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11 ' For iho Boone County Pioneer? '1 i Insanity as a Plea for Murder.Every good citizen, desiring tlie . I welfare of his country, and the im-.[partial administration of justice, ‘ must be sorely pained with the ,; manner in which some of our dis-rJ tinguished legal tribunals have re--j eentlv disposed of certain criini* - nals arraigned before them for murder. And as a fair type of several others, I will select the case of the State vs Daugherty, recently tried and acquitted at Tipton, on the charge of murdering Van Horny i about one year ago. Daughertywas* acquitted on the plea of insanity. In the last few years the plea ot insanity lias become very convenient, and quite successful, too,in procuring the acquittal of criminals who would, perhaps, otherwise have been convicted. I do not now sav whether a man should or shouldnearly all of the brave young niesi who marched to the field in defense of their country, were fearfully insane. You could scarcely find a young man who had not the pictures of a fond mother, and loved sisters, and who was as much attached to his home and sisters as Daugherty was to his. But were any of them declared insane on that account? For a man who loved his sisters so devotedly as Daugherty is represented to have done, I think he took it very coolly when his mother told him, at Inditnapolis, that Van Horn had been slandering iiis sister. lie did not even' show interest enough iirthc state- I ment to ask the nature of the slan-' dor until the next day. He don't! seem to have been wrought up to a very high pitch ol fury on lirst hearing that his sister had beeni Toj .JI tioi j tioJI is a j am i pa? i proIm|c,lojlfrosinslandered. And the only changestinonlitS3 l\viPi\Y1I'll':i I OCfrom his apparent unconcern about j not be convicted, and visited with the statement arc those spoken ofirejust an hour before he committed 1 th the murderous act, when his moth- ki er told him the nature of the slan- ':1'1-le10*dt.v-inu*illlelgorlieOinsbeer10-the severest penalties of the law, for killing another man who has slandered his sister, but 1 do solemnly protest against the iniser-g able plea of insanity. If a brother is idefends the virtue of his sister by | killing her slanderer, let him be acquitted because the sense of the community approves his act, and leave out the senseless, groundless plea of insanity. And for the dignity and honor of the Medical Profession, I hope no physicians of respectability will ever again pro* 01 * nounec any person insane upon so ,lj1 flimsy a piece of testimony as is l( presented in the hypothetical case ;n | upon which they declared Daughterly insane when he did (he act. ,e Who ever heard of a case of true 'insanity before, just like that of Lieut. Daugherty? Would any physicians dare send a person to the Hospital for Insane, upon the same symptoms on which they declared Daugherty to be insane I have read with some care the principal evidence in the Daugh-jorty trial, as reported in the papers, together with the hypothetical case put to the doctors, and their answers, and had I been an expert, I would have said then, as I say now, that I believe Daugherty I was just as sane when he killed -Van Horn as he ever was in all his; life.There is not, in my huinblo opinion, a shadow of evidence to the : contrary; and while I entertain the highest respect for those of my i professional brethren who (bought j differently, I confess that it is a matter of astonishment to me how i and by what process of reasoning they managed to reach such an un-j warrantable conclusion.Tito attorneys presented (o the medical experts an hypothetical , case, of which the following is an ; extract, the whole case being too . lengthv to copy in full:Suppose it be shown that thede-j feiidant had all his lifetime been a •good boy, fondly attached to his jiiomc; that while in the army, be often spoke with keenest scnsibiliiy of his regard for hiss sisters, keeping their pictures with him, and longing to see them; that he had come home, met his mother at Indianapolis, and there barely learned from her that his sister had been slandered by Van Horn; that nothing more was said about the nature of the tdander until the next day, .Nov. IS, lbO'J, about one o’clock p. in., when lie asked his mother what Van Horn had said about his sister, and she told him he had said one ol the girls had had a negro young one; that ho then changed color, becoming lirst pale then red in the face, his eyes protruding; that he left the house then, walked up town to flic Sherman House, found Van Horn, and told him lie had been slandering his sister, and must retract or tako the consequences; that when Van