398 



GUITEAU'S TRIAL. 



tion was, whether the cose of this defendant presented 

 anything analogous to that. The theory of the Gov- 

 ernment was that the defendant committed this homi- 

 cide in lull possession of his faculties and from per- 

 fectly sane motives ; that he did the act from revenge, 

 or, perhaps, from a morbid desire lor notoriety ; that 

 lie calculated deliberately on being protected by those 

 who were to be benefited politically by the death of 

 the President ; that he made no pretense of inspira- 

 tion at the time of the assassination, uor until he had 

 discovered that his expectations from the so-called 

 Stalwart wing of the Republican party were delusive ; 

 and that then, for the first time, he broached this 

 theory of inspiration and irresistible pressure to tho 

 commission of the act. Whether this was true or not 

 the jury must determine from the evidence. It was 

 true that the term " inspiration " did not appear in 

 the papers first written by the defendant, nor in those 

 delivered to Mr. Reynolds, except at the close of the 

 one dated July 19th, in which he said that the in- 

 spiration was worked out of him (although what was 

 meant was not clear), and it was true, also, that that 

 was alter he was informed that he was being de- 

 nounced by the Stalwarts. Judge Cox referred to 

 the testimony of Dr. Noble Young, Dr. McDonald, 

 and Dr. Gray, and this, he said, was about tho sub- 

 stance of what appeared in the case on the subject of 

 inspiration. The question for the jury was whether, 

 on the one hand, the idea of killing the President first 

 presented itself to the defendant in the shape of a 

 command or inspiration of the Deity, in the manner in 

 which insane delusions of that sort arose ; or whether, 

 on the other hand, it was a conception of his own, 

 and whether the thought of inspiration was not sim- 

 ply a speculation, or theory, or theoretical conclusion 

 of his own mind. If it were the latter, it was nothing 

 more than one of the vagaries of reasoning, which he 

 had already characterized as furnishing no excuse for 

 crime. He had dwelt upon the question of insane de- 

 lusion simply because the evidence relating to that was 

 evidence touching the defendant's power or want of 

 power (from mental disease) to distinguish between 

 right and wrong as to the act done by him. This was 

 the broad question for the jury to determine, and was 

 what was relied upon by the defense. It had been 

 argued with force on the part of the defense that there 

 were a great many things in the defendant's conduct 

 which could not be expected of a sane man, and which 

 were only explainable on the theory of insanity. There 

 were strange things in his career, and whether they 

 were really indications of insanity, or could be ac- 

 counted for by his ignorance of men, by his exaggerated 

 egotism, or by his bluntness of moral sense, it might 

 be difficult to determine. The only safe rule, however, 

 was for the jury to direct its attention to the one test 

 of criminal responsibility, namely, whether the pris- 

 oner possessed the mental capacity, at the time the act 

 was committed, to know that it was wrong, or whether 

 he was deprived of that capacity by mental disease. 

 There was one important distinction which the jury 

 must not lose sight of, and they must decide how far 

 it was applicable to this case. That was the distinc- 

 tion between mental and moral obliquity ; between the 

 mental incapacity to distinguis_h between right and 

 wrong, and the moral insensibility to that distinction. 



In conclusion, he said : 



From the materials presented to you two pictures 

 have been drawn to you by counsel. The one repre- 

 sents a youth of more than average mental endow- 

 ments, surrounded by certain immoral influences at 

 the time his character was being developed; com- 

 mencing life without resources, but developing a 

 vicious sharpness and cunning; conceiving "enter- 

 prises of great pith and moment " that indicated un- 

 usual forecast, although beyond his resources ; con- 

 sumed all the time by unsated egotism and a craving 

 for notoriety ; violent in temper, selfish, immoral, 

 and dishonest ; leading a life of hypocrisy, swindling, 

 and fraud ; and finally, as a culmination of his de- 



praved career, working himself into the resolution of 

 startling the world with a crime which would secure 

 him a bad eminence. The other represented a youth 

 born, as it were, under malign influences the child 

 of a diseased mother and of a father subject to insane 

 delusions, reared in retirement and imbued with fanat- 

 ical religious views ; subsequently, his mind filled 

 with fanatical theories, launched on the world with 

 no guidance save his own impulses, evincing an in- 

 capacity for any continuous employment; changing 

 from one pursuit to another now a lawyer, now a 

 religionist, and now a politician unsucce.-slul in all : 

 full of wild, impracticable schemes, for which he had 

 neither resources nor ability ; subject to delusions ; 

 his mind incoherent and incompetent of reasoning 

 coherently on any subject ; with a mind so weak and 

 a temper so impressionable that he became deranged, 

 and was, therefore, impelled to the commission of a 

 crime the seriousness of which he could not under- 

 stand. It is for you, gentlemen, to determine which 

 of the portraits is the true one. 



And now, gentlemen, to sum up all I have said to 

 you, if you find from the whole evidence that at the 

 time of the commission of the homicide the prisoner 

 was laboring under such a delect of his reason that he 

 was incapable of understanding what he was doing, 

 or of seeing that it was a wrong thing to do as, for 

 example, if he were under the insane delusion that the 

 Almighty had commanded him to do the act then he 

 was not in a responsible condition of mind, but was 

 an object of compassion and should be now acquitted. 

 If, on the other hand, you find that he was under no 

 insane delusion, but had the possession of his facul- 

 ties, and had power to know that his act was wrong : 

 and if, of his own free-will, he deliberately conceived 

 the idea and executed the homicide, then, whether 

 his motive were personal vindictiveness, political ani- 

 mosity, a desire to avenge supposed political wrongs, 

 or a morbid desire lor notoriety ; or, if you are unable 

 to discover any motive at all, the act is simply mur- 

 der, and it is your duty to find a verdict of guilty as 

 indicted. Or, if you find that the prisoner is not guilty 

 by reason of insanity, it is your duty to say so. You will 

 now retire to your room and consider your verdict. 



The jury retired at 4.40 P. M., and shortly 

 afterward the court took a recess until 5.30. 

 Some time before the court reassembled, or 

 within thirty minutes from their retirement, the 

 jury intimated that they had agreed upon a 

 verdict. When order had been restored after 

 the recess, the foreman of the jury, in answer 

 to the customary question as to the verdict, 

 answered, "Guilty as indicted." On the de- 

 mand of Mr. Scoville, the jury was polled, and 

 at the call of his name each juryman answered, 

 " Guilty." As the last name was called, the 

 prisoner shrieked : " My blood will be upon the 

 heads of that jury. Don't you forget it! " Mr. 

 Scoville again addressed the court, saying: 

 " Your Honor, I do not desire to forfeit any 

 rights I may have under the law and practice 

 in this District. If there is anything that I 

 ought to do now to save those rights, I would 

 be indebted to your Honor to indicate it to me." 

 Judge Cox, in reply, assured him that he should 

 have every opportunity ; that the charge would 

 be furnished to him, in print, and he would be 

 accorded all the time allowed by law within 

 which to file his exceptions, and that he would 

 also be entitled to four days within which to 

 move in arrest of judgment. Guiteau called 

 out in tones of desperation, " God will avenge 

 this outrage ! " Judge Cox then turned to the 



