The National tribune., 1901-06-20
"REMINISCENCES OF THE GUITEAU TRIAL
One of the Government Medical Counsel
Tells Some New Stories About the Tragedy
and the Assassin.

| III w stlltI NtllUSleI. HOW VI hHNdu-
kee, was one of the three medical coun-
sellors employed by the Government at
the trial of Chas. j. Guteau for the muir
der of President Garfield, in 1881. OF
the other two DIR. Gray, of the Utica Asy-
lum, n. Y, is dead, and DIR. a. Il. Mac
donald is still living, in charge of the
Wards Island Asylum for the Insane,
New York City.
DIR. Kempster has been talking to a
reporter for the Evening Wisconsin, and
in the course of his "reminiscences he
said:
Il went to Washington and spent the
greater part of three days with Guiteau
i'll his cell When l first came | frankly
told him my object and warned him that
if he answered my questions freely his
words would be used in the interest of
! truth. but if not they should be used
against him. He said at first that that
| was pretty hard. but changed his mind
and remarked that he guessed it was
square. He was we'll acquainted up i'll
my country. l knew that by his numer-
Gus questions. For example he wanted to
| know if the Bauman Brothers We're still
keeping Il drug store in Oshkosh. Guiteau
came from good family of Huguenot des-
cent. His father was Il prominent banker
of Rockford and a school is named after
him there now. He answered all my queS-
tions quite freely. When | got to press
ing he would say, We'll, guess I'll let
that pass
HIS ALLEGED INSPIRATION.
I'VE went over the whole subject of
his alleged inspiration from Cod He
| got so tangled up that he finally broke
| out into Il laugh and said, i guess we'll
| quit on the inspiration matter He then
| turned to the Bible. He was well versed
| in that, having been a member of the
| Oneida community for some time. At
last | asked him the real reason why he
shot the President. He would not ad
init that he did it for revenge, but said
that the President had promised him a
foreign appointment, that he had not given
| it to him, that he was discouraged and
| disguised without money, and thought it
| would be best to remove Garfield. To
this act God had commissioned him. l
had come to the conclusion that Guiteau
was particularly bright man. He
was lawyer, but rowing ne er-do-weH.
The campaign in which Garfield was
elected found him an unsuccessful at
i torney in New York. He had associated
himself with the Republican managers
in the city, distributing pamphlets and
even making a few speeches. After the
election he went down to Washington to
claim his reward and asked for nothing
less than to be appointed Minister to Aus
trla. This was taken as an evidence of
insanity by many, but he told me himself
that he had asked for such a high Office
oIly btNduSc uc lllOu-ul uc hOuIu Bt APT
to be more successful in securing a for
eign Consulship, which was really what he
wanted. He hung around Washington
several months, peSterinS the President
as well as others in positions to help him.
The appointment never came. The Gar
field-Conkling fight had developed and
Washington, as well as the country IN gen
eral was boiling. We have no idea today
of the intensity of the feeling between
the two factions.
RUsK HEARD THE THREAT.
"Uncle Jerry Rusk was at this time
member of Congress and a close friend of
Garfield. Overnight when returning from
a consultation with the President at the
White House. the Congressman stopped in
4 much-frequented cafe for a glass of
soda water. An angry discussion was in
progress between the adherents of Gar
field and the Senator from New York.
Guiteau was present. Finally one of the
Senator's followers was heard to say,
Whoever will kill that with an OATH
will be the savior of his country
Mr.. RuSk was so impressed with what
he had heard that night that he returned
Immediately to the White House, told
the President of the incident and warned
him to be on his guard. The President
replied: oh, General, / am much obliged
to you, but l think you are unduly ex-
cited. There is no danger The next day
the President was shot in the Washing
ton depot.
PRONOUNCED BIN SANE.
"After three days of association with
Guiteau l came TO the conclusion that
he was sane. The opinions of Drs. Mac
donald, Gray and myself were filed sep
arately through United States District
Attorney COrkhill. Each of US pro-
nOunced the man sane. The trial which
followed lasted three months. We were
required to be in constant attendance dur
ing that time. Each night we met the
Government attorneys for the prose
cutiOn and decided upon and arranged
the testimony to be introduced next day.
Altogether the Government had 80 in
sanity experts witness to the sanity of the
accused. The work of the medical coun-
sci was divided. DIR. Gray, who was the
senior member and a very able man, had
general charge of the marshaling of the
testimony. Dr. Macdonald looked after
the testimony to be introduced to show
the contrast between the criminal acts of
sane and insane persons. | was required
to watch the prisoner and to contrast his
behavior in the courtroom and in his cell.
To do this | had to sit with him during
the trial and frequent his cell evenings.
When anything happened they sent for
me. Guiteau was shot at twice. So con-
stant was the vigil that / was not even
allowed to go down to Philadelphia to eat
Christmas dinner with my family, which
was there at the time.
GUITEAU's CowARDICT.
During the demonstrations of popular
hatred, Guiteau showed himself the cow
ard that he was. During the trial the
Governments able lawyer, John *. Pot
ter, brought out in ss-eXamination the
three elements present in murder commit
ted by a sane man, anger, revenge, and
remorse. Guiteau has repeatedly said
that he was sorry. The defense brought
several insanity experts TO testify to Gui-
teau's insanity. Among them were Drs.
Kiernan and Spitzka, both of New York
at that time. Kiernan made the state
ment that has been thrown up at him ev
cry time he has been called TO testify in
an insanity case since, that one man in
every five was insane. SpitZka declared |
he knew Guiteau was insane the moment |
he saw his picture in Harper's Weekly. |
Although Guiteau was sentenced to be
hanged in January, the law in force in
the District of Columbia was such as to
prevent the execution from being carried
out for six months.
'An interesting story in this connection
was told me by Senator Sawyer" con-
tinued the doctor. "Guiteau was
strong Conkling man. When the feud be-
tween the President and Senator Conkling
was at its hight Senator Sawyer sent
Thomas NJ. Nichol of Washington down
TO Albany TO see if Robertson, Garfeld's
tbn Cpllorfor of thn Port of