Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-03-25
ASSASSINATION OF THE CzAR.

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ASSASSINATION OF THE CZAR.
No nation, however deep and intense its
misery, can hope to use crime with success
as an instrument with which TO procure re-
lief and happiness. And this not alone be-
cause Of the obstruction offered by the opera
ton of moral law, but because, as a practi-
cal matter of fact, attempts ut murder al
ways have the effect to excite popular SYM
pathy for the victim and SO TO give him
strength and encouragement to tighten the
grasp with which he holds the nation and
throttle popular liberty. Five times before
this last, attempts were made to slay the
Gar, and during the period between the
first and the last the despotism Of the ruler
become more and more binding and bitter
until, as the result of the fifth attack upon
the autocrat, Russia found herself in a state
that there was spy in every household, a
policeman before every door and a steadily
increasing stream of convicts pouring to-
ward Siberia.
In country where asssassition has at
tanned 10 something Of the dignity Of an ac-
cepted remedy for intolerable dcspotism,
the violent removal of the chief ruler sug-
gests an inquiry into the state Of society
rather than any discussion of the abstract
right or wrong of singing out the head Of
the State for destruction. II must be kept
in mind that there is a vast difference be-
tween aiming at the life of representative
ruler and assailing one who engrosses alb
solutely all the powers of the government.
In the former the blow is struck at reason,
at popular sentiment, at the right of men by
orderly methods to determine the course of
their own government. In the latter the
act may signify nothing else than passion.
ate determination 10 substitute reason and
public sentiment for the will of one person
in the regulation Of the nation. President
Lincoln, who was assassinated, was the SER
want Of the people, chosen by his fellow
citizens to do certain lawful work and was en-
gagged in il TO the best of his ability. For any
departure he might make from the course
defined by the constitution, there were ade-
quate checks and punishment provided. BY
no possible process of reasoning could the
taking of his life be removed from the cate
CORY of murder, unextcnuatcd and terrible
in every feature. The Gar, however, is the
master, net the servant of the Russian peo-
pie There is no law but what he himself
makes. There is no remedy provided or
contemplated by any law of the empire for
any wrong he may do. II he orders a sub
iect to be seized at midnight and conveyed
to living death in the mines Of Siberia,
there is no appeal nor any redress. Except
as he is restrained by his fears Of popular or
individual vengeance, there is nothing on
dread of. Because of these considerations
we arrive at the conclusion that the assassi-
nation of the Gar suggests an inquiry into
the consideration Of Russian society rather
than any mere homily upon the abstract ma
turc of the decd
That the late Gar did begin his career
with a sincere desire TO make the govern
ment of the Empire more liberal can hardly
be doubted. But it is perhaps a mistake to
regard his great act, the emancipation OF
the serfs as an inspiration Of pure humanity.
1t was political movement, devised with an
intent TO break the power Of the great no.
bles and to increase the possibilities of mill
tary CONSUMPTION. While the peasants were
the property Of individuals, the conscript
officer could not put them into the army at
The pleasure of the government. When they
became citizens they were made liable TO
military service, and the fact that the mill
tary power Of Russia has been developed
stupendously under the late Gar, is proof
that he knew how TO improve the opportu-
nifty which he had thus provided Some of
the changes made by the Car were, how
ton, but he had not the courage to push his
policy to its conclusion when he found that
it provoked the bitter opposition of the Con-
sentative classes, chiefly the nobility. And,
after awhile, q reaction came and he swung
clear around so that after giving Russia trial
by jury he Knocked the vcrdcis of his juries
by seizing and furnishing men whom they
had acquitted, and he tramplcd under foot,
one after another, all other Of his reforms
until he had surpassed his brutal father,
Nicholas, in the savagery Of his rule. With
in the past five years more than thirty thou.
sand Russians have been imprisoned or con
demned Il. death for the crime of cherishing
opposition to the dominant tyranny. Last
year the number of such victims exceeded
ten thousand. Men and women of high
and low degree have been driven like cattle
under a brutal soldiery from their homes
and kinsmen to perish amid the horrors of
Siberia. In some eases the decree took the
form of Judgment by Court Martial, in others
no other explanation could be obtained than
that IL was the will of the Car, but in no
case was there any resort 10 a civil tribunal
or a jury of civilians. So that to-day, as for
full year, every inch of Russia is I'm.
der marshal law. Every where the bayonci
bears sway. From the rising of the sun to
the going down Of the same, every Russian
is under the surveillance OF spies, and in
danger Of being trampled upon by dragons.
This we call a civil war. 1t cannot be ac-
counted for upon any other hypothesis than
that there is a life and death struggle going
ON between the governed and those who
govern. BY every means available the class
in whose hands are the revenues. the judi
ciary and the military forces OF the Empire,
have been striving TO exterminste their ad.
versarics who, in turn, as opportunity has
offered, have not hcsitated 10 use such am
munition rs fortune put in their way
Whether il is more rcpugnant to the moral
sense for a subject TO take the life of ruler
who reigns only because be has taken many
lives and has the means of taking many more
than il is for the potentale to kill those under
him, we shall leave the reader 10 decide for
himself. though, II there be any thing in our
Declaration Of Independence. the sacrcdness