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THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN AND ITS EXPIATION

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LiMirsD
LONDON • BOMBAY ¦ CALCtTTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO

THE ASSASSINATION OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
AND ITS EXPIATION

BY
DAVID MILLER DEWITT
author of "the impeachment and thial of president johnson''

ii3eto gotfe
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1909
All rights reserved

CoPYSiGHT, igog
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY

Setup and electrotyped. Printed January. 1909

THK MASON-HENRY pebss
SYBAOUSE, KHW YOEK

TO GEORGE CHANDLER, M.D.
whose skill alone rendered the work possi
ble and whose sagacity in the darkest
hour foretold its completion, this book is
gratefully dedicated.

PEEFACE
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a crime
so revolting, so unprovoked and from every point of
view so gratuitous and maleficent that it has found no
open, and scarcely a secret, apologist even amongst
the public enemies of the illustrious victim. The
banded slayers of "the mightiest Julius" have found
defenders down to the present day. The single-handed
assassins of William the Silent and of the Great
Henry of France — each was actuated by fanatical
devotion to a creed, many of the votaries of which
regarded them as but instruments in the hand of an
insulted Deity. But neither resistance to tyrants nor
obedience to God ever has been pleaded in extenuation
of the taking-off of this tribune of the plain people,
"with malice toward none, with charity for all."
So world-shocking an event, with its train of
dramatic incidents, should not be left "compassed
murkily about" by "the din and dust" of popular
fury raised by an overwhelming calamity to the nation.
No circumstance should remain doubtful, no detail
obscure. Every stroke of the brush should be true
to nature and fact; the lights and shades evenly dis
tributed; and every unverified tradition traced to its
source. There should be no ambiguity about the
lessons to be deduced ; and if among those drawn into
the whirlpool set up by so sudden a subversion of the

viii PREFACE
current of human affairs, there were any that suffered
an unjust doom, their innocence should be made clear
beyond further question.
To do this thoroughly, however, seems on first view
to be a labor like the cleansing of the Augean stables
and call for another Hercules. The swarms of legends,
myths, fables and even downright lies that have set
tled around the central theme are well-nigh impene
trable, and were it not for one feature of the case, to
undertake such a task would be idle as well as fool
hardy. That exceptional feature is that every scene of
every act in the awful tragedy — the most trivial as well
as the most momentous — has been the subject-matter
of sworn testimony before three different tribunals
engaged in rigorous pursuit of the facts: testimony
subjected to examination, direct and cross, on the part
of both sides of the particular issue joined, every item
of which is a matter of official record. To sift that
testimony with an impartial hand and at the same
time exclude every statement, narrative, sensational
story, whether from history, biography, memoir,
diary, magazine or newspaper, for which chapter and
verse out of that three-fold record are not forth
coming: — by this method and by this method alone,
the truth may possibly emerge from the mass of false
hood under which it lies buried.
This, at all events, is the method adopted in the
preparation of the following work ; and the facts, thus
ascertained, are for the most part left to speak for
themselves.

PEEFACE ix
N.B. — The authorities above alluded to are the
Conspiracy Trial (Poore's edition and the official
report of Pitman), cited under the letters C. T.; the
Trial of John H. Surratt (official), cited under the
letters S. T., and the Impeachment Investigation of
1867, cited as Imp. Inv.

CONTENTS CHAPTER I
PAGK
The Plot to Capture  ,, 1
CHAPTER II
The Assassination  ,.,  38
CHAPTER III
The Reign of Terror— Capture and Death of Booth 55
CHAPTER IV
The Conspiracy Trial  92
CHAPTER V
The Findings, Sentences and Execution  128
CHAPTER VI
The Question of Jurisdiction  142
CHAPTER VII
The Dwindling of the "Great Conspiracy"  165
CHAPTER VIII
The Trial of John H. Surratt  184
CHAPTER IX
The Petition for Commutation  221
L'Envoy  256
Appendix  259
Index  _._•••-  296

THE ASSASSINATION OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

CHAPTER I
The Plot to Captijeb
On the sixth day of July, 1821, at Richmond, Vir
ginia, an actor bearing the name of Junius Brutus
Booth made his first public appearance in the United
States. Born in London in 1796, at the age of seven
teen he took to the stage, joining a company strolling in
the provinces which for one season varied its customary
tour by a voyage to the Low Countries. He had hardly
reached his majority before the celebrity won by his
impersonation of Eichard III brought him an invita
tion from the management of Covent Garden theatre
to appear in the metropolis in competition with Edmund
Kean — then, at the height of his fame, playing that
character at Drury Lane, and whom, it was said, "in
figure, voice and manner Booth so closely resembled
that he might be taken for his twin brother." So satis
factory was the experiment that negotiations were set
on foot for a steady engagement, in the midst of which
the yoimg actor was beguiled into the acceptance of
an offer from the rival establishment to play lago to
Kean's Othello by the personal solicitations of the
1 (1)

2 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAEAM LINCOLN
great tragedian himself. The announcement of this
double performance packed Old Drury from pit to
dome, Kean acting "as he never acted before" and his
associate "fairly dividing the crown and keeping up
the ball completely between them"; but, the second
night, Booth, on the ground that "every character he
was desirous or capable of playing was already in
possession," declined to appear and incontinently went
back to Richard III at Covent Garden, where at his
reappearance the friends of Kean raised a tumult so
deafening that for a few nights his acting was mere
dumb show ; and it was only by the persistent support
of the managers that he was able to complete his
engagement. Though he appeared the next two sea
sons at the same theatre — on one occasion playing
Lear in rivalry with his former competitor, and, at the
other house, on the eve of Kean 's departure for Amer
ica, joining him in a round of characters — the indigni
ties heaped upon him at the start blighted his career
in his native land and led to his self-expatriation.
From his earliest boyhood the right of every people to
self-government was the favored topic of the family
hearth. His paternal grandmother was a relative of
Wilkes. Richard Booth, his father, in his youth ran
away from home to solicit from Arthur Lee, the agent
of the rebellious colonies at Paris, a commission in
their army ; a picture of Washington hung on the par
lor wall, to which every spectator was expected to take
off his hat. He named one son Junius Brutus and
another Algernon Sidney, wrote pamphlets advocating
manhood suffrage and annual parliaments, thereby

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 3
incurring an unpopularity which seriously interfered
with his success as a member of the bar. Bred in such
a home atmosphere, the son looked forward to a much
more enthusiastic welcome in the New World, where
democratic ideas were the citizen's daily food, than he
had experienced in the old country, where they were as
yet so largely at a discount. Accordingly, shortly after
his marriage, which was solemnized in London in
January, 1821, he sailed with his bride for America,
stopping for several weeks in Madeira and landing at
Norfolk on the last day of June.*
The reception he met with must have exceeded his
most sanguine expectations. From his very first
appearance he took the play-going public by storm.
As the impersonator of such characters as Richard and
Sir Giles Overreach, he was pronounced inimitable by
the stars of the stage, and among the votaries of the
theatre his name became a household word. His act
ing of Sir Giles, one of the best judges states, "was
something to be remembered. During the last scene
Booth's face . . . had a look of an uncaged tiger. His
eyes flashed and seemed to snap with fire ; his nostrils
dilated ; his cheeks appeared to quiver ; his half -opened
mouth with its thin lips pressed tightly against the
white teeth, made a picture of anger fearful to look
upon. . . . There was no applause the night I speak
of; the acting was so intense and so natural that the
mimic scene seemed really to have happened."! So
* See Note I to this chapter in Appendix.
t ' ' Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson, ' ' Century Magazine for Jan
uary, 1890.

4 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
successful was he that but a year after his arrival he
bought a farm near Belair, about twenty-five miles
northwest of Baltimore, where with his wife and infant
child — born in Charleston in December — and with his
father whom he sent for from London — in a log-cabin
"plastered and whitewashed," "with window sashes
and shutters and doors painted red," standing in a
clearing of the forest, he set up his household gods.
Here all his other children — nine in number — ^were
born. He, himself, led the wandering life incident to
his profession; acting in all the principal cities and
towns, always to enraptured audiences. Twice he
visited England — once in 1825 and again in 1837-8 —
taking his family with him. During his last ten years
he spent a considerable portion of his time at home — at
his residence in Baltimore in the winter and at his
woodland farm in the summer. In the spring of 1852
he went to California, his son Edwin, whom he took
with him, playing as his support in San Francisco and
Sacramento; and he returned alone overland through
Mexico to New Orleans, in which city he made his last
appearance in November. Taking passage thence in a
steamboat bound for Cincinnati, he died on the voyage
the last day of that month, aged fifty-six years.
His career, however, so bright from a professional
point of view, was marred by personal eccentricities
that at times passed the bounds of sanity. Even in his
youth, says his daughter, "we occasionally trace those
slight aberrations of mind which mark that exquisite
turning-point between genius and madness" and which
"seemed to increase in strength and frequency with

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 5
maturer years." His most pressing engagements
were at the mercy of these periodical attacks. He
would disappear suddenly, leaving the manager and
his fellow-actors in the lurch, and be found wandering
in remote streets, or in the woods, or amid snow and
ice. Again, he would demean himself so strangely that
the members of the company were afraid to play with
him and the manager had no alternative but to bar him
from the stage. Once, in the last scene of Richard III,
seized with an irrational aversion to the actor person
ating Richmond, he refused to succumb, keeping up the
fight furiously in earnest until driven off the scene by
the superior skill of his adversary. Sailing south in
1838, when nearing the spot where the elder Conway
jumped overboard, he rushed up on deck and, ex
claiming, "I have a message for Conway," threw
himself into the sea and was rescued with difficulty.
If he were anywhere within reach of his family when
he felt the oncoming horror, he would make for home
where his faithful wife would nurse him through his
period of torture. So far from these attacks being
caused by prolonged dissipation, to which they were
often attributed, his daughter affirms that in the house
hold they were looked upon "with awe and reverence" ;
on one occasion the loss of two children, one close after
the other, so prostrated the absent father as to cut
short a pending engagement and lead him at the
moment to forswear the stage. Many were "the singu
lar phases" this besetting affliction assumed. He was
a rigid vegetarian, holding all animal life sacred. On
his farm the killing of any member of the brute crea-

6 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
tion, "from the partridge to the black snake and wild
boar," was sedulously interdicted. Once upon a time,
when playing in a western town, he sent a note to a
clergyman inquiring where he could buy a lot in which
to inter some friends recently deceased. The clergy
man, as he himself relates, called on the actor who,
after entrancing his auditor by reading Coleridge's
Ancient Mariner, Byron's epitaph on his dog and
Shelley's note to Queen Mab against the use of animal
food, inquired: "Would you like to look at the
remains?" and leading him into the next room, knelt
down and moaned over a bushelful of wild pigeons wel
tering in their blood. At the moment the astonished
man of God suspected he was being made fun of ; but
he subsequently learned that the grief he witnessed
was genuine indeed, the mourner buying a lot and, with
coffin, hearse and funeral, burying the birds.* Though
a devout man he was singularly indiscriminate in his
choice of creeds. He read and admired the Koran;
texts from the Old Testament were at his tongue's end ;
in the synagogue, joining in the worship, as he was
able to do, in Hebrew, he was taken for a Jew ; because
of his advocacy of their more distinctive tenets the
Catholics claimed him for their own ; and he was a fre
quent and a praying attendant at a floating "Sailor's
Bethel."! Of this wayward genius, John Wilkes Booth was
the "well-beloved, bright boy Absalom." He was but
thirteen years of age on the death of his father, and his
* Atlantic Monthly, September, 1861 ; quoted in Life.
t See Life, cited in Note I, Appendix.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 7
two elder brothers had long since deserted the paternal
nest in the heart of the forest for their father's profes
sion, a fondness and adaptability for which all the
children of whom we have any information appear to
have inherited. Edwin relates that he "seldom saw
him since early boyhood" when he was considered a
"good-hearted, harmless, wild-brained boy" — "a rat-
tlepated fellow, full of quixotic notions"; he "would
charge on horseback through the woods on the Mary
land farm, spouting heroic speeches, with a lance given
father by one of Taylor's soldiers."* For four years
he clung to his widowed mother whom he devotedly
loved, and then he followed his brothers into the outer
world — serving his apprenticeship with John S. Clarke
who married his sister and conducted a theatre in
Philadelphia. The John Brown raid occurred while
he was playing an engagement at Richmond, and he
instantly shouldered a musket, marched to the scene
of hostilities, stood guard around the scaffold when the
old man was himg, and remained with his regiment un
til the last of the raiders expiated their common offence.
This self-devotion to avenge the desecrated soil of the
Old Dominion secured for the actor on his reappear
ance a welcome from the slaveholding section so enthu
siastic as to disarm criticism and originate the saying
that while Junius Brutus held the extreme West and
Edwin the North, Wilkes held the South for his posses
sion. The commencement of the Civil War, however,
shut him out of the limits of the new born Conf ederacy^
confining his engagements to the theatres at Baltimore
* Mecollections of Edwin Booth (N. Y. Century Co.), p. 227.

