a
traitor to the men that made him, and thereby imperilled the life of
the Republic." Again he says: "Ingratitude is the basest of crimes. That
the President under the manipulation of the Secretary of State has been
guilty of the basest ingratitude to the Stalwarts, admits of no denial.
The express purpose of the President has been to crush Senator Grant and
Senator Conkling, and thereby open the way for his renomination in 1884.
In the President's madness he has wrecked the once grand old Republican
Party, and _for this he dies_.--This is not murder. It is a political
necessity. It will make my friend, Arthur, President, and save the
Republic," etc.

When instructing the jury, Judge Cox told them clearly that, if they
found, from all the testimony presented, that the culprit had been led
to commit the murder by an insane delusion, they were to acquit him; but
that reasoning one's self into an opinion or conviction was not acting
upon an insane delusion. "When men reason," he said, "the law requires
them to reason correctly, as far as their practical duties are
concerned. When they have the capacity to distinguish between right and
wrong, they are bound to do it. Opinions, properly so called, that is,
beliefs resulting from reasoning, reflection, or examination of
evidence, afford no protection against the penal consequences of
crime." On this precise point of the question then the verdict was to
depend.

But to understand this matter thoroughly there remains one more
important point to notice in the instructions of Judge Cox. It relates
to the question on whom rests the burden of proof regarding the
existence of insanity in the culprit. Is the prosecution bound to prove
that insanity did not influence the crime? Or is the defence to prove
that it did? And, in case neither party can prove its point to a
certainty, so that the jury remains in doubt as to the existence or the
influence of insanity in the crime, is the doubt to weigh in favor of
the culprit or against him? The judge, after a careful exposition of the
conflicting views on this subject by different courts, and after
weighing their respective claims, favors the opinion which holds that
"the sanity of the accused is just as much a part of the case of the
prosecution as the homicide itself, and just as much an element in the
crime of murder, the only difference being that, as the law presumes
every one to be sane, it is not necessary for the government to pro