Anarchy No Cure for Anarchy

Some of the public men and clergymen, who, either in interviews or in sermons, have permitted themselves to suggest that the proper treatment of the would-be murderer of the President was immediate death—the precise form they differ about—will live long enough—and that not long—to regret that they ventured to make known publicly their snap judgment. Anarchy is no cure for anarchy, and the frequency of the expression of opinion, by men supposedly well educated and disciplined in thought and feeling, that immediate death should have been meted out to Czolgosz by the detectives or the Negro who overpowered him, or by the surging mob in the Temple of Music, shows how widespread is the feeling of distrust of law, of disregard for judicial rather than individual adjudication of issues throughout the country. Czolgosz, if the President lives, can only be sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, to be sure. That seems a woefully inadequate penalty for so dastardly an intent, but the fault is not to be charged to the judge who must render sentence, but to society, which has neglected to legislate adequately. But imagine Czolgosz released nine years and some months hence. Is there a man living who envies him his fate the moment he is released? Judas hanged himself under circumstances similarly heinous—more so, of course. Benedict Arnold ended his days an outcast in London. Where would Czolgosz hide from human aversion?