8 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
and Washington, varied by an occasional tour in a
Northern state ; so that in the winter of 1863-4, dis
satisfied with his professional prospects, he put six
thousand dollars of the money he had amassed into oil
lands in western Pennsylvania and employed an agent
to look after his interest on the spot, while he himself
passed the summer, now at home with his mother, now
visiting the oil works (acting on the journeys where
opportunity offered), and now staying with his broth
ers in New York: Junius, at present, sojourning in
that city and Edwin having undertaken the manage
ment of the Winter Garden theatre.*
At this date Booth was but twenty-five years old. As
described by one who knew him from boyhood, he was
above the ordinary height, in form very graceful, in
face remarkably handsome, with glossy black hair,
moustache but no whiskers, complexion rather dark
but pallid, hands noticeably large and white. Bold and
fearless, one of the best gymnasts in the country, an
excellent swordsman and noted for his extraordinary
leaps on the stage; in manner peculiarly fascinating,
very interesting in conversation, careful in dress and
clean in person.! Gifted with a special aptitude for
command, he possessed a rare power of attracting
to himself persons of inferior station. The absence
of all mental discipline, save that to which he was
necessarily subjected in the practice of his art, gave
full play to an inherited predisposition, especially
* Note II in Appendix as to alleged Poison Plot. C. T., Testimony
of Symonds, Poore, Vol. I, 39; E. Booth's Eec, sup.
t C. T., Poore, Vol. II, 527, 531-2; S. T., 547, testimony of J. T. Ford.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 9
when the course of affairs did not run smooth, to fall
into fits of the blackest melancholy or sullen rage.
Having an overweening conceit of his own abilities he
waxed impatient under opposition and domineering
towards suspected rivals ; and in these moods was liable
to break out in some deed of startling eccentricity.
His origin, temperament, bringing-up and earlier
associations being what they were, it was a matter of
course that he threw his whole soul into the Southern
cause. His own state, at the recent presidential elec
tion, out of a total vote of 92,500, cast but 2,300 for the
Lincoln ticket and would have followed Virginia had
not the Potomac flowed between and the capitol pinned
her to the Union with a ponderosity against which an
ordinance of secession, however valid as matter of
law, was a nullity as a matter of fact. Through the
streets of Baltimore and Washington, on their way to
battle against the soldiers of secession, marched the
soldiers of the Union to the strains of the "Star
Spangled Banner"; while along the sidewalks saun
tered the pseudo-secessionist humming to himself
"The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my
Maryland," and revolving in his heated brain some
signal stroke which peradventure might call back the
on-rushing dogs of war.
Of such home-staying champions. Booth was an ex
treme specimen. Some thought him insane on the one
absorbing topic. He warned his brother that Lincoln,
if reelected, would become "King of America." He
was deterred, so he said, from joining the Confederacy
only by a promise made to his mother "to keep out of

10 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the quarrel," the one thing he could not do. For the
first two years, indeed, the victorious Confederacy
needed no help from him. His impatient spirit could
exult over the rout at Bull Run, the slaughter before
Fredericksburg and the discomfiture at Chancellors-
ville. But Gettysburg filled the horizon of his hopes
with blackness, and the gathering of Grant's mighty
host for the final onset seemed to his distracted soul a
personal challenge to the field. The people who had wel
comed him with open arms were being slowly crushed
to earth. The theatres — all were closed ; the auditorium
empty ; the curtain down ; his former patrons treading
the stage where the fighting, the carnage and the death
struggle were only too real. His mimic "occupation"
was "gone" indeed. Some part in the tremendous
tragedy he felt he must play. The unobtrusive role of
a common soldier seemed miserably inadequate to his
dream of glory. The canine appetite for distinction
born in him and fed by the study of the heroes of the
melodrama, nothing could appease short of some deed
of unexampled daring that would signalize his entrance
and his exit for all coming time. At the culminat
ing moment he must fill the entire stage. Upon him
alone must centre the wonder of contemporaries and
the plaudits of posterity. As was well said of him, he
"aspired to be the Brutus in real life that he had been
and seen on the boards."*
Grant's order of April, 1864, that not another Con
federate prisoner should be exchanged sounded the call
for which the actor was languishing in the side-scenes.
* Argument of W. S. Cox in C. T., Pitman, 339.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 11
The Confederacy was in sore need of soldiers. The
Northern prisons were overcrowded — more than 23,-
000 able-bodied men wasting their strength away in
confinement, while Union soldiers in Libby, at Belle
Isle and Andersonville were starving because of the
inability of the proper authorities to furnish sufficient
food. In vain did the insurgent government yield
every question in dispute. Grant was not to be moved :
"If we liberate all prisoners," he declared, "we'll have
to fight until the South is exterminated." "If we hold
those caught they are no more than dead men." "It
is hard on our men, but it is humanity to those left in
the ranks."! To free the captives expedition after expe
dition had been organized by the Confederate agents
in Canada, but without success. Here was a Gordian
knot fit for a stage Alexander to cut asunder with the
sword. To seize the commander-in-chief of the armies
of the North, carry him across the Potomac and deliver
him over to the Confederates would at once repeal the
iron-bound order, throw open the prison doors, pour
new life into a failing cause, bring about a cessation of
hostilities and, eventually perhaps, peace with honor.
This project, mad though it essentially was, combined
the three conditions calculated to appeal most power
fully to the eccentric temperament of its deviser. It
was melodramatic in the highest degree; in its execu
tion he would stand the one central figure ; and, to an
imagination steeped in the atmosphere of the theatre
it was certain of success. From the point of view of
this dainty athlete of the stage, the Railsplitter of the
tEhodes' History of the United States, Vol. V, 320, 485-7, 499, 500.

12 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
West would be an easy victim. His uncouth aspect,
his awkward movements, his story-telling habit shocked
the actor's ideal of a ruler of men. His midnight flight
through Baltimore in disguise, his ever-present care
for the safety of the capital, his summons to the slaves
to rise for their freedom were so many proofs that he
would submit quietly to be kidnapped. Indeed, so un
bounded was the assurance of this bold spirit in the
feasibility of his scheme that at one step in its progress
he did not hesitate to include the Secretary of State,
the Secretary of War and the General of the Army as
a supernumerary group about the principal captive.
Without delay he began to prepare for action. As
early as August, 1864, he enlisted his first recruits,
two former schoolmates of his — Samuel Arnold and
Michael O'Laughlin — ^who having served two years in
the Confederate army, had just returned to their re
spective homes in Baltimore, and were "engaged" to
undertake "the enterprise."* He then went to the oil
regions, divested himself of his holdings there and
departed for Canada, reaching Montreal early in
October. Here he was at the headquarters of the Con
federate agents whose mission it was, with bands
composed of escaped Confederate prisoners, refugees
from the seceded states and volunteers from all quar
ters, to wage an irregular warfare along the border.
Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Secretary of the In
terior in President Buchanan's cabinet, and Clement
C. Clay, Jr., a senator of the United States from Ala-
*See Note III in Appendix, and C. T., Poore, Vol. II, 147, 225;
Pitman, 223, 236-240.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 13
bama at the time of the secession of that state, were the
chiefs in authority, recognized and supported by the
government at Richmond, under whom were gathered
such men as Beverly Tucker of Virginia and George N.
Sanders of New York. At the time of Booth's arrival,
this coterie was absorbed in calculating the chances of
Lincoln's reelection and counting the cost of the St.
Alban's raid; and it is likely that, to some of its mem
bers, he outlined his grand design, though there is no
reliable evidence that he met either Thompson or Clay,
both of whom subsequently disclaimed any acquaint
ance with him or his plot. His enterprise involved no
breach of the law of nations, was as legitimate under
the rules of war as those in which these agents were
engaged, and needed no special sanction from the
Richmond authorities.* But the probability is that
these experienced revolutionists far away from the
proposed scene of action, if they were consulted at all,
regarded the scheme as too wild and impracticable;
and the enthusiastic projector was obliged to content
himself with a vague promise to apprise the Confeder
ate authorities of its pendency and with good wishes
for its success. Be this as it may. Booth soon came to
the conclusion that Canada was no place for him. On
the twenty- seventh of October he bought of the Ontario
Bank of Montreal a bill of exchange (in triplicate),
drawn on the bank's London agents, payable to his
order, for sixty-one pounds; for which he paid three
hundred dollars in gold, remarking that he was going
to run the blockade and wanted to make sure that in
* Argument of Cox, Pitman, 342.

14 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the event of his being taken prisoner his captors could
not use the money. He also opened an account by
depositing five hundred and fifty dollars and taking
out a bank book. From an acquaintance by the name
of Martin, a former resident of lower Maryland, he
got letters of introduction to parties in that quarter,
and, armed with these, his bill of exchange and his bank
book he shook the dust of the indifferent city from the
soles of his feet and struck for home overland.* Hav
ing entered into a previous engagement with his two
brothers to play with them in Julius Csesar for the
benefit of a fund being raised for a statue of Shakes
peare to stand in Central Park, he stopped on his way
at the city of New York to fix the date for the twenty-
fifth of November, and reached home on the eighth
(election day), in time to vote against the candidate,
whose defeat would have stayed the pursuit of his fell
purpose.! The next morning he hears that even Mary
land had gone to swell the triumph of the victor, and
filled with chagrin he starts for Washington, arriving
at his usual quarters in the National Hotel in the
evening.! At the capital he was as much at home as in the city
of his residence. With the two principal theatres —
every entrance and exit, front or back, every passage
way behind the curtain and under the stage — he was
familiar, and to him the stock-actors and employees
were well known. Especially was this the case at Ford's,
*C. T., Poore, Vol. II, 87; Vol. I, 44.
t Mecollections of Edwin Booth, sup., 153, 154.
I Bunker's Memorandum, Poore, Vol. I, 32, and Appendix, Note IV.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 15
owned by his friend from boyhood, who owned also and
managed a similar establishment in Baltimore ; one of
his brothers being the business manager and another
the treasurer of the Washington theatre. Here Booth
when in the city was in the habit of resorting at all
hours, having the run of the house ; and here his letters
were addressed. The thoroughness of his acquaint
ance with the building and the exceptional privileges
he enjoyed led him at first to fix upon a crowded house
as the scene of the capture, rather than the highways
of the suburbs where, in comparison, capture was easy
and not without precedent. If he struck at all, he
would boast that he "struck boldly"; if he "walked
with a firm step" it must be "through a thousand of
the friends ' ' of his victim. The performance must be
"actable" and he "the one hero of the act."* Either
modus operandi required the purchase of horses to
mount his troop and the selection of the route to the
river, and to these preliminaries he hastened to address
himself. On Saturday, the nineteenth of November,
we find him at Bryantown, a village on the stage road
from Washington through lower Maryland, thirty
miles from the capital, distant on one side ten miles
from the Patuxent river and on the other about fifteen
miles from Pope's Creek on the Potomac opposite
Matthews ' Point on the Virginia shore — the site of the
principal ferry on the underground route to and from
Richmond. In the dusk of the evening he comes to the
house of Dr. Queen — guided by the doctor's son — to
whom he carries a letter of introduction from Martin
* Booth's diary; Katy of Catoctin, 475, 479.

16 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
in Montreal, and with whom the next morning he goes
to chureh. Before the service he is introduced among
others to Samuel A. Mudd, another physician of the
neighborhood, in whose company the next day he buys
from a neighbor a dark bay saddle horse, old and blind
of one eye — a steed destined in the course of events to
carry the mad assailant of Seward.*
This, as all the circumstances show, was Booth's first
visit to Charles county, and made, not by way of the
road leading from Washington, but from Baltimore by
way of the Patuxent. All the well-to-do residents,
slaveholders at the beginning of the war, sympathized
with the Southern cause; but, at the date we have
reached, there was quite a sprinkling among the voters
of men who foresaw the downfall of the Confederacy
and were preparing to submit to the inevitable with no
very poignant regrets. Among them the stranger was
obliged to conceal his real object by talk of investing
in lands and horses. With his letters of introduction
he found no difficulty in gaining information about cer
tain subjects; for example, the roads leading to the
Potomac, some of them provided with gates that could
be left open to fugitives and closed against pursuers,
the stations for relays on the underground route, the
ferries and, particularly, the old town of Port Tobacco,
lying six miles up a broad inlet of that name — thirty-
four miles from Washington on a direct line "as the
crow flies" from the city of Baltimore to the city of
* Testimony on C. T. of Bowman, Poore, II, 334; Dyer, id., 332, Pit
man, 180 ; of Thompson, Poore, II, 268, Pitman, 178 ; of Gardner, Poore,
I, 361; Ewing's argument. Pitman, 319.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 17
Washington, as directly south as the plummet could
hang — to be reached from the capital in six or seven
hours' rapid riding.* To Dr. Mudd, an original South
ern sympathizer but who at the recent election had
voted for the Union candidate for Congress, it is not
likely that Booth confided the real object of his jour
ney; their intercourse in all probability amounting to
nothing more than overtures on the part of the visitor
to purchase lands of which it was reported the doctor
was anxious to get rid. At any rate, this trip must
have been of short duration, as the actor 's engagement
to play in New York constrained him to hurry away
to that city, where, on the night of the twenty-fifth, the
three brothers appeared together — Edwin as Brutus,
Junius as Cassius, and Wilkes as Antonius. While
the play was in progress, by a sinister coincidence, the
Astor House, the St. Nicholas, the Metropolitan, the
Fifth Avenue and several other hotels were set afire by
drunken incendiaries, said to be Confederate agents,
and an alarm breaking out in the crowded audience at
Winter Garden, it was only by the presence of mind of
Edwin and two officials of the theatre that a panic was
averted.! As Booth was once more in Washington on the
twelfth of December, it must have been during this
interval, as he was passing through Philadelphia, that
he deposited with his brother-in-law for safe keeping a
sealed envelope containing a letter written in the style
* Katy of Catoctin, 468, note, 366.
t Ehodes, sup.. Vol. V, 339 ; Kennedy 's confession, Poore, II, 403 ;
.Bern, of E. Booth, 154; N. Y. Herald of 24, 25, 26 Nov., 1864.
2

