The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-04-08
MAKING A HERO OF MASON.
New York Snn.l

Ion based on the ground that he ought
o have been tried by civil tribunal,
instead of n court martial, it would
have an ineligible foundation. But
nothing of the kind is to be seen, UNI
ess by a rare exception, in the petitions
now circulated for his release, in the
speeches landing him, and in the reso-
lutions passed by the State Legislatures,
city councils, and political clubs. The
ground taken by these petitions, speech
es, and resolutions is that the faithless
ought not to be impris-
Oned for his crime that the character
and deed Of Guiteau were such as to
excuse Mason's attempt to murder him !;
while in some cases the large sums of
money subscribed for him and the de-
mands that he shall be not only par
doned, but restored to the army, and
even promoted to IA commission, show
a determination to Pablicly honor and
reward him.
Mason himself has Informed his adj
mirers Of the position he wishes them
to take, namely, that mob violence in
a case like Guiteau's is justifiable; that
the Government ought not to guard
such a prisoner, nor the public to re-
spect the law that holds him for trial !;
the courts and laws should in such cases
give way to the private right of assas-
and that even a soldier sworn
to obey orders, and put upon his honor
and his oath to guard an important
prisoner, ought to betray his trust and
kill him. "Right is right, and wrong
Is wrong" wrote Mason the other day
10 Washington newspaper, and "if I
wasn't right, could not say that am
treated wrong" That is the issue that
this sergeant makes before the public,
and on it Col. Corbin has started SUBJ
scriptions in the War Department,
while long petitions mounted on rose
wood rollers and wrapped in American
flags have been going by special mes
sengers to Washington.
The American flag has rarely covered
a more dangerous public movement to
glorify faithlessness to duty and the
the punishment of criminals who are
in the hands of the law. No commu-
nifty can call itself law abiding which
justifies a crime like Mason's, looking
at it only as that of n citizen, and not
rs made additionally detestablc by his
base abandonment Of his obligations as
Il soldier. He did all he could not only
to make the boosted fidelity aud eff
cheney Of the army a subject of mock
cry, but to represent the A merican peo-
pie as being, in moment of great
a mere mob OF lynchers.
And the shameful way in which Ma
sons defiant lead is followed by some
would go far toward justi-
flying this impression. At the Mason
meeting in Reading, Pennsylvania, for
example Mayor Rowe, in taking the
chair, declared that the meeting was
son act of sympathy with Sergeant
Mason, who had tried to remove one of
the worst men on the fnce of tho earth,
and for which he deserved the thanks
of the country" One of the speakers
declared that "hundretls of others
would have acted in the same manner
could they have had the opportunity,
and this excused, if it did not justify,
the act" and the resolution asked Ma
sons pardon Sat once"
The truth is that there was no real
excuse whatever. He considered Gui-
teau to be a wretch, and the assassina-
ton of the President Il crime; but so
did the whole country. Mason had no
monopoly of dctestation of Guiteau
He had not even the excuse of danger
that Guiteau might escape for the man
was shut up in Jail, with u guard over
b"" " bbCA iAat !"HS'A VI AAct&u4HS
said that Mason, for his offence, de-
served the thanks of the country, he
gloriticd assassination, and declared it
superior, in such case, to trial by jury.
The interest which the country, and,
indeed, the wide world, took in this
tragedy made Mason's conduct all the
moro conspicuousiy dishonorubie. 1t
was most important to know whether,
in the judgment of twelve chosen citi-
zens, the assassin was sane or an ire
sponsibIe lunatic 1t was important that
a formal trial should throw light on the
whole occurrence, and that an impress
sive eXamp pie should be given of justice,
tho tumultuous impulses of
an Indignant people on the one hand
and avenging tho crime in the strict
forms of law on the other. But Mason
would have swept aside all this, would
have constituted himself Judge, jury,
and eNecutioner In place of tho courts
and people, and, defyine the Govern
ment of the United States, would have
settled all questions Of responsibility
and penalty by his bullet.
The same defiant air has been main
tanned by this military contemner of
the laws throughout. "Bigeiow' is a
good man." he writes patronizingly of
his counsel, sand defended me all he
could;" explaining, however, that he
wanted to plead guilty, and