The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-11
DYNAMITE AND ASSASSINATION.


the effect that mo American any more than
an Englishman believes that assassination is
war or dynamite the raw material of policy"
correctly represented the prevalent senti-
ment among all respectable people of the
United States. Thoughtful men of all parti-
san opinions have had their serious appre-
tensions aroused in studying the problem of
how far the hospitality of the United States,
in the disconnected peoples of the entire
world, may continue to be abused without
danger to our own institutions and without
violent disruption of the relations of amity
subsisting between this government and the
governments of Europe. Government is a
different thing from individual opinion,
and the responsibility of a nation,
having its place among the nations of
the world and exerting a powerful
influence of one kind or another, nolens
volens is not to be COMPOUNDED with the
license allowable in the speech and action of
single citizens. America profoundly and
sincerely sympathizes with peoples every
where who are struggling for their birth
right, but with that sympathy there is as
strong aversion of and reprehension for the
miserable, cowardly and infamous tactics to
which the tacit consent, at least is given OF
those who are recognized to be representa-
tive men. Assassination Is not war and
Sc al af
and the sooner this is recognized by those
who have the power to influence and control
popular movements the better it will be.
Americans worthy of their citizenship are
chilled with horror at the assassina-
ton of the Gear and such crimes
as the murders in Phoenix Park,
while their feelings are turned into
bitterness toward those who coolly and
openly talk of explosion and secret murder
as warrantable methods and agencies of po-
litical REFORM There is unrest everywhere.
Revolt against government and the social
status is one of the features of the time, not
only in Russia and in Ireland, but in the
United States as we'll. If dynamite and as
sassination are to be recognized as lawful
weapons in the arsenal Of REFORM there is no
telling how soon they may be leveled against
things which are irksome to a class of people
in this country, whose number is constantly
increasing and whose spirit is contributed
from the turbulent lamentations of Eu-
rope. Hence, the people of America its
government and its Official representatives, are
acting for themselves when they exert
their utmost influence against such
of European politics and projected a
shadow upon our own, small as mans
hand it may be at present, but none the
less discernible and possibly portentous.
So far as Ireland is concerned, the events
of the past few months have most unneces-
sarily and vexatously complicated problem
that was hoped to be in process of peaceful
solution, not so rapidly as some would have
had it, but still in solution. The Phoenix
| Park murders the explosions, the dynamite
plots, and the criminal silence of such leaders
OF the Irish party as Mr. Parnell and Mr..
Egan have turned back the hands upon the
dial, how far only the future may tell. The
attention of the British government is now
absorbed in devising measures for self-pro-
lection, and its energies are directed toward
more pressing necessities even than the
better adjustment of its relations with Ire
land. In the face of the recent police dis
coveries in Birmingham and in Liverpool
dissent from the action of Parliament
in the passage OF the new act against dynam-
lite and its apostles, which received the royal
assent yesterday by telegraph, so urgent was
the demand for the immediate enforcement
of the statute. If the Irish people want an
independent government there is but one
way on earth to attain it, and that is by open
and honorable revolution, committing their
cause to other leaders than those whose
hands are sticky with murderous dynamite
and whose hearts are black with secret crime
| Whenever the warmhearted, quick-witted
and noble people of Ireland conclude to
throw off the yoke OF the British government
entirely and set up for themselves an indie
pendent sovereignty, to which they are ready
to pledge their lives their fortunes and their
sacred honor as the American colonies did,
they will enter upon struggle in which
they will have the warm sympathy of the
universal spirit of liberty. The propriety of
this step is for the Irish people themselves to
determine, but governments are not
founded upon dynamite nor are
social fabrics based upon assassination,
| England, of course would resent this act of