18 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
of the more famous diary, to vindicate the deed he was
contemplating. Dated "1864" and addressed: "My
dear Sir" and "(in the words of your master) 'To
whom it may concern, ' " it opened as follows :
"Right or wrong, God judge me, not man. For four years
have I waited, hoped and prayed for the dark clouds to break
and for a restoration of our former sunshine. To wait longer
would be a crime. All hope for peace is dead. My prayers
have proved as idle as my hopes. God's will be done; I go
to see and share the bitter end";
and it closed :
"My love (as things stand to-day) is for the South alone.
Nor do I deem it a dishonor in attempting to make for her
a prisoner of this man to whom she owes so much of misery.
If success attend me, I go penniless to her side. They say
she has found that 'last ditch' which the North has so long
derided and been endeavoring to force her in, forgetting that
they are our brothers, and that it's impolitic to goad an
enemy to madness. Should I reach her in safety and find it
true, I will proudly beg permission to triumph or die in that
same ditch by her side. A confederate doing duty on his own
responsibility. ' '*
He stopped at the National Hotel for the greater
part of time from the twelfth until Christmas and dur
ing the month of January; making several trips into
lower Maryland by the old stage road over which a
system of contraband travel and traffic had been estab
lished, and consulting the parties thus engaged in giv
ing aid and comfort to the enemy, many of whom at
* For whole paper, see Note V iu Appendix.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 19
this period were aware of the pendency of a plot to
capture the President, if they did not actually offer
their services to its chief. It was in December, also,
that Booth rented a stable in the rear of Ford's theatre,
which was repaired for him by Edward Spangler, a
scene shifter of the company, who, cherishing an
unbounded admiration for the actor, was glad to do
him menial service; into which stable he put a buggy
and two horses, one of them the one-eyed animal he
had bought on his first visit to Bryantown.*
At this stage of the plot the accession of a fresh
recruit lent renewed vigor to its progress. On the road
leading from Washington to Bryantown — ten miles
from the Navy Yard bridge — there lived at the out
break of the war a reputable citizen named John H.
Surratt, who kept a tavern and farmed the adjoining
land at a place called after himself Surrattsville. His
wife — Mary E. — was a daughter of Samuel I. Jenkins,
a man of substance in the county ; his eldier son, Isaac,
was in Texas, a soldier imder Magruder, his daughter,
Anna E., was at home and his younger son, named after
him, just seventeen,! was at St. Charles's College near
Ellicott's Mills, a short distance west of Baltimore.
The father's death in 1862 called the young student
to the assistance of his mother in the management of
the place and he was permitted to serve as his father's
successor in the post office until November of the fol-
* Bunker's Mem., Note IV in Appendix; C. T. (Pitman), 178, 179;
Poore, I, 225; II, 104, 105, 528; S. T., 258; Pitman, 104; Century,
April, 1884, "How Booth crossed the Potomac."
t Born April 13, 1844; S. T., 893.

20 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
lowing year.* Like the members of his family and the
majority of his neighbors he favored the insurgents
and was soon drawn into active participation in the
clandestine commerce carried on between the capital
of the Confederacy and the capital of the Union —
' ' doing some hard riding, " as he stated, in public, after
the war was over, ' ' carrying dispatches in the heels of
his boots or between the planks of his buggy." "It
was a fascinating life for me," he said; "it seemed as
if I could not do too much or run too great a risk."!
In October, 1864, the widow, finding that she could no
longer keep up the farm and tavern with profit, leased
them to an ex-policeman of the capital by the name of
Lloyd and moved to Washington, opening a boarding
house on H Street, between Sixth and Seventh, and
leaving her son in charge at Surrattsville until the first
of December, when the tenant was to take possession.
This venture promised well from the first. She enjoyed
a rather wide circle of acquaintances of the same reli
gious faith with herself in the city, including several
priests, who interested themselves in her behalf. The
seven bedrooms were soon filled with boarders, among
them one whose entry, though greeted with smiles of
welcome, was really the herald of desolation to the
household. Louis J. Wiechmann, at the college where
he was studying for the priesthood had been the chum
of John Surratt from the fall of 1859 until July, 1862,
when they left the institution together — Wiechmann to
* Baker 's History of Secret Service, 560.
+ Surratt 's lecture at EoekviUe, Md., printed in Washington Evening
Star, Dec. 8, 1870; reprinted, April 12, 1908.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE . 21
be employed as a teacher in the capital until he
obtained a position under the government as a clerk in
the office of the commissary-general of prisoners. He
visited his fellow-student at Surrattsville in the spring
and summer of 1863, making the acquaintance of the
mother and sister ; and, as soon as he was apprised of
the removal of the family to Washington he sought to
become a boarder and was assigned to the second-story
back room, which, on the arrival of his bosom friend,
he was to share with him — both to sleep in the same
bed. In fact, so close was their intimacy that, what
ever degree of reticence the government clerk may
have thought proper to observe, there can be no doubt
that the rider of the underground route made no con
cealment of his sentiments on the absorbing topic of
the hour.* Surratt was not yet of age when he bade
good-bye to his birthplace and moved to Washington,
bent apparently on obtaining steady employment,
necessitating the abandonment to a great degree of any
further dealings with the enemy. Booth, it is certain,
had not yet met him ; the actor on his visits to Charles
county not passing through Surrattsville until after
the beginning of the tenancy of Lloyd. Still, in the
course of his investigations he must have heard of the
young scout and his change of residence and would lose
no time in putting himself in, touch with so congenial
an associate. Accordingly, meeting Dr. Mudd on the
* Surratt, as described by his friend, was six feet in height, with light-
colored hair, eyes sunken under a very prominent forehead, a very large
nose, without beard except a slight tuft on the chin, slender, but power
fully buUt. Wiechmann, Poore, I, 91, C. T.

22 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
evening of the twenty-third of December in the streets
of Washington, he pressed the latter for an introduc
tion, and while on their way to the house in H Street,
they happened to encounter Surratt in company with
Wiechmann. At the actor's invitation, the party of
four betook themselves to his room at the National,
where, after regaling themselves in the customary man
ner and spending some time in conversing ostensibly
about the purchase of Mudd's farm, they adjourned to
the hotel where Mudd was stopping and, after further
talk, separated — ^Booth going away by himself, and
Surratt and Wiechmann together. This, it is agreed
on all sides, was the first meeting of the two men who
became the leading spirits of the plot to capture; but
on this occasion it is not at all likely that the project
was broached between them, Wiechmann 's suspicions
after the event, more particularly concerning Mudd's
complicity, to the contrary notwithstanding. The doc
tor returned home the next morning, not to see the
would-be buyer of his farm again until nearly four
months hence when, in the early dawn, a fugitive in dis
guise and with a broken leg was lifted from his horse
at the doctor's door. Surratt, as if nothing out of the
usual course had taken place, applied for a position in
the freight department of the Adams Express Com
pany and on the thirtieth entered upon the discharge
of his duties. Booth went to spend Christmas with his
mother and thence to the city of New York, not return
ing until the last day of the year.*
* See Gen. Ewing 's argument in Pitman and evidence therein cited.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 23
While in that city, he sounded an intimate friend of
his — Samuel K. Chester, a member of the stock-com
pany playing at Winter Garden, "a bold resolute fel
low" — on the latter 's willingness to join in the grand
scheme he had in mind. Previously, when on his way
back from Canada and again when he came to fill his
engagement with his brothers, he had thrown out hints
of a big speculation in hand, a share in which he offered
to his fellow-actor; but now he disclosed for the first
time the real nature of the performance he designed
should take place at Ford's theatre. Not only the
President but heads of the departments were to be
seized in the private box they occupied and hustled
across the stage to the rear ; and he wanted a man of
nerve who was familiar with the premises to open the
back door at a given signal. Chester recoiled in dismay,.
pleading his poverty and his duty to wife and cliildren ;
but the tempter would listen to no such excuses:
"there was plenty of money in the affair ; fifty persons
were in it; it was sure to succeed; refusal on his part
he would regard as betrayal. ' ' Still, Chester, as he tes
tifies, turned a deaf ear to both threats and entreaties ;
but nevertheless Booth, on his return to Washing
ton, kept on plying him with letters and at the same
time urging Ford to lure him to the capital by the offer
of an engagement.*
In dealing with Surratt, his success was much less
equivocal. New Year's Day, 1865, fell on a Sunday,
and this celebrated hero of the stage, calling at the
residence of his recent acquaintance, met with a cor-
* Chester in Poore, I, 43 et seq.; Ford in Imp. Inv. (1867), 535.

24 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
dial reception from the ladies of the household. The
moment he could obtain a private interview he hastened
to unfold the full scope of his design to the son and in
the name of their common allegiance to the struggling
Confederacy invoke his cooperation. Far from exhib
iting any of the scruples of Chester, Surratt welcomed
the project with the utmost ardor; proposing on the
instant to devote the hours of the next day (usually
kept as a holiday) to a reconnoisance into lower Mary
land — an adventure baulked, as it appears, by the
refusal of the express company on account of rush of
business, to give him leave of absence.* But no em
ployment so prosaic as marking packages for transpor
tation at fifty dollars per month could be allowed to
interfere with the glory of ending the war at a single
stroke. His knowledge of the territory over which the
intended captive must pass, with its relay stations, of
the ferries across the Potomac, the haunts and habits of
the secret agents of the underground route, was placed
at the disposition of his chief, as well as the horses he
had brought from the country and the credit he appears
to have established at the principal livery stables in
the capital. In addition to this invaluable aid in gen
eral, he was able to enlist just that class of recruits
suited to the peculiar exigencies of the enterprise and,
by temperament, disposition and station, most liable
to succumb to the personal magnetism of the master.
Among these were David E. Herold and George A.
Atzerodt — both added to the band by Surratt almost
immediately after his own adhesion. Herold was a
* S. T., 338, 402, 414.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 25
youth of about twenty years, living with his widowed
mother and seven sisters near the Navy Yard bridge;
recently employed as a clerk in a drug store in that
neighborhood, but at present out of work, sauntering
about the streets of Washington by day and haunting
the theatre by night. He had attended school in the
vicinity of Surrattsville, becoming acquainted with the
Surratt family, and still continued his visits in Prince
George's county. "Light and trifling," "far more of
a boy than a man," "easily led," "unreliable," "fond
of practical jokes," "with a laugh on his face all the
time," as he was described by different persons who
knew him from childhood* — the actor whom he had
often applauded from the pit had but to take him
by the hand to make him his slave. Atzerodt was a
much more serviceable acquisition. A German by
descent, hailing originally from Montgomery county,
north of the District, he was a coachmaker at Port To
bacco and, since the outbreak of the war, had been
engaged in ferrying across the Potomac, under cover
of night, parties bound to or from Richmond ; a rough,
stolid fellow, fierce in appearance, demeanor and talk,
but cowardly at heart.!
On the second of January, Edwin Forrest began an
engagement at Ford's theatre and the President was
accustomed to attend at least one of the performances
of the great tragedian. The play of Jack Cade was
announced for the night of Wednesday, the eighteenth,
and rumors were in the air that Lincoln intended to be
» Poore, I, 377; II, 467, 547.
t See testimony as grouped in Pitman and argument of counsel.

26 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
present. Booth gathers together his forces. His
recruits are summoned to the capital. He sends fifty
dollars to Chester with an order to be on hand by Sat
urday night.* He himself on the evening of the tenth
(Tuesday) leaves his hotel, travels by train to Phila
delphia, calls the next morning on his brother-in-law,
takes possession of the package he had deposited with
him in November, takes out the paper, affixes his signa
ture, and puts it back into the envelope which he reseals,
superscribing it "J. Wilkes Booth," returns it to
Clarke's custody and is back in Washington on the
twefth (Thursday).! On that day Surratt applies
again for leave of absence — this time for three days —
on the pretext that his mother needs him to escort her
to their old home. The superintendent of the company
refuses, and on the following day Mrs. Surratt appears
and renews the request. The superintendent is not to
be moved and the son throws up his berth. On Satur
day, he rides over the well-known road to his birth
place, thence to T. B., thence to Bryantown, arranging
for relays; thence, finally, to Port Tobacco where he
finds Atzerodt and spends the night. Together, the
whole of the next day, they scour the shores for boats
to accommodate a party of ten or twelve who are to cross
on the coming Wednesday night ; and, not waiting for
the dawn of Monday, the unwearied rider hastens back
to the capital. These preparations however turned out
to be useless. The President did not attend. It was
a wild night. Booth and Surratt were ready, but, so
* See Chester 's testimony on C. T. Wash. Evening Star of that date.
t Note V in Appendix.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 27
far as the testimony shows, neither Arnold nor
O'Laughlin put in an appearance, and Chester came
not. To supply the place of the latter. Booth at the last
moment turned to John Matthews, a stock-actor at
Ford's, and suddenly thrust upon him the vacant role ;
to be disappointed again in spite of importunings and
threatenings, although, as we shall see, the failure did
not interrupt their intimacy.*
The total failure of this precipitous experiment to
realize that feature of the plan that appealed the more
powerfully to the inventor's imagination served but to
disclose its impracticability. So long as the seizure
was to take place in a crowded theatre, the success
of the plot depended upon a contingency which could
not be counted on for a sufficient length of time before
hand to admit of the requisite preparations ; and, fur
thermore, the subordinate parts — for example, putting
out the lights at the proper moment, handling the cap
tive when thrown from the box and hustled across the
stage, opening the rear door at a given signal — called
for an amount of nerve and familiarity with the prem
ises scarcely inferior to that which so singularly quali
fied the leader for the principal role. For this reason,
therefore, while there was no abandonment of the pro
ject even in this questionable shape, there occurred
at this stage a serious interruption to its progress.
Booth was absent from Washington for nearly a
month; for a part of the time in the city of New
York, stopping at the residence of his brother Ed-
* S. T., Wiechmann 's testimony, 372, 414; Martin's, 213; Cleaver's,
204; Matthews in Imp. Inv., 782.

