An Appeal to Reason on the Race Problem [excerpt]

A nameless assassin, sprung from the scum of the earth and [70][71] nurtured in a murderous cult, extending his cowardly hand in simulated greetings, struck down William McKinley, the most amiable and beloved of our rulers. This wretch in human form, whose unpronounceable name shall be anathema for evermore, aimed this deadly blow at the idol of the American people, and rolled a heavy stone on the nation’s heart. Was ever deed more dastardly or better calculated to excite summary vengeance? This was all but the universal impulse. And yet the anxious solicitude of our dying chieftain was that no harm should come to his assailant not sanctioned by due process of law. Summary vengeance wreaked upon the vilest miscreant answers no worthy end. It neither wipes out the crime committed, nor prevents its repetition. A bitter and bloody experience shows too plainly that vindictive vengeance acts as a suggestive rather than a deterrent to the evilly disposed.