Guiteau's Curious Plea

At the time oL his arraignment, Guiteau produced a paper from his pocket whicli he wisbed to read, but was prevented by the court. The paper which Guiteau intended to read was as folkrvvs: "If the court please, 1 wish to 3ay that I havo been terribly viliüed bythe press, and it has made some persons bitter and impulsive against me. On Oct. 6, the New York Herald published saven columns from my autobiography, which I expect to issue soon in a book. Aside from the impertinent statements that I am a creature of the greatest vanity and that I crave notoriety, which are absolutely false, and similar unkind statements, 1 am indebted to the reporter and the Herald for giving me so fair a hearing. I plead not guilty tothe indictmeut, and my defense is three-fold. "1. Insanity, in that it was God 8 act and not mine. The Divine pressure on me to remove the President was so enormous that it destroyed my free agency, and therefore I am not legally responsible for my act. "2. The President died frorn malpractice. About three weeks after he was shot his physicians, after a caref ui examination, decided that he would recover. Two rnonths after this official announeement he died. Therefore, I say he was not fatally shot. If he had been well treated he would have recovered. "3. The President died in New Jersey, and, therefore, beyond the jurisdiction of this court. This malpractice and president's death in New Jersey are special providences, and I am bound to avail myself of them on niy trial in justice to the Lord and myself. I undertake to say that the Lord is managuig my case with consuminate ability, and that he had a special object in allowing the President to die in New Jersey. His management of this case is worthy of Him as the Deity, and I have entire confidence in his dispo3ition to protect me and send meforth to the world a free and vindicated man. 'He uttered His voice,' says the Psalmist, 'and tho earth melted.' This ia the God I served when I sought to remove the T resident. The Lord and the people do not seem to agree in this case. The peop'.e consider the President's removal an unbearable outrage and me a dastardly assassin, and they prayed the Lord to spare the President. Tor nearly three months the Lord kept the President at the point of death, and then allowed him to depart, thereby confirming my act. The mere fact of the President's death is notking. All men have died, and all men will die. God. Burnside died suddenly about the time the President did. The President and Gen. Burnside were both splendid men, and no one regrets their departure more than I. The President died from rnalpractice, and Gen. Burnside from apoplexy. Both were special providences, and the people ought to quietly submit to the Lord in the matter. The President would not have died had the Lord not have wished him to go. I have no conception of it as murder, or as an assassination. I had no feeling of wrong-doing when I sought to remove him, because it was God'3 act, and not mine, for the good of the American people. I plead not guilty to tho indictment