And He Died Cursing Christianity

     Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist and assassin, with his last breath damned the priests. He went to hades by the electrical route, cursing those, who, in the name of Christianity, sought only his eternal welfare. Pretnding [sic] martyrdom for the good of humanity, he was, in fact, but a demonical murderer in the hands of the devil. He slew innocence that criminality might be exalted. Howling for justice with his lying lips, he plotted treason with his brain, nursing the while in the recesses of his black heart all that is satanic and heinous. This obdurate reprobate, past praying for, unjustifiable and indefensible, went out into the dark, panoplied only by his infinite baseness. All that civilization boasts of, mercy for man, happiness for humanity, of protection for the weak, has been received directly at the hands of Christianity. Yet Czolgosz and his ilk, in execrating the precepts of Christianity, would rob humanity of all the manifold blessings which have flowed down to it through the ages from the life of Christ. The anarchist, in seeking to rob civilization of both Christ and the law, would plunge the multitudes of this world into hopeless night. But for the spirit of Christ and the precepts of Christianity, every group of anarchists in this country would be landed in eternity before the setting of another sun, and solely for the commission of the dastardly crime committed by their unrepentant and incorrigible satellite, Czolgosz, who introduced himself to the world by a death-dealing shot into a humane ruler’s compassionate heart, and who yesterday morning for this crime went out of the world, his profane life cursing all that renders life in it endurable, or that makes the civilized man of law superior to the savage. Thus bound in the shackles of his own forging, going down to his doom, this wretch, void of soul or sympathy, sustained alone by hatred, anathemizing the spirit which inspires all of life’s blessings, his name will be recalled with a shudder, and remembered only to be consigned to infamy’s red role of traitors, regicides and butcher-assassins.
     Anarchy has gained nothing by the crime of its servile tool, while Christianity has as surely been approbated by the life, character and resigned death of their illustrious victim. Notoriety has won, but at the cost of what ignominy. Quicklime alone will save the dust of the uncanny monster from desecration and vilipendency. Retributive justice was and is an impossibility, even with the elements of his corporcality [sic] eaten up by a caustic and its residue blotted out. But the Christian stateman [sic], the man who stood for Christian rule and human brotherhood, his life and deeds, will live in the hearts of coming generations, inspiring them with love for manknid [sic] and greater love for a God of love, law and order.