Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-02-11
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

Judge Cox then passed the sem
tenceas follows
You have been convicted of a
crime so terrible in its circumstan-
ces and so far-reaching in its results
that it has drawn upon YOU the
horror of the whole world and the
execration of your countrymen.
The excitement produced by such
an offense made it no easy task to
secure for you fair and impartial
trial, but you have had the 1aower
of the United States Treasury and
of the Government i'm your service
to protect your person from violence
and to procure evidence from all
parts of the country. You have
had as fair and impartial a jury as
ever assembled in a court of Justice.
You have been defended by coun-
sci with zeal and devotion that
merits the highest encomium, and
L certainly have done my best to
secure a fair presentation of your
defense. Notwithstanding all this
you have been found guilty. 1t
would have been a comfort to
many people if the verdict of the
jury had established the fact that
your act was that of an irresponsi-
BILE man. 1t would have left the
people the satisfying belief that the
crime of political assassination was
something entirely foreign to the
institutions and civilization of our
country, but the result has denied
them that comfort. The country
will accept it as fact that that
crime can be committed, and the
court will have to visit it with the
highest penalty known to the Grim
inal Code to serve as an example to
others. Your career has been so
extraordinary that people might
well at times have doubted your
sanity. But one cannot but believe
that when the crime was commit
ted you thoroughly understood the
nature of the crime and its conse-
quences-
Guiteau-I was acting as Gods
man.
Judge Cox-And that you had
moral sense and conscience enough
to recognize the moral iniquity of
such an act.
Guiteau-That's a matter of opin-
ion.
Judge Cox-Your own testimony
shows that you recoiled with hor-
ror from the idea. You say that
you prayed against it. You say
that you thought it might be pre-
vented. This shows that your con-
science warned you against il, but
by the wretched sophistry of your
own mind you worked yourself up
against the protest of your own con-
science. What motive could have
induced you to this act must be a
matter of conjecture. Probably
men will think that some fanatic
ism or morbid desire for self-exal-
tation for the act. Your own testi-
mony seems to controvert the
theories of your counsel. They
have maintained and thought
honestly, believe, that you were
driven against your will by an
insane impulse to commit the act,
but your testimony showed that
you deliberately resolved to do it,
and that a deliberate and misguid-
ed will was the sole impulse. This
may seem insanity to some persons,
but the law looks upon it as a will
full crime. You will have due OPP
portunity of having any errors l
may have committed during the
course If the trial passed upon by
the court in banc, but meanwhile it
is necessary for me to pronounce
the sentence of the law, that you be
taken hence to the common Jail of
the District from whence you came
and there be kept in confinement,
and on Friday, the thirtieth day of
June, 1882, you be taken to the
place prepared for the execution
within the walls of said Jail, and
there between the hours of II NJ.
aud p. NJ. you be hanged by the
neck until you are dead, and may
the Lord have mercy on your soul.