The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-07-07
WASHINGTON LETTER..
From Our Regular Correspondent


always swift, but it is sure. And so
we have just now witnessed the final
scene of the appalling tragedy which
plunged the Capital and the Nation
into sorrow, one year ago. The pun
ishment of Guiteau has not, in it's
swiftness, been in accordance with
the magnitude of his crime and the
impatient demands of the outraged
people for sharp and decisive retri-
button, but justice was unerring at
last. Small atonement as such a life
as Guiteau's is for the deed he had
done-for the innocent blood of Gar
field-it is the only penalty in the pow
er of any human tribunal to exact. It's
final adjustment is numbered with
the secrets of the great hereafter.
Probably a majority of the American
people would have preferred that
this nan had been Enthusiastically in
sane. 1t is not at all pleasant, mol
altogether an assuring thought that
any mar in the possession of his fac
ulties should harbor the purpose of
murder against the President of the
United States, but in the instance be-
fore us, its startling outline freshly
limned upon the near horizon, there
was no alternative compatible with the
majesty of the law, the honor of the
judiciary, the safety of human life in
high official station.
Death upon the scaffold is awful in
all its aspects. 1t was SO in Guiteau's
case. 1t was a solemn and uncomon
spectacle, the like of which was neve
witnessed in this country before, and
it is to be hoped will never be again.
But the tragedy which Guiteau
wrought was awful to an unmeasura-
bly, greater degree. The country
could never be avenged for the I'M
provoked murder of it's Chief Magis-
trate by the death of the assassin,
though he were hundred -necked; and
the people who in crowds around the
Jail rent the air with shouts when
Guiteau was hung do moi rejoice in
the sense that his miserable life has
balanced an unsettled account. In
the stern arbitrament of justice, how
ever, which has overtaken the con
s~cienceless and extraordinary murder,
wemay find an assurance that hence
forth the Chief Magistrate of the
United States will be surrounded by
safer defences against the spirit of vi
o%lence, whether in the form of fanat-
icism, conspiracy, or supernatural in
spiration.
There is in history a single proto.
type of Guiteau-Robert Franquois
Damiens, who in 1857 attempted to
assassinate Louis the XIV Of France.
From boyhood he had been vicious,
deserving twice from the army, steal
ing from those who employed him,
leading a wandering, worthless life.
Finally he imagined that he had a mis-
sion to perform to redeem France
from what he regarded the evil rule
of Louis. The parallel between Dam
lens and Guiteau is complete, so far
as the inception of their crimes and
the causes leading thereto are concern
ed. Neither had an accomplice, but
conceived and carried out their crimes
alone. Both had led vicious lives.
Both were religious enthusiasts, Dam
lens taking a great, even violent, in
terest in the quarrel between the Pope
and the Jansenists which excited the
interest Of the whole Catholic Church
of that day. Both insisted that their
acts were meritorious. The parallel,
however, fails alike in the result Of
their criminal attempts, and in the
punishment meted out to the GRIM
inals. Louis XIV did not die-Gar-
field did. While the horrible and
barbarous ~cruelties inflicted on
Damiens, attending and before his ex-
ecution, are too atrocious to contem-
plate without disgust, are not the
good dinners, the most luxurious
quarters, the reception, the flowers,
the photograph-peddling, the sem
timental coddling generally that