New-York tribune., 1881-12-03
GU1TEAU,S TREATMENT.

Guiteau the assassin has been treated as no
murderer ever was treated before in any civilized
land. He has been permitted TO posture be-
fore the public as an important and distln-
guished parsonage ever since the fatal shot was
fired. Almost everybody has wondered why
this has been tolerated. For this person had
not only been guilty of most Infamous and
cowardly crime, but he had committed that
crime against the chosen and beloved ruler of a
great nation. In cold blood and without the
shadow of an excuse he had shot down the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic and his crime
not only brought incalcuabe suffering and loss
to individuals it not only struck down a man 80
worthy and so great that the whole world
mourned his loss, but it was the highest pos
sible crime against free government itself. All
reasoning persons felt at once, when the horrid
deed was announced, that free institutions
would become impossible among men unless a
certainty of punishment could deter men from
such crime.
Yet the outraged Nation, in the presence Of a
deed more odiOus and more dangerous than any
that can be committed against sovereign in
lands where the crown passes by hereditary de-
scent, treated the criminal with strange for
bearance. There is no other land where a
person who had even attempted the life OF the
Chief of State would have been permitted to
address himself to the public, day after day, as
Guitean has done by written documents and oral
statements ever since his arrest. In no other
land would such a criminal have been per-
mitted to meet friends or strangers, to ap-
peal openly for witnesses, counsel and funds
for his defence, to gloat over newspaper dis
cussons of his act, and to revel in the satsfac-
ton of colossal vanity, by postuIing before
the world as an object of interest Had Guiteau
been removed absolutely from all possible CON-
munication with the outside world, denied the
light of heaven, loaded with chains in a secure
dungeon, and thus kept in utter privacy until
his trial had he been brought into court in
chains, and reduced to silence by fOrcible
means whenever he attempted to speak except
by counsel all this would have been abundantly
justified by the custom of other lands in dealing
with an offender so infamous.
The laws of the land of course, are in part
the cause of the extraordinary treatment which
this criminal has received 1t is their defect
that there is no other or different provision for
the confinement and trial of the assassin of
President than there is for the trial of a worthy
cltlZcn VINO mas UdhtH ilIc Ill bcll-utlBlCe, lHe
people have been disgusted past expression by
the result in this case. 1t will be strange indeed
if they do not insist that hereafter there shall
be different dealing with a criminal who lifts
the hand of violence against the life OF the
Nations chief ruler. Such a man should be
treated as guilty of the grayest possible crime
against the Nation; the Attorney General
should be especially charged to conduct pro-
ceedings against him, and before a tribunal
suited to the Importance of the offence so that
a great State trial shonld never be left to the
management of small men before a weak and
inefficient court.
But it is not improbable that one cause of the
extraordinary treatment which Guiteau has re-
ceived from jailers, prosecutors marshals, aud
the court itself, may be found in the exhibition of
himself which he has now made. This man had
set up for him the defence of insanity It was
important for the vindication of law and for
the honor of the Nation. not only that this Grim.