, to the very
spot where the horse had been tied, and that he scorned to touch a
horse on his whole journey. He wanted no horse. He stole no horse.
That was no motive. There has been no motive shown. Would a criminal
lead the officers of the law to the very spot where he had committed
his crime? Had this been theft, or murder, would this man have taken
any one directly and unhesitatingly to that spot? I ask you this.

"To be subject to the law, as you very well know, a man must be morally
responsible. He must know right and wrong. Even the savage Indians
admit this principle of justice. They say that the man of unsound mind
is touched by the hand of the Great Spirit. Shall we be less merciful
than they? Look at this smiling giant before you. He has been touched
by the hand of the Almighty. God has punished him enough.

"I shall show to you that when this man was a child he was struck a
severe blow upon the head, and that since that time he has never been
of sound mind, his brain never recovering from that shock, a blow which
actually broke in a portion of his skull. Since that time he has had
recurrent times of violent insanity, with alternating spells of what
seems a semi-idiocy. This man's mind never grew. In some ways his
animal senses are keen to a remarkable degree, but of reason he has
little or none. He can not tell you why he does a thing, or what will
happen provided that he does thus or so. This I shall prove to you.

"I therefore submit to you, your Honour, and to you, gentlemen of the
jury, two distinct lines of defence which do not conflict, and which
are therefore valid under the law. We deny that any murder has been
committed, that any motive for murder has been shown, that any body of
the crime has been produced. And alternatively we submit that the
prisoner at the bar is a man of unsound mind and known to be such, not
responsible for his acts, and not in any wise amenable to the capital
features of the law. I ask you, gentlemen of the jury, you who hold
this man's life in your hands, are you going to hang a man for murder
when it is not shown a murder has been done? And would you hang a man
who is more ignorant than a child of right and wrong? Is that fair
play? Gentlemen, we are all here together, and one of us is as good as
another. Our ambitions are the same. We stand here together for the
best interests of this growing country--this country whose first word
has always bee