Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-22
ASSASSINATED RULERS
Every Country of the World Has Had
Its Experiences.

Every Country of the World Has Had
Its Experiences.
Assassination has always been one
Of the dangers to which personages
prominent in the political world have
been particularly exposed, and hardly
any country can boast itself free from
that crime.
Abraham Lincoln, the first Of the
three American presidents to be mur-
dered, was assassinated as he was cele-
brating the triumphant close of the
Civil war. On Good Friday, April IA.
1865, just as the north was rejoicing at
the end Of the long struggle with the
south, he attended Ford's theater In
Washington to see a performance of
Our American Cousin" An actor, John
Wilkes Booth, crept to the back Of his
box soon after the curtain had risen
and shot him from behind. Then, leap
ing on the stage, he brandished a dag
ger, shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!"
and escaped through the stage door.
to a small house and died there at Z
o'clock the next morning. At the same
time an attempt was made to assassi-
nate Secretary Seward in his own
house.
The next president to be slain was
James A. Garfield. On July 2, 1881, a
few months after his Inauguration,
Charles ]. Guiteau, disappointed Of
flee seeker, shot him down in the Bal
timore and Pc lumac railway station in
Washington. The avowed purpose of the
assassin was to secure the succession of
Vice President Arthur, who, he believ-
ed, would be more favorably disposed
to the "Stalwart" wing of the Repub-
lican party. Garfield fingered for more
than two months. He was taken from
Washington to Elberon, N. j., and died
there on September 10.
William Mckinley fell a victim to
the doctrines Of anarchy. Like Lincoln,
he had been reelected and seemed to
be about to inaugurate a new and i'm
portant policy in regard to foreign
commercial relations. He went to
Buffalo to speak at the Pan-American
exposition, and there, as he was hold
ing reception, he was shot down by
Czolgosz. The man approached him in
the line of citizens, holding a revolver
concealed by a handkerchief. AS he
reached the president, apparently in
tending to shake his hand, he fired
with fatal effect Mckinley was carried
to a nearby house, and lived for eight
days after his wound.
Foreign countries have had their full
share of such assassinations as these,
and in many cases death has overtak-
en- a ruler on a state occasion, when he
was making a public progress to per-
form an important function.
So, on March 81, 1881, the Czar Alex
ander II. of Russia, was blown to
pieces by bomb as he was on his way
to the winter palace. He had been dis
tinguished by his liberal views and his
desire to ameliorate conditions in his
empire, but he was struck down
through a conspiracy of Nihilist. So,
too, few years ago, plot in the army
caused an artillery salute in honor of
the present cZar to take the form Of a
discharge of loaded pieces directly in
the direction of the imperial household.
President Carnot of France was the
only head Of foreign republic beside
President Borda Idiarte of Uruguay, to
be assassinated of late years He met
his death in Lyons at the hands Of an
Italian anarchist, Caserio, who killed
him on June "a, 1894. He had gone to
the exhibition of arts and sciences, and