Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-02-16
The Polygamy Bill in
the Senate.
THE WEST.
Illinois.

CHICAGO, Feb. 15.-The following letter
was sent by registered letter yesterday, writ
ten by Mrs Scoville, sister the Guiteau, to
Mrs. Garfield:
Mrs Lucretia Garfield, Cleveland:
Madame-Humbly I address you, trusting
you will not turn deaf ear even upon the
despised Guiteau's sister. All these weary
months I have patiently waited until the
time should come for me to speak, when
after the verdict which I believed would be
mot guilty by reason of insanity, could say
without shamefacedness, 'My heart bleeds
for you and the sainted dead" My poor
brother asnot his own master when he fired
the shot Forgive him. Look with compass
sion on him and dne. I have counted the
hours for the time when I could boldly say
to you, as have said from the moment when
the terrible news was brought me on that dark
day in July. she was brain sick, deluded,
crazy Forgive him even as Christ forgives us
all" Both our martyred President and his
family having shown such an example of
Christian fortitude and trust in the Most
High as the world may well revere led me to
hope that the sense of wrong suffered would
when the truth was shown be tempered with
merciful forgiveness, which is indeed Christ
like All those dreadful weeks of the Presi-
dents suffering I prayed that the father
above US all would spare his life. Day and
| the President. / thought he could not die
! when the people of the whole world called
nightly unto him to interpose in his be-
half said surely he will show forth
his glory. But alas, the tenderest
care of wife and family and friends and
the prayers of the people could not move the
ruler of the universe to countermand the de-
crees of his all-wise and mysterious provi-
dence, could not keep his poor despoiled
body, his grandly beautifed soul. Despite
the vigils, tears and prayers of his family
| and the nations of the world TIE midnight
bells were tolled, the midnight cry was heard
The President is dead" We gazed on the
with the glorified saints of the Lord and our
tears flowed without stint and we said is
there no God Truly it was a grievous
wrong. The Lord and he alone can judge
where lies the moral responsibility. This
people are in his hands. They walk the holy
ground. It BELTS them. They see to it,
putting off their feet unclean shoes, their
world walking being shod with san
| dals of righteousness, that they tread
carefully, tenderly to the end that
justice and truth and mercy shall prevail.
| in July when it was reported that the suffer
| ing President was not likely to recover, I
wrote letter to you stating the facts in my
| brothers. life, and everything of this case,
| thinking that both yourself and the Presi-
man had done the deed, instead of the hard
| ened wretch he was painted At the time it
was reported the President was interested in
| anything regarding the terrible affair, that he
even said one day. 81 wonder what that poor
| fellow would think if he knew had forgiven
| him. Oh that I might know from his
own wife if that were true. My heart
| be still. In heaven we know as we are
| known. The sainted Garfield knows now-he
| had to do it, and I feel sure if he could speak
| he would say, "Forgive that deluded man,
| even as I forgive him. Safely keep him
| from doing more HARM but forgive HIM" I
| never sent the letter. The report came al
most Immediately that the President was
worse [ knew you would not wish to be
| troubled with anything from Guiteau's sister.
| I had hoped by writing to come before you
| with better showing, vindicated SO far as
| insanity is an excuse from crime, but my
| heart burns within me, and Notwithstanding g
| that unjust verdict verdict and barbarous
| sentence, I must speak. My poor brother,
| shut away from the world for months in
| tomb-like cell, not ray of sunshine, not q
blade of grass, not flower, not bud, not a
| friend to speak a kind word to,-who is
there to speak in his behalf if not his heart
| broken sister? Did I not speak, the very
| stones would cry out. His sainted mother,
| the purest and noblest of women, that moth
or who gave her life for his, who suffered
| torture 1or seven long years Dechuse VI LIS
| birth until death made her, free; that father,
| tender and kind, but mistaken in his direc-
ton of the boy, would, if possible, make
| their voices heard from beyond the grave,
| even as I verify believe would the glorifed
Garfield cry out in horror at the verdict.
What of that verdict? Was it according to
truth, justice and mercy? Verify no. L had
hoped to be able to cast myself at the feet of
Judge Cox, to be able so long as I had breath
to look up to him as the grand, the noble,
the just judge who could stand as firm as the
everlasting rocks for the weak and defence
less against the whole world. But alas my
idol. And that jury, God only knows how I
had trusted in their honesty and steadfastness.
I had watched their faces day by day,
had seen their eager, absorbed solemn inter-
est when my brother was reading his last
address when he came to the recitation of
those few lines of the story, "John Browns
body lies Wondering in the grave,
but his soul goes marching on
commencing in the low, sad melody of song,
ical laugh, the awful laugh of the insane One
could feel the silence. 1 thought surely it is
enough. No power on earth can prevail upon
these men to say that the poor lunatic, with
out revenge, without motive except to obey
what he deemed the will of God, committed a
willful murder; but they did, They must
have reasoned as some do that it is a good
other crazy men. know my brother has
been in some essential matters of Judgment
Ineffective since his birth. [ know he is an
exaggerated counterpart of his father, who
was in some things insane; that there is
hereditary faint of insanity in the family
and that he is now not himself. The sud
den supernatural development of intellect in
some directions is of itself symptom OF
insanity. Knowing him, understanding him,
as claim better than anyone else, I assert
and can prove that my brother always in.
tended to do right and live honestly. His
shortcomings have been those of an unbal-
anced distracted brain rather than of bad
heart. His heart has ever been kind and
tender as that of a woman, but he has been
most unfortunate He WIS neither born
right reared right nor married right. Even
with his defective organization had he, in.
stead of being forced into the Oneida COM
munity, been allowed to obtain good eduea-
ton, entered upon some practical business sc
his mind would not drift into vagaries, and
found in his wife helpful
honest woman, he might have gone
through life comfortably, happily and re-
t spected to its Close did his father But
alas his mother died, his father married 6
woman who disliked his children and Charles
the only one residing at home with them
&, was almost turned from his fathers house
tender in years, weak in body and mind nc
one to guide him, no one to care for him but
myself / did what I could It was but
little. The boy drifted out into
the cruel world. Everything went wrong
with him. Now with sorrow unspeakable
look upon the wreck of what might hav<
been. Shall the true story of Charles Gui
teau's life ever be told the world will see ht
has been more sinned against than SHINING
When he dismissed the woman he had once
loved with his blessing was moved to tears
If ever my brother proved that the blood o.
gentleman flowed in his veins he proved i
then, wreck though he was. I was proud o.
him.
My Dear Madam write this to the widow
of our dead President in behalf of maj
not himself in a condition to realize the ex
tent of the terrible wrong, or to understand
1 your sufferings mine. Never can 1 res
satisfied until I be allowed, upon my bendet
knees, with the weight of this humiliation