Horn said he had not slandered his sister and had nothing to take back, Daugherty reached for his pistol, and shot andder. Then he changed color, Ac., and showed the common signs of anger. But has it come to pass that every person who gets mad is to be adjudged insane? As soon as his mother told him the nature of the slander, Daugherty straightway left the house, walked quietly up to the Sherman House, found Van Ilorn ami shot him dead.Now, in every step and act, Daugherty acted the part of a perfectly sane man. There was a perfect adaptation of means to ends. The whole thing was done in a quiet, business-like way. Iiis sister had | been slandered; his anger was lt;aroused, and lie resolved on terrible i redress. Taylor, in his jurispru-j deuce, says that “ violence of tern- j per must not be taken as a proof of insanity;'’ and that '‘the great fca-lure of insanity is ehamje of char- \ ncter.n Was Daugherty’s character at all changed ?Compare the symptoms ofiusani-ly in Dougherty's case as set up iu that hypothesis, with those.ol real insanity as described by Dr. Wood:**Thc patient talks loudly, rapid-incoherent ly; flies from one top: Ithnu\vwCoCMstly, io toshorn one another, and linishes none; * s * strips himself naked and even bites Iiis own flesh in his insane furv. Broken thoughts chase one anotner with fierce hasteI isthrough his brain,igiand malice.fury.hatred and revenge struggle for tin* mastery in his luted features.'’In cases like Dougherty’s, lawi! ri' • ~us11-byesus.ofng:a-»u-deayterck•iprietoofonti-r.v,edhele,c*nfor:crghtyiretlyiYip-t-Sri-ipkilled Van Ilorn. MVIiat is your judgment as to his sanity at the time lie did the act?”And to this question, based upon the above hypothesis, 1 blush to say that two of our respected physicians did dcclaio they believed him iult;sanc ul lhe time he did the act.Just at that lime, not ten minutesbefore nor ten after! Who ever before heard of so short-lived insanity. Those doctors must have taken it “ on the wing,” for it was J not settled long enough fur any one 3w else lo discover its presence, in : But let us see what there is in thei.v-i hypothesis, it represents Daugh-! erty as having been warmly attached to I is home and his sisters. Is that an evidence ofinsnnitv ? That he cherished their pictures, and longed to sec them. Js that an evi-voVOrddeuce of insanity! If to. thenvers talk much about homicidal impulse, insane impulse, homicidal monomania, and impulsive insanity Ac. Taylor defines homicidal mo-nomania lobe‘*a state of partial in- j sanity, accompanied by an impulse: to the perpetration of murder; an • impulse under which persons will1 destroy those to whom they arc most fondly attached.’’One of the prominent and char-j aeterislic differences between real; and feigned homicidal insanity is,jthat in the former, persons arc just ias liable to kill their most cherish- ; ed friends as their enemies,and that too, without any apparent motive . whatever,while in ilie latter, they always kill some one who has done j them or their friends an injury. In stead of killing a sister,for instance, as the true homicidal monomaniac | would be likely to do, they kill some one in //lt;/'/use ol' that sister,!which shows a sane stale of mind, rather than otherwise. Anger is one of the affective faculties in our moral nature, as contradistinguished from the intellcclu-.il part of our being, and is. a natural passion. Prof. Dunglison says:“Hatred and vongence are the natural and impetuous desire of injuring those that injure us.”To feel anger, and resentment when our rights, or those of a friend have been invaded, is quite a ra-1tional feeling There is no evidence in it, but quite the roof insanity verse.The following cases will servo (o illustrate the course of real homicidal monomania :A father, industrious and affectionate, fell into reversed circumstances, which so weighed upon his j s mind that ho resolved to deto destroy his children to save them from suffering. Accordingly, he strangled all four of them in one night. He made no effort to escape; made no defense at all; hut several physicians came forward and deposed • hat he was insane. No sane man would do (Jie like.(TO III: CO.VIINTKO.}' Various papers the ladies to wear Ilad’nl thov better ware advising suspenders, (it until theladies adopt a costume which re-lt;1jires the aforesaid article? Besides. what would •ay!old bachelors
Newspaper Details
Lebanon Boone County Pioneer
Lebanon, Indiana, US
Fri, Dec 09, 1870
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Connie D.
WA, USA 05 Aug 2017
Other Publications Near Lebanon, Indiana
The Boone County Ledger
Lebanon Boone County Pioneer
Lebanon Daily Reporter
Lebanon Daily Herald
Lebanon Patriot
