The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-10-05

Judgment are the establishment of his
throne! Mercy and truth shall go be-
fore his face! r..
Fellow citizens! God reigns, and the
government at Washington still lives"'
iames A. Garfield to a frenzied mob in
New York after the assassination OF
President Lincoln. 80 =
sixteen years after Mr. Garfield gave
utterance to this historic speech de1jv-
cred from the balcony of a New York
motel, to quiet angry men who were surg
ing through the streets AMI wildly cry-
ing 1orA vengeance upon the -aead-of the
war presidents slayer and all who aided
or sympathized with him, he. hayine. been
eleVated to the high station which Presi-
oe1t hincoln had occupied, was shot by
an assassin in a railroad station in WASH
ington CITY
twenty years afterward William Nc
hlnley, fifth successor of Garfield as
president Of the United States. was shot
by an assassin at Buffalo.
Illus thrlce in period of thirty six
years-a period that is we'll within ,the
memory of many men who are living
hoW-has effort been made. to kill the
has ever known
.Ihe assassination of Lincoln by John
Wllkes Booth, in April, 1865 came at a
ume when the country was torn by the
passions of civil war; when the parti-
sans OF the defeated cause were rendered
wholly desperate by disappointment and
, sorrow for the failure of the flag, thew
mad championed and by the goadlngs of
the victors. There was an element Of ex
cUse for the dethronement of the reason
OF a man, and especially Of one so emo
tlonal, so reckless and so irresponsible
as Actor John Wilkes Booth. .
ahen Garfield was slain there was none
Or the passion Of war. But political pas
9lon there Was-of the most violent and
%hreasohlng Kind Democrates were bit
ser; Republicans We're divided In each
4amp there was anger. The Republican
party was split over the question of
spolls. Garfield and his close personal
and political friend, James G. Blaine,
secretary Of state, were assailed by Conk-
ing and Plat as leaders of the OPPOSE
ton. Garfield maintained the right OF
the chief executive of the nation to make
MS own selections for appointment to
office; the opposition commended that the
Legislative branch should be recognized
'Ihere was rancor and bitterness in the
debates, private and public. Charges and
counter-charges were made. "Stalwarts''
were arrayed against Administrations
1sts,' and there was no peace.
CHARLES j. Guiteau, disappointed office
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
ofhces. None had been given him. lie
became wrapped UP in the magnitude
or his own grievances; he saw in the
president who refused to give to him Spm
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
MIN cir as the person who was fated to
rid the country of the man who stood
between himself and his own ambition,
and so he crept up behind the president,
fired upon him twice. and, as the second
bullet lodged in Mr.. Garfields beck and
brought him to the ground, cried: "Now
we Will have a. StalWart administration"
INhe attempt upon the .lfe of Iur Nc
Kinley had not for its motive either an
insane desire for revenge for a lost cause
or a narrow passion for retaliation for
personal disappointment. There is so
Tar, nothing to indicate that it had any
motive other than Wantonness. The man
who shot him claims that he is an an
archist; recognized leaders of anarchy
as 1t is found in America disclaim him.
HeShad not been an applicant for polit-
ical appointment; he was not an advocate
OF any great cause. He was simply Frank
j. Czolgosz. a person who is described by
his stepmother as weak minded and
cowardly,' and who claims that he was
fired to the perpetuation Of the deed by
the teachings of Emma Goldman.
The assassination of Lincoln occurred
In public theater in Washington City;
that of Garfield in the ladies' waiting
room of the Pennsylvania railroad at
Washington City, and the attempt upon
McKinley's life was made in. the Tenn
pie Of Music at the Pan-American EXPOSE
zion at Buffalo. where the president was
holding a public reception. - 49,
Lincoln was enjoying the presentation
Of a comedy; Garfield waste quote the
words of MIR. Blaine-"in conscious en-
3oyment Of the beautiful morning, with
an unwonted sense of leisure and a. keen
anticipation of pleasure to come from a
meeting with his invalid wife and friends
OF his boyhood and his college days; Nc
Kinley was happy in meeting thousands
OF his fellow-citizens and in shaking them
by the hand.
Lincoln had, but short while before,
delivered his famed Second Inaugural
In which he had said: with malice
hrmness in the right as God gives US to
see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in: to bind up the ma
fion's wounds; to care for him who shall
have borne the battle, and for his widow
and his orphan-to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all ma
TONS" y, -|-.... J.,- ~. .Ej-
Garfield had. to again quote Blaine.
wi no -
pressed his keen pleasure in the belief
that grave difficulties confronting him
at his inauguration had been safely
passed and that troubles lay behind him
and not before him. -SsE,
Mckinley, on the day before he was
shot. had, in an address at Bumalo, said:
"Gentlemen, let us ever remember that
our interest is in concord. not conflict,
and that our real eminence rests in the
victories of peace. not those of war.
Our earnest prayer is that God
will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, hap
piness and peace to all the peoples and
powers of the earth'' -
The tragic details of the attack upon
Mr. Mckinley are of too recent occur
renee and, therefore, too fresh in the
puollc mind to justify a review of them
at this time. But the regrettable Incl
dent at Buffalo gives tineliness to stories
s Of the assassination Of Lincoln and Car
field.
LINCOLN.
Lincoln had premonition of his fate.
Perhaps this was but natural, considering
the excited condition of the country a.
the time, when blood was held cheaply
and mems passions led them readily to
murder; SO there may have been moth
ing occult in his apprehension that he
was to fall victim to an assassin. But,
nevertheless. this story. related in Hap
goods "A braham Lincoln I, is well worth
retelling:
The president referred few DAYS be-