New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-03
TIE FATE az rHE -4SSAssIN

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TIE FATE OF THE ASSASSIN.
Would the recovery of Mr. Garfield save the life
Of the wretched Guiteauf The question presents
one OF those solecsms which the most comprehen-
sive criminal Jurisprudence is unable here at least to
guard against. Men by hundreds have been hanged
for infinitely less crimes than that of Guiteau would
SILL morally remain, even though il should NOT
prove TO be killing IN the first degree. Fortunately
there is a way of furnishing the weak aud vain man
from whom the public anxiety for the Presidents
safety has somewhat diverted attention IL he is
talked Of he does not know it, No sophistcal extern
uation of his felony reach his eye or ear No in
terviewer is permitted to tempt him TO disgusting
garrulity. He can neither play the lunatc nor the
patriot 1t would be a solemn warning if it were
possible, to remove him finally and forever from the
observation OF mankind, repeating the old isola-
tion 10 winch princes In bygone ages sometimes con-
signed their enemies, and leaving the student of
history to speculate desperately over his probable
fate. Life might be spared him, but life entirely
unshared with his fellow creatures AS the law
stands, he must be tried and punished with GER
tain degree of notoriety, which his bid magina
tlon VIII construe into fame. 1t is so always. The
second act OF the bloody drama is played in an
overt tribunal the third and last upon the scafold
Despotc governments might now adopt the an
Gent plans of Venetian Doges or of Italian and
french Kings; but they are impossible in Republic
matter Of the assassination of rulers is becoming
serious one. 1t added greatly to the distress with
winch all good citizens heard of the murderous as
sault upon the President. that one such event so
great is the peryersity of human nature might give
rise to Others in bloody succession The killing of
public officer is disastrous episode in the political
annals OF any country. 1t must be admitted that it
makes like crimes somewhat more possible in the
future; while already they seem to constitute a
marked Whaf
ism, Nihilism, Communism, and with the multiple
cation of associations whose avOwed purpose is to
Kill, we have really condition of affairs which
perhaps the civilized world has never before wit
messed. Assassination of rulers is in itself no nov
city. but usually it has not been accompanied by
pretence OF philosophical virtue or perpetrated &C
cording TO an established code. Usually he who
xii ed one king the hreng of another and
since Cesar fell to the floor of the Capitol hardly
ruler has been taken Oft under any pretence of adj
vancing the liberties of mankind. The modern
king-killer assumes to be the friend of liberty and
An agent for the advancement of the human race
This brutality. as we have already suggested. is a
feature of the 1t is simple beastliness under a
thin lacquer of political sentiment 1t originates in
paradox and ends in something not much better
than the boodthlrsty instincts of the jungle There
may be NIhilists of comparatively higher motives
but unquestionably their tools are wretches in
whom the appetite for murder has been abnormally
developed, or who have surrendered themselves 10
the unquestioned direction of leaders into whose
power they have fallen.
1t is certainly strange condition of affairs when
political Thug, escaping from the scalfold in his
own land, can talk plainly in another of murder as
the best means of promoting freedom. Hartmann in
Now-Iork, can avow his participation i'm past felo-
mics, his readiness for new ones; and newspapers
VIII publish his savage narrative, is he regarded
by our police as proper object of surveillance. He
tells us here the Car doomed TO perish nor do
those who listen to him to remember that the
tortuous policy of Nihilism may call for similar
murders in America. According to his own confess
sion of belief, the man is amenable no more 10 ours
than to Russian laws. 1t does not appear to occur
to him that the Imperial Government is fighting Nj
hllism with Its own weapons. Our immediate con-
oern IL that the avowal and PRONUNCIATION of such
doctrines must tend 10 familiarize our own uneasy
spirits with crime perpetrated the name of liberty
We should be sorry TO consider the shooting of
President Garfield as anything worse than an acct
dent to which many Others Of inferior position may
DO moro or less exposed But it is right to warn
society that every assault upon the majesty and
sacredncss OF the law, every mob, every strike pro-
NOTED by violence, makes the possibility OF such
crimes greater. The riots which have sought to
destroy capital and to promote the pseudorghts of
labor continued their influence long after they were
suppressed. The morbid rhetoric of the Sand Lots
in California meant murder, and ended in murder at
last There are conceted cutthroats in New-York
to-day talking criminal nonsense over their beer
about the theft which property implies. who would
prove their bad sincerity by murder, if their pluck
were but equal to their garrulity. The way to pre-
vent political crimes and TO make political assassna-
ton almost impossible, is TO disseminate sound no.
tions of government and of public economy. One
whose own life is worth nothing rates all human
life very cheaply. 1t is for society, with ample
means OF doing to ncucae such respect for it that
men of the weakest minds or the most inordinate
thirst for notorety will hardly dream of assaug if
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Tho appointment of Mr.. John J. O'Brien rs Chief
of the Bureau of Elections is occasion for alarm
TO The Uortd newspaper, which calls HIM scan
dalous, vociierous and INSCRIPTIONS Republican
politician" and otherwise cries aloud in coniemna-
ton Of him. Says The World " With u Republican