28 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
win. He was evidently disheartened over the pros
pects of his enterprise, for he complained to Chester
of the lukewarmness of his followers, denounced
Matthews for his cowardice, and, lamenting the neces
sity for applying for funds to the Richmond authori
ties, took back the fifty dollars he had advanced to his
fellow-actor who persisted in his refusal to join.* Dur
ing this interval, matters were virtually at a standstill
at the capital. Atzerodt, weary of his watch at Port
Tobacco, comes to Washington in search of his
employer and makes his first call at the house in H
Street. He is introduced by Surratt to the other mem
bers of the household — Wiechmann finding him to be
"a very funny sort of a fellow"; so much so, indeed,
that one night, during Surratt 's absence in New York,
he is regaled with whiskey in Wiechmann 's room by this
favorite boarder and a blockade-runner, named Howell,
also awaiting Surratt 's return, and then put to bed in
the attic ; an incident arousing the outspoken displeas
ure of the landlady.! What is a much more material
circumstance, Arnold and O'Laughlin rent a room on
D Street the tenth of February: — this, so far as is
known, being their first appearance on the scene of
action since their enlistment, four months before.!
Booth returns on the evening of the twenty-second,
either in company with or within a day or two of
Surratt who had gone to New York on an affair of his
* Chester, ut sup.
t See Wiechmann on S. T., 374, 417-19, 439; C. T., Poore, I, 72, 88;
II, 355-8, 360.
t Poore, C. T., I, 139.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 29
own; and from this date until the breakdown of the
plot, the members of the band remain within hail of
their captain, who spends the interval, during which
the approach of the second inauguration renders it un
likely that the President would attend the theatre, in
making several trips into lower Maryland, in calling
at the house in H Street and in holding consultations
with Arnold and O'Laughlin.*
It was during this partial lull that the entrance of a
sinister figure upon the scene seems to have whetted
his somewhat blunted purpose. On the first of March,
while standing on the threshold of Barnum's Hotel in
Baltimore, he recognized in a stranger dragging his
limbs painfully along the street, the boy, whom, in the
fall of 1861, he had met while playing an engagement
at Richmond. At that date, Lewis Thornton Powell,
the son of a Baptist preacher stationed in Florida,
though but sixteen years of age, was a soldier in a
Confederate regiment. Having obtained a pass he
went to his first play and was so enthralled by the per
formance of the leading actor that he ventured behind
the scenes to lay his homage at the feet of the en
chanter. Since that memorable hour, he had passed
through vicissitudes of fortune calculated to put to
the proof the sanity of the maturest mind ; — sharing in
the fighting around Richmond and then at Antietam
and Chancellorsville ; wounded at Gettysburg, taken
prisoner and detailed to serve as a hospital nurse;
escaping and rejoining the Confederates; losing his
two brothers at Murfreesboro. In January, 1865, in
despair of his cause he wandered into Alexandria, tak-
* Poore ut sup.; Bunker's Mem. in Appendix.

30 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ing the oath of allegiance to the United States ; making
his way to Baltimore he spends six weeks looking for
work and at last, for an assault upon a colored servant
in a fit of fury, is brought before the provost-marshal
and ordered north of Philadelphia. In this extremity,
homeless, penniless, in rags, without food, banished to
a region where he could hope for no succor, he hears
the voice that nearly four years ago had so captivated
his senses sounding in his ear like a veritable call from
on High. Booth takes him by the hand, gives him
food and clothing and, unfolding before his dazzled
eyes the scheme he has in view, points out the path of
glory and revenge. Springing from the depths of
despondency, the half-maddened victim of suffering
and disappointment clutches the opportunity thus held
oiit to him with the eagerness of a drowning man and
swears allegiance to his present saviour as his future
lord and master. Payne — for that was the name he
took the oath under and subsequently went by — ^was a
gladiator in physical development though but twenty
years of age. Tall, straight as an Indian and as imper
turbable; with coarse black hair parted low on one
side, ruddy complexion, small dark eyes with a slight
cast in one and a wild light in both, full lips pressed
together by a cruel under jaw; of a narrow order of
intellect and that undeveloped if not actually deranged
— he was but the unreasoning creature of his environ
ment, without fear and without remorse. The order of
the provost-marshal making it imperative that he
should disappear from Baltimore, Booth took him to
Washington and kept him hidden until after the inaug-

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 31
nration; probably at the hotel where he himself was
stopping, as he did not register as usual.* On the
evening of the third of March he himself, in company
with Surratt and Wiechmann, was at the capitol watch
ing the closing hours of the Congress ; at the inaugura
tion he stood close to the central figure, whose capture
he was meditating and whom he was destined so soon
to destroy ; at night he was in the parlor of the house
in H Street with Surratt, who had been riding round
town all day at the heels of the procession.!
The seating of their contemplated prisoner in his high
place for four years more was the signal for every
member of the band to prepare for action. If any
thing was to be done to stay the triumph of the Union,
now, if ever, was the time. Herold for the first and
only time is seen at Mrs. Surratt 's, consulting with
Atzerodt and the son of the house. Payne ventures
out under cover of night to make the acquaintance of
the lieutenant of his captain; is received in Surratt 's
absence by Wiechmann and introduced to the ladies
as a Baptist minister by the name of Wood; remains
overnight and goes away in the early morning without
seeing the object of his quest. A few days afterwards,
calling a second time, he finds a young man lying on
the bed in an upper room, whom Wiechmann identifies
as Surratt, holds a private interview with him and
is notified that by agreement between the two prin-
* Testimony as to Payne in Pitman; of Eckert in Imp. Inv., 671;
Bunker's Mem., S. T., 330 and in Appendix.
t Wiechmann, S. T., 379 ; Note I to Chap. II iu Appendix.

32 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
cipals in the plot he is to remain under the Surratt
roof in secret until all is over.*
An important step is now to be taken, which, it is
singular in so perilous an enterprise, had not been
thought of before. Hitherto the several members of
the band had never been brought together. Arnold
and O'Laughlin, the oldest recruits, had never met
their later co-adherents ; Surratt, Atzerodt and Herold,
so far as appears, had never even heard of them, and
Payne, the latest comer, of course, was acquainted with
none but his captain. To remedy this disorder in the
ranks, notice was sent round of a midnight assembly
to be held at Gautier's restaurant on Pennsylvania
Avenue on Friday the seventeenth of March ;! and, in
the meantime, Payne was to be taken to the theatre
to inspect the proposed scene of action before being
introduced to his fellows who were already cognizant
of the complicated hazards they were to run. In pur
suance of this programme. Booth engages the private
box at Ford's which, with the one adjoining nearer the
stage (the partition between the two being removed),
was invariably appropriated to the use of the Presi
dent whenever that high officer was to be present;
giving a ticket of admission to Surratt who, in a closed
carriage, with two of the lady boarders, conducts
Payne, disguised in Wiechmann 's military cloak, to
the play. Between the acts. Booth comes to the box,
and the three men proceed to take a view of the
* C. T., Poore, I, 79 ; S. T., 379-80 ; testimony of Miss Fitzpatrick,
Poore, II, 91, 183; S. T., 232-3, 377.
t See Note VI in Appendix.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 33
premises. They step out into the narrow passage
behind and discover that the door leading from the
dress circle has no fastening whatever. They examine
the two other doors; the one leading into the box the
party were occupying, its lock having been forced a
few nights before to let in a company that arrived after
the usher had gone home with the key, they found
could be opened by a mere push ; the lock of the other
was substantially in the same condition. The inspec
tion over. Booth departs; Surratt and Payne sit out
the play, escort the ladies home and then are off for
the rendezvous.*
At this first meeting of the band there were present
Booth, Arnold, O'Laughlin, Surratt, Atzerodt, Herold
and Payne. The session was a stormy one, — the
assembly being divided on the question as to where
the seizure should be made. Booth, clinging to the
more spectacular method, called attention to the ease
with which the President could be reached owing to
the condition of the doors which one of their number,
accompanied by himself, had just discovered. Arnold,
on the other hand, protested that an attack in a
crowded theatre was impracticable; involved inter
minable delay, no one being able to foresee when the
President would attend ; a capture in the suburbs was
much more feasible; and, reminding his leader of a
rumor abroad that the President was going to attend
a theatrical performance at or near the Soldiers'
Home, he declared that "if the thing was not done in
a week" he, for one, would withdraw altogether.
* Poors, II, 44, 91; S. T., 234, 613, 378; Pitman, 109, 111.
3

34 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Booth, as was his wont when he met with opposition,
grew angry and retorted that a man who talked of
backing out ought to be shot. But Arnold was not to
be intimidated. "Two could play at that game," he
quietly replied. Moreover, the majority seemed to be
on his side. In truth, as has been well said, the pro
ject in the shape insisted upon by its author so bristled
with difficulties that "it was only necessary for the
parties concerned to assemble and arrange to put it in
motion for the whole thing to fall to pieces."* The
conclusion finally arrived at was that, if the rumor
mentioned turned out to be true, an attempt should
be made to intercept the visitor — notice of the day
and hour to be given the following evening at Ford's
theatre, where Booth was to appear in his celebrated
character of Pescara.!
Accordingly, at the succeeding performance every
member of the band was on hand with the exception of
Payne whom it was thought best to keep still under
cover. In the book of Fate it was to be the last
appearance on the stage of the popular actor save
when he bounded on the boards from the body of the
dying Lincoln. His friends and admirers crowded the
house, as if to bid him a final farewell; Wiechmann
and a fellow-boarder named Holahan mingled in the
throng with Surratt, Atzerodt and Herold; Arnold
and O'Laughlin sending a complimentary ticket to the
woman from whom they rented their room. After the
* Cox's argument. Pitman, 343.
t See Note VI in Appendix, and Poore, I, 429, 431; S. T., 380; Imp.
Inv., 674.

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 35
play was over Booth passed the word around that
the expected drive was to come off Monday, the rendez
vous to be in a piece of woods near where the Seventh
Street road crosses the city line ; and the hour, two in
the afternoon. Sunday passed in quiet suspense;
Payne and Surratt in the attic of the house in H Street
playing with revolvers and bowie knives — an amuse
ment in which they were interrupted by the too curious
Wiechmann. The next day " all rode out, but in pairs ' '
— Arnold and O'Laughlin, Atzerodt and Payne, Booth
and Surratt; — the last four starting from the front
of the boarding house. Herold was sent on ahead to
carry arms and ammunition and other equipments as
far as T. B., a hamlet five or six miles beyond Surratts
ville; there to await the coming cavalcade. They
gather together at the appointed spot. The carriage
is to be surrounded; the driver put out of the way;
Surratt is to mount the box and take the reins; and
then, on to the Eastern Branch, across the bridge and
over the familiar road! — to Surrattsville; to T. B. ;
to Beantown; to Port Tobacco and across the Poto
mac, Atzerodt acting as ferryman ; and the commander-
in-chief of the Union armies is a prisoner in the hands
of the enemy!
The noise of wheels indicates that the decisive hour
has come, and every rider straightens himself for the
fray. The carriage drives by, but lo! the President
is not inside; as if some warning had been given,
another officer* sits placid in his stead. Filled with
chagrin and apprehension of betrayal, the horsemen
* Said to have been Chase, C. J., which seems impossible.

36 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
scatter in all directions. To Wiechmann reading in
his room at six o'clock, enters Surratt brandishing a
revolver, proclaiming his "ruin" and imploring his
chum to provide shelter for him in a clerkship. To
them enters Payne, silent, pistol on hip, blood-red with
rage. Last comes the star-actor, riding-whip in hand,
striding up and down, in the depth of his disappoint
ment oblivious of the witness sitting by. The three
retire to the attic, hold a hurried consultation and then
leave the house together. Payne goes to Baltimore
and thence, bethinking himself of the provost-mar
shal's sentence, to New York; and Booth follows him
the next day. Arnold and O'Laughlin hasten to their
homes. Through the night Surratt and Atzerodt ride
after Herold, whom they meet as he is starting back
early in the morning. On their return trip they stop
at the Surratt tavern where they deposit the contents
of Herold 's buggy — two carbines, two double-barreled
guns, a revolver, a coil of rope, a monkey wrench;—
Surratt pointing out to the landlord a fit place for the
concealment of the carbines. Finally, at noon of the
next day, the President takes the steamboat for City
Point, to remain at the front until the fall of Rich
mond and the surrender of Lee knock the life out of
plots for his capture. On Saturday, Surratt departs
for the Confederate capital, not to return until it is
taken. On Monday, Arnold writes a letter to Booth
withdrawing from "the enterprise," and on the first
of April enters upon his duties as clerk in a store at
Old Point Comfort. And so, the plotters having dis
banded, the plot to capture the President of the United

THE PLOT TO CAPTURE 37
States passes into the limbo of the abortive con
spiracies of history.*
Nevertheless, it should be carefully borne in mind
that, though fantastic in conception, well-nigh impos
sible of execution, nay, in some respects ridiculous,
if not insane, the conspiracy was an indubitable
actuality. Indeed, it was to fortify this admonition,
by the wilful neglect of which the prosecuting officers
of the government wrought such inexpiable woe, that
the present writer has entered so minutely into the
details of the inception, development and denouement
of the plot. We trust that the readers of this chapter
will proceed to the next under no such fatal miscon
ception. To comprehend the awful event to follow,
it is absolutely indispensable to start with the belief
that the words of Booth's diary are true: "For six
months we had worked to capture."
* For particulars of attempt to kidnap, see testimony of Wiechmann
on C. T., Poore, I, 370, and S. T., 399-400; Arnold's letter given in
Appendix, Note III; Lloyd on S. T., 277; J. C. Thompson, 8. T., 515;
Note VT of Appendix; Arnold 's letter to Booth in Note VII of Appendix.

