Mark Twain Quotes
We have an insanity plea that would have saved Cain.
Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Speeches. Harper & Brothers, 1910.
The Prime Minister was complaining about a British high court decision that ruled that a person who had committed premeditated murder was insane at the time of the murder and therefore not criminally responsible. Many politicians complain about the same situation today. This quotation however was about the original MacNaghten defendant for whom the legal rule of insanity defense was named.
This is the oldest test in Western jurisprudence as to whether a person was insane at the time he/she committed a crime. In England, the House of Lords functions as the Supreme Court.
This is an amazingly intellectually advanced quotation. Herman Helcher, was a former pupil of hers who had become mentally deranged and tried to murder her and left her permanently injured. She not only argued against the jailing of a mentally ill person, but she recognized mental illness for what it is—a disease of the brain. This concept was not appreciated by most American politicians or constituents even into the 21st century.
This is one of the earliest views that insane people should not be criminally punished for their acts. To a great extent, Constantine and his contemporaries believed that insanity was the work of the Devil or demons and therefore one should not sympathize with the condition either.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".
