THE ASSASSIN by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1881

THE ASSASSIN.

By Editor

Of the many comments of the public press of the country on the inefficiency of our criminal jurisprudence, we have seen none more pointed than the following from the San Francisco Chronicle. Our jury system is radically defective. Probably a jury cannot be found in the United States sufficiently ignorant and indifferent to meet the demands of Court rulings in such a case as this. Of a surety, “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” Isa. 59:14:—

“It is announced from Washington that Guiteau cannot be convicted in that city of the murder of President Garfield, for the reason that the laws of the District of Columbia are so peculiar on the subject that the death of the President at Long Branch practically nullifies the crime. The average reader will very readily concede the peculiarity of such laws, and likewise regard them with contempt. There is some reason for believing that technicalities will be raised in Guiteau’s case, and if he cannot be convicted at Washington, a long hunt through old books will probably be necessary to ascertain if he can be convicted at Long Branch. Between the two seats of “justice” there is some danger that the wretch will escape his deserts. What a circumstance it would appear to foreign nations, what a commentary it would be on our boasted ability to make our own laws, if technicalities should save his worthless life. The Chief Magistrate of our fifty millions of people is shot down in cold blood because he refuses to make a buffoon Minister to England. After several weeks of intense suffering he expires, and then for the wretch who has wrought such disaster, and brought grief and disturbance to the whole country, a petty punishment is allotted that is a mere bid for assassination to become a leading feature of our Government. It is to be earnestly hoped that nothing of this kind will occur.

Some days ago, General Sherman was indignant that a Sergeant of the regular army should attempt to shoot Guiteau in his cell, and a court-martial has already been ordered for the undoubted conviction of the Sergeant; but the conviction of Guiteau is thought to be impossible—at least, in Washington—and who knows what technical obstacle may be encountered in New Jersey. The whole matter looks like a burlesque. The civil Courts and laws throughout the country are becoming so impotent for the punishment of crime that murder is everywhere committed almost with impunity. Is it any wonder that troops have had to be kept under arms at Washington in order to preserve the assassin until he could be delivered to the Courts for possible ultimate acquittal? Imagine a Court at Washington virtually announcing that Garfield has not been murdered; that Guiteau is not an assassin; that all the excitement of the past three months has been a mere hideous nightmare without foundation in fact, and a striking illustration is presented of the relations between American law, justice, and common sense. “Respect the law!” is a cry continually heard. People cannot respect laws that are imbecile for the purposes of public and private security. The difference between “tweedledum and tweedledee” is killing the American judicial system. The living spirit of the law is no longer regarded. It has been banished to make room for quibbles, precedents, technicalities and dry phraseology as barren of justice as the shriveled seeds of a withered pumpkin. When a gross crime has been committed, public indignation is intense; threats are silenced by stale appeals to “the majesty of the law;” then follows the legerdemain of a trial, and the murderer’s neck is saved. A law that the guilty can appeal to with serene confidence; that makes a tender object of solicitude of the red-handed murderer, and that turns him loose on society to commit still other crimes, possesses no majesty, and is entitled only to universal contempt. It is to be hoped that the news from Washington on this subject is premature, and that if no law exists there to punish Guiteau, enough may be found at Long Branch to answer the purpose.

In any event, attention should be widely awakened to the necessity of sweeping reforms in the methods of criminal procedure throughout the country. So long as our Courts are simply establishments for protecting, pampering, and acquitting murderers, the latter will be numerously forthcoming, and threats of mob violence will continue to be heard at the commission of any startling crime. If no reform of our Courts and laws is effected, necessity, which “knows no law,” will finally compel society to protect itself by the summary execution of all murderers seized at the scene of their brutal deeds. There is yet time to avert so serious an evil.