CHAPTER II
The Assassination
That the murder of the captive was a likely con
tingency of the plot to capture may have suggested
itself to the mind of its author ; but, as such a catas
trophe would have been fatal to the result he aimed at,
he must have looked upon it as an unavoidable risk to
be guarded against with the utmost caution. A dead
Lincoln, while placing the lives of the captors in
imminent peril, would set no Confederate prisoner
free. Manifestly, assassination as an end would not
have been postulated as long as hopes of capture might
be entertained ; and it is evident that, notwithstanding
the dismal failure of his first overt attempt, the
leader had not reached this condition of mind. From
New York he kept up communication with his scattered
band; returned to Washington on the morning of
Saturday, the twenty-fifth of March — the day on which
Surratt departed for Richmond — and on the succeed
ing Monday a room was engaged for Payne at the
Herndon House, where that conspirator took up his
quarters on Friday, the thirty-first.* But the con
tinued absence of the President at the front rendered
any present movement futile, and on the first of April
Booth went back to the metropolis. \
*" sturdy" letter, C. T., Poore, I, 371; S. T., 380-4, 439; Poore, I,
32, 449; S. T., 246. (38)

THE ASSASSINATION 39
There the tidings of the fall of Richmond reached
him and all thought of an exchange of prisoners was
banished forever. Meeting his friend Chester on
Friday, the seventh of April, he gave vent to his
despair ; acknowledging that, owing to some of his part
ners backing out, his project had fallen through and,
in consequence, he was selling off his horses. In the ex
tremity of his chagrin he struck the table at which
the two friends were sitting and exclaimed: "What
an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the Presi
dent on inauguration day! I was on the stand as
close to him nearly as I am to you."* In this des
perate mood he left New York for the last time,
arriving at Washington on Saturday, the eighth, to
remain until the end; and on Sunday evening Presi
dent Lincoln returned, bringing with him news of the
surrender of Lee. The loyal inhabitants of the capital
plunged at once into a round of festivities. The old
flag was set flying from every building, enthusiastic
crowds filling the streets by day and torchlight pro
cessions by night. For the nation, the day of jubilee
had come; for the defeated conspirator, nothing was
left but to hover in the narrowing outer darkness,
watching the chance to play the Brutus or the Tell
of his distempered imagination. He was virtually
alone. Arnold and O'Laughlin had left him; Surratt
had gone to Canada ; Payne, Atzerodt and Herold, the
creatures of his bounty, clung to his heels, waiting for
orders he was as yet at a loss to issue. On the evening
of Tuesday, the eleventh, from a window of the White
* See Note I to this chapter, in Appendix.

40 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
House, the President addressed a crowd on the lawn,
in the midst of which were Booth and Payne. Refer
ring to the experiment he himself had initiated in
reconstructing the state of Louisiana, he said: "It is
also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise
is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer
that it were conferred on the very intelligent and on
those who served our cause as soldiers."* This utter
ance, though too mild to suit the radicals, threw Booth
into such a rage that he urged his companion to shoot
its author on the spot; but Payne protested that the
risk was too great even for one so reckless as himself,
and the two walked away. Booth muttering, "That is
the last speech he will ever make."!
This, in all probability, was the moment when the
design to kill first found lodgment in the brain of the
baffled plotter. Indeed, in the first flush of his venge
ful spirit he would be content with no single victim,
no matter how exalted. He sends Atzerodt to the
Kirkwood House to locate the room occupied by the
Vice President, and the German takes advantage of
the opportunity to gaze at the Abdiel of southern
loyalty as he sat at dinner "with his yellow man
behind him."! On Thursday afternoon he calls at
Grover's theatre, noticeably anxious to ascertain
whether an invitation had been sent to the President
to come to the play that evening, and was told that
one was about to be sent for the next day which
* Ehodes' Hist. U. S., Vol. 5, 135-6.
t Testimony of Maj. Eckert, Imp. Inv., 674.
t Testimony of Nevins, C. T., Poore, II, 277.

THE ASSASSINATION 41
happened to be the anniversary of the fall of Fort
Sumter; tidings which brought Atzerodt early in the
morning once more to the Kirkwood, where he regis
tered his name, and without entering the room assigned
htm went away with the key, which he must have
delivered to Herold as that young man, shortly after
wards, concealed in the vacant apartment a revolver,
a bowie knife and an overcoat, in the pocket of which
was the bank book containing the account of Booth's
deposit in the Montreal bank.*
This was the situation, when, between eleven and
twelve o'clock, Friday morning, Booth, coming to
Ford's theatre for his letters, heard that a messenger
from the White House had just engaged for that night
the customary box for the President, who, moreover,
was to be accompanied by General Grant. This preg
nant piece of intelligence at once put out of the ques
tion the rival theatre, with which the actor was not so
familiar, fi:xed Ford's as the scene of the coming
tragedy and gave the leading performer a straight
and steady course to pursue. The unexpected pres
ence of so formidable an antagonist as the hero of
Appomatox must have flurried him for a moment, but
he remembered his minion at the Herndon House
with whom he had so recently visited the scene of
action for another purpose ; and he lashed the sides of
his intent with the self -admonition that still another
illustrious victim would redouble the effectiveness of
his blow and prolong the echo of his fame. Dallying
no longer he marches straight for the goal; hires a
* Poore, I, 110-1; II, 538-9.

42 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
bay mare for himself to be ready at four o'clock and
orders the one-eyed horse he bought in December to be
transferred to the stable in the rear of Ford's for the
use of Payne; calls at Mrs. Surratt 's just as she, with
Wiechmann, is starting for Surrattsville, and hands
her a package containing a field-glass to be delivered
at the tavern ; thence to the theatre and into the empty
auditorium.* The two boxes are thrown into one, the
front decorated with flags and Washington's portrait;
a rocking chair stands in the angle of the box nearest
the audience; the locks of the doors are in the same
loosened condition as when he inspected them with
Payne. To bore a hole in the door of the first box
through which to peer at his unsuspecting victim
reclining in the chair ; to provide for barring from the
inside the door leading from the dress circle to the
passageway by digging out a mortise in the plastering
of the wall and testing an upright from a music stand
he happened to have found on the floor of the audi
torium, is the work of a few moments, and his prep
arations are complete.!
It is now four o'clock. Going for his horse he rides
to Grover's theatre, dismounts and enters the office.
There he writes an article to the following effect: he
had for a long time devoted his money, his time and
his energies to the accomplishment of an end, but he
had been baffied; the moment had at length arrived
when his plans must be changed; the world may cen
sure him for what he is about to do, but he is sure that
* Poore, I, 173-5 ; Wiechmann on S. T., 391, 444-5.
t Poore, I, 413-4; III, 21; S. T., 545-7, 612.

THE ASSASSINATION 43
posterity will justify him. He signs the paper : * * Men
who love their country better than gold or life. J. W.
Booth,  Payne,  Atzerodt,  Herold." He
encloses it in an envelope which he addresses to the
editor of the National Intelligencer, seals and stamps
it for the post office. As he rides up the avenue he
sees on the sidewalk John Matthews, the actor whom
he had attempted in vain to enlist in the plot to cap
ture, and hands him the letter with a request to deliver
it in the morning unless he saw the writer in the mean
time. While they were talking, officers of Lee's army
as prisoners of war pass by in a body, and Booth,
placing his hand to his forehead, ejaculates: "Great
God! I have no longer a country!" Grant sweeps
along in an open carriage, and the startled horseman,
casting one hurried glance at the man he has marked
out for the knife, seizes his friend by the hand with a
nervous, excited grip, bids him good-bye, and gallops
away.* Stopping at the Kirkwood, he sends up his
card to the Vice President's private secretary and,
that officer being out, he rides up to the stable in the
rear of the theatre, puts up his steed and, passing
through the building, seeks at his hotel a quiet interval
for rest and refreshment.!
Thus pass the hours of this fateful afternoon.
When, at seven in the evening, the actor leaves the
National hotel for the last time, he has heard of the
departure of General Grant for Burlington and has
tens to the Herndon House to confer with his stalwart
* Testimony of Matthews, Imp. Inv., 782.
tPoore, I, 240-1; 110-1.

44 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ally on this sudden simplification of the programme.
Payne, for his part, was all ready for whatever work
was before Mm. He had given notice to the matron
of the hotel that he was leaving for Baltimore, had
been furnished with dinner at an earlier hour than
usual, paid his bill and was on the watch for his cap
tain. Five days before, Seward, the secretary of state,
had been thrown from his carriage and was now lying
at his residence with a broken jaw and a broken arm.
He was the officer designated by statute to set the
wheels of government in motion when the presidency
and vice-presidency both became vacant; and, conse
quently, if Booth and Atzerodt carried out their
respective parts in the plot, his removal would com
plete the paralysis of the government. Him, there
fore, in place of Grant, Booth handed over to the
tender mercies of this young savage, to whom it was a
matter of indifference whether the object of his assault
was a warrior crowned with laurel or a statesman
prostrate and helpless on his bed of pain. Acting
under the belief he expressed beneath the shadow of
the scaffold that in war it was right to kill your enemy
wherever you could find him, he belted round his waist
the revolver and knife, and pulled on the cavalry boots
Booth provided for him, announcing his readiness
for the fray. Herold and Atzerodt who, during the
afternoon, had been riding hired nags aimlessly about
the street were summoned and given their final orders :
Atzerodt was to do execution on the Vice President,'
and Herold, first guiding Payne to the Seward resi
dence, was to hurry to the support of Atzerodt, secur-

THE ASSASSINATION 45
ing by the way the articles hidden by himself in the
room in the Kirkwood. As for the boy Herold, to be
numbered among "the assassinators of the President"
(as he phrased it),* without liimself coming within
striking distance, appealed to his instinct for adven
ture without calling for a degree of courage he was
conscious he did not possess; but Atzerodt flinched.
Having no stomach for an encounter with the man
who, as military governor of Tennessee, had learned
how to deal with assassins, he interposed the plea that
he had enlisted to capture, but not to shed blood. On
the street while going to the stable, his master en
deavored to revive his sinking spirits by the assurance
that Herold would help him out, but the wretched
German whimpered that it was impossible, they could
not do it. Booth stormed at him, cursed him for a
coward and a traitor, reminded him that he had gone
too far to withdraw, and left him swaying back and
forth between the foreknowledge of failure should he
make the attempt and the likelihood of being hung
should he do nothing.
From the Herndon House, at the corner of F and
Ninth streets, to the alley leading from F to the rear
of the theatre was but half a block. The hour is close
upon ten. The building, as they near it, is lighted up
and the voices of the actors and the applause and
laughter of the spectators can be heard without. The
play is now more than half over — the second scene of
the third and last act being on. It is the last appear
ance and the benefit of Laura Keene, acting her
* Testimony of Jett, Poore, I, 309.

46 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
original character in the comedy of "Our American
Cousin," to which Joseph Jefferson and the elder
Sothern, in the two other leading roles, had lent wide
spread celebrity. The President had entered at about
half-past eight, greeted by a burst of music from the
orchestra and the cheers of the audience rising as one
man. At the stable, the two leading conspirators part
for the last time; Payne, mounted on his one-eyed
horse and attended by Herold, starts on his barbarous
errand. Booth leads his bay horse to the rear door of
the theatre and, calling for Spangler to hold the
animal, enters and goes down under the stage, out of
the private door into the alley on the south side lead
ing to the street, and emerges in front of the building.
The White House carriage stands at the curb and a
crowd of sightseers is on the sidewalk, among others
the costumer and the stage carpenter of the theatre.
An actor, who is to sing a song in honor of the Presi
dent at the close of the performance, approaches and
asks the time; and the costumer, stepping into the
vestibule and looking at the large clock on the wall,
calls out: "Ten minutes past ten." Booth walks into
the lobby and opening the door into the parquette notes
the position of the President. Stepping back, he
mounts the stairs leading to the dress circle and, hat
in hand, picks his way amongst the chairs that choke
the space usually left vacant behind the outer row of
seats until he reaches the door of the passage behind
the private boxes ; and, then, leaning against the wall,
he takes "a leisurely survey of the house."*
* Poore, I, 179, 187-203; S. T., 570-1, 566; cf. Dye's testimony on
G. T. (Poore, 181) and on S. T., 131.

