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     Never, perhaps, has there been so plainly revealed the underlying unity of our great nation as during the days of its grief for the murderous assault upon its President. All that was best in national life was then brought to the front. Men of all parties, of all races, and all religious opinions were united in a common sorrow and a common loyalty. After all, important as they are, the divisions which are thrust into view in times of political excitement do not run very deep. Beneath them all is the solid bed rock [sic] of a great national spirit of loyalty and patriotism. And the terrible adjectives employed and the dire disasters threatened by each party when speaking of its opponents come largely from fevered imaginations.
     Nevertheless, it is impossible that this event should pass by without our learning one lesson at least. It has been a blot upon our national honor that through mistaken loyalty to freedom of speech, mingled with an inexcusable neglect to rebuke recognized evil, we have permitted the doctrine of reform by assassination to be taught openly and unforbidden. It is the immediate duty of every state legislature, in Massachusetts as elsewhere, to provide, so far as can be done by law, for the suppression of the propogation [sic] of the doctrines of anarchy and to declare that murderous attacks upon the life of the President are traitorous and punishable by death. It makes one shudder to think that the tragedy of Buffalo might equally well have happened when the President was the guest of our own Commonwealth.