteaa himself to decide that
It was his duty to kill the president.
II individual judgment and impulse is
the thing upon which our lives depend,
we must all he allowed an equal right to
destroy each other. 1t is because of the
fallibility of such judgment that people
in communities have erected the ma
chinery of justice, that they may vindi-
cate in the best way the judgment of the
whole body and give to each one the Sc
curity of a fair trial by impartial judges.
All this Is too plain to be denied, and
nobody denies it; but great many are
unable in times of excitement to hold on
to this safe anchorage of their actions
and are tempted to advocate and prac-
tise lynch law. The soldier who shot
at Guiteau was representative of this
class of excitable individuals. lie was
a crank of the order of Guiteau; a man
who permitted his impulses to control
him, and who set up his own judgment
as the law of the land and assumed him
self to he the executioner of its DEGREES.
1t was an act of the supremest impu-
dence in him to thus thrust himself for
ward as the avenger of justice. Yet we
fear that many of the people sympathize
with him, and would rather give
him laurel crown than Il prison cell /;
which just shows what savages men ma.
turally are, and how hard it is for their
natures to submit to the restraints which
civilized society imposes upon each for
the common good of all.
Gen. Sherman aptly points out how
unworthy it is of the grief of the nation
for the death of its president that its
mind should be disturbed with thoughts
of vengeance upon the miserable instru-
ment of its woe. 1t would be ever SC
much more creditab ble to lis that we
should have no concern about him, in
the full confidence that he will be ade
quately dealt with by the laws. Gen
Sherman confesses to the feeling that
hanging is too good for him. Yet that
is the severeSt penalty that our civiliza-
ton permits us to impose upon crime
and until the calm public sentiment
changes which fOrbids the torture OF
criminals, we cannot permit ourselves
to introduce any extra pains into the
punishment Of this one. And it is a
notable fact that those who are indiS-
posed to trust the law with the diSposi
tion of Guiteau really propose to admin.
lister milder punishment {; for surely it
would have been less painful to Guiteau
to have fallen under that soldiers un.
expected bullet than to await in con.
tinued agony the deferred choking of
the gibbet.
But undoubtedly good deal of the anx.
iety to prematurely dispose of the assas.
sin comes from an apprehension that he
may not be hung because he may he
judged insane. But this in no way eX.
cuses the wouldbe lynchers. If Guiteau
is insane he shcu!d not he punished as
sane. That the law, common sense and
humanity declare and those who fear
that he will lie declared insane, though
really sane, thereby show very discred.
liable diStrust of the ministers of the
law. If they are worthy of such distrust
they still must be trusted, for they are
of our own appointment and the duties
confided to them may not lie taken away
from them.
And have we all considered how very
much more agreeable and ereditable to
the nation it would he could we really
think that the shootir G of the president
was the act of an insane mind The
resolutions of our town meeting declare
the assassination to I've a national
humiliation and so it certainly is if we
must lelieve that it was done by sane
citizen of the republic. If he was insane,
the humiliation is not ours for it is
only the reasoning mind of the demo.
crat which can be required to know that
q democracy corrects its wrongs and its
rulers by the ballot, not the bullet.
MRS. GARFIELD is a very sensible
woman. She did not want her husband s