The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-10-13
MURDER Is MURDER.

the assaults upon the courts Of Kentucky
and the honor of the people of that Com
monwealth shall cease. Coming up to the
period in the Reign Of Terror when the
Democrats were proceeding according to
the forms of law in the contest to determ-
inc who was elected Governor, the Cou-
rier- Journal says:
'The Executive office was converted
into an armed camp. lawless body
of men was collected and brought to
Frankfort to serve as supports to two
or three companies of militia which,
differed by Republicans exclusively, were
already assembled. The Democratic Leg
islature became a prisoner in it's own
Capital, it's members in imminent peril
of their lives and it's committees chased
about the streets by squads of soldiers
The Court of Appeals, warned of i'm
pending assassination, had to come to
Louisville to hold its sessions, secure
against threatened murder and military
surveillance. The inevitable came to
pass. All this array of force, with it's
menace of death, proving insufficient to
overawe the Democrats of the Legisla-
arranged to do it's deadly work in
this precise event; and, puff of smoke
out Of window of the Executive office,
occupied by the Republican Governor and
his Republican friends, William Goebel is
shot down in his tracks whilst on his
way to the discharge Of his official duties.
THE Executive, Building is Immediate
ly surrounded by troops Access is de-
MED the local constabulary Martial
law supplants the Civil law. The Writ
of Habeas Corpus is ridiculed and de-
MED. The Legislature is suddenly and
violently dispersed. As suddenly, it is
called to assemble, not in some one Of
the many cities or towns in the State,
such as Louisville. or Lexington, where
its proceedings would be unmolested, but
in an inaccessible village among the
mountains. whittier, as might be reason
ably inferred, no Democrat could go with
out the risk of his life.
'In the face of such disbursement the
Democrats pursued their contest accord
ing to law, and, according to law, 1t was
awarded them by the highest tribunals in
the land Concurrent with the final decis-
ion of the Supreme Court of the United
States. in their favor the Republican Gov
ernor who had held office only under a
tentative title, subject to after revision
and decision, fed from Kentucky to In
DIANA having arranged with the Republi-
can Governor of the latter State for a
safe retreat. There, with one of his as
sociates, he remains today, secure against
arrest and extradition.
These are the simple facts. They are
met by the Republicans with no denial.
But to parry them it is set up that Goebel
was a bad man, that the Goebel la~
was a bad law, and that the Democrats
of Kentucky are a bad lot. The present,
like the last Republican Governor of In
diana, assumes that justice can not be
had of the Kentucky courts of law. The
present Republican President of the Uni
ted States is on record as having, whilst
Governor of New York, made haste to
guarantee the Kentucky refugees the pro-
lection of the Empire State. The Phila-
delphia newspaper largely owned and
wholly controlled by the Republican Post
master General OF the United States re-
fers to the Democrats of Kentucky as
the Goebel gang and speaks of the
murdered Governor of Kentucky as the
infamous Goebel.' II all this be not ex-
tenuating and ,justifying murder, what is
it?
Much capital is sought to be made
out Of certainl indignant expressions in
rebuttal from certain Kentucky Demo-
Gratis. But what should be said of the
ccndonement of assassination subscribed
to by the Republican party, from the
President of the United States down
through the Cabinet to the Republican
Governor of Indiana, and thence to the
Republican press, which, in order to make
it's case, must needs deliver an indict-
mcnt against an entire community, a
whole people, and that the God-fearing,
brave and magnanimous men and wo-
men Of Kentucky? Are Kentuckjans to
keep silent whilst such things go for
ward?''
Referring 20 its own course in which it
exhausted all it's powers of pacifcation
the Courier Journal proceeds with mas
tcrly Indictment of Republican endorse
ment OF assassination approved even by
Mr. Roosevelt to the extent of Offering to
help the murderer to escape trial for
the crime of which he is charged. Col.
Watterson never wrote with more truth
uhu pOWSI IId4I tulS
All is peace again. There is excite
ment nowhere outside the haunts of the
vicious, the hearts of the malignant. He
must, indeed, be bad man who nurtures
thought of further violence. William Goe-
bel is dead-most foully slain, as William
Mckinley was. But two weeks were gone
when the assassin of William Mckinley
met his doom. Nearly two years have
passed and still the assassin of Will
liam Goebel goes unpublished. To shield
him from punishment every partisan APP
pliance has been put FORTH To secure
and punish him not one word has emana-
TED from one single Republican, although
his shots were fired from building that
swarmed with Republicans. To shield him
from punishment the people and the
courts of Kentucky must be accused OF
ignorance and barbarity that would dis
grace race of barbarians. Are these
things wise, or just, either in our home
Republicans, or in the outer Republican
press?
Murder is murder. That William Goe-
bel and William Mckinley were most
unlike in character and temperament is
beside the question. That the assault
upon their lives differed ms degree is
not to say that it differed in S.ind. The
motiya was even moro dpSpica ble n the