THE ASSASSINATION 47
At this nick of time, when the uplifting of a finger
might have changed the whole trend of the future, let
us call up the spectacle before the sad eyes of Abraham
Lincoln in the last moment of his consciousness. He
was seated in the corner of the box nearest the audi
torium; on his right Mrs. Lincoln, and at the farther
end Miss Harris and Major Rathbone — the daughter
and step-son of senator Ira Harris from New York —
who had been invited to fill the place of General and
Mrs. Grant. The body of the house was filled to over
flowing, but the six private boxes other than the two
set apart for the illustrious visitor were empty; and
no member of the cabinet was present. Laura Keene
was standing at the first right entrance, and Maddox,
the property man, at the corresponding entrance on
the left. Behind the scene that was on, Spangler,
having deputed the task of holding Booth's horse to
a lad who usually stood guard at the door leading to
the south alley, was standing, with his mate oppo
site, ready to draw off the flat; and Matthews, who
personated Coyle, was sitting farther back waiting
to be discovered. Asa Trenchard — -personated by
Harry Hawk — had the open stage to himself — Mrs.
Mountchessington having left him alone with the
rebuke that he was not "used to the manners of good
society," in response to which aspersion he was soliL^
oquizing: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you'*
inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap."
In the parquette. General Burnside was in the act of
taking a seat, and the President, his attention being
drawn to the unfortunate commander he had been con-

48 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
strained to remove, was pulling the folds of the flag
away from the framework of the box and turning his
head to that quarter of the auditorium.*
Satisfied that the right moment had come, Booth
steps down, shows his card to the President's mes
senger sitting below him, and without waiting for the
latter 's assent, enters the little corridor, shuts the
door behind him and fixes the bar in place. The door
of the farther box stands open. First peering through
the hole in the closed door behind the President, he
swings it back, puts the muzzle of his derringer to the
head of the figure reclining in the chair and sends a
bullet crashing through the brain. "Revenge for the
South ! " he cries ; and letting fall the exhausted pistol
and drawing his knife, he slashes Rathbone 's arm
uplifted to intercept him, and vaults over the balus
trade to the boards, twelve feet below. Stumbling on
one knee, he raises himself slowly up, falters out:
"Sic semper tyrannis," and limps in a stooping pos
ture across the stage ; a blue shred of the flag he had
torn in his leap fluttering in mute but ineffectual pro
test from the spur on his right heel. Dashing down
the passage to the rear, he thrusts aside with his
bloody weapon Withers — the leader of the orchestra —
who stands paralyzed in his path, and another em
ployee who attempts to arrest his flight; tears open
the back door ; springs upon his horse—knocking down
with the butt of his knife the boy who is holding the
animal — and is off like a whirlwind, the hoofs of his
* Poore, I, 195, 225, 189, 200; Pitman 104; Matthews on Imp. Inv.,
787; Play of "American Cousin"; Oldroyd. 28; cf. with Play, testi
mony of Maddox, Poore, II, 109.

THE ASSASSINATION 49
steed striking sparks from the cobblestones of the
alley.* For an instant, the sound of the shot stupefies both
players and audience. Hawk, struck dumb by the wild
figure bounding on the stage, makes a hurried exit not
set down in his part. Matthews, out of sight, con
jectures some new trick is being played on Dundreary.
Rathbone 's cry of "Stop that man," repeated by Miss
Harris, if heard, is not heeded. A portly gentleman
leaps from the orchestra rail over the footlights and
pursues the flying phantom. Smoke comes sailing out
of the box. A woman's voice calls for water. Span
gler shoves back the scene and Laura Keene runs out,
raising both hands and ejaculating "We have got him!
We will get him!" A soldier and a naval surgeon
with the assistance of Miss Harris clamber up from
the stage, and Dr. Charles Taft, having fought his way
through, is lifted up by persons underneath. Mean
while, persons from the audience are beating against
the door leading from the dress circle, and Rathbone,
though bleeding profusely from his wound, manages
to dislodge the bar and they rush in; among them
Colonel Crawford and Major Potter who succor their
fainting comrade. In the auditorium voices are heard :
"Hang him! Shoot him!" and then, in view of the
assassin's escape, the angry menace, "Burn the
theatre!" floats through the building and is caught
* See testimony of Ferguson, McGowan, Eathbone, Withers, Bur
roughs, as given above and also Kent, Poore, I, 257; Anderson, id. 235-
7; Pettit, S. T., 128; Eitterspaugh, Poore, II, 32. Ferguson's the most
graphic. Withers', as given in Oldroyd, p. 20, etc., not reconcilable
with that on C. T.
4

50 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
up by the crowd surging to and fro in the street.
Through the distracted audience the unconscious form
of Lincoln is borne by reverent hands around the dress
circle — men tearing up the seats from the floor to make
way for the procession — thence down the stairway and
across the street to a private house opposite, while
messengers are speeding to summon the family physi
cian, the surgeon-general, members of the cabinet and
the two sons of the dying man.*
Booth's part in "the something decisive and great"
that he thought "must be done" was performed
apparently without a mishap ; not so the part assigned
to his only reliable accomplice. At the same hour that
his chief entered the front of the theatre, Payne
entered the Seward mansion, opposite LaFayette
Square, leaving Herold outside. Under the pretext
that he was sent with medicine, a package of which he
ostensibly carried in his hand, disregarding the re
monstrances of the bellboy he pushed his way up the
two pairs of stairs until his advance was checked by the
eldest son of the house. Him, after a brief parley, he
battered into insensibility with his revolver after it
had missed fire; and the soldier-nurse opening the
door of the sick chamber, he struck down with a blow
of his knife. Bounding to the couch on which — his
head supported by a steel frame and swathed in
bandages — the helpless patient lay, he stabbed him
once, twice, thrice, about the face and neck, until he
* Affidavits of Miss Harris and Eathbone in Baker's book, 471-3;
letter of Dr. Taft in Oldroyd, 29; Matthews and Ferguson, ut sup.

THE ASSASSINATION 51
was seized from behind by the nurse, and the mangled
sufferer rolled off the bed on the side toward the wall.
Then ensued a fearful struggle — the nurse clutching
the intruder in a desperate embrace and the intruder
stabbing the nurse in the back with one hand and with
the other beating him on the head with the revolver
until the shattered weapon fell to the floor. At length,
the second son aroused by the noise of the scuffle,
appeared upon the scene and inch by inch pushed the
interlocked pair from the dimly lighted chamber into
the full light of the hall; whereupon the infuriated
manslayer, freeing himself by a blow of the fist from
the grasp of the exhausted servant, assaulted the
newcomer with the handle of his remaining weapon —
crying out the while: "I am mad! I am mad!" and
sprang down the stairs, wounding a messenger from
the State department whom he overtakes by the way.
In the meantime, the bellboy had run out into the street
and down to General Augur's headquarters on the
corner below, shrieking "Murder" as he went; and the
daughter of the house from an upper window startled
the ear of night with the same portentous cry. So
that, when Payne, bareheaded and besmeared with
blood, emerged from the mansion, he found himself
deserted by his guide and threatened with arrest by
a party of soldiers running to the rescue. Tossing
away his bloodstained knife, he vaulted into the saddle,
spurred north to Vermont Avenue, turned east, and
was lost to sight, leaving behind him, weltering in
their blood, beside the cabinet minister he was sent to
assassinate, four other human beings whom he had no

52 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
preconceived design to harm, but slaying none. His
failure, however, cannot be ascribed to unsteadiness
of purpose or the lack of vigor in his blows. He
walked with as firm a step as did his chief. He
"struck" as "boldly" and with as strong "a heart."
But, as to the two other conspirators — if conspira
tors they can be called — they not only "failed"; they
never struck at all. Herold, scared away from the
Seward residence by the alarm that was sounded,
started down the avenue, until, near Willard's Hotel,
the hail of the liveryman whose horse he was riding
completed his discomfiture; and deserting Atzerodt
as he had deserted Payne, he ceased not his spurring
until he struck on the track of his master. As for
Atzerodt, his aimless movements lend a touch of the
cornic to the horrors of the night. The horse he hired
in the afternoon he left at another stable at six o 'clock
to be kept saddled and bridled until ten. At ten he
called for it and rode to the Kirkwood, but went no
nearer his prey than the bar. Even there he did not
linger, for, with instinctive prevision, he knew it would
be useless to wait for his yoke-fellow in crime. He
rode past Ford's while Booth was at his bloody work;
thence past the Patent Office where he threw away his
bowie knife still in its red sheath ; and, after clattering
about the streets until midnight, he fetched up at the
Pennsylvania House where he had been stopping.
Here, the news of the assassination redoubled his ter
rors and he hastened to restore his horse to its owner.
Then, boarding a horse car bound for the Navy Yard,
he begged permission to sleep in the store of an ac-

THE ASSASSINATION 53
quaintance and this boon being denied him slunk back
to his hotel. At an early hour next morning he started
on foot for the home of his boyhood — twenty-two miles
northwest of Washington — pawning his revolver for
ten dollars at Georgetown after an unsuccessful effort
to sell his watch. Poor, pitiable caricature of an
assassin! Immolated as a sort of proleptic sacrifice
for not doing what he was found guilty of attempting
to do.*
While this irresolute prowler was drinking whiskey
in the basement of the Kirkwood, on the second floor
Andrew Johnson, undisturbed by the faintest premoni
tion of the tremendous change hanging over his head,
was quietly sleeping in his bed. He spent the greater
portion of the day in the Vice President's room at the
capitol, dined at the hotel at five o'clock and kept to
his room in the evening. Leonard J. Farwell, a former
governor of Wisconsin, stopping at the Kirkwood and
somewhat intimate with Johnson, sat in the audience
at Ford's, heard the fatal shot and witnessed the
actor's leap upon the stage; but, unlike the few spec
tators whose efforts were directed to 'le succor of the
victim or the capture of the fugitive, his thoughts flew
to his fellow-guest whose position in the government
the tragic incident would so highly exalt. Making his
way out of the building, he ran down Tenth Street and
up two blocks on the avenue and burst into the Kirk
wood, exclaiming : * ' Guard the doors ; the President is
murdered!" Darting up the stairs he rapped again
*As to Herold, see Poore, I, 326. As to Atzerodt, id., II, 507, 510;
I, 395, 341, 390; his confession, Poore, I, 396, 399; Pitman, 307.

54 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
and again on the door of the Vice President's apart
ment, calling out in a loud voice : ' ' Governor Johnson,
if you are in, I must see you ! ' ' The awakened sleeper
sprang from his bed and unlocked the door ; and Far-
well gasps out the news so overwhelming in its effect
that (as Farwell states) "grasping hands we fell upon
each other as for mutual support." Other friends
speedily gathered. The report of the assassination
of the Secretary of State and the advent of the sol
diers sent to protect the Vice President deepened the
impression that murder was still in the air and the
lives of the surviving heads of the government still in
peril. The first move of Johnson was to send Farwell
to ascertain the precise dimensions of the calamity;
and the ex-governor with some trepidation proceeded
to the house where the President had been carried and
thence by a wide detour to the Seward residence.
Returning to the Kirkwood he reported the particulars
he had gathered; whereupon the Vice President, dis
regarding the remonstrances of his friends against his
venturing out at such an hour, and declining the offer
of a guard, ordered Major O'Bierne to lead the way
and, taking Farwell with him, made his way along the
crowded streets to the death-bed of Lincoln. There,
looking sadly on while the life of his great predecessor
ebbed slowly away, he remained until, at twenty-two
minutes after seven in the morning the assassin's
bullet made him President of the United States.*
* Testimony of Farwell in Pitman, 151 ; in Poore, III, 419. Farwell
presented to Johnson an engrossed account of the events of the night
vrritten by himself, which I read among the papers of the ex-President
in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Patterson.

