The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo

GUITEAU'S INSANITY.

There is a great deal of speculation among the people as to the insanity of Guiteau. That he had premeditated the assassination of the President and had laid his plans accordingly no one can or will for one moment doubt. That the laws are inadequate to such a crime is plainly evident. It is now pretty generally considered that the President will recover. In that case the only punishment that could possibly be imposed upon Guiteau would be that providing for an assault with intent to kill. This would consign him to imprisonment for a time, and then he would be turned loose to make a similar attempt at some future day. There is no accounting for the freaks of insane persons. Guiteau may take the notion in his head that he is a modern Savior of his country, and that his mission is to kill the nation's ruler. A second attempt upon the life of President Garfield would doubtless be attended with success. Garfield's life is worth no more than that of any ordinary man, and the punishment should be the same. In this is again demonstrated the fact that in the United States all men are equal before the law. The fact that the attempt was upon the life of the chief magistrate of the people, however, renders the crime a more heinous one in the eyes of the people. That Guiteau is insane no one doubts, but they demand that his punishment shall be just as severe as that of a sane person. The plea of insanity would be but to establish a bad precedent for any office seeker who might desire to seek revenge by attempting the life of the President or any of the members of his cabinet. Let Guiteau receive the full punishment he deserves, and let it be speedy and sure; a warning to all who have become imbued with the idea that by killing the President, like the nihilists of Russia, they rid the country of a despot. Garfield's administration has been such as to win encomiums from all, both friend and foe. If it shall be brought to a sad termination remains to be seen in the victory or defeat of Garfield in the battle with death.
GUITEAU.

The Chicago Inter-Ocean, stalwart of the stalwarts, is deeply offended at the papers who call Chas. J. Guiteau a stalwart and very earnestly endeavors to lead the people to call him a socialist and his crime due to the wild talk of the socialistic extremists. But we failed to hear when or where Guiteau was ever a leader of the socialists or was present at any of their assemblies. We have only heard of the man in republican meetings and stalwart caucuses. Besides who ever heard a socialist advocate the murder of the President. It is true that their doctrines do a great deal to foster the discontent among the working classes, yet they have not yet attained to that degree of strength where they propose to run the United States to suit themselves, and to throw the republic under the rule and beneath the blood red flag of the Parisian Commune. Should they attempt so to do, the mass of the American people would rise in strenuous protest against it. As a rule the working classes of the United States are an intelligent class, able to read and think for themselves, a class who would scorn to submit themselves to the leadership of such men as Guiteau. We have not to hear of one of the alleged socialists or communists who joy in Guiteau's attempt, and the efforts of the Chicago Inter-Ocean to lead the people to believe that such is the fact, is an open, downright insult to the intelligence of the American people at large, and the working man in particular. The idea that a man in America, the land of free schools and liberal education, is not capable of forming his own estimate of Guiteau and his class of men, in spite of the frantic endeavors of the stalwart organ to lead them astray, is a libel upon the whole American people.

Guiteau prepared matter for the public eye before the attempt at the assassination of the President. Among the rest is a letter to Vice President Arthur informing him of the death of Garfield, and conveying the information that he (Arthur) is now President. Guiteau then proceeds to advise the Vice President as to the selection of his cabinet, and recommends Mr. Conkling for Secretary of State; Levi P. Morton for Secretary of the Treasury; Emory A. Storrs, of Chicago, for Attorney-General, and John A. Logan for Secretary of War. He further says in his letter that Postmaster-Gen. James is doing so well in the postoffice department that he might be retained; that the departments of the navy and interior are not of much account, and it does not make much difference whether any change is made in them or not.

And now a man says he has had a revelation commanding him to kill Vice President Arthur. If President Garfield should die and Arthur be assassinated the country would again have all the fun of electing a President.