The Trial of Czolgosz

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 43.

The Trial of Czolgosz.

The orderly, decorous, and dignified trial of the assassin of President McKinley can not but arouse the admiration of every one who likes orderly and just procedure; and the quiet, expeditious dignity of this trial is greatly emphasized when compared with the legal farce enacted in the trial of President Garfield’s assassin. And yet it seems to us that it is carrying the matter altogether too far to say, as Dr. Buckley does in the Christian Advocate: “From the time of Daniel until now the world never saw proceedings in court any more worthy of admiration.” In the first place, the great crime, the feelings of the people, the unnatural death of the greatly-respected and dearly-loved President, and the condition of his grief-stricken widow, together with the character of the judges and the traditions of law, all combined to render the place of trial solemn indeed, and the court procedure dignified. In the second place, the assassin himself, not objectively, but passively, rendered great service in this direction. If he had been voluble, shrewd, fertile in expedients, if he had employed some great “criminal ‘lawyer’” to help him evade law by technical objections, an altogether different tale might have been told. But the criminal pleaded guilty, asked for no counsel, cared naught for those who were appointed to defend him. This, doubtless not designed to facilitate procedure on the part of the assassin, aided immensely, and made the work of all easy. It would have been a very inferior court indeed which could not have acquitted itself credibly. This is saying absolutely naught against the eminent legal gentlemen who had part in the trial. They probably appreciate the simplicity of the situation, as well as the uncalled-for flattery, at full value.