The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-10-15
Guiteau'S Biography.

How TPE ASSASSINATION OF THE PREsI-
DENT WAS CONCEIVED AND EXECUTED.
The New York Herald has an
autobiographical sketch of Guitsau,
which covers seven columns In it
the assassin details how he was re-
pulsed in his effort to secufs ) foreign
appointment, and other personal Incl
dents, and then makes a temsnt Of
how be. conceived the idea of remoy,
ing tho 4Presidentt,A 7 as fosI6m.s = <
"My conception of the idea of removing
the President was this:
/ "Mr. Conkling resigned on Monday, May
16, 1881. On the following Wednesday |
was in bed. l think l retired about s
o'clock felt distressed and perplexed on
account of the political situation, and retired
much earlier than usual. | felt wearied in
mind and body, and [ was in my bed about
o'clock, and | was thinking over the polit-
ical situation. and the idea flashed through
III, brain that if the President was out of
the way every thing would go better. AT
first, this was mere impression. 1t star
me with renewed force, and L began to read
the papers, with my eyes on the possibility
that the President would have to go, and
the more | read, the more [ saw the coml pi-
cation of public affairs, the more was
impressed with the necessity of removing
him. This [ think continued for about two
weeks. kept reading the papers and kept
being impressed, and the idea kept bearing
and bearing down upon me, that the only
way to unite the two factions of the Repub-
lican party and save the republic from
going into the hands of the rebels and
Democrats was to quietly remove the Presl-
dent.
"Two weeks after I conceived the idea,
my mind was thoroughly settled on the in
tention to remove the President. [ then
prepared myself. 1 sent to Boston for a
copy of my book, The Truth, and l spent
a week in preparing that l cut out par
agrapb, and a line, and a word, here and
there, and added one or two new chapters,
and put some new ideas in it, and greatly
improved it. | knew that it would proba-
bly, have a large sale, on account of the
notoriety that the act of removing the
President would give me, and l wished the
book to go out to the public in proper
shape. That was one preparation for IT.
Another preparation was to think the mat
| ter out in detail, to rrow a revolver, and
to prepare myself for executing the idea.
This required some two or three weeks, and
/ gave my entire time and mind in prepar-
ing myself to execute the conception of
removing the President. l never men
toned the conception to living soul. L
| did most of my thinking in the park and
on the street, and l used to go to the
Arlington and Riggs House daily to read
the papers"
Guiteau describes the actual shooting as
| follows: II should say he (Garfield) was
about four or five feet from the door nearest
the ticket office in the act of passing thro'
| the door to get through the depot to the
/ cars He was about three or four feet from
| the door l stood five or six feet behind
] him, right in the middle of the room, and,
as he was in the act of walking away from
| me, I pulled out the revolver and fired.
| He Strengthened up and threw his head
back and seemed to be perfectly bewildered
| He did not seem to know what struck him
1 looked at him. He did not drop.
thereupon pulled again. He dropped his
/ head, seem to reel, and fell over L do not
know where the shot hit l aimed at the
hollow of hfs back I did not aim for any
particular place, but knew if got those
| two bullets in his back he would certainly
go I was in diagonal direction from the
| President, TO the northwest, and supposed
! both shots struck. L never had the slight
est idea of removing Mr.. Blaine, or any
other member of the administration. My
only object was to remove Mr.. Garfield, II
his official capacity as president OF the
! United States, to unite the Republican
party, and save the republic from going
into the control of the rebels and Democrats
| This was the sole idea that induced me tt
remove the President. | appreciate all the
religion, and honor, and sentiment CON
nected with the removal. No one can sur
pass me in this. But put away all senti
ment and did my duty to God and to th'
American people"