Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1881-10-29
SATURDAY, OCTOBER %, 1881.
Guitteau's Plea.

The following is The document which
Gnitteau desired 10 read when arraign-
ed to plead
If the court please, ! wish to say that
l have been terribly yillilied by the
press, and it has made some persons
bitter and ~impuisive against me. On
October 6, the New York Herald pub
lished seven columns from my autohio-
raphy, which ] expect to publish in
book form. Aside from the pertinent,
statement that ] am Il creature of the
greatest vanity and that | crave motor
ity, which are absolutely false, and SINH
lar statements. | am irFebted TO the
reporter and the Herald for giving me
so fair a hearing Immediately. ] plead
not guilty. not guilty to the Indictment,
and my defense is three-fold:
First-InSanity, in that it was Gods
act and not mine. The divine pressure
on me to remove the president was So
enormous that it destroyed my free
agency, and therefore | am not legally
responsible for my act.
~Second-The president died from NAL
practice. About three weeks after he
was shot, his physicians, after a careful
examination. decided that he would re-
cover. Two months after this official
announcement he died. Therefore ]
say he was not fatally shot. If he had
been well treated he would have re-
covered.
Third-The president died in New
Jersey, and therefore beyond the juris-
diction of this court. This malpractice
and the presidents death in New Jer
sey are special providence, and l am
bound to avail myself Of them on my
trial, in justice to the Lord and myself.
| undertake to say that the Lord is
managing my case with consummate
ability and that he had a special object
in allowing the president TO die in New
Jersey. His management Of this case
is worthy of him as the Deity, and |
have entire confidence in his DISPOSE.
ton 20 protect rue and send me forth to
the world q free aud vindicated man
Gle uttered his voice" says the psalm
list, "and the earth melted" This is the
God | served when | sought to re cove
the president. The Lord and the people
don't seem TO agree in this ease. The
people consider the presidents removal
an unbearable outrage and me Il bastard
~ assassin, and they prayed the Lord to
spare the president. For nearly three
months the LORD kept the president at
the point of death and allowed them to
depart, thereby confirming my act. The
mere fact of the presidents death is
nothing. All men have died all men
will die. The lato Gen. Burnside died
suddenly about the time the president
died. The president and General Burn
side were both splendid men, and no
The president died from malpractice and
General Burnside from apoplexy. both
were special p%rovidences, and his people
ought to quietly submit to the Lord in
the matter. The president would not
have died if the Lord had not wished
him to go. / have no conception of an
assassination or a murder. / had no
feeling of wrong doing when | sought to
remove him, for it was Gods act, and
not mine, for the good of the American
people. l plead not guilty to the indict-
ment.
The question of malpractice has only
been held in allegiance so that leading
counsel, who might come in, need not
be hampered in organizing a defence.
According TO his own views, it is now
abandoned. There seems to he some
difference of opinion among the lawyers
here as TO whether or not it will be
necessary for Guiteau to be present in
court during the argument of the ques-
ton ofjurisdiction. Justice Cox said to
. reporter that argument upon the ques-
ton Of jurisdiction is rs much a part of
Guiteau's trial as argument upon his
trial.