Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-04-11
ASSASSINATIONS.
Crimes That Have Changed the He
tory of the World.


Step by step throughout the worlds
history assassination has been a factor
in determining the course of events
and in holding the life of nations.
Frequently the assassin's weapon
which sent a ruler to death has sent
upon the worlds stage a successor
whose career set irrevOcable mileStones
upon the pathway Of the peoples of the
world Especially was this trVe in
those days when conquest was the
guiding star of the rulers of the world
Probably one of the most important
and early aSsassinat1onS was that OF
Philip of Macedon, which occurred in
the year 336 B. G. Not only did it ter
inmate the career of one of the most
remarkable men of his time, but it led
to the accession of Alexander the
Great. an event which very likely
would not have taken place at all had
Philip continued to rule and had him
self selected the successor to his throne.
Philip of Maced0n then was at the
height of his power, and the battle OF
Chaeronea had made him the undisput-
ed master of Greece. When leaving
the theater in which his sister had been
united in marriage to Alexander, king
of Epirus, man sprang toward the
ruler and thrust a sharp, short sword
| into his side. AS the assassin ran to-
ward a swift horse his sandal caught
in a vine stalk, and his pursuers killed
him with their spears and tore him to
pieces.
OIympias, his former wife, was said
to have aided in the conspiracy. This
assassination, one of the earliest in
point Of time, bore a strong reSem-
blance in it's surroundings to that
which claimed President Abraham Lin
coins life. In both cases there was an
individual murderer, the scene was a
/ theater, the act was done with incredi-
BILE audacity in the presence of large
concourse of people, and the murderer
was crippled by a misstep after the
fatal blow.
In the history of ancient Rome there
stands out one political assassination
which marks the first occasion on rec
ord in which the conflicting economical
interests of different classes in a re-
public were settled by resort to the
weapon of the assassin. This was the
murder of Tiberius Gracious, which
soon was followed by the enforced sui
eide of his brother, Caius Gracious.
This deed was the direct result of the
formers attempt to enforce an agrarian
law passed as an act of justice to the
poorer classes of Roman citizens.
In the turmoil that attended the vOt-
ing of the tribes Tiberius was struck
down to death by one of his own col
leagues, a tribune of the people. This
chapter Of death was written in 1873
B. g. History has dealt at length with
the assassination of julius Caesar on
the ides of March-the 18th of the
month-in the year A B. c., and of the
import of this event in the history of
ancient Rome.
At the time of the assassination Of
Julius Caesar the Roman people had
reached degree of perversity and de-
generacy almost impossible of modern
comprehension. His death had a most
demOralizing effect upon the people.
The hand of the master who might
have controlled the unruly masses and
restrained the degenerate nobility lay
palsied In death. Later events had
their handspring from this source, and
the years from 81 to GO A. D. were
marked by the assassinations of Tibe-.
RUS, Caligula, Claudius and Nero
New York Herald.