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James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

June 24

M. Carnot’s Death

By John Hall Ingham (1860–1931)

  • M. Sadi Carnot, the fourth President of the French Republic, was assassinated at Marseilles on June 24, 1894.


  • NOT on some despot drunk with slaughtering

    For whose delight the millions toil and sweat,

    Nor on some foolish fop o’ the coronet

    Whose toys and tinsel rouse the underling

    To murderous envy,—not on such as these

    The blow hath this time fallen, but on one

    Noble and true and stainless as the sun,

    Who stood for Labor and the Love that frees.

    Nations, avenge this death! Hound into shame

    This horde of hellish creatures and their creeds

    Hateful to God and hideous to Man!

    —Or in the direst day since Time began

    Honor will be the ghost of dead men’s deeds

    And Liberty the shadow of a name.