The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-02
THE PRESIDENT.
His attempted assassina-
ton this morning.
A Foreigner by the name of
Guiteau the Assassin.
Two Shots fired, both taking
effect.
General GarieId's condition
reported to be dangerous.
Arrest of the Foreigner
amid intense excitement.


amid intense excitement.
The assassination of President is an
event which this country has only seen
once and hopes never to see again 1t is
an event awful to contemplate and argues
a state of mind and morals which was
fondly hoped, was confined solely to other
and distant lands, that had no existence in
our own. When our beloved Lincoln died
the entire north sorrowed as with one sor-
row wept as one mnn 1t seemed as it the
mind of man could not comprehend the
atrocity of so horrible crime, and now
the life of James A Garfield has been at
tempted, an assassin's bullet has sought his
life Reason for it, if there can
ever exist reason for such deed, did not
exist; cause, there was none; provocation
was entirely wanting. 1t was the malig-
nant act of malignant man, the craZled
deed of still more crazy criminal. What
ever Garfeld's faults were, they did not
lead to this: his actions were no cause for
it: his deeds no reason. He was President
of the Union and as President was respon-
sible to the Union, not to any one man.
The effect of the crime if successful, would
be most startling on our political history.
1t would open up an avenue of possibilities
leading no man can tell where. 1t would
effect political revolution a
change whose influence would mark
the future history of the
nation 1t would effect a chaos out Of
which would arise a new cosmos, new
order It's influence would have been not
alone on to-day, but in the future. With
Garfield dead Chester A. Arthur would be
president The bare statement suggests
the future. 1t suggests an entire change
of policy an entire change of methods. 1t
means a throwing of the administration
from one faction of the party to the other,
which is the one of unscrupulous use of
power. 1t means an abandoning of what
ever there was of good in the one faction
with no remedying of what was bad to off
set it. 1t means fight in
the party to which the present one
would be as a skirmish to a pitched
battle 1t means q reorganization of the
cabinet; it means a political revolution.
What the outcome would have been no
zone can tell; the probable we know, the
possible is staring us in the face.
AT ROCK ISLAND.
The first reports announcing the wound
ing Of the president this morning produced
profo und sensation, and when the news
was received that the wounds had proved
fatal, the regret was general and genuine
The attempted assassination was the topic
of general conversation on all the street
corners and in every place of business.
Men visited the different newspaper offices
and the telegraph centers to learn the latest
of the sensational affair.
The business forgot his gain. the lawyer
his case, the physician his patient for the
time being, so eager were the citizens gen
orally to learn the cause and particulars of
the attempted assassination, the record of
which has blackened the political history
of the United States.
And through the morning a crowd was
assembled at the Western Union office
reading with avidity the different bulletins
which were, received concerning the
'dastardly deed.
Comment upon the act was free and
outspoken, and the regret experience that
should suffer death at the hands of an
assassin was enhanced by the fact that in
the event of Gen. Garfelds death-Ches-
ter A. Arthur--the vice President would
become the President Of the country
Republicans and Democrats alike were
pronounced in this regret, as the thought
that a man such as Chester A. Arthur who
haH info IL in
New York, that Indiana had been saved
by mOney,-that such a man should ever
occupy the executive chair was regret
only equaled by that felt at the attempt to
kill the present incumbint.
A number of business houses displayed
the bunting at half mast, while number
draped their establishments in mourning
for the supposed distinguished death.
THE ASSASSINATION.
WASHINGTON, July AIT $50 this NOR
ming when President Garfield was at the B.
q Potomac depot with his party waiting
10 take the train he was shot twice by a
man within two feet of HIM
The presidents friends rushed to him as
he fell and Blaine called for Rockwell
Station Agent Corney arrested the assassin
who said, II did it; am a stalwart and
Arthur is now president. Take q letter /
have here to General Sherman and he will
Tell you all about it"
WASHINGTON, July 2.-President Gar
field was shot in the depot while on his
way to Long Branch this morning.
The presidents wounds are now said not |
to be mortal Great excitement,
WASHINGTON, 10 a. M, July 2.-Dr. |
Bliss says the Presidents wound is not a
mortal one.
WAsHINToN 10 a, mt is reported
that President Garfield is dead, but the ex
citement is SO intense that it is impossible
to find out anything definite at present
The man who shot him has been arrested.
Full particulars will be sent shortly.
President Garfield is now lying in pri-