Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1882-02-11
Guiieau's Sentence.

The following is Gulteau's sentence as
pronounced bv Judge Coz last Saturday:
You have been convicted of crime so
terrible in its circumstances and so far
reaching in its results that ii has drawn
upon you the horror of the whole world
and the excavations of your cOuntrymen.
The excitement produced by such an
Offense made it no easv task to secure
for you fair and impartial trial, but you
have had the power OF the United States
treasury and OF the government in your
service to protect your person from viO-
lence, and to procure evidence from all
parts of the country. You have had as
fair and impartial jury as ever assem-
bled in a court of justice. You have
been defended by counsel with a zeal
and devotion that merits the highest en-
cOmium, and certainly have done my
best to secure fair presentation of your
defense. Notwithstanding all this you
have been found guilty. 1t would have
been comfort to many people if the
verdict of the jury had established the
fact that your act was that of an ire
SpOnsible man. 1t would have left the
people the satisfying belief that the
crime of political assassination was
something entirely foreign to the insti-
buttons and civilization of our country,
but the result has denied them that COM
fort. The country will accept 1t as a
fact that that crime can be committed
and the court will have to deal with it
with the highest penalty known to the
criminal code to serve as an example to
others. Your career has been SO extra
ordinary that people might well at times
have doubted your sanity, but one can
not but believe that when the crime was
committed you thoroughly understood
the nature of the crime and its cOnse-
nce-(Guiteau-"I was acting as
Gods man.') and that you had moral
sense and conscience enough to recOg-
nize the moral iniquity of such an act.
(PrisOner-"That's matter of opinion" "
Your own testimony, shows that you re-
cOiled with horror from the idea. You
say that you prayed against it. You say
that you thought it might be prevented.
This shows that your conscience warned
you against it, but by the wretched
sOphistry of your own mind you worked
yourself up against the protest of your
own conscience. What motives could
have induced you to this act must be a
matter Of conjecture. Probably men
will think that some fanaticism or NOR
bid desire Tor Self-eXaltatlOn was the
real inspiration for the act. Your own
testimony seems to cOntrOvert the theOr-
les of your counsel. They have main
tanned, and thought, honestly l believe,
that you were driven against your will
by an insane impulse. The testimony
showed that you deliberately resolved
to do it, and that deliberate and mis-
guided will was the sole impulse. This
may seem insanity to some persons, but
the law looks upon it as willful crime
You will have due opportunity Of having
any errors may have committed dur
ing the course of the trial passed upon
by the court ell banc, but meanwhile it
is necessary for me to prOnOuce SEN
tence of the law, that you Ee taken hence
to the common Jail of the district, from
whence you came, and there be kept i'm
confinement, and on Friday the thirtieth
day of June, 1882, you be taken to the
place prepared for execution within the
walls of said Jail, and there, between
the hours Of II NJ. and 2P NJ, you be
hanged by the neck until you are dead
and may the Lord have mercy on your
soul.