Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/185

 OCITEAU S CASH. ���173 ���Verj' naturally you look, first, for any explanation of the act which may have been made by the defendant himself at the time or imme- diately before and after. �You have had laid before you, especlally, several papers which were in his possession, and which purport to assign the motives for his deed. �In the address to the American people of June 16th, which seems most f ully to set f orth his views, he says : �"I eonceived the idea of removing the president four weeks ago. Net a soul knew of my purpose. I eonceived the idea myself and kept it to myself. I read the newspapers carefully, for and against the administration, and gradually the conviction datoned on me that the presidents remaoal was a polltical necessity, beeause he proved a traitor to the men that made him, and theieby imperilled the life of the republic." �Again : �"Ingratitude is the basest of crimes. That the president, nnder the ma- nipulation of his secretary of state, has been guilty of the basest ingratitude to the stalwarts, admits of no deniai. The expressed purpose of the president has been to crush Gen. Grant and Senator Conkling, and thereby open the way for his renomination in 1884. In the president's madness he has wreckedthe once grand old Eepublican party, and for this he dies." * * ♦ �Again : �"Thistis not murder. It is a political necessity, It will make myfriend Arthur president, and save the republic," etc. �The other papera are of similar tenor, as I think you will find. �There ia evidence that, when arrested, the prisoner refused to talk, t it said that the papers would explain all. �On the night of the assassination, according to the witness James J. Brooks, the prisoner said to him that he had thought over it and prayed over it for weeks, and the more he thought and prayed over it the more satisfied he was that he had to do thia thing. He had made up his mind that he had done it as a matter of duty; * * * he made up his mind that they (the president and Mr. Blaine) were conapir- ing against the liberties of the people, and that the president muat die, �This is all that the evidence shows as to the prisoner's utteranoea about the time of the shooting. �In addition to this you have the very important testimony of the witness Joseph S- Eeynolds as to the prisoner's statements, oral and written, made about a fortnight after the shooting. If you credit thia testimony you find him reiterating the statements contained in the ��� �