Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-12-10
THE TRIAL OF GUITEAU.
Incidents of the Case and Testimony
Given.

stand Wednesday,, and continued TO
testify in his own defense. He repeated
his now familiar claim that he was in
spired of the Deity to murder the Pres
ident, and vehemently asserted that per-
sonal considerations had no weight IN
leading him to the great crime of July
2. He said that he felt relieved of a
burden and happy after he had fired
upon the President. He also stated that
for twenty years he had entertained the
expectation of being at some time
elected to be President of the United
States, and had not given up that ex-
pectation yet. The spectators laughed
at this declaration. The cross-examina-
ton of the assassin was begun.
In the cross-examination, when
Judge Porter asked him the question:
''You determined to kill General Gar
field, did you not ?" Guiteau replied
excitedly: 81 decline to answer that.
That is a very strong way to put it. "
with some excitement.) 81 consider
myself the agent of the Deity in the
matter; had no personal volition in
the matter"
@. Did you believe that it was the will
of God that you should murder the
President +? A. I believed that it was
His will that he should be removed and
I was the appointed agent to do it.
Q. Did He give you commission In
writing? A. No.
@. Did He give it in an audible tone
of voice? A. He gave it to me by His
pressure on me.
Q. Did he give it audibly? A. No.
Q. He did not come to you as "vis-
ion of the night -? A. 1 do not get my
inspirations in that way.
O. 1t occurred to you as you were
lying on your bed that if President Gar
field were dead it would solve the whole
difficulty? A. Yes.
Q. Did it occur to you that you were
the very man to kill him? A. Not at
that time. My mind was unsettled.
Q. Who did you think then was the
man to kill him? A. had no thought
on the subject. The mere impression
came on my mind that if the President
were removed everything would be well.
Q. Did you contemplate his removal
otherwise than by murder? A. No
(petulantly); 1 do not like the word
murder"
Mr.. Porter-I know you do not like
the word murder" it is bard word;
but it is there.
Guiteau-I do not recollect the actual
facts in that matter (excitedly). Ii |
had shot the President of the United
States on my own personal account no
punishment would be too severe or too
quick for me; but acting as the agent
of the Deity, that puts an entirely diff
ferent construction on the act; and that
is what want to put to the Court and
to the jury and to the opposing counsel.
/ say that the removal of the Pres
ident was an act of necessity from the
situation and for the good of the Amer
lean people. That is the idea that l
want You to entertain and not to settle
down on the cold -blooded idea of muir
der, because I never had the first con-
ception of murder in the matter.
Although excited, and at times vio-
lent, in his manner, the prisoner-wit-
ness, during his cross-examination, was
too alert to be easily entangled in the
nets of the cross examiner. He refused
to be frightened when Mr.. Porter point
ed his finger at him and asked questions
in dramatic style, and often he de-
clined to be led upon ground that had
been gone over before. Through it all
he stuck to his text that it was the Deity
who inspired his act.
When asked il he thought Mason and
Jones did wrong in shooting at him he
replied yes, unless they could show they
acted as agents of Deity. He became
angry whenever it was suggested that
he was guilty of murder, and declared
that his shooting of Garfield was no
more murder than the shooting of a
man by a soldier in war. 1t was the
doctors who were guilty of murder.
He could not be driven from his posi-
ton that ne had no malice, and that his
failure to get the Paris Consulship had
nothing to do with the assassination.
In fact, he said, after the 1st of June,
when he became fully possessed of his
inspiration, he would not have accepted
the office if it had been rendered to him.
He even appeared to be indignant at the
way in which MIR. Porter spoke of his
inspiration, which was a sacred subject,
not to be lightly treated.
When pressed closely on the question
of malice, he replied that, of course, he
had no malice, for if he had had, Blaine
was the man for him to have shot. He
confessed that he was physically a cow
ard, but yet he was morally brave when
he had the Deity at his back, and he ex-
pected there would be an act of God, if
necessary, to protect him from either
shooting or hanging.
The cross. examination of Guiteau by
Judge Porter was continued and brought
to a conclusion Friday. The assassin
spoke of himself as a man of destiny.
He described the delightful and cosy
fellowship" he witnessed between Presi-
dent Garfield and Secretary Blaine, and
which, he SAID, intensified his conviction
that the President must be removed"
in order to avert the evils of Mr..
Blaine's influence over him. He adj
mitted having had some remorse for his
crime, but quickly qualified the admis-
sion as he saw its bearing on his case.
He was involved in some contradictions,
but he adhered to his claim of inspira-
ton. He would not say that he was
insane.
Eight doctors who have made study
of mental diseases testified as witnesses
for the defense in the Guiteau trial Mon
day. A hypothetical question, in which
the points relating to the prisoners
mental condition as set forth by the de-
fense, including theinsanity in his family,
and his alleged belief that he acted
upon inspiration, were assumed to be true,
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