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EDWARD D. WORBELL. 103

the poor prisoner had no superior. What is insanity but the
sudden and prolonged departure from the normal standard
of character, without any known external cause?

In 1853, Worrell enters the office of Attorney Morris, near
Fort Leavenworth, to procure the aid of that gentleman in ob-
taining his honorable discharge from the army. He had a
cause which, if presented, would have procured his discharge
at once, but he conceals it; he never hinta at it; he presses
his case upon other and untenable grounds. If he had dis-
closed to the attorney his epileptic disorder—of which you
have the fullest proof—his discharge would have been sent
by return of mail. It is carefully concealed. The lawyer
gives him no hope upon the case presented. Our treaty with
Mexico had plighted the faith of the nation to the snppres-
sion of Indian hostilities. That faith was almost broken by
the inactivity of our government and the small numerical
forea of our army. Not a man could be spared. You know
the result of that interview—the touching melancholy and
despair of the young soldier, and the interest he awakened
in the counsellor, and the impression made upon his mind
then as to the insanity of his client. What would he have
thought if he had known the suppressed fact? What do you
think now in the light of the evidence, which establishes that
no epileptie can either be enlisted or remain in the army of
the United States?

Jurors, I cannot dwell on what you have heard from the
lips of his mother. Her words surpass in power all the elab-
orations of any advocate. ‘'In such moods, and many a time,
he has thrown his arms around me and implored my forgive-
ness for what he could not help, and then fall on his knees by
my side and pray for strength from God to resiat such strange
impulses.’ Poor young man, This disorder of the mind is
inherited. It is on both sides. His mother is a Ringold; the
Ringolds and Worrells are familiar with insanity. Suicide
and the lunatic asylum make a part of the history of both
‘houses, .

His education has not been neglected; he was and is an only
child—the child of enlightened, refined, pious parents. They

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