The Ottawa free trader., 1881-07-09
THE GREAT CRIME.

THE GREAT CRIME.
Whether Guitteau, the ssassin OF the prcsi
dent, shall be adjudged and punished rs a
criminal, or consigned for the rest of his days
10 an asylum as lunatic, may be "a debatabe
alternative; but either way his act involves a
measure of secondary criminality that should
not go without due recognition and appropri.
ate visitation on the part of the couLtry,
which, IN the person Of it, chief executive, has
suffered this great wrong. If Guiteau's act
was II freak of insanity, what impciled him TO
that freak Nothing We know, is more un-
fashionable and more likely to provoke a
smile OF derisiOn among politicians Than TO
speak of civil service reform; yet the event OF
last Saturday teens with suggestions of such
an impressive character that derision hereafter
in that direction ought no longer to be regard.
cd as decent or allowable Gultteau, like thou.
sands OF Others had borne a part in the poiti.
cal canvass that resulted in the election of
Garfield. Like the other thousands, no doubt
he over-cstimatcd the value of his services,
and like the same thousands he expected, I'm.
der the present deplorable system of reward
ing political services with offices, to be paid
in that way for what he had done. In this
frame he applied for foreign consulshlp, and
because his claim failed to be recognized he
was gosdcd to madness and sou sht revenge IN
q mad mans way.
Did he not find species of justification for
his indignation and rage in what is now
transpiring at Albany: What but the same
idea of reward, payable IN the dispensation OF
offices, inspires Conkling, Platt and the whole
stalwart faction in their fierce opposition to
the administration and pers IN of President
Garfield? 1t is true the leaders have no
thought Of carrying their malignity to the ex.
treme of assassination; but what but the same
feeling and motive, operating on weaker or
diseased minds, can be more likely to goad
up TO the point of Gultteeu's desperation:
The nation needs to be taught new views in
regard TO the presidential office and the sacred.
ness of the person of its incumbent. The tree
dom ofspeech and heated nature of our pollti-
cal contests is too apt to divert attention from
the measures and principles involved and
fasten admiration or hate on the fOrtuitous
heads of the rival parties. The truth to be
lenrned and firmly iudoctrlnated is, that the
choice of the majority is the choice of all, and
after the issue of Il presidential contest is set
tied and declared, the person Of the executive
head Of the nation should he as much the ob-
ject of respect, concernment and devotion of
the stoutest opponent as Of the stoutest sup.
porter of the successful candidate.
This doctrine applies with peculiar force to
the case Of President Garfield. He was not
only the choice of an indlsputable majority,
and therefore, in accordance with the theory
Of our political system, the choice of all, but
he was a man who IN his Rttainments poli~
cal services, sterling manhood and purity OF
life, deserved all that universal esteem, trust
and confidence that should environ, in his eX.
a.ted position, every chief magistrate of this
nation. 1t is true, the American people know
divinity rha! is supposed to hedge about a
king and holds that he can do no wrong; but
while they assert the right, within the pre-
scribed limitations, to make and unmake kings
as freely as to make and unmake town con
stable, they need to be taught that when the
cor populi as the ,or Del has made king
while legally enthroned as such and reignlng
in due submission TO the limitations of his
position, no accident of birth can confer upon
any royal scion of the old world tithe Of the
real divinity that should attach to the person
of one thus exalted by the united and heaven
approved voice Of his country.