The first presidential assassination attempt.

On Saturday, January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson accompanied by his Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, and the Secretaries of Treasury and Navy, entered the portico of the Capitol. President Jackson had just attended the funeral service for Representative Warren B. Davis of South Carolina. Suddenly a man in the crowd pulled a pistol from beneath his coat, extended his arm, and levelled the pistol at Jackson's chest from a distance of 12 feet. The percussion cap exploded with a noise so great that several witnesses supposed the pistol had fired. The assassin immediately dropped the pistol from his right hand, and taking another already cocked from his left, presented and fired it at the President who had raised his walking stick and was rushing upon his attacker. The cap exploded but also failed to communicate to the charge.· An examination of the pistols in open court found each to contain a full charge of powder and a ball. 2 Later that day, other percussion caps from the prisoner's shop were placed on the tube and fired. The ball passed through an inch plank at a distance of five or six yards and lodged on the opposite side of the enclosure, a distance of another six or seven yards. Using powder found in the prisoner's possession, each of the pistols was reloaded and fired several times. The discharge took effect on every trial. 3 No satisfactory explanation, other than the dampness of weather (offered by the defendant) or the intervention of Providence (offered by the Prosecutor) was found. 4 Richard Lawrence, a housepainter of uncertain age (stated to be 35 but some said 28), thus became the first person accused of an attempt on the life of a U.S. President. His arrest, confinement, and subsequent trial reflect the prevailing public and medical attitudes toward mental illness and the legal practices of early nineteenth century America with regard to the insanity defense. Although the McNaghten rule was quickly adopted in this country following its introduction in 1843 by the English judges, the insanity defense had already shown signs of evolution from the extreme "wild beast" test and standards, which required total, raving lunacy as an excuse from criminal responsibility. This article explores this evolution and those questions upon which psychiatry and law interface: competence to stand trial, insanity defense standards, and expert testimony in the preMcNaghten period. Upon his arrest, Lawrence was immediately taken before Judge William Cranch.s Judge Cranch was a Federalist, a nephew of former President John Adams, and perhaps best known by legal librarians as Reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court Reports. 6.7 Judge Cranch ruled that since there was no actual battery (in those days a miss was as good as a mile), the assault did not fall under the recently passed criminal statutes of 1831. It was merely a misdemeanor under the common law, a bailable offense. 9