CHAPTER III
The Reign of Teeeoe — the Captueb and Death of
Booth
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln caused a
revulsion of popular feeling which was simply terrific.
The people of the North were just indulging in a uni
versal glorification over the fall of the Confederate
capital and the surrender of the main Confederate
army. In every city, town, village and hamlet the
joy-bells were ringing and the sound thereof was
borne on the wings of the wind to the waste places of
prairie, mountain and inland sea. At the very height
of the jubilee, the dread spectre that hitherto had kept
its haunts in the guarded palaces of kings stalked into
the open portals of the transatlantic republic and laid
a death-dealing hand on its twice-chosen head. With
an abrupt clang the joy-bells ceased. For a moment,
a silence that could be felt wrapped the whole wide
land; and, then, here and there and everywhere arose
the cry for vengeance, swelling louder and louder with
every passing hour ; — a vengeance commensurate with
the monstrosity of the offence. The force of the
reaction in the country was exemplified by the reign of
terror which set in at the federal capital. The tidings
of the ferocious assault on the Secretary of State
coming at the same moment drove the panic-stricken
citizens well-nigh to madness. The wildest rumors
(55)

56 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
found ready credence ; the bloody villains were still at
work; the Vice President, the other members of the
cabinet, the general of the army were doomed ; the gov
ernment was to be left without a head and the rebel
forces were about to march on the defenceless city to
be welcomed by their secret allies — the aiders and
abettors of the assassins.
At this harrowing crisis the reins of government
dropped into the hands of the Secretary of War; and
a pilot more unfit to ride the whirlwind and direct the
storm than Edwin M. Stanton could not have been
found. It is true, he "never wanted energy"; but in
qualities no less essential he was lamentably deficient.
Bellicose in demeanor as he habitually was, in moments
of storm and stress he was apt to lose his head.
Thickcoming apprehensions overclouded his perception
of the real facts of a case; he would boil over with
rage whenever the course of affairs did not run to his
liking; so that a rational and equitable judgment was
the one thing he could not keep cool long enough to
form. Grant said of him: "He cared nothing for the
feelings of others. In fact, it seemed pleasanter to
him to disappoint than to gratify. He felt no hesita
tion in assuming the functions of the Executive or in
acting without advising with him. The secretary was
very timid and it was impossible for him to avoid
interfering with the armies covering the capital. He
could see our weakness, but he could not see that the
enemy was in danger. The enemy would not have
been in danger if Mr. Stanton had been in the field."*
* Mem. of Grant, II, 536-7.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 57
Over-anxiety for the safety of his own headquarters
drove him to denounce McClellan's reluctance to give
battle until he was sure of victory as treachery to his
own soldiers and collusion with the foe. The very first
step to be taken in the present crisis was to calm the
terrors of the people ; and here was a leader who could
not calm his own. Instead of endeavoring to mollify
the prevailing madness, every movement he made
seemed designed to keep it up to the highest pitch.
Before the breath was out of the body of his chief,
nay, before he knew who the assassin was and whether
the Seward massacre was the work of the same hand
or another, he rushed to the conclusion that the two
fold assassination was the outcome—still incomplete —
of a great conspiracy stretching from Canada to Rich
mond, the source of which was the president and
cabinet of the Southern Confederacy. This conclusion
he fastened in the minds of the inhabitants of the
District by placing guards around the residences of
his colleagues and his own, and declaring the capital
in a state of siege ; and he spread it broadcast over the
country and across the ocean by telegraph. In this
savage mood he ordered the confiscation of the build
ing which was stained, as it were, with the life-blood
of the nation and the arrest of every human being
employed in its service; and, while this decree was
being carried into effect, he set in motion the ma
chinery of his department to bring to justice the actual
perpetrator and his accessories before and after the
fact who, he believed, were without number and scat
tered aU over the continent. Beside the regular police

58 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
force of the city, there were subject to his orders the
military police attached to the provost-marshal's
office, the officers and privates stationed at various
points in the city and in the surrounding camps, bar
racks and fortifications, the retainers of the United
States Secret Service and the corps of detectives and
spies attached to the Bureau of Military Justice. Of
these forces — more or less emulous of each other in
the ordinary discharge of their duties — every man had
caught in its worst form the epidemic of credulity and
suspicion and, being stimulated by the hope of pro
motion and the large rewards placarded in all direc
tions, plunged into a furious competition — multiplying
arrests, extorting confessions, ferreting out witnesses
and haling them before the nearest tribunal. A
special commission, composed of three colonels, sat
during the night at General Augur's headquarters to
receive reports, take testimony, and follow up every
clue ; and in the back parlor of the house in which the
President lay the Secretary of War, with the chief
justice of the District, extemporized an investigation
of his own. The actors, employees and spectators,
hurried through the crowd outside to be sworn before
him, were in such a state of bewilderment that those of
them who expressed the belief that the figure they had
caught a glimpse of was that of the well-known actor,
declined to make a positive affirmation ; and it was not
until he was about to be summoned to the adjoining
chamber by the imminence of death that the secretary
was able to announce in a despatch to General Dix at
New York, "with reasonable certainty," that the mur-

THE REIGN OF TERROR 59
derer of Lincoln was John Wilkes Booth and the
assailant of Seward was an accomplice not yet iden
tified.* Between the hours of twelve and one that
night, a horse, blind in one eye, was found standing on
a by-road leading to Camp Barry, three quarters of
a mile east of the capital, — riderless, saddled and
bridled, the sweat pouring off of him, quivering in
every nerve! — and was taken to Augur's headquarters,
where, shortly afterward, the saddle and bridle were
identified by a liveryman as having been in the pos
session of Atzerodt two days before when he rode
away from the stable where the horse had been kept
on sale for some days. This witness also testified
before the special commission, sitting there, that he
had let the horse ridden by Herold, had attempted to
intercept the rider on the avenue, had followed on his
track as far as the Navy Yard bridge where the guard,
after informing him that two horsemen one after the
other had crossed a short time before, refused him the
same privilege and he was compelled to relinquish his
pursuit. He revealed, besides, the movements of
Atzerodt the same night as heretofore described.
Whereupon a dash was made on all the livery stables
in Washington, the proprietor from whom Booth hired
his fleet-footed mare found, and the partnership in the
keeping and use of horses that had subsisted during
* See Note I to chapter in Appendix. Also, Baker 's Secret Service,
529; Stanton's telegrams in N. ¥. Herald of Saturday the 15th;
Stewart's testimony on G. T., Poore, II, 70, 79, 81; Ferguson's, I, 191.
to. T., Tofley's testimony, Poore, I, 365, 418; S. T., 231.

60 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the pendency of the plot to capture between Booth and
Surratt brought to light.*
The emergence of the name of the youthful rider
on the underground route in close connection with the
arch-assassin seemed to furnish a solution of a problem
that was puzzling the authorities. The perpetrator
of the butchery at the Seward mansion had left behind
him, besides his hat and his weapons, a well-marked
trail, and even the horse he rode away on was in the
hands of the soldiery; but the man himself had dis
appeared as though he had sunk into the earth. At
first, indeed, it was thought that the murderer of Lin
coln might have committed both assaults, and, at the
moment when it came to light that Atzerodt had been
in possession of the one-eyed charger, it was even con
jectured that the wretched German, who displayed
such distaste for the shedding of blood in the case of
the Vice President, had distanced every competitor in
that line in the case of the Secretary of State.! But,
in the face of evidence pointing to so probable a con
spirator as Surratt, such baseless surmises instantly
fell to the ground. The real guilty party, being a
total stranger to the capital, had been seen or heard
of by no one outside of the Surratt house where he
had been hidden, whereas Surratt enjoyed a large circle
of acquaintances in Washington, his person could be
readily identified, he fitted into the vacant role with
providential nicety and his antecedents furnished
plausible evidence of his guilt. So speedy and un-
•C. T., Poore, I, 326, 173; II, 94.
iN. Y. Herald of April 15, 1865; Poore, I, 377; H, 22; S. T., 442.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 61^
doubting was the decision of the authorities that, in
the small hours of Saturday morning, a squad of-
detectives surrounded the boarding house and searched
every room in it ; announcing to the awakened inmates
that John Wilkes Booth had murdered the President
and John Surratt the Secretary of State, exhibiting at
the same time the bow of Lincoln's cravat spotted with
blood. The frightened household assured the officers
that Surratt had not been home for two weeks, his
mother stating that he was in Montreal whence she
had received a letter from him the day just past, dated
on the twelfth, and that she had last seen Booth at two
o'clock of the previous afternoon. Ordering the two
male boarders — Wiechmann and Holahan — to report
at headquarters at nine o'clock, the party left empty-
handed and dissatisfied.* In addition to this pro
visional identification of Surratt as an accomplice with
Herold and Atzerodt, another discovery was made
which put the authorities on the track of two more.
In Booth's trunk at the National Hotel was found the
letter written by Arnold withdrawing from the plot to
capture and advising a reference to Richmond before
further action ; — an item of testimony sufficient, in the
prevalent heat of pursuit, to settle the complicity of
the writer as well as that of his comrade O'Laughlin,
of whom he made mention. The letter did more —
certain of its phrases were pounced upon by Stanton
as confirmation strong of the colossal conspiracy which
had already become a fixed idea in his mind.!
* S. T., 394-5; id., 698.
t C. T., Poore, I, 419 ; N. Y. Herald, ut sup. See letter of Arnold in
Appendix, Note VII to Chap. I.

62 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Thus passed this night of dread — its last dark hours
made darker by a heavy rain. As the reluctant morn
ing broke, the death of the President extinguished any
glimmer of hope lingering in the depth of despair.
At about nine o'clock his body was inclosed in a tem
porary coffin and carried through silent crowds stand
ing in the streets, between buildings already black with
crape, to the White House and laid in the East Room.
The next day an autopsy was performed, which dem
onstrated that there could have been no gleam of con
sciousness after the fatal shot — the ball entering the
back of the head to the left of the median line and
below the line of the ear, plowing its way in an upward
and diagonal course through the brain and lodging
within half an inch of the right eye, the force of the
impact fracturing the orbits of both organs of vision.*
The whole population seemed absorbed in the celebra
tion of the obsequies of the martyred Chief Magistrate.
All civil business was suspended. The new-made
President took the oath of office with scant ceremony
or none. On Wednesday, amid the tolling of bells
and the discharge of minute guns, a resplendent
procession escorted the funeral car to the capitol,
where the open coffin lay upon a catafalque in the
rotunda until the night of the succeeding day — thou
sands passing by to gaze once more on the face of the
man to whose memory they did homage as the friend
of all the people without distinction of color, state or
section. Then the immortal dead was borne away to
his late home over the same route the son of Illinois
* See Note II to chapter iu Appendix.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 63
traversed coming to Washington as President-elect to
take the oath of office.
But even the lamentation of the whole nation
could not interrupt for an instant the pursuit of
the principal in the crime that had caused it. A
fiend in human shape, after striking down in the face
of a crowded audience the chief of the state, had
effected his escape from the place of blood ; and, then,
through unaccountable negligence, had slipped out of
the intrenched capital. Whither had he vanished?
To the guard at the Navy Yard bridge, a horseman
whom he allowed to cross at about the hour of eleven
had given the name of Booth; and a horseman who
followed at the heels of the first had been identified
as Herold by the man whom this Dogberry of a ser
geant — vigilant at the wrong moment — stayed in his
pursuit.* A brigade of infantry, a thousand cavalry
and more than two hundred detectives poured over
into lower Maryland, reaching Surrattsville at eight
o 'clock Saturday morning and Bryantown in the after
noon, spreading far and wide the tidings of the assas
sination and the probable direction of the assassin's
flight, but without hitting upon any further trace.! Fol
lowing the same trail the detectives who had searched
the house in H Street — taking the two male boarders
with them — halted at the Surratt tavern at about noon,
and one of them, having known the landlord when on
the Washington police, plied him with promises of re
ward to put them upon the track of the fugitives ; but
* Poore, I, 251.
t Baker, 530.

64 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lloyd, though he had already heard of the assassina
tion, swore that no persons could have passed that way
during the night without his knowledge, following up
his denial by starting the party on a road which led
them back to Washington by the evening. There, the
baffled band struck a fresh scent. Wiechmann, certain
that Surratt was not in Washington on the fatal night,
had seen in a newspaper of the morning that the assail
ant of Seward wore an overcoat similar to one worn by
Atzerodt, and he led the officers to search the Penn
sylvania House and, the next day, to travel to Balti
more in vain pursuit of that conspirator. But the
room in the Kirkwood House having been broken into
and the weapons concealed there found, showed that
Atzerodt 's intended victim was not the Secretary of
State but the Vice President, and the authorities were
thrown back upon the original assumption that the
missing culprit could be no other than Surratt, whose
home they ordered to be seized and for whose arrest
and extradition they despatched the detectives, with
Wiechmann and Holahan, to Canada, as soon as they
came back from Baltimore.*
At about half -past eleven o'clock that night (Mon
day) another raid was made upon the house in H
Street. The four ladies, to whom the household was
reduced, were huddled together in the parlor, destitute
of male protection and a prey to undefined appre
hensions. In response to the solemn salutation of the
presumed leader of the invaders to the landlady: "I
* Wiechmann in Poore, I, 377 and S. T., 396-7; Clarvoe, S. T., 701;
Lee in Poore, I, 62.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 65
come to arrest you and all of your house," there was
nothing to do but with trembling fingers to don their
outdoor apparel and prepare to depart. Just as the
officer in charge was about to pass them out to the
carriage that had been sent for to take them to General
Augur's headquarters, a ring was heard and, the door
being opened, a man in the guise of a day laborer stood
upon the threshold. A sleeve of a woolen undershirt
was drawn over his head, a pickaxe was on his shoul
der and his boots, reaching high up over his trousers,
were splashed with mud. He hesitated a moment and
then said he came to see Mrs. Surratt. The officer
pulled him inside and seated him in a chair behind the
open door, while two of his men passed the ladies out,
Mrs. Surratt muttering a few words which the officer
did not catch. After they had gone, the intruder was
put to the question. He said he was to dig a gutter for
Mrs. Surratt and called to see at what hour he should
go to work in the morning ; that he was twenty years
old, had left the South in February and taken the oath
of allegiance to the United States, pulling out a form
signed "Lewis Payne, Fauquier County, Va." The
officer put him under arrest at once and, as soon as the
carriage returned, sent him to follow the ladies ; him
self and others of the posse remaining until three
o'clock in the morning searching the house for in
criminating documents.* At her arrival at head
quarters, Mrs. Surratt was taken into an inner room
where the special commission was sitting, and exam
ined, her companions being left in the antechamber.
* See Note in Appendix (III to Chap.).
5

66 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
When the rough-looking stranger was brought in, not
one of the persons present was able to say that he or
she had ever set eyes on him before. A conjecture
that he might be Surratt so shocked that young man's
sister that it was necessary to summon her mother to
quiet her; and it was not until the sleeve was pulled
off his head that Miss Fitzpatrick recognized him as a
transient guest at the boarding house some time in
March, passing under the name of "Wood." After
the examination of Mrs. Surratt was over (its con
tents have never seen the light), she with her boarders
were carried off to Carroll prison; and the bellboy at
Seward's, being routed out of bed and brought to
headquarters, declared in the most positive terms that
the bedraggled newcomer was the fiery-eyed desperado
who had made a shambles of the home of the Secretary
of State.*
On the same eventful Monday, O'Laughlin at Balti
more surrendered himself to the officers who he was
told were in search of him, and Arnold was appre
hended at Old Point Comfort, the latter acknowledging
his participation in the abortive plot to capture, but
disclaiming any knowledge of a design to kill.! They
were forthwith brought to Washington and together
with Payne confined in the hold of one of the monitors
lying in midstream abreast of the Navy Yard, and
loaded with double irons. Spangler, also, having been
selected as the employee most likely to have assisted
Booth in his preparations and in his escape, was sent
* C. T., Poore, II, 31.
t Id., 118, 230, 431, 434.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 67
to keep them company, to be followed by Atzerodt, who
was aroused from slumber in the early hours of Thurs
day at the house of his cousin, the officer making the
arrest adding the man who sheltered him to the list of
prisoners who were considered secure only when
lodged below the surface of the Potomac*
Still, of the arch-assassin no further trace! The
Secretary of War (on the twentieth) issued a proc
lamation, headed: "$100,000 Reward! The Murderer
of our Beloved President is still at large!", offering
"$50,000 for his apprehension, in addition to any
reward offered by municipal authorities or state execu
tives" (aggregating over $100,000 more); "$25,000
for the apprehension of John H. Surratt, one of
Booth's accomplices; $25,000 for the apprehension of
David C. Herold, another of Booth's accomplices;
liberal rewards for any information that shall tend
to the arrest of either of the above-named criminals
or their accomplices"; warning "all persons harbor
ing or secreting said persons or either of them, or
aiding or assisting in their concealment or escape"
that they "will be treated as accomplices in the mur
der of the President and the attempted assassination
of the Secretary of State, and shall be subject to
trial before a military commission and the punishment
of death"; and closing as follows: "Let the stain of
innocent blood be removed from the land by the arrest
and punishment of the murderers. All good citizens
are exhorted to aid public justice on this occasion.
Every one should consider his own conscience charged
* Poore, I, 357; II, 515.

