The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-12-02
LATEST TELEGRAMS.
GUEFTEAU.
The Prisoner Under Ihe Fire
Of . Pretty Sharp Cross.
Examination.
He Objects TO the word '.Mur-
der" and Gives Judge
Porter u Point OR
Borrowing.

Washington, 1. - Guitteau's trial
was resumed this morning in the
presence of the usual throng. Upon
entering the witness box Guitteau
desired, before resuming his evil
dence, to make a personal state
ment and addressed himself to the
audience. Said he, two weeks ago
l sent out an appeal for money. l
did it on my own account and the
day afterward ScOVille publicly an
nounced that it was without his
authority. again invite any of my
friends to send me money in the in
terest of the cause of justice and for
my defense. They can send five,
ten, or fifteen dollars, or a thousand
if they wish. If they don't want to
be known they can send it without
the name to Scoville.
Judge Porter then began a rapid
fire of interrOgatOries, el.citing from
the prisoner in his several replies
that physically he was a coward,
and always kept away from personal
danger; morally he was brave as a
lion when he thought the Deity was
back of him. In his opinion the
doctors killed the President. The
acts of Jones and Mason, in at
tempting TO kill him, were wrong
and they ought to be punished, I'M
less they can show they were in
spired by the Deity. Witness soon
showed signs of Impotence and
excitement, often striking his open
hand upon the desk, emphasizing
every sentence he uttered; when
pressed for answers he finally be-
came obstinate, and shouted TO
Judge Porter: l know you well, and
[ know bigger men than you are.
You shook yolr finger at witnesses
in New York, but you can't scare
me-" and shortly after when asked
if he believed in the ten command
ments, to which he responded in the
affirmative, and if he believed the
commandment Thou shalt not kill"
ought to read in his case Thou
shalt KILL" he became exceedingly
violent, and refused to discuss
that matter at all. There was
no murder in his case, and
no killing; it was simply
for the jury to determine whether
his act in removing the President
was inspired by the Deity or not.
1t was all nonsense to split hairs
any longer over that word. 1t
must be distinctly understood that
the removal of the President was an
act of the Deity. Witness proved
decidedly obstinate and often fatty
contradicted the testimony Of Gen.
Logan, Col. Reed and several other
witnesses. He positively refused to
answer several questions, his inVa-
riable reply being, l decline to
discuss that with you. Witness
seemed to be greatly annoyed al
Judge Porter's habit of pointing his
finger at him as he frequently did in
the way Of emphasizing his interro-
gatorys and again broke out angrily:
You need not point your long finger
at me. Judge Porter, I've seen you
do that before, but you can't scare
me-"
Witness declined to 90 in:o the
boarding house business as 1t had
no bearing on the case. He sup
posed he owed $50 to various land
ladies. Judge Cox directed him to
reply to the questions. Witness WIS
driven from one position to
another till confronted with the evil
dence of his own witnesses, when
he would unhesitatngly pronounce
their evidence false. He emphasized
his contradiction by saying, "Any-
thing l swear to, judge, is true; you
can put that down as a fixed fact.
Being pressed as to how he proposed
to raise the funds which he said he
was expecting to receive, witness
replied, Il intended to borrow it
from some of my friends" and
added, Il will tell you, judge,
how ] borrow money. 1t
may be of service when you want
to borrow for yourself, l don't lie,
nor sneak, but 60 right up to a man
and ask for what l want. Witness
was closely questioned about the
purchase Of the pistol and asked
why he bought one with an ivory
handle, instead of q plain one. He
replied, because I thought it worth
a dollar more.
Judge Porter-Did you not say it
would look better in the patent Of
fee? Witness admitted that he
might have believed or thought the
pistol would sometime be in the
State departH ent. Shortly after
ward Guitteau became very indig-
nant at Judge Porter's use of the
word murder and shouted iercely,
"you seem to delight in the
use of the words = kill = and
murder. There is no use of your
whining in that way. The mere out
ward fact of how l removed the
President has nothing whatever to
do with this case. Guitteau'S
shreWdness in detecting and antici-
pating any power that might be
made against him was a marked
feature of the investigation. Judge
Porter pressed him very closely to
fix the day when he received his
alleged inspiration to remove the
President, and Guitteau finally