Assassination and the Spoils System [pp. 145-170]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIEW.
sions in the States. The frenzy and the spectacle might well
have made desperate far stronger minds than that of Guiteau.
His reasons, as he gave them, are a strange mixture of logic
and folly: "I had no ill-will toward the President. His death
was a political necessity.... It will unite the Republican
party.... I was with Grant and the rest of our men in
New York during the canvass.... I am a Stalwart of the
Stalwarts, and Arthur is now President..."
* It is not for a moment to be imagined that ex-Senator
Conkling, or Vice-President Arthur, or any of the' officials in
the faction of which they were the leaders, had any more
'information of the purpose of Guiteau, than Vice-President
Stephens or ex-Senator Slidell had of the bloody purpose of
Booth. They abhor and lament the acts and spirit of the
assassin, like all other good citizens. It is the best justification, alike of the champions of the slave system and of the
champions of the spoils system, that they were so blinded and
misled by the vicious principles and methods they had inherited,
and had long helped to enforce, that they were but half conscious of their real nature and effects.
With marvellous promptness and unanimity, hardly less in
foreign countries than among ourselves, the source and signifi cance of Guiteau's acts have been found in our spoils system
of administration. The apologists of that system are awed to
silence and shame, while it stands arraigned, without precedent,
in the denunciations and warnings of the men and women of all
parties and conditions, not only throughout this broad land, but
in the utterances of the thoughtful friends of our country in
every civilized nation. From a thousand pulpits the great fact,
with solemn admonitions, has been proclaimed. On the myriad
pages of our journals, of every section and class, the truth has
been daily uttered in words of mingled anxiety, shame, and
detestation. From foreign journals alone might be gathered a
whole volume of warning. Despite the restraints of official
usage, the diplomatic representatives of at least two foreign
states, we are assured, have not forborne to express their depre cation of that system, even in their kindly messages of sympa thy. And in the months before us, we may be assured that
Guiteau's assassination, the American spoils system, and the
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