Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-01-28
THE TRIAL OF GUITEAU.
Incidents of the Case. Speeches. Eft


remarks Mr.. Scoville said: "The pris-
oner desires, Your Honor, to prefer a
request that he be allowed to address
the jury. / have looked over the paper
which he desires to read and see moth
ing in it of an Objectionable character. !"
Judge Cox nodded an assent. and
Guiteau said: CT have written down
what wish to say, and will read it.
IT'S in regard to my speech" He then
read with some emphasis 81 intend
no disrespect to this honorable
Court. [ intend no controversy with
this honorable Court. In general am
satisfied with the law as proposed by
Your Honor, but / have suggested a
still broader view, which l ask Your
Honor to follow, to wit-that if the
jury believe that believed it was right
to remove the President because had
special Divine authority so to do, and
was forced to do it by the Deity, they
will acquit on the ground of transitory
mania. Sickles, Mcfarland and His
cock were acquitted on the ground of
transitory mania. in my speech
published in all the leading American
papers Monday, and which, 1 pre-
sumo, Your Honor has read, [
gave my reasons for asking Your
Honor so to charge. Mr.. Reed made a
brilliant and lawyer-like plea for the
defense, and Mr.. Scoville is making a
strong argument for his theory, but
neither Mr.. Reed nor Mr.. Scoville rep
resent me in this defense am here
as my own counsel, and as stated
at the opening of the case, no
one can represent me to that
jury. l know my feelings and my in
spiration in removing the President
and I have set it forth to my salts
faction IN my speech published Mon
day, and ] ask Your Honor, in the
name of justice, in the name of the
American people, to allow me to address
the jury of of my countrymen when my
femay be at stake. If man on that Jury
has doubt as to his duty in acquitting
me, my speech will probably settle him
in my favor, and therefore in the in
tercst of justice it is of the greatest i'm
portance that they hear me in my de-
Tense. Your Honor can decide the
matter if you have any doubt as to your
duty"
Mr.. Scoville contrasted Guiteau's plea
that the act was right because it was in
spired by God with what he called the
real defence, namely, that Gniteau
never had any inspiration of any kind,
and that it was delusion all through,
and proof of the diseased condition
of the assassin's mind. Mr.. Scoville
contended that the prosecution, in OBJ
jecting to The introduction of certain
evidence by the defense. had not shown
ciSed Lawyer Porter and District At.
torney Corkhill for the manner in which
the case for the prosecution had been
conducted. Porter, he said, had pros
tituted his mind for money to hang
an insane man. Guiteau suffered
from chronic insanity, and during the
his lecturing tours he was simply a
peripatetic mailman. He had got the
idea that another civil war was imminent
from Senator Chandler of Michigan.
The way he was affected by the idea
showed that he was insane, and the
steps by which his mind was led from
that to the conception of the assasslna-
ton further proved his insanity.
Mr.. Scoville on Wednesday branched
out into discussion of the influence of
the political situation upon the prison
er's mind before the assassination. He
averred that but for certain reasons
back of the prosecution Guiteau would
never have been arraigned in court of
law, but would have been taken to an
insane asylum after the assassination
and kept there until he died. He went
on to explain that what he meant was
that the movers of the prosecution were
politicians who were seeking to hide
their own infamy by casting the blame
on this lunatic. Such men as Conkling
and Grant and Arthur, who made war
without justification on Garfield,
brought about that state of public
excitement and political feeling which
preyed upon Guiteau until his reason
left its throne and he did that which he
considered to be perfectly in accordance
with their counsel and conduct. He
went into this subject at considerable
length, remarkine that he did not
intend to say all this when he opened
the case, because he then expected
fair and impartial trial, but now he
had concluded not to spare the men
who fomented this strife or permit them
to make a scapegoat of Guiteau. He
said this without any feeling, unless of
regret that men so high in power should
descend to the ignominious scramble
for Office which was exhibited in the
warfare against Garfield. These men,
who since his death have been soprofuse
in their admiration of him, were ready
before the ID of July last to trample
him in the dust, to see him go down
in obscurity and disgrace to the grave
if it could be done without the aid of
an assassin's hand. "Mr. Conklipg,"
he said, "shall not shirk, shall not
avoid, shall not escape the condemna-
ton of the American people if can
fasten it on him for that disgraceful
conduct on his part. Neither shall Gen.
Grant"
Mr.. Scoville said he was not speaking
go much to save Guiteau's life, to do his
duty to his wife, Guiteau's sister, or to
save the credit of the Guiteau family,
as to prevent an injustice being done
that would be lasting disgrace to
America. IL it were possible for the
jury by their verdict to stay the tide of
revenge and of mob law, let them do so.
He argued that the prisoner had do pos
sible ill-will toward the President, and
no motive for shooting him, and all Che
circumstances showed he was insane.
He defied the prosecution to show case
in history in which a sane man had COM