Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-08-04

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ical position be found to avow their
completely in such rascally piece of
| espionage as that which was practiced
/ recently in Albany. In no other civil
lied country would public journals
which pretended to respectability have
given detailed reports of such . per-
Torrance. a a .5za 4
| But such things as these, disgusting
and discouraging as in themselves they
! are, at least give us the assurance that
4 we know the worst thatcan be credibly
charged of the rascalities as well as of
1 the corruption of American politics.
Republican Institutions are not really
put in peril by knot OF bribers and
bride takers and spies and sneaks in
Albany, nor by a mrrderous and fanatic
fool in Washington. 1t is to the de-
meanor of the people in the face Of a
great and sudden crisis in National af-
fairs that we must lookNif we are to
/ judge how far the moral soandness and
/ the moral self-restraint Of the American
people have been affected by. the IN
questioned degeneration OF the race Of
American politicians.
1t must be admitted that the ordeal
which the American people have thus
been called upon to go through has
been bravely sustained. The first and
most striking fact to be noted is that
/ the miserable scramble of our current
politics is absolutely ignored by all de-
/ cent persons in discussing the public ca
lamity. TIE tone in which men and
newspapers speak of Guiteau's crime
/ Il hat hnrs 4
1 is taken by Democrats Or by members
OF either faction of Republicans. The
! Presidents position as a political leader
is forgotten altogether in the presence
of this crime. 1t is remembered only
!! that he is the President of the
/ United States, and that in his person
the majesty of the Nation has been out
ragged What is technically said of all
! crimes of violence is felt to be especial
! ly and intensely true of the dastardly
crime of Guiteau. tits crime against
the peace of the people of the United
/ States and their dignity" The uni
+, versal and unaffected sorrow which pre-
+! vailed on the last Fourth of July had this
of brightness and of promise in it, that
not for many anniversaries of our indie
! pendence had the bond of patriotism
| been SO sensibly felt as it was felt on
this anniversary. The calamity of a
| foreign war has this compensation, and
this is the compensation which has also
now been brought with it by a public
crime. For Nations, as for men, it may
be better to go to the house of mourn-
| ing than to the house Of feasting; and
the sudden SOLDERING of what would
otherwise have been the unrestrained
! iubilations of the countrYein its mate
rial prosperity should induce more use.
full and more wholesome re 'lections than
anv that the Fourth of July orators
might institute upon the rapid agrand
izement of a country, the greatness of
! which does not protect its chosen chief
| from the assassin pistol. 7
The revival, or rather the disclosure
OF patriotism as a practical and positive
sentiment in a community of eagermen
of business, is in itself most valuable.
But it is. not more valuable than the
self command which the attempt upon
the life of the President has demon
strated to exist in all classes of the COM:
munity 1t is this general habit Of self
control which is, in the. last resort, the
security for the permanence of Cow
eminent founded, upon universal suf-
/ frage, and which many observers have
feared would give way before the in
creasing tides of immigration from
countries of which the political institu-
tons neither require Or develop that
republican virtue. Not since. the MUIR
der of Lincoln has the self-controE of
| the American people been so severely
tried as the attack upon Garfield. At.
no time has it ever withstood trial more
successfully. For the detestable crime
!. of Guiteau, il ityshould fail of Griteau's
[ intention to do murder, the pun
ishment provided by law is evil
| IDENTITY and confessedly Inadequate. End
yet no. suggestion, has been :, made
| from any responsible press or person
/ that the failure of the law to provide
/, full justice shall be supplemented by
giving unlawful sway to the common
sense of Indignation and the common
impulse to revenge. In this the de-
meanor of the American people is more
dignified in 1881 than it was in 1865.
The drun-head court martial which was
organized to try the assassins OF. Linz
coin was unknown to the law, and not
only did Justice not according to law,
but, as is now acknowledged, did in one
The assassin of Garfield turns from his
and treated precisely as If hehad att
tackled the humhlest instead Of the
most highly placed man in Washington.
And the people, therefore, in one OF the
most exciting crises of their history,
have made it clear that the disturbance
of the war period has passed away and
that they live, and mean to live, under
Government mot of passions hut of
laws.-N. Y. World. I D.. ~ =