Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-17
eUrTEAU's DEFENSE.
Extracts from His Manuscript
speech.

The following are extracts from Guiteau's
speech which he desired to deliver In court:
'fGeneral Garfield was good man, out
weak politician. Being President he was In
a position to do vast harm to the republic,
and he was doing it by the unWise use Oh
patronage, and the Lord and TOOK the OPP
portunity of removing MIN. eeLsalnIy
INV own account. Why should l shoot him!
He never harmed me- From him expected
an important office. l considered MIN my
political and personal friend; but my duty
to the Lord and to the American people
oyercame nv personal feeling, and sought
to remove him. To-day suffer IN Donos as
a patriot, because had the INSPIRATION ana
nerve to unite great pont,cai parry ~
the end that the nation might De saved
another desolating war. do not
nretend war was immediate, but DO say
emphatically that the bitterness 10 the Re
nublfcan partv last spring was deepening
and deepening. hour by hour, land that within
two or three years or less the nation would
have been IN civil war. In the presence
of death all hearts were husned, contention
ceased. For weeks aud weeks the heart
and brain of the nation centred on the
sick man at the White House. At last ne
went fine wav of all flesh, and the nation was
a house Of mourning. To-day l have been
misunderstood and villihed by nearly the
entire American press, nay more, Dy nearly
the entire American people, is q true state
ment: but Providence and time rigntens all
things, aud to day. by the graduatchange
Of public opinion, l am Justlneu III passing
by with laudable contempt the continual
venom of certain newspapers. Let the
newspapers change from 'Guiteau the as
sassin' to Guiteau the patriot
81 aDDeal to the stalWart and noeral press
of the nation for Justice. appeal to the
Republican party, especially the stalwarts,
of whom l am proud to be one, for justice.
I appeal to the President. Without my In
splration he was a mere political cipher,
without power or importance. L was con
stantly with him in New York last fall dur
ing the canvass, and he and the rest of our
men know that we had all we could do to
elect our ticket. Had General Hancock
kent his mouth closed on the tariff, or had
the Morey letter been delayed.a week, Han
| cock certainly would have been elected.
"Another reason the Lord inspired me to
remove the President in preference to some
| one else, is because he wished to circulate
nv theological work The Truth This
book was written to save souls and not for
money, and the Lord in circulating the
book is after souls. By it he breaches the
| gospel and prepares the world for their
| Judgment, which some people think, and
with reason, is not far distant. l have been
| delayed in getting out a new edition OF this
book which will include graphic narrative
of my life, but 1 expect it will be Issued
shortly. More than one hundred witnesses
have been summoned by the prosecution.
| TWOthirds OF them | know nothing about,
| and the court, l presume, will decide they
are irrelevant The issue here is. who
| fred that shot, the Deity or me? The
Deity seems well disposed to father 1t thus
| far, and [ expect he will continue to father
| it to the end. 1t is not likely he will allow
me to come to grief for Obliging him.
"'How do you know 1t was Deityp
81 was so certain Of 1t that put up my
| life on it and undertake to say the Deity is
| actively engaged in my defense. l am con-
| fdent he will checkmate the wiseheads on
| this prosecution. l beg they 90 slow. They
cannot afford to get the Deity down on
them. He uttered his voice. says the
psalmist, 'and the earth Melted This is
| the God whom l served when sought to
remove the President, and he is bound to
take care of me. Recently a Washington
newspaper Autographed crumpled piece of
| paper had carried In my vest pocket under
| the title of 'Guiteau's Plea 1t was written
| when l had the malaria, at odd times, and
| could hardly read it myself, and so told the
| gentleman l gave it to, but he thought be
could read it and took IT, as he was in haste.
l next heard of it as Autograph. owing
to circumstances beyond my control l have
been forced to ask your honor to assign me
counsel and furnish me witnesses.
"l formerly prscticed law in New York
and Chicago. In 1877 left a good practice
| I'm Chicago aud went out occurring, but l
had small success. | had ideas, but no rep
utation My theological work, the Truth,
contains my theology. 1t was written
| during period of five years and cost me a
great deal of trouble, and have no doubt
| but it is official"