Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-16
NO. so.

Hs GuIteau Insane Before the Lauf
GHou. Geo. Z. Wait in the Geneseo, QL) Republic ]
The assassination of n most illustrious man,
at the time President Of the greatest repub-
lie of all the ages, and revered in his death
by the civilized world, makes the trial of the
assassin at the capital of this government Of
great notoriety, and of almost universal inter-
est. And especially is it made such as the
prisoner seeks TO deliver himself from the
penalties Of the law by setting up that at that
time he was mentally incapable of commit
ting that crime
being having human body without hu.
man capacity, one without memory or under
standing-an idiots never made amenable
to law. As ''it is the mind of man" that
makes him a rational, accountable being, so
when the mind has been stormed in its cita-
del aud reason overwhelmed and driven from
her throne, and all is dark within, as In case
Of fever or hydrophobis, there can be no
question Of the non.accountability of such
persons, and they can never be subject of
Judicial difficulties. Bat what does some-
times puzzle the courts and battle the under
standing of jurists is what insanity and what
degree thereof shall annul from criminal re-
sponsibility. The doctrine that an insane
person was one possessed of evil spirits and
was therefore a criminal per Sc, has long since
been swept from criminal jurisprudence. In
sanity is now looked upon as disease Of the
mind, and is treated as SUCH as physical NAL
aides are treated as diseases OF the body.
Whether person has this disease, and IL so,
how badly, is a question for science 10 de-
termine. But what kind and degree of in
sanity shall relieve from accountability is a
question of law 1t has long been held that
person of unsound mind is not to be held
to his contracts made in that condition with
out reference to the degree or kind of his in
sanity. But such is not the law in criminal
cases, especially in cases of great atrocity
where all the laws Of God and man are out
ragged, and where human instinct, as well as
human reason, teaches the acts to be crime
mdtum IN sc. Turbulent passions, malignant
dispositions, accompanied with badly arrang-
ed intellectual faculties and weak moral
forces, may be great misfortunes, but the
law still holds the offender amenable to its
punishments for crimes committed under
such conditions. There can be no conve-
nient insanity behind which a person can
hide at choice nor does every species Of real
insanity exempt from accountability to GRIM
inal law. The act done must be the direct
product of the insane delusion, and that in
sane delusion must be of such a character, in
order to justify the act done, that the real
fact, concerning which the delnsion existed,
would have justified the act. So long as
person can resist the impulse to commit crime
he is required to do so, and until the will is
fully controlled and the intellect is subiugat-
ed by an insane, irresistible impulse, strip
ping the mind from the idea of right and
wrong in reference TO the act done, the per-
son must be held accountable for that crinii-
nal act The plea of insanity has often been
greatly abused. Under the plea of emotional
insanity, irresistible impulse, insane delu-
sions and the like, many criminal has es-
capped from just judgments, aided by pub
lie sentimentalism which too often interferes
to unbalanco the scales of eyen-handed JUS
tice. But all the sanctities of human life in
all the experiences of the past teach that un-
merited mercy to a criminal is undeserved
aud great cruelty to society. Justice is mer-
cy in its noblest sense when applied to hu-
man affairs.