The Mental status of Czolgosz

Walter Channing

1902 - Assassins - 46 pages

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User Review -

If you are into source materials on Czolgosz, these are good and comprehensive based , based on interviews with the family done by Channing's associate Dr. Briggs. These two are Progressives, meaning their perspective is different on the sanity of the assassin than the prosecution and defense during the trial. Actually, the defense team, staunchly Republican, both retired jurists, appear ready to accept the assassin's admission that he is sane and guilty, he knew what he did and he is ready to die for it. The prosecution, more democratic in makeup, were more worried that the posibility of Czolgosz being driving insane by modern industrial life would arise. This angle is explored by Channing. Although his conclusions do not go that far, he does conclude that the defendant was deluded and thus insane.
One interesting result of Brigg's interviews is uncovering Czolgosz's narcotic usage. While Channing does not note it, why should he? Morphine and other forms of narcotics were a common component of most remedies of the day (the good ones anyway), and since Czolgosz's breakdown in '97-'98, those interviewed say he had become "dreamy" and was never without a "bottle of pills." Some cocaine use cocaine use (to treat catarrhal), complete with a little machine for self administration. (If you have done any study of turn of the century drug use, this rings bells.) His stepmother refers to a phase where he grew plants, dried the leaves in the oven, and smoked them. So does this contribute to his delusions, as he sits alone in his little room reading anarchist literature and dreaming of Emma Goldman? 

Contents

• Section 1: 3
• Section 2: 15
• Section 3: 22
• Section 4: 24

Popular passages

Page 23 - After I shot twice they knocked me down and trampled on me. Somebody hit me in the face. I said to the officer that brought me down, ' I done my duty.' I don't believe in voting; it is against my principles. I am an anarchist. I don't believe in marriage. I believe in free love. I fully understood what I was doing when I shot the President. I realized that I was sacrificing my life. I am willing to take the consequences.

Page 22 - I don't believe in the republican form of government and I don't believe we should have any rulers. It is right to kill them. I had that idea when I shot the President, and that is why I was there. I planned killing the President three or four days ago, after I came to Buffalo.

Page 22 - Falls; it was my plan from the beginning to shoot him at the Temple. I read in the paper that he would have a public reception. I know other men who believe what I do, that it would be a good thing to kill the President and to have no rulers. I have heard that at the meetings in public halls. I heard quite a lot of people talk like that.

Page 25 - McKinley was going around the country shouting prosperity when there was no prosperity for the poor man. I am not afraid to die. We all have to die sometime.

Page 43 - Such a monstrous conception and impulse as the wanton murder of the President of the United States, arising in the mind of so insignificant a citizen, without his being either insane or degenerate could be nothing short of a miracle, for the reason that we require like causes to explain like results. To assume that he was sane, is to assume that he did a sane act, ie, one based upon facts and for a rational purpose. . . . Insane Egotism, eg, his reason for killing the President was "I done my duty;...

Page 19 - ... years of age. Up to the present he has made his appearance in Chicago and Cleveland. In the former place he remained but a short time, while in Cleveland he disappeared when the comrades had confirmed themselves of his identity and were on the point of exposing him. His demeanor is of the usual sort, pretending to be greatly interested in the cause, asking for names or soliciting aid for acts of contemplated violence.

Page 8 - look, it is just the same as a tree that commences dying; you can see it isn't going to live long.

Page 25 - I had no use for priests. My family are all Catholics and used to go to church until the hard times of 1893. We had been taught by the priests that if we would pray God would help us along, but it did no good; it didn't help us and we stopped going to church at that time.

Page 19 - He is well dressed, of medium height, rather narrow shoulders, blond and about 25 years of age. Up to the present he has made his appearance in Chicago and Cleveland. In the former place he remained but a short time, while in Cleveland he disappeared when the comrades had confirmed themselves of his identity and were on the point of exposing him. His...

Page 46 - While in this physical and mental condition of sickliness and abnormality, it is probable that he conceived the idea of performing some great act for the benefit of the common and working people.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Mental status of Czolgosz; Pamphlets in American history: Biography
• Author: Walter Channing
• Published: 1902
• Length: 46 pages