Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1901-09-13
THE SHOOTING OF THE PRESI
DENT.

Kinley last Friday while in attend
3, ance at the Buffalo exposition sent
a thrill of horror not only through
the United States, but throughout
the civilized world. Three times
within the memory of the present
generation president of these
United States has fallen by the
hand of an assassin. Lincoln was
shot during a time of political ex-
element, at the close of the greatest
civil strife in history. He was
sacrificed to the malevolence and
hatred engendered by that long
struggle to avenge the sting of de-
feat. Garfield fell at the outset of
his presidential career at the hands
of lunatic and disappointed Office
seeker. Giteau in his insane act
represented no class or organization.
He stood alone, and was moved to
murder solely by the workings of
his own depraved mind. With the
attempt upon the life of Mckinley
it is different. He was in the noon
tide of his presidential career; the
zenith of his popularity. He was
the honored guest at national
festival, and extending the glad hand
of friendship to all, when the red
hand of anarchy reached out under
the guise of friendship, and cowardly
shot him down. The would-be
assassin harbored no feeling of per-
sonal enmity toward him, beyond the
fact that the majesty of law, the
power of the government, was per-
soniied in him. Because he was
the chief magistrate of the greatest
and freest nation on earth, he was
marked for slaughter, by one whose
feeble mind had been wrought-up to
the murder point by the teachings
of the apostles of anarchy. These
anarchists are at war with all con-
stituted authority. They acknow-
lodged allegiance to no government.
They train under the red f1ag-the
banner consecrated TO disorder and
violence. The preachers of this fire.
brand organization may not sanction
assassination in express terms, but
they tell their dupes that society
should be disorganized, and govern
ment as now constituted should be
dissolved Rattle Drained fellows
of Czolgosz stripe naturally interpret
this as an incentive to kill those in
authority, and act accordingly.
Thanks to prompt surgical attention
and strong constitution, the presi-
dent will in all probability survive
this murderous assault. In that
hoped-for outcome, the law provides
no adequate punishment for the
crime. Although the crime in it's
very nature stands alone and
separate from ordinary assaults to
murder, the law unfortunately
makes no distinction. The bullets
that sought the president were
aimed at the life of the nation. The
shooting was the act of an individual
even admitting that no conspiracy
existed-in open rebellion against
the authority of the United States.
The would-be assassin admits this
much. The United States is fast
becoming the asylum for the an
archists of the world. They are
driven from European countries,
where their infamous doctrines are
stamped out by the strong arm OF
the law, and seek the free republic
of the west in which to SOW, without
molestation, their treasonable
tenets. 1t is time that special laws
were passed to meet this condition
of affairs. Any attempt upon the
life of the president should be made
a capital crime; punishable will
death. Anarchistic organizations
should be suppressed. Human laws
cannot reach the secret workings O.
the mind. individuals may nurse
the spirit of anarchy in spite of al
laws that may be passed, but the
outward and visible manifestations
of that spirit can and ought to be
suppressed, whether the spirit crops
up in a socialistic gathering or il
the columns of the yellow journal.