Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-10-22

Editor Morning Neacs: We are neither
blood.thirsty or sentimental, therefore
are inclined to take practical, every
day world view of Guiteau's case. We
have had the tragedy with its weary
days of painful suffering and national
anxiety; and now, If the daily journals
do not mislead us, our sympsthies and
sadness are to be dispelled, after the
manner of stage management in the
olden time, by a judicial farce. The
movements of Guiteau's counsel, if &C
ceded to, will prolong his trial and en-
mesh the jury and the public in such an
ingenious labyrinth of legal TECHNICAL
ties, that justice may be defeated,
the assassin escape merited punishment,
and the majesty of Democratic Repub
lican government rolled into the mire as
a principle of no value.
There is no doubt that Guiteau with
malice aforethOught and deliberate in
tention shot at and wounded President
Garfield, the Chief Executive of the
country, and the President died from the
effects of the wound. Whether the
President died from the action of the
pistol ball directly, or indirectly from the
malpractice of his physicians, is of
little moment, especially when the weight
of expert testimony is on the side of the
direct influence of the wound. The act
was in its inception and execution trea-
son, morally, against the United States,
though not within the literal text of the
Constitutions and, viewing it individu-
ally as against Mr.. Garfield, and nation
ally as against the President, it is in both
aspects fifty subjective to the severest
penalty 1t is humane and Just legal
maxim, that no man shall be held to be
| guilty of a crime until convicted of it;
but, in this case, trial by jury can add
nothing to the conviction proved to the
public mind by the testimonS>of those
who witnessed the act, and by the prls-
oner's confession.
As for the mitigating plea of insanity
by the accumulation of eccentric acts,
they may or may not have had bearing
upon the prisoners mind at the time of
their committal, but not at the moment
of his shooting the President. The ques
ton is, without concealment, "Was
| Guiteau at the time insane, or the instru
ment of conspiracy ?" The records of
English history for centuries illustrate
the use of assassination in Kidding fac
tions of disagreeable foes-from the times
of the Black Prince and why not now,
in the times of a Black Propaganda
Therefore, we have no hesitation in
speaking openly of the horns of the di-
| lemma. That Guiteau was not insane
when he committed the murder, hemade
apparent himself, if his language and
letters are scrutinized. There's too much
attempt at the method of madness, but
| the dTS celdFs GrteDl was wanting.
Swift justice would soon claim its rights
were it to be dealt out by stern experts
who had only justice In mind, but the
opportunity of figuring on the stage in
"the trial of the great criminal is a
powerful incentive to the qualification of
a conceited, vain ambition, and hence
the danger of prolonged judicial farce,
in which Judge, counsel and jury will
figure before the public in all of the fan
tastic trickery of chicanery, and wind
up by chasing the assassin off the stage
and out of custody. The case of Gui-
teau is to furnish example here for fu-
ture history. Let it be promptly acted
upon, and justly decided, and speedily
executed.
DEMOCRAT OF THE OLD SCHOOL.