National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-06-24
Guitpnu.

|
execution Of the convicted murderer of
President Garfield the President is urged
to grant the condemned man ga respite,
not for Guiteau, but for science to see
what shall be done with Guiteau." The
petitioners are medical men who believe
that the evidence of Guiteau's insanity
was not properly presented upon the trial.
They ask that scientific commission be
created to determine the question of his
sanity. The President has referred the
application to the Attorney General The
world believes that Guiteau had not only
II fair trial, but that in all matters of
doubt he had the benefit of such
doubt He was allowed to disgrace the
| proceedings with ribaldry, rufliansm,
and blasphemy, rather than that he
shoald seem to be unduly restrained.
There was no limit to the latitude given
his counsel in the examination of wit
nesses. The well-defned rules of med-
cal jurisprudence were applied to his case,
and the law and the facts were against
him. lie had been among the numerous
Adventures and hangers-on of the last
Presidential campaign, constantly going
in and out of the National Republican
! Committee rooms without exciting
the least suspicion of insanity. Here
in Washington, after the inaugura-
ton of President Garfield, he had
vainly sought to impose upon him
and upon Mr.. Blaine with the false
pretcnsc ofhavingrenderod great services
on the stump, practice as common with
the large class to which he belongs as is
any other form of common and notorious
swindling. He had been in the Presi-
dents room dozen times to beg for
place, but nobody had any idea that
he was insane. He was baflled in
his effort to cheat the President into the
belief that he was man of consequence
instead of being one of the numerous
confidence men about town, and became
so malicious on account of it that he con-
fesses to having planned the Presidents
death for weeks before he committed the
act. Finally he committed the murder
on the I'd of July. 1t is claimed that if
he had been sane he could not have
done this deed But sane men do
commit murder. Else why q statute
against, it? If murder is in itself
proof of the insanity of the murderer
then any man may kill the object
of his enmity with an assurance Of a quiet
and comfortable support in an insane
asylum as q reward. Murderers kill
either for revenge or profit When they
kill for plumber or for hire, they lie
in wait and endeavor to conceal the
act. When they kill for vengeance
and in obedience to an impulse of
raging hatred, they are as likely to do
it in public street in broad daylight as
anywhere, and then defy the conse-
quences. Guiteau says he was inspired
by God. TO this the obvious reply is
that it is easier to believe Guiteau's as
sertion a falsehood than that God wanted
Garfield murdered. If it is difficult for
some to believe that this murderer is
capable of telling a lie, let them consider
that if he could have made himself be-
leved it would have saved his life. The
law does not permit scientific experts in
insanity to decide who is and who is not
legally responsible when found to have
committed q criminal act. Medical
science gives the condition of the mind.
The law decides what conditions of
mind are compatible with a guilty
responsibility. Medical science may
not approve. The law is indif-
ferent to its opinion. Our criminals
are tried by judges and juries not by
witnesses. 1t would be strange if, after
an exhaustive trial, some of the witnesses
should be allowed TO take an appeal to
themselves in behalf of the murderer.
"Science" has already decided "what
shall be be done with Guiteau;" but it
was legal science enlightened by the tes-
timony of medical experts, and aided by
the medical jurisprudence of centuries.
We have no apprehension that the Pres
ident will grant an appeal from that de-
cision to a committee of doctors, or that
he will see any demand upon his great
prerogative of clemency in the case before
him.