Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-11-05
CAPITAL PgNIsHmE Mt.
Reflection. on the Gaitepu Case.

Reflections on the Guiteau Case.
EDITORS OF CHRONICLE:
| President Garfield is dead, and
the assassin Guiteau still lives. How
strange and mystic are the ways OF
human lifel A great and good man
has fallen by the hand Of violence,
and the national heart is throbbing
with emotion. The question looms
up freighted with fear and response
biliIy, "What shall be done with
the murderer ?s' In discussing this
| question, together with capital pun-
ishment, | have no disposition
whatever, were able so to do, to
PREJUDICE Guiteau's case, or in infiu-
incing proper verdict in the prem
ises. If the jury should find that
the deed was committed premedi-
tatedly, malice being presumed by
the law, then and in that case, the
penalty is death; this, of course.
depending upon the sanity or insan-
ity of the accused.
1t is not my purpose to duscuss
this question. 1t is a subject of
which / know nothing, and the
same will be controlled by the jury
under the direction of the court try
ing the same, upon the testimony of
experts in such cases. A plea of in
sanity upon Guiteau's part, proper
ly supported by proof, should be as
universally respected by the Amer
lean people as though he had slain
the humblest citizen in the United
States.
1t is urged that inasmueh as he
struck down the great head of the
nation, the crime is more heinous
in its character, and should be visit
ed by ten-fold retribution. A re-
| fiecting public will pardon me if |
fail to see it in that light. Some
have alleged that the case under
consideration is treason. / fail to
see this proposition in that light.
Upon the tragic death of President
Lincoln, President Garfield himself
exclaimed, "The Government. at
Washington still lives"
The Government of these United
States is predicated upon and has its
being upon the united will of uni
ted people. 1 mean, of course, a
union of popular sovereignty; and
/ do not believe that our institu-
tions would be endangered though
fifty Presidents were slain.
We feel in the death of President
Garfield the loss in a national point
of view as almost irreparable, and
greatly to be deplored ; yet, murder
is murder, whether it strikes the
high or the low, and the man being
sane who commits murder must
pay the penalty, which is death, by
our law. Now, the main question
comes up, "Is capital punishment
right? In other words, should we,
as civilized and progressive people,
infiict, under any circumstances, the
death penalty ?" Our actions,
thoughts, and desires are over
whelmingly controlled by early ed
ucation. True there is woeful de-
parture in too many instances from
early discipline; yet, our energies
should bend to this direction with
unabated zeal and fixedness of pur-
pose, and wherever and whenever
there is a departure and murder is
the result, there possibly might be
penalty more in accord with reli-
gion and human reasoning than the
infliction of the death penalty. In
one or two of the States there is no
death penalty, and am led to be-
lieve that revolving crimes are no
more rife in those States than in
many others.
In the first place, we have no
moral right to take that which we
cannot restore. Under this head I |
will class war as disgrace and an
eternal blot upon humanity; so 1
might class judicial murders. It is
urged that the penalty of death is
demanded so as to deter men from
the commission of great crimes. l
have serious doubts on this point. |
I think there is a penalty which
would meet every conceivable
crime, and that is perpetual and
solitary confinement. We have ma
tional criminals and State criminals. |
For the former the United States
Government is amply able to build
isolated cells for the confinement of |
its criminals and each and every
State is able to do the same.
SWELL" says one, "would you
thus punish Guiteau?" 1 answer
that l am neither prosecuting or de-
Tending Guiteau. If l am making
an attack at all, it is an attack
against the statute law as it exists,
without any reference to specific
criminals.
In reference to Guiteau's punish
ment, 1 have nothing to say, not
knowing the nature of his guilt as
defined by law at least not know
ing whether he is guilty at all or
not. If he is insane, and that fact
is established, he cannot and ought
not to be convicted. If he IS sane,
and was sane at the time he COM
mitted the crime, he ought, and GER
tainly will be punished according |
to law, and the punishment for
violation of this law is death. / |
would only mete: out the
same punishment to Guiteau
that / would though he had slain
the humbest citizen in the United
States. l cannot and do not see
that his crime is augmented by the
assassination of a President. True
our social and political status is
doubly confounded yet, in the
e;C.h+ &c o,,r ~ raaf Iaafbar tho Yanor