Excerpt from The Mental Status of Guiteau, the Assassin of President Garfield The question of the mental condition of Guiteau on the 2d of July last, when he murdered President Garfield, is one that requires concentration of mind, and freedom from the common sentiments of human ity, to discuss with perfect impartiality. There is an unconscious tendency in the mind to be in uenced by a sense of what is right, which may at times mislead well-meaning and truthful men. Connected with this sense of the eternal fitness of things ...
Read More
Excerpt from The Mental Status of Guiteau, the Assassin of President Garfield The question of the mental condition of Guiteau on the 2d of July last, when he murdered President Garfield, is one that requires concentration of mind, and freedom from the common sentiments of human ity, to discuss with perfect impartiality. There is an unconscious tendency in the mind to be in uenced by a sense of what is right, which may at times mislead well-meaning and truthful men. Connected with this sense of the eternal fitness of things, still further, is a desire to punish wrong or make the guilty suffer for their crimes, and this feeling also distorts and perverts a sound judgment. Perhaps there has been no in stance in the civilized world, where, combined with such universal sympathy for the victim, there has been so little feeling for the doer of the foul deed as in this. It would seem as if every voice in the country had been lifted up in execration against the miserable Guiteau, and had made us blind to the ordinary dic tates of humanity and dumb to the voice of reason. As a consequence we have been over nice in our dis criminations between this point and that, and have thrown aside any testimony possessing the smallest evidence of doubt. In an ordinary case doubt would tell in favor. Of the prisoner, in this case it has told against him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Read Less