IOWA. 



435 



disease, before and after the commission of the deed, 

 would naturally be expected. Many of the forms and 

 degrees of mental disease which in the judgment of 

 learned men would be regarded as insanity are utterly 

 rejected bv the law in the administration of criminal 

 justice. The law regards insanity as u disease of the 

 mind, implying fixedness and continuance of mental 

 condition. It therefore rejects the doctrine of what 

 is called emotional insanity, which begins on the eve 

 of the criminal act and end's when it is consummated. 

 The doctrine of moral insanity as a defense to a crim- 

 inal accusation has been repudiated by an almost un- 

 broken current of decisions as hostile to the principles 

 of law and to the welfare of society. If the persons 

 from whom the subjects of criminal law are derived 

 should be permitted to prosecute their avocations be- 

 cause they are such as their moral propensities have 

 led them to adopt, the object of organized society 

 the preservation of life and property would be de- 

 feated. Stripped of its high-sounding name, moral 

 insanity is wickedness, depravity, taws arc made 

 and courts are established for the suppression of crime 

 begotten of such causes, and therefore moral insanity 

 crime excused on the ground of defective or per- 

 verted moral sense has no place in the criminal law. 

 Furthermore, the law not ouly considers insanity, 

 when offered as a defense to a criminal charge, as a 

 disease of the mental faculties, but it also prescribes 

 the decree of the mental disorder or disease which 

 shall be exacted as the condition on which a defense 

 of insanity shall be allowed, for it is not every kind 

 nor every decree of insanity that will render a man 

 irresponsible for acts of atrocity. The law does not 

 require as the condition on which criminal responsi- 

 bility shall follow the commission of crime the pos- 

 session of one's faculties in full vigor or a mind un- 

 impaired by disease. The mind may have been so 

 weakened by disease as not to be capable of realizing 

 the enormity of the crime, or may have become so 

 irritable and excitable through a life of degrading vice 

 and sensual indulgence as to induce an undue resent- 

 ment of injuries and insults, and yet the accused will 

 ba criminally responsible for his acts. To establish 

 a defense on the ground of insanity it must be clearly 

 proved that at the time of committing the act the 

 accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, 

 from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature 

 and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know 

 it, that what he was doing was wrong. If an accused 

 has sufficient mind to know the difference between 

 right and wrong with respect to the act which he is 

 doinir, and to control his conduct under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, he can not discharge himself from respon- 

 sibility by showing that he did the act under the in- 

 fluence of an irresistible impulse. 



(For the charge of Judge Cox in the Guiteau 

 case, see GUITEAU'S TRIAL.) 



INTEROCEANIC CANAL. See (PANAMA 

 CANAL.) 



INTERNATIONAL MONETARY CON- 

 FERENCE. (See BI-METALLIO STANDARD.) 



IOWA. The vote for President in 1880 was : 

 for the Garfield electors, 183,927; Hancock 

 electors, 105,845 ; Weaver, 32,701 ; Dow, 592. 



The Greenback State Convention of the pres- 

 ent year assembled at Marshalltown on the 1st 

 of June, about 250 delegates being present. 

 The nominations were as follows : For Gov- 

 ernor, D. M. Clark, of Wayne County ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, lion. James M. Holland, of 

 Henry County ; Supreme Judge, Hon. A. B. 

 Dabney, of Madison County; Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction, Mrs. Mary E. Nash, of Des 

 Moines. The following platform was adopted : 



1. The right to make and issue money is a sovereign 

 constitutional power to be maintained by the people 



for the common benefit. "We demand the abolition of 

 all banks of issue, and the substitution of full legal- 

 tender greenbacks in lieu of their notes. 



2. We oppose the refunding of the national debt or 

 the issue of interest-bearing non-taxable bonds upon 

 any pretext, and demand the payment and destruc- 

 tion of those outstanding at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment. 



3. We demand a gradual income-tax whereby capi- 

 tal shall bear a just share of the public burden. 



4. We regard the act substituting a railroad com- 

 mission for laws governing freight rates in this State, | 

 a fraud procured by the railroad companies through a 

 Republican Legislature, and demand its repeal. W nile 

 we favor liberal national appropriations for the cre- 

 ation and improvement of water-ways, we demand 

 laws protecting the people of Iowa from discrimina- 

 tion, pooling, watering of stock, drawbacks, or rebates, 

 and all unjust charges on the part of railroads, until 

 such time as the people, who built most of these roads 

 with land-grants, taxes, and subsidies, shall own and 

 officiate or fully control them. 



5. We demand a revision of our patent-right laws, 

 placing a fair limit upon the rovalties of inventors, 

 and protecting the people from injustice. 



6. We demand that all land grants forfeited by 

 reason of the non-fulfillment of conditions by railroad 

 companies shall be at once reclaimed by the Govern- 

 ment, and henceforth that the public domain be re- 

 served exclusively for homesteaders or actual settlers. 



7. We demand absolutely democratic rules for the 

 government of Congress and State Legislatures, plac- 

 ing all representatives of the people upon an equal 

 footing, and taking from all committees a veto power 

 upon proposed legislation. 



8. We demand the repeal of the restrictions of the 

 right of suffrage in many States or its abolition in the 

 District of Columbia, and demand equal political 

 rights for all men and women. 



9. Believing that all questions affecting the public 

 interest should be directed by the people, we favor 

 the submission of the proposed constitutional amend- 

 ment to the popular vote. 



10. We demand that all ballots in this State shall 

 be of uniform size, color, and material, and that each 

 party having a State organization shall have one 

 member on the Election Board of each township and 

 precinct. 



11. In the furtherance of these ends we ask the co- 

 operation of all men and women : without regard to 

 previous party affiliation or prejudice. 



Resolutions were also passed extending the 

 sympathies of the convention to the Land 

 League of Ireland, and to all down-trodden 

 people of the whole globe ; thanking Governor 

 Plaisted, of Maine, for his veto of the bill by 

 the Maine Legislature to incorporate a State 

 Bank ; and favoring the election of the Presi- 

 dent and Vice -President and United States 

 Senators by a direct vote of the people. 



The Democratic State Convention met in 

 Des Moines June 16th, seventy-four counties 

 being represented by over four hundred dele- 

 gates. The following platform was adopted : 



The Democratic party of Iowa, assembled in con- 

 vention, reaffirms tiie national platform of 1876 and 

 1880 ; demands strict economy in all public expendi- 

 tures, the strict accountability of all public servants, 

 and declares : 



1. For tariff reform ultimating in a simple revenue 

 system with commercial freedom as its issue. 



2. That we oppose all sumptuary laws, and the pro- 

 posed prohibitory amendment to the Constitution in 

 all its steps and stages, as the most offensive form of 

 sumptuary legislation. 



3. That the great agricultural and producing inter- 

 ests of the country should be emancipated from the 



