Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1882-06-30
GUITEA US CRIME AND PUNISH
MENT

To-day Guiteau will undergo the punish
ment as far as human law can inflict, for
the murder of the late President Garfield.
He will die ON the gallows, and his name
will go LAUNDERING down the ages" to use
his own bombastic words. But it will be as
the name of the most atrocious and villain
Gus wretch that ever had name. The
people of the future ages in which it is to
thunder may exult that il is not conceivable
that such creature can exist among them.
But the people of this age have had 50
much of agony and shame through Gut
teau's agency that they are FESTIVE and inn
patient under "the laws delay" that has
kept him from his deserved but inadequate
punishment of felon's death for year
after he fired the fatal shot at the head of
the nation.
With the exception of few fanatics, who
never raise their voices in defense of COM
mon murderer, Guiteau has had no de-
tenders, and all the rest of the American
people feel relieved now that the full pen
atty of the law will be visited upon him.
The forbearance OF the people of the
United States towards Guiteau, his lawyers,
his witnesses, the so-called experts in in
sanity and others that have used him to ad-
vertisc themselves, and his relatives who
have played the part of insanity so as to
delude the world with the idea that it was
a disease hereditary in the family, has been
extraordinary and admirable In almost
any other country man committiAg such
a crime as his would have been dealt with
summarily by a mob, even if a Jail had to
be broken open to get hold of him. But
Guiteau was quietly put in prison, was
treated with much more than ordinary in
diligence, was fairly tried before a Court
and jury, was allowed to defend himself
and even insult the Court, the lawyers and
the public with violent language, was given
every hearing before the higher Courts and
was permitted to make an appeal to the
President, lot of insolent women and men
who never before tried to save human life,
exhibiting themselves as the advocates of this
gigantic criminal, but justice has triumphed
and before the sun of to-day goes down he
will appear before higher tribunal.
AS nation, the United States may well
be proud of the manner in which one of the
severest tests that could be applied to gov
eminent has been borne. For the second
time President has been shot by an assas-
Elm, but the machinery of government moved
on undisturbedly. Even in the first mo.
ments of anguish when the news Of the
shot at Garfield was received, Americans
everywhere, abroad as well as at home, had
no fears for the country. The balls that
killed Lincoln and Garfield did no harm to
the republic, though they caused millions OF
hearts to mourn. Guiteaus crime, which
was viler than Booths, who was maddened
by the result of the civil war, never dis.
turbed the faith of the people In their coun-
try and its government There was feel
ing Of inexpressiblc shame that such crime
should be or could be committed; but it was
recognized as the act Of one atrociously con.
ceited egotist, who iancied that the people
were fools and that they would make hero
of him.
To-day he will fully realize The mistake
he has made. He has given the country a
year of untold sorrow and trouble, and he
has cost the government hundreds Of thous.
ands Of dollars
Every one who has stood aghast at the
horror of his crime, who has watched the
progress of his trial and heard the sentence
will! read the closing chapter of this fearful
tragedy with feelings of reief-then let the
curtain fall upon one of the darkest pages
in the criminal jurisprudence of the civilized
world.