The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-08


In the first two instances the murderer
succeeded in comprising the death of his
victim. In the third instance the Presi-
dent has been seriously wounded and his
life now trembles in the balance.
The first assassin was an American
whose mind had been unbalanced by the
events and result of the Civil War. The
second assassin was a Frenchman who
was crazed by the desire for office, and
the third is a Pole. who claims to be an
anarchist.
The first Presidential assassination oc-
Cured just after the close of the Civil
War, when President
THE KILLING Abraham Lincoln
OF was shot and almost
MR.. LINCOLN. instantly killed in a
Washington theatre
by John Wilkes Booth, an obscure actor
President Lincoln had been frequently
warned of the danger of assassination. as
we'll as threatened with it in anonymous
letters, but had never taken any precau-
ton against it, believing on the one hand
that it was not likely to be attempted,
and on the other that if it were con-
templated no precaution could protect ons
who was so accessible as the President
of the United States.
On the evening of Good Friday. April
14th, 1866 President Lincoln visited
Fords theatre, accompanied by Mrs. Lin
coin and two or three personal friends.
The play was "Our American Cousin.
few minutes after 10 o'clock, an actor,
John Wilkes Booth, entered the box, hav-
ing first barred the passage leading to 1T,
approached the President from behind.
placed a pistol close to his head and
fired. He then leaped from the front of
the box upon the stage, and brandishiug
q dagger shouted, 'Sic SENDER tyrannis.
disappeared behind the scenes, passed out
at the stage door and escaped on horse
back. AS he jumped upon the stage his
leg was broken, and he was recognized
by the actors.
The Presidents head fell slightly for
ward, his eyes closed and consciousness
never returned. He was removed to a
private house on the opposite side of the
street, where he died % minutes past
o'clock the next morning.
At the same hour when the President
was shot, Secretary Seward was attacked
in his house by a
AN ATTEMPT desperate assassin;
TO KILL and it was claimed
MR. SEWARD. that an elaborate
plot had been formed
for numbering simultaneously nearly all
the chief civil officers of the government;
that it had grown out of a conspiracy
formed to abllct the President.
These horrors bred rumor. Secretary
cd dod xxyhil 10
later it was said that Grant was wounded
on his way North. Dread seized the city
Of Washington. A renewal of the war
was said to be Impending. The civil and
rAiAtary authorities prepared for attack
from within and without. Martial law
was established. The long roll was beat
en-; every exit from the city was guarded;
out going trains were stopped; mounted
police and cavalry clattered up and down
the streets; the forts were ordered on the
alert; guns were manned.
Nine persons were charged with partic-
ipation in this plot, eight of whom We're
tried by military commission. Four of
them Gnciuding a woman) were executed,
while three were sentenced to hard labor
on the Dry Tortugas for life, and one
for six years. One died there, and the
other three were pardoned by President
Johnson.
Booth was pursued and killed near
Bowling Green on the morning of April
26th, twelve days after the assassination
OF Lincoln. He had taken refuge in a
barn. and refusing to surrender, was shot
Booth was a native of Maryland.
The next Presidential assassination
he Ill Of arGn oil hxr
Charles ]. Guiteau a
THE MURDER disappointed and
OF mentally unbalanced
JAS. A. GARFIELD offce-seeker 1t was
on July 2, 1881 that
Cuiteau shot at Garfield twice in the
laes waiting room Of the Baltimore and
Potomac railroad in Washington. as he
was about leaving the city to join his wife
on a New England pleasure trip. One Of
the balls took effect in his back and he
sank unconscious to the floor. He was
Mt once conveyed to the White House and
there attended by the best medical skill
till September 9Th, when he was removed
to the seashore at Elberton. N. j. Blood
poisoning appeared on the 18th and four
days later he died.
Guiteau was promptly arrested, indict-
trials on record, was convicted and ex-
ecuted on June 80, 1882. Guiteau's law
yers set up the plea of insanity. He had
been a persistent candidate for appoint
ment, first as minister to Austria and
then as consul general to Paris. He is
reported as having said, when arrested.
"All right, did it, and will go to Jail for
it, A letter was also found on his per-
son in which he spoke of the Presidents
assassination as ga sad necessity that
would unite the Republican party and
save the Republic
President Garfield made a brave fight
for life. His death did not occur until
- some two months af-
HIS BRAVE ter he was shot and
FIGHT several times during
FOR LIFE. that period he was
pronounced by his
physicians as almost out of danger.
A description of his wound may not be
uninteresting just here, as it bears, in
some respects. resemblance to one of
the wounds from which President Nc
Kinley is now suffering.
The assassin stood about six feet be-
hind and a little to the right of Mr.. Gar