Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/196

 184 FEDERAL REPORTER. �once. On further inqniry we leam that instead of being as repre- sentee!, the man was always passionate, violent, and brutal iu bis family. We then see that the act was the probable resuit of his bad passions, and not of a disordered mind. �Hence the importance of viewing the moral as well as intellectual side of the man, in the effort to solve the question of sanity. �That evidence on this subject is proper was held by the supreme judicial court of New Hampshire in State v. Jones, 50 N. H. Judge Ladd said: �" The history of the defendant and evidence of his conduct at various times during a period of many years before the act for which he was tried, tending to show his teraper, disposition, and character, were admitted agaiast his objection. It was for the jury to say whether the act was the product of insanity, or the naturally malignant and vicious heart. The condition of the man's mind, whether healthy or diseased, was the very matter in issue» This must be determined in some way or other from external manifestations as exhibited in his conduct. To know whether an act is the product of a dis- eased mind it is important to ascertain, if possible, how the same mind acts in a state of health. The condition of sanity or insanity shown to exist at one time is presumed to continue. Tor these reasons and otliers, which I have not thought it necessary to enlarge upon, it would seem that evidence tending to show defendant's mental and moral character and condition for many years before the act, was properly received." �It was upon the principle enunciated in this case that evidence was received in the present case tending to show the moral character of the accused, and offered for the purpose of showing that eccentrici- ties relied on as proof of unsound mind were accounted for by want of moral principle. �From the materials that have been presented to you two pictures have been drawn by counsel. �The one represents a youth of more than the average of mental endowments, surrounded by «ertain demoralizing influences at a time when his character was being developed; starting in life without re- sources, but developinga vicious sharpness and cunning; conceiving "enterprises of great pith and moment," that indicated unusual fore- cast, though beyond his resourcea ; consumed all the while by insa- tiate vanity and craving for notoriety; violent in temper, selfish in disposition, immoral, and dishonest in every direction; leading a life, for years, of hypocrisy, swindling, and fraud; and finally, as the culmination of a depraved career, working himself into a resolution to startle the country with a crime that would secure him a bad emi- nence, and, perhaps, a future reward. ��� �