Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-20
Aanrdster fntfIligencer.
thursday EVENING. SEPT. 20. 1881.
The President.

TUESDAY EVENING. SEPT. 20. 1881.
The President.
And all the power of man could not
save him! It was written that he should
die, and he has died. 1t is pitiful end
ing of the long suspense but it has come
and must be submitted to. It is hard to
see that the nation has gained by the
transfer of the presidency from Garfield
to Arthur but we are used to this ex-
perience. When Lincoln died. holding
in his firm hands the guidance of the
country and animated with the wisdom
and temper to guide it judiciously, it
seemed to be a misfortune. When the
Soldier Grant, instead of the Statesman
Seymour, became president, misfortune
again appeared. Andso when the stupid
Hayes defeated the wise Tilden and
again when the unimpeached Hancock
prevailed not against the greatly accused
man who now dies and gives place to
one held i'm far lower esteem. Doubtless
the country will live and prosper as it has
lived and prospered under all these appar-
ent calamities but the wisdom Of the
present dispensaton is likely to remain as
hidden as that of any of its predecessors.
With whatever record Mr.. Garfield came
into the presidency, he showed during
the four months of his power that he was
likely to govern with intelligence and
honesty. About his ability there never
has been any question, nor about his
good disposition. His weakness was in
his supposed disposition to sacrifice
under pressure his honest convictions of
right. Naturally an honest man, he
had been SO unfortunate in his aSsOcia-
tiOns and influences as to become fairly
assailable for what were certainly not
strictly just and dsfensible acts.
With an honesty of heart and an unpre-
judiced judgment that forbade him to be
an unfair partisan, he yet was thrust
into an active support of the great fraud
which seated Hayes. His administration
was looked forward to with great doubt
as to whether his good or evil genius
would control it and there appeared to be
good reason to believe that he would
have governed wisely and well, when he
was stricken down; and in this great
calamity his faults were forgotten and
his virtues remembered so that to-day,
when he lies dead, the people of all
parties think of him with love and even
reverence, sorrow for his sufferings and
admiration for his fortitude being a
present ample covering for the faults of
which we once accused him and which
we would now forget. Is journalists,
we have referred to them even in our
grief, for we can not have it thought
that Uur sorrow of to day is confession
of wong in the past; only that we
grieye, and would be silent in the appeal
that has been taken from the earthly
court.
A great political change attends the
Inauguration of President Arthur, who
has already quietly taken the oath of
Office not change in the i'm
mediate present hut one that will surely,
though gradually come. The pres
ent cabinet will probably remain if its
members choose to stay but Mr.. Blaine
will not stay, for he can no longer he
the power behind the throne. Mr.. Ar
thur is a wholly different man from Mr..
Garfield. He is professional politician
of New York city, and is bold, firm, de-
ciled and unscrupulous or else he is
universally misjudged which is not
likely. He will be himself the president,
His disposition will he to -oblige his
friends. He will he partisan presi
dent in the fullest sense of the term
he boasts himself a partisan.
As Democrats we have no reason tC
applaud his accession. We have nc
cause to commend him as i good man
or to hope that he will he a just ruler fol
the country. Whether he will he Il good
president for his party is to lie seen. He
takes Office under exceeding difficulties
The heart of the country is against him
1t cannot be forgotten that it was the
purpose to make him president which
discharged the assassin's bullet into the
body of him whom the nation so deeply
mourns. No one believes that President
Arthur was party to the crime, or that
he sympathized with it. But still it was
undeniably the rupture in the Republi
can party and the hostile attitude Of
COnkling and Arthur to the adminiStra
tion which was the cause that the coun
try is to-day arrayed in the blackness
of deep mourning. A man of low degree
with al unhappy reputation, ascending
into the presidency under this condition
of public sentiment, evidently needs tC
guide himself most wisely and prudently
to win for himself more than public
tolerance. In the calmness that attends
the public grief, because of the long
expectation of the death of Garfield
President Arthur will take his place
without danger Of the commotion that
might have followed an immediately
fatal result of the assassin's shot. The
business and affairs of the country will
move on with little disturbance. Chang.
ed political results will certainly follow
the changer control of the Republican
party. Party ties are likely to be loosed
by the stroke of this great tragedy, and
in the common mourning into which all
partieS are plunged. and which is felt tO