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AT this writing nothing forbids the hope that the President will get well. Heaven send that he may. To have him shot has been a tremendous shock, which somehow has made the earth’s crust feel thin under our feet. Yet we know that it is a shock of a sort for which the people of all civilized nations must nowadays go always prepared. In every country the man who represents in his person the supreme authority occupies a post of peril. Whether he is a wise ruler or not, whether he is beloved or otherwise, makes little difference, for assassination is a crazy expedient, and the man who plans it is neither actuated nor deterred by reason. The wretch who shot the President assailed us all. We all staggered for the moment under his assault. Each of us was wounded by his bullet. The shock will pass, but such a wound is slow in healing.