The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-12-19
A Suicide !

A friend writes us from Ottumwa, X. T.
upder date of Dec. 18th, stating that DR.
HAMILTON SMITH, of that place, had
committed suicide by shooting himself
through the head-cause, insanity, pro-
duced by imaginary pecuniary ernbarrass-
ments. We were certainly startled with
the intelligence. The Doctor was one OF
the oldest settlers in Kansas, and almost
the first one on the Neosho. He has been
an active co-laborer with us in the cause
Of freedom in Kansas, and his name will
be found in the proceedings of nearly
every prominent public meeting of the
Free State party in Kansas, commencing
with that of Big Springs, and ending at
GrasshOpper Falls. He was the President
Of the Ottumwa Association, and earnest
IL engaged in building up the interests OF
miLtle Kansas. All the information we
hare in regard to his death is contained in
the above bflef statement.
DR.. Smith was man who shared the
confidence of all who knew him. We
had heard rumors that he had been dis
amounted in business affairs the last sea-
son, and when he was here closing UP
some business we had done for him the
past summer we observed that he appear
ed detected, but had no idea it W, .uld as
sumo such an unpleasant form as it has.
1t is said the cause was insanity. A
learned doctor, on hearing of the death
Of Senator Rusk, by suicide, said: at is
doubtful whether any suicide is in his
right mind" Says another: The suicide
Of Hugh Miller was one of this charac-
ter. Under the influence of nameless
horror. which oppressed him to that de-
gree that death seemed happy escape,
this sternly conscientious man took his
own life; and yet, even when moving
forward to his fate, he looked pitifuliy
back, beseeching forgiveness of his wife
and of his son, as if, while conscious, in
one sense, of the act. he was driven to it
by an insane power he could not resist
The old Greeks would have said, in such
case, that the victim was impelled to his
doom by the furies. Modern science more
wisely traces it to physical infrmity.
We have no doubt that a more full
acquaintanceship with suicide will reveal
that mental disease invariably causes it.
Sometimes the deed may be done during
temporary congestion of the brain, and
sometimes it may originate in confirmed
disorganization, the result of sorrow or
hillary indisposition, or both for one
generally leads to the other. But in all
instances it is more charitable, if not more
rational to believe that the suicide for the
time was out of his mind out of it, at
least, to that extent that he cannot, for
the moment, control the suicidal impulse.
We believe that self-destruction in all
cases, is the result of wild insanity of
will, with which neither reason or religion
is able TO control. The poor suicide,
even when intelligently cognizant of his
intended deed, has no power TO avert it,
but, like man slipping down a glacier,
feels himself falling without the power to
resist. 1t is not himself, it is Madness,
gibbering in the brain where it has tax
en- its lodging, that pulls the fatal trigger.
No man." says Sir Thomas Browne,
should judge another, because no man
knows himself" Let us remember this,
and be charitable to the poor suicide.