Bruce Watson: Rhetorical Analysis Of The President And The Lunatic

Nicholas Barnaba
Mr. Threston
AP U.S. History II
23 September 2013
The President and the Lunatic The President and the Lunatic is an article featured in American Heritage magazine in the spring of 2011 by Bruce Watson. Watson writes about the assassination of President James Garfield and the ensuing trial of his murderer, Charles Guiteau. At around 10:00 a.m. on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot twice in the arm and back by a disillusioned federal office seeker. Guiteau attempted the assassination in an act of “divine inspiration” in order to force Vice President Chester Arthur into presidency. He believed that once he would be acquitted, he would be elected president. With a particularly unusual hereditary and adulthood, including the abandonment of his father, death of his mother, participation in the Oneida community, and Guiteau’s believed thought that pleading insanity would be a plausible option. However, after several days of arguing between the prosecution and the defendants, Guiteau was ruled guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The author explains both sides of the debate and presents sufficient reasons for believing he was guilty and for believing he was not guilty for insanity.
Bruce Watson is not persuading or convincing the reader of any one specific point, but instead is informing the reader of the circumstances and the reasons for supporting each viewpoint.
Watson used multiple quotations that were likely from primary sources such as Guiteau’s autobiography that he wrote in jail. However, some quotes may have been taken indirectly or orally and may not have been completely accurate. Since this article is about a relatively recent time period, the quotes are more likely to be written down in a primary source and are therefore more accurate. Still, there are several generalizations in this article including the assumption that not many American citizens know the names of the presidential assassins besides John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey
Oswald. There were many highlights of this article, along with much unnecessary information. For example, while the dual progression in the happenings of Garfield and Guiteau was interesting, the background of Freud and many other “alienists” seemed like extraneous material. One of the most enthralling parts of the article was the dialogue of the cross-examination of Guiteau during the trial. The mentioning of Guiteau’s childhood and reasons for being considered insane really enhanced the drama. Also, Watson’s use of quotations was an important feature of this article and gave a crucial sense of the setting. Finally, the conclusion including the mention of Guiteau’s autopsy closed the article very well.
The President and the Lunatic was a particularly interesting article because it analyzed both sides of a very important judicial case in American history. The trial of Charles Guiteau forever changed the legal system to crack down harder on defendants pleading insanity. Bruce Watson did an excellent job presenting the information in a sufficient and concise manner. He promoted an unbiased argument for both sides of the case and justified the reasons for each claim. Overall, this article was a very interesting article and one would do well to read it if looking for more information on the subject of Charles Guiteau’s trial and President Garfield’s assassination.