Attempt to Assassinate the President

     The bloody work of Czolgosz at Buffalo, which has convulsed the whole country, is the legitimate and inevitable result of the anarchistic utterances of the Emma Goldmans and the other advocates of assassination who have been permitted to carry on their business of murder with impunity. It was believed by some that the charming characteristics of President McKinley would have disarmed the blood-thirsty hordes of anarchy whose murderous hands would have been directed against some executive less kind and indulgent; but the anarchist does not discriminate in his hatred of all established forms of government; he is not only the implacable foe of society, but is the enemy of all that is respectable and good. The admirable lineaments of President McKinley’s character incurred the bell-born [sic] hatred of the accursed brood, the cardinal principle of whose damnable creed is assassination. The popularity of the president among all classes of the people made him a shining mark for the bullets of the assassin.
     The anarchists have mistaken the right of free speech for license and they openly proclaim that murder is the purpose and aim of their society. Since the attempted assassination of the president they have met at Chicago and Patterson [sic], N. J., and applauded the work of Czolgosz whom they will crown as a hero. The attempt to take the life of President McKinley was not the act of a fanatic as in the case of President Lincoln’s assassination, or of a partially insane person like Guiteau, who killed President Garfield. Fanaticism or insanity does not mitigate the crime committed at Buffalo. Czolgosz is not a fanatic. He is not crazy. He is not even a fool. He is the perfect type of the anarchist. To hang or electrocute him would be inadequate. It would be like trimming the branch in the hope of destroying the tree. His punishment alone will be an incentive to the anarchist society to commit other crimes. It is anarchy itself that must be reached. It must be stamped out or the Czolgoszes will increase by the hundreds. The Emma Goldmans must be muzzled or hanged. The gang at Patterson [sic] must be run into their holes or killed as so many mad dogs, before they are permitted to inoculate other fiends with the virus of anarchy. When a mad dog runs amuck in a community he is shot down. When pioneers settle in a country they first kill the rattle-snakes. Anarchists deserve no better fate.