Connecticut western news., 1881-12-07

expectation of being at some tin c elected to be President of the United States, and he had not given up that ex- pectatlon yet. The spectators laughed at this declaration. The cross-examina- tion of the assassin was begun.
 In the cross-eXamination, when Judge Porter asked him the question: ''You determined to kill General Gar field, did you not?" Guiteau replied quickly: q decline to answer that. That is 6 very strong way to put if. !" With some excitement ''I consider myself the agent of the Deity in the matter; I had no personal volition in the matter. ' ~-A
 o. Did you believe that it was the will of God that you should murder the President? A. I believed that it was His will that he should be removed and I was the appointed agent to do it.
 o. Did He give you the commission in writing? A. No. s r
 o. Did He give it in an audible tone of voice? A. He gave it to me by His pressure on me. l
 A. I; No. Di0 lie give u to you "o0'0lS
 o. He did not come to you as 'svis- ion of the night"? A. do not get my inspirations in that way. ..--
 o. It occurred to you as you were lying on your bed that if President Gar field were dead it would solve the whole difficulty? A. Yes.
 Q. Did it occur to you that you were the very man to kill him? A. Not at that time. My mind was unsettled
 Q. Who did you think then was the man to kill him :? A. I had not thought on the subject. The mere impression came on my mind that if the President were removed everything would be well.
 O. Did you contemplate his removal otherwise than by murder? A. No (petulantly); do not like the word s'murder."
 MT. Porter-I know you do not like the word tsmurder;" it is hard word; but it is there.
 Guiteau-I do not recollect the actual facts in that matter (excitedly). If I had shot the President of the United States on my own personal account no punishment would be too severe or too quick for me; but acting as the agent of the Deity, that puts an entirely differ ent construction on the act; and that is what want to put to the court and to the jury and to the opposing counsel. I say that the removal of the President was ah act of necessity from the situa- hon and for the good of the American people. That is the idea that I want you to entertain and not to settle down on the cold-blooded idea of murder, because never had the first conception of murder in the matter.
 Although excited, and at times vio- lent, in his manner, the prisoner-wit- ness, during his cross-examination, was too alert to be easily entangled in the nets of the ross-examiner. He refused to be frightened when MT. Porter pointed his finger at him and asked questions in 8 dramatic style, and often he declined to be led upon ground that had been gone over before Through it all he stuck to his text that it was the Deity who inspired his act. l.al l.ft !
 When asked if he tho ought Mason and Jones did wrong in shoo ting at him he replied yes, unless they could show they acted as agents of Deity. He became angry whenever it was suggest ed that he was guilty of murder, and declared that his shooting of Garfield was no more murder than the shooting of man by soldier in war. It was the doctors who were guilty of murder.
 He could not be driven from his posi- tion that he had no malice, and that his failure to get the Paris Consulship had nothing to do with the assassination. In fact, he said, after the 1st of June, when he became fully possessed of his inspiration, he would not have accepted the office if it had been rendered to him. He even appeared to be indignant at the way in which MT. Porter spoke of his inspiration, which was a sacred subject, not to be lightly treated.
 When pressed closely on the question of malice, he replied, that, of course, he had no malice, for if he had had, Blaine was the man for him to have shot. He confessed that he was physi- cally coward, but yet he was morally brave when he had the Deity at his back, and he expected there would be an act of God, if necessary, to protect him from either shooting or hanging.