The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-09-21

"Fellow Citizens! God reigns, and
the government ut Washington still
lives!
Sixteen years after Mr. Garfield gave
utterance to this historic speech. de-
livered from the balcony Of n New
York hotel, to quiet angry men who
We're surging through the streets and
wildly crying for vengeance upon the
head of the war presidents slayer
and all who aided or sympathized with
him, he, having been elevated to the
high station which President Lincoln
had occupied, was shot by an assassin
in n railroad station in Washington
city. says Il writer in the st. Louis
Republic.
Twenty years afterwards William
Mckinley, fifth successor Of Garfield
as president of the United States, was
shot by an assassin ut Buffalo
Thus thrice in n period of thirty-six
years-a period that is well within the
memory Of many men who are living
now-hns effort been made to kill the
ruler of the greatest republic the
world has ever known.
The assassination of Lincoln by
John Wilkes Booth, in April, 1865,
came Mt time when the country was
torn by the passions Of civil war: when
the partisnns Of the defeated cause
were rendered wholly desperate by
disappointment and sorrow for the
failure of the flag they had cham
pioned and by the gondings of the
vict0rs. There was an element Of OK
cusc for the dcthrOnemcnt of the re,l-
son of man, and especially of one
so emotional, so reckless and so ire
sponsiblc as Actor John Wilkes Booth.
When Garfield was slain there was
none of the passion of war. But polit-
ical passion there was-of the most
violent and unrcasOning kind Demo-
Gratis were bitter; Republicans were
divided. In each camp there was an
ger. The Republican party was split
over the question of spoils. Garfield
and his close personal and political
friend, James G. Blaine, secretary of
state, were assailcd by Conkling and
Plntt as leaders of the opposition. Gar
field maintained the right of the chief
executive of the nation to make his
own selections for appointment ito Of
flee; the opposition contended that the
legislative branch should be recog-
niZcd. There was rancor and bitter
ness in the debates, private and pub.
lie. Charges and counter charges were
made. "Stalwarts' were arrayed
against administrationists," and there
was no peace. ...
Charles ]. Guiteau, disappointed Of
flee seeker, was one of those who felt
most bitter toward the president. He
was a person of little influence and
no party standing; but the desire for
Office was a passion with him. He had
asked for an appointment as minister
to Austria, and, failing in that, had
asked for other offices. None had been
given him. He became wrapped up In
the magnitude of his own grievance;
he saw in the president who refused
to give him from the wealth of the
appOintive power the gift he sought
the embodiment of his misfortune
He brooded, and fed his weakening
mind upon the unhealthy food of angry
debates and vicious charges against
| Garfield. He began to look upon him
| self as the person who was fated to
rid the country of the man who stood
between himself and his own ambi-
ton, and so he crept up behind the
president, fired upon him twice, and,
as the second bullet lodged in Mr..
Garfelds back and brought him to
the ground, cried: "Now we will have
Stalwart Administrations
The attack upon the life of Mr.. Nc
Kinley had not for its motive eithel
an insane desire for revenge for lost
cause or narrow passion for retalia-
tion for personal disappointment.
There is 80 far nothing to indicate
that 1t had any motive other than
wantonness. The man who shot him