Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-01-20

following speech, with a pompous effort at
oratorical effect "The decision OF the New
York court of appeals comes with SO much
force at the present moment, desire to call
attention to it. It comes with great grace
from the empire state, from that grand old
state of the republic, the state that sends forth
the brains, the money and commerce of the
nation. 1t is great step forward of the law
of insanity. Hitherto the law has been that
the burden of proof was on the defendant,
but the court of appeals with grand magma
nimity, says that the burden of proof
is on this prosecution to prove that a
man not only committed the act, but
also that he was sane at the time he commit
ted it, In the name of justice and in the name
of the American people, and in the name Of
the American judiciary, I desire to thank those
gentlemen of the court of the state of New
| York"
| sCovILLE's ARGUMENT.
| Scoville Immediately resumed his argument,
reading from the evidence of several witnesses
who were at the depot and saw the shooting
and subsequent arrest of Guiteau, his object
| being to show the prisoner wss perfectly calm
and cool and in the condition of his nerves
| and intellect at variance with the hypothesis
| under such circumstances.
| Scoville again complained that the prosecu-
cution had failed to call Detective McElfrish
| to the stand whose evidence would have been
of service to the prisoner.
Guiteau-"They came to my cell and tried
| to draw me out, talked with them little
about the Deity and my inspiration, and now
| they SUPPRESS all that evidence. That shows
| the iniquity of their prosecution, and God Al
mighty will curse every one on the prosecu-
ton, in my opinion.'' After O short pause,
the prisoner added. "That reminds me to say
thatJudge Porter has been pretending to be
| sick for two days. Hope it will be providen-
tial to keep him sick. I hope the LORD will
take him down below quick and then send for
Corkhill."
AS Seoville proceeded, Corkhin made
frequent, and as the speaker thought, slight
ing comments until tiually becoming irrita.
ted he turned upon the district attorney and
denounced in scathing terms, his unfair con-
duct and instanced his prosecution as evidence
in this case of the letter written by the pris-
oner, and which he, Corkill, introduced and
mutllated by cutting off the signature and
prisoner, thing, said Scoville, which was
never before permitted in a court Of justice,
not even upon the trial of civil suit.
Col. COrkhill sneering: "That's your opin-
ion merely, Mr.. Scovile 1t amounts to
nothing as fact"
Scoville--''Well, let it be my opinion. Il
presume am entitled to one and so is the
jury"
Guiteau, with energy--"It was friendly al
lusion to President Arthur that he cut out, the
mean dirty whelp.n
AS Scovlle continued, counsel for the prose-
cution frequently interrupted him, and a run
ming fire was kept up between counsel for
sometime. The speaker disclaimed as his
main motive the desire to shield the prisoner
for the honor of the Guiteau family. His
greatest desire was to save the American ma
ton and the American judiciary from the dis
grace of hurrying to the gibbet an insane
man. Abiding to the evidence of DR.. North,
the speaker charged: "This was another in
| stance of the unfairness of the district at
torney. Without the slightest evidence or
reason for SO doing, he had asked the witness,
Were you ever indicted for crime?' and wit
ness had responded quickly and frankly, No
sir, and never expect to be-"
Corkhill--"I happened to know the man
well''
Scoville-"All the more reaeon why You
should not thus gratuitously insult him."
Corkhill-"Well, I tried him in this court.
l remembered his face when he took the stand,
and l found afterward that he was here on an
appeal from the police court
by the district attorney, Mrs. Scoville became
very angry, and complained in audible tones
of the district attorneys ''uneasiness," as she
termed it.
The hour of recess having arrived, Scoville
conferred for a moment with Judge Cox as to
how long recess should be ordered The
audience began to arise, and Guiteau impa-
tiently called out: "Your honor, we're wait
ing on you. Amt you going to announce O
recess?o
At this the crier raised laugh by calling
out: "Well, come along; we'll have recess y
After recess Scoville continued his review of
the evidence and claimed that the prisoner had
beenl freel, frank and outspoken in all things,
that he had conversed at the Jail with every
one the prosecution sent there, always with
out reserve. Had he been sane and playing. a
part he would not have done so. Commenting
upon, as he claims the absence of motive on
Guiteau's part, Scoville said: you cannot
find an instance in history, you cannot sup
pose case, where man 40 years of age, who
never before committed crime, who has nev-
er for an hour associated with criminals or
bad people, who, on the contrary, has always
sought the society, not only Of the better class
of people, but of Christian people, you can't
conceive of such mans committing sucli q
crime without motive. Nothing but the
theory of insanity can possibly account for
such an act as Guiteau's.
Scoville thea dis ssed the assumption that
Guiteau had been q. lated by desire for re-
venge, and argued "a; improbability of such
assumption, from ne fact, if any ground for
ill.will existed O, Guiteau's part, it was
against Secretary Blaine. According to the
executed against him. There cannot possibly
be shown" said Seoville, "any ill-will on his
part toward President Garfield
Col. Corkhill-"You seem to forget he
killed him."
Without noticing this comment, Scoville
next took up the hypothesis, the crime wss
committed from an overpowering desire for
notoriety, and claimed history failed to point
out a case where such crime was committed
purely and simply from such motive, and
that it was incompatible with reason, and int
possible for the human brain to conceive such
motive as sufficient TO induce any sane man
to commit such crime.
"That he killed the president as disat,-
pointed Office seeker is more than improbs.-
ble," said Scoville, "for had he brooded over
some wrong of this kind, something of his
disappointment would have cropped out. He
would have said something in his intercourse
with other people indicating his disappoinE-
ment, or shown bad temper on the subject.
Nothing would have been more natural in the
interval before he made up his mind TO kill
the PRESIDENT
Gutteau-On, I'LL; All bosu ABOUT my
being disappointed ofiice seeker. After the
first of June my whole mind was ON the polIt-
ical situation, and | wouldn't have taken
cabinet position if it In been offered me-"
Looking up from his paper few minutes
later, Guiteau called ont with satisfied air:
.Porter is sick. guess the Lord is attending
to him."
Scoville alluded to the taunt of the prosecn-
lion that experts for the defense had gone
back on him, and said in explanation, when
he reached Washington he did not know the
| name of single expert. He knew Guiteau
was crazy, but how to show it to the country
and to convince a jury of his countrymen, was
the burden that pressed on him. Then came
letter from DIR. Worcester, that little man
from the great state of Massachusetts,
| state that holds the Athens of America. He
| wrote If half what was said of Guiteau was
true, he was crazy; that he (Worcester) had