Madness Monday: "Gunning" for Blaine

Duluth News Tribune (Duluth, MN)

July 7, 1881

"GUNNING" FOR BLAINE

On Tuesday, in Washington, another sensation was created by a strange arrival at police headquarters.  It was nearly noon when a large, peculiar looking man dressed as a farmer, and who carried a shot gun, walked up to the sergeant's desk and asked if "Jim Blaine" lived there.  Some one on the street had told him he would find Blaine there and he was anxious to see him.  He had come to town and had been looking for Blaine all night.  "What do you want of him?" he was asked.  "I have been specially ordained." was the reply, "to shoot him, and here is the gun to do it with."  The visitor was informed that Blaine would surely be in soon, and while the stranger was making up  his mind to wait for Blaine, the others made arrangements to capture the lunatic, for such he certainly was.  He gave his name as Daniel McNamara and said he was from Prince William county, Pa [sic].  An ambulance was called and he was taken to an insane asylum.

Evening Star (Washington, DC)

July 9, 1881

MCNAMARA, THE CRANK.

What They Know About Him in Napa.

San Francisco, July 9. -- A dispatch from Napa says:  McNamara, the man who was arrested in Washington for making a remark about shooting Secretary Blaine, is supposed to have been at one time confined in an insane asylum here.  From the records of the asylum it appears that Daniel McNamara, of Ireland, aged 37 years, was admitted March 29, 1876.  He was a sergeant in the first battery of the first regiment of mounted artillery, and was discharged from the army July 21st, 1874.  He was discharged from the asylum in July 1879, as improved, and it is supposed that he afterwards went to Philadelphia.