The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1881-10-19
GUITEAU.
HOW THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRES
IDENT WAS CONCEIVED AND
EXECUTED.

uG NEW lUth lcldlu IDS ah su
,obiographical sketch of Gaitean,
which covers seven columns. In it
the assassin details how he was re
pulsed in his efforts to secure a for
eign appointment, and other personal
incidents, and then makes state
ment of how lie conceived the idea
of removing the President, as fol
lows:-
"My conception Of the idea Of re
moving the President was this: Mr..
Conkiing resigned on Monday, May
l6, 1881. On the following We'd
nesaay / was in bed. / think | re,
Tired about s o'clock. | felt dis
tressed aud perplexe,l on account OF
the political situation, and retired
much earlier than usual. / felt we, ;
RED in mind and body, and / was in.
my bed about 8 O'clock, and | was
thinking over the political situation,
and the idea flashed through ny,
brain that if the President was OUT
of the way every thing would &c
better. At first this was mere I'm
preston. 1t startled me. But the
next morning it came to inc with re
newed force, and | began to read the
papers, with my eye on the POSSIBLE
ity that the President would have to
60, and the more l read, the more
saw the complication Of public af
fairs, the more was / impressed with
the necessity of removing him. This
thing continued for abouttwo weeks.
kept reading the papers and kept
being impressed, and the idea kept
bearing and bealing 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 re
bells and Democrats was 10 quietly
remove the President. Two weeks
after | conceived the idea, my mind
was thoroughly settled on the inten
tion to remove the President.
then prepa: ed myself. / sent t
Boston for copy Of my. book, The
Truth and | spent week in pre-
pairing that. | cut out a paragraph
and line, and a word, here ant
there, and added one or two new
chapters, and put some new ideas il
it, and greatly improved it. ] knew
that it would probably have a larg,
sale, on account of the notoriety tina
The act of removing the Presiden
would give me, and I wished til,
book to 90 out to the public in pro
lper shape. That was one prepare
ton for it. Another preparation
was TO think the matter out in, de
tail, 10 buy revolver, and to prepar'
myself for executing Tie idea. This
:, required some two or three weeks
and | gave my entire time aud mint
in preparing myself TO execute til,
conception Of removing the Presi
dent. / never mentioned the con
ception to living soul. / did mos
Of MY thinking in the park and OF
the street, and | used to go TO tn
!. Arlington and Riggs House daily t
raad The papers,
9 Gnitean describes the actual shoot
ing as follows: 81 should say b
Gartield) was about four or fiv
feet from the door nearest the tickle
office, in the act of passing tbrougl
the door to get through the depot i
!, the cars. He was about three o
four feet from the door. / stood fiy
or six feet behind him, right in th
> middle Of the room, and, as lie wa
: in the act Of walking away from mt
c [ pulled out the revolver and fred
$ He Strengthened up end threw hi
!, head back and seemed to be perfect
4 ly bewildered. He did not seem
know what struck him. Hooked q
him. He did not drop. / thereuI
j on pulled again. He. dropped hi
: head, seemed to reel, and fell over.
do not know where the shot hit.
aimed at the hollow of his back.
/ did not am for any particular plac,
t but | knew If got those two bullet
:. in his back he would certainly 90.
was in diagonal direction from th
President, to the northwest, and SUI
3 posed both shots struck. neve
had the slightest idea Of removin
e Mr.. Blaine, or any other member {
the administration. Ny only obje,
was to remove Mr. Garfield, in hi