New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-09
SPURIOUS INSANITY.


There is headlong and thoughtless tendency
III some quarters tO treat Guiteau's attempt as
the act of - lunatic from u feeling that the
country Will thereby stand better" abroad
Foreigners Will be apt to think, it is sllg-
9ested. that Americans are at last falling into
The wee OF political cOnspiracics and assassin
atoms; and the country will be relieved from
this repr0ach If the attempt can I've shown to
nave been the causclcsS, puTposeless act of an
insane man. That tho fullest investigation
may show it to have been an individual act,
unpromptcd by others, is dcvoutly to be hoped.
and is generally believed. But to say that
there was no conspiracy-that Guiteau was
wholly without assocatcs-is ono thing; to say
that he was insane, in any sense qualifying re-
sponsibllit.', il quite another. No enc can even
form IN opinion on this last question without
attending carefully to the different shades of
insanity which are nowadays distinguished
They are many and various. The insanity which
Impairs ones deed or contract may not affect his
Will. The insanity which might warrant putting
the subject in charge Of committee may not
exempt him FROM punishment for a crime
There are many grades and shades of crlzi-
ness; there are very few only which warrant
acquttal of murderous assault. And it is
noteworthy that some of the most famous
and deeply discussed have been cases of polit-
zeal assassination.
Two general forms phases of insanity are
recognized throughout the land and in ing
land also. We have, indeed, taken our Iecogni-
ton OF them largely from English decisions
third form-called "mora insanity is
unf"r discussion judicial opinion throughout
the country is almost evenly divided medical
opinion tends decidedly toward rccoynizin. it,
Down to the opening years Of the present
century those who sought to excuse 4 male
factor were required to show that he was in
capable, from mental imboclity or disease. of
knowing the crminality of his act. Belling-
hams case Is IN example. He was interested
in claims against the English Government
which he prosecuted without success, and his
morbid brooding over fanced "dcnial o. ius-
tice on the part of Government" rs he cx-
pressed it, led to his shooting Mr. Perceval the
Chancellor of the Excbequer, one evening, as
the latter was entering the lobby of the House
of Commons. The jury wcro told that thew
could not acquit him IA insane unless they
were satisfied that he was Incapable of iudy-
ing between right and wrong. .Jurists of Ia
ter times are agreed that a physiological ina
bility TO know the wrongfulncss of the act is
an excuse; but they do not call this the only
one. They universally accept another Al
though the man is capable of Judging sancIy
of right and wrong, yet if his Judgment is
fatally perverted by delusions caused by dis
ease, this also is IN excuse. Hadield's case is
an example. Wounds i'm military service
had caused undOubted disease of the brain
He believed that he had n divine command
to kill the King; he went to the theatre, sat
waiting three-quarters of an hour, and when
the King entered he aimed and fired a pistol
ut the monarch. SO Marti set fire to the
Cathedral at York and Oxford fred at the
Queen; not because either did not know his
act to be contrary to law, but because he was
under diseased delusiOns So McNaghten shot
MIR. DrummOnd, the private secretary of Sir
Robert Peel installing him for Peel, and be-
ing under an insane delusiOn that he was in
cessantly pursued by enemies, of whom he be-
lieved Peel to be one The discussion in these
| and similar cases led jurists to agree that in
sane deluslons may exempt from punishment
provided they are such thai, if they were true
! or real, the person would have been justified
in acting IS he did. This became settled by
about the middle of the prese,.t century
Briefly, it is now the general law OF the land
| rather than TO the Jail or gallows, if he is I'M
able to know the criminaity of his act, or
if he acted undes diseased belief of matters
which if they had existed would have justified
it. These are the two grounds of insanity as
| to which there is at the present day no ques-
ton.
A disputed point is whether o diseased de-