68 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
with this solemn duty and rest neither night or day
until it be accomplished."*
And this injunction was obeyed to the letter. The
parties conducting the search, especially, gave them
selves no rest night or day. Persons whom they sus
pected of screening the object of their pursuit under
went a bitter experience. Lloyd, still persisting in his
denial, was locked up in an extemporized guardhouse
and subjected to severe military pressure. Half mad
with terror and drink, he broke down, confessing that
at midnight on the fatal Friday Booth and Herold
stopped in front of his tavern, Booth with a broken
leg remaining on horseback and Herold coming in for
whiskey and for the two carbines concealed in the house
on the collapse of the plot to capture. As they rode
away, Booth exclaimed, "I have murdered the Presi
dent," and Herold, "I have fixed Seward." This
tardy revelation settled Lloyd's case with the officer
who had him in charge, and he was sent on to Colonel
Wells at Bryantown, who, after putting him on the
rack again, remanded him to the prisons of Washing
ton. Stopping at his home on the way, the wretched
man shouted for his prayer book, crying "I am to be
shot! That vile woman has ruined me!" and in this
* The copy produced by Stanton before the Jud. Com. H. E. March
1, 1867, differs from the one produced on C. T., as given iu Pitman 185
and in Poore iu the Introduction, by including Surratt instead of
Atzerodt. See facsimile iu Oldroyd 185 and in "Four Lincoln Con
spiracies" iu Century Mag. for April, 1896. For additional amounts
of rewards see Proc. in Baker's book, 526; and note to article, "Pur
suit and Death of Booth," in Century, January, 1890. Com. Council
of Washington offered $20,000; Baker, $10,000; 3 States, $25,000 each.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 69
besotted condition he was carried to the capital, where
even in his cell the officers in charge gave him no rest.*
Having thus at last struck the trail at Surrattsville
and discovered, besides, that their prey was incapaci
tated from much farther flight, the pursuers pressed
onward with renewed vigor until, at the residence of
Dr. Mudd, they were met by information still more
satisfactory. According to the doctor's statement, on
Saturday, before daybreak, two horsemen rode up to
his door, one of them so much disabled that he had to
be carried into the house ; an examination disclosed a
transverse fracture of the outer bone of the left! leg,
caused, as the companion of the wounded man stated,
by a fall from his horse ; the doctor set the leg as well
as he could with splints cut from a bandbox, receiving
twenty-five dollars for the service; after dinner the
younger man, having left the patient in the upper
room where they had rested in the meantime, went with
the doctor to get a carriage in order that they might
proceed on their journey, but finding none the youth
returned to the house, the doctor riding on to Bryan
town and its vicinity to make his professional calls;
on his return at about four o'clock in the afternoon
both men were gone with their horses, a rude crutch
having been made for the broken-legged rider. To
the rapid fire of questions poured in on him, the doctor
responded that both men were strangers to him ; one —
a mere lad in appearance — he was positive he never
* Poore, II, 192, 215; Lloyd's testimony, id., I, 115; ef. S. T., 290.
t There is some discrepancy as to this; but the boot slit open, pre
served in the War Office is a left boot. Cf. Baker, Oldroyd and Mason.

70 THE REIGN OF TERROR
saw before, the other he had glanced at in the dim light
of the upper room where he lay, his head muffied in
a shawl, exhausted from fatigue, faint with suffering,
and speechless ; the news of the assassination which he
heard at Bryantown aroused no suspicion in his mind
until he learned on his return that his patient had
called for a razor and shaved off his moustache, and
his wife told him that when he hobbled down stairs
she detected that his whiskers were false. Fired by
this precious intelligence and, in their eagerness to
be gone omitting to name the men they were after, the
officers plunged ahead along the route which the doc
tor pointed out to them, confident at every turn of
bringing their precious quarry to bay. But, though
they scoured every nook and corner of the vicinity, the
crippled fugitive could not be traced. A watch was
set at every ferry, gunboats were sent up and down
the river, the entire territory between the Patuxent
and the Potomac was overrun ; but to no purpose. On
Friday (21st) the baffled detectives, accompanied by a
squad of cavalry, went back in no favorable mood to
the dwelling of the man whom, as they had learned in
the meantime. Booth had visited the fall before, but
who, nevertheless, after binding up his wounds, had
set the assassin on his undiscoverable way. The doc
tor, admitting that he met the actor at the time stated,
professed to detect but little resemblance between the
photographs of Booth and Herold, thrust in his face,
and the two wayfarers who had invaded his household,
thereby giving the exasperated detectives the impres
sion that he was actuated by a desire to shield the

THE REIGN OF TERROR 71
fugitives — an impression which the discovery of the
boot he had cut off the broken leg, on the lining of
which was the inscription "J. Wilkes  ," deepened
into absolute conviction. Orders soon came from
headquarters for the doctor's arrest, and he was
whirled away from his farm, his practice, his wife and
four little ones to close confinement in Carroll prison.*
His incarceration, however, left the whereabouts of
the disabled assassin still shrouded in mystery. The
whole country seemed to writhe in an agony of sus
pense. Was it within the bounds of possibility that
the monumental crime of the age should pass into his
tory unavenged? Astrologers swept the heavens;
mediums called spirits from the vasty deep; clair
voyants lay entranced for clues; cranks, quacks and
crack-brained enthusiasts swarmed. On street cor
ners hysterical women overheard blood-curdling collo
quies and, in every pallid, blackbrowed stranger under
a sombrero, scented an assassin. Letters poured
through the post office marking the precise spot where
the fugitive lay hid and offering to deliver him to the
ministers of justice for a consideration. Young men
saw visions and old men dreamed dreams. To fur
nish evidence was to earn a crown of glory; to be a
witness for the state was to take one's place among
the heroes of the age. And, distancing every runner
in the headlong race, was the detective — both of the
police and of the soldiery — for whom the unpre-
* See testimony on C. T., Poore, I, 258, 273, 301, 294; Ufe of Mudd
by daughter, statements of Mudd and wife, p. 42; letter to President
Johnson, 148; and passim.

72 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
cedented panic was indeed a godsend. Swelling the
hue and cry, treading on each other's heels, crossing
and confusing each other's tracks — far and wide they
sped, panting for the enormous reward set before
them. From Boston, from New York, from Balti
more, to the overcrowded capital they came. The
prisons overflowed — full of "suspects" — not conspira
tors alone, but their relatives, friends, acquaintances
and persons having had dealings with them; proprie
tors of theatres and their employees; actors from the
north, the east and the west; Uvery-stable keepers,
telegraph operators, blockade runners, male and
female ; rebel scouts and spies ; whole households with
their menservants and maidservants, black and white,
and the stranger within their gates. To use the lan
guage of General Ewing, the counsel for Dr. Mudd:
"The very frenzy of madness ruled the hour. Reason
was swallowed up in patriotic passion, and a feverish
and intense excitement prevailed most unfavorable to
a cahn, correct hearing and truthful repetition of what
was said, especially by the suspected. Again and
again the accused was catechised by detectives, each
vieing with the other as to which should make the most
important discoveries, and each making an examina
tion with a preconceived opinion of guilt, and with an
eager desire, if not determination, to find in what
might be said the proofs of guilt. Again, the witnesses
testified under the strong stimulus of a promised re
ward for information leading to arrest and followed
by convictions."* On the twenty-third of AprU, as if
* Pitman, 329.

THE REIGN OF TERROR 73
he could lay bare the hiding place of the principal by
heaping torture on his fettered accessories, the war
minister issued an order: "That the prisoners on
board iron-clads ... for better security against con
versation shall have a canvass bag put over the head
of each and tied around the neck, with a hole for
proper breathing and eating, but not seeing, and that
Payne be secured to prevent self-destruction."*
At this juncture, that veteran sleuth, La Fayette C.
Baker, chief of the national detective police — as Deus
ex machina — descended into the arena. Transferred
from the state to the War Department on the accession
of Stanton to the cabinet, this indefatigable public
servant won the confidence of his new master by the
utter disregard of due process of law with which he
suppressed freedom of speech concerning the war.
Summoned from New York, where he was on duty at
the moment, the secretary placed at his command the
entire resources of the department, with the injunc
tion: "Baker, go to work. My whole dependence is
upon you." Baker needed no urging; but, with the
celerity and thoroughgoingness on which he plumed
himself, went to work after a fashion of his own.' In
the first place, with a contemptuous indifference to the
meagre results already attained, he resolved to start
afresh — stipulating for the sole charge of the investi
gation and laying down a plan of operations so as to
make sure of the whole credit of ultimate success and
also of every dollar of the exceeding great reward.
* Oldroyd, 84.

74 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The three counties lying between the Patuxent and the
Potomac having been rummaged in every direction, he
hazarded nothing in deciding that the aim of the fugi
tives must have been to cross the latter river so as to
land at some spot on the Virginia shore as near as
possible to the Rappahannock, to cross which river
and turn west to the mountains of Kentucky or Ten
nessee was the only way of escape, the whole of south
eastern Virginia being virtually in the possession of
the Union forces. Accordingly, Baker's first move
was to send, on Sunday the twenty-third, two of his
men (with a telegraph operator and apparatus fur
nished by the War Office) to Port Tobacco, to recon
noitre and open communications. Immediately on
their arrival one of the detectives ran across an old
negro who stated that, on Saturday night, near Swan's
Point, he saw two men resembling the descriptions of
Booth and Herold, one of them lame, entering a small
boat to cross the river. The black man was taken
immediately to Washington and examined by Baker,
with the result that an application was made to Gen
eral Hancock, the commander of the District, for a
detachment of cavalry numbering twenty-five men.
This force, under the command of Lieutenant Edward
P. Doherty, reported for duty at the headquarters of
Baker in the afternoon of Monday (the 24th) and was
placed under the leadership of two of Baker's most
experienced subordinates — Everton I. Conger and
Lewis Byron Baker — ^whom their chief, having traced
on a map a line he divined the assassins had taken
after crossing into Virginia, ordered to proceed at

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 75
once to Belle Plain on the Virginia side of the Poto
mac, seventy miles below, and from that point prose
cute the search throughout the whole region until they
reached Port Conway on this side of the Rappahan
nock. The party sailed on the steamboat John 8. Ide
— set apart for this service by the government — at
four o'clock and disembarked at Belle Plain at ten.
The remainder of that night and the following day
until three or four o 'clock in the afternoon were spent
in harrying the twenty-five or thirty miles of territory
intervening, but it was not until they arrived at the
designated terminus of their route that they met the
first unmistakable traces of the objects of their tireless
pursuit.* Here let us leave them while we turn back to follow
the course of the fugitives up to this moment, as that
course was afterwards revealed.
So skilfully was the assassin's plan of flight adapted
to his physical make-up and habits of life, that, had it
not been for a mishap which was wholly fortuitous, he
would have crossed the Potomac not later than Satur
day night and put himself beyond reach of immediate
pursuit, if not of eventual capture. But, providen
tially as we are taught to say, the actor's spur caught
in the flag of the country whose ruler he had just slain,
and, noted as he was for his extraordinary leaps on the
stage, this once he tripped, and in so doing broke his
leg. That he was able to rise upon his feet, fly across
the boards, mount his steed and endure the tortures of
* Baker's History of U. S. Secret Service, 527, 532.

76 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the mad gallop on the city pavements — the splintered
bone "tearing his flesh at every jump" — ^was a marvel
of fortitude. Before he got over the ten miles to
Surrattsville, he was forced to exchange his fleet-footed
mare for Herold 's roan, which was a saddle horse of
the "racker" variety.* In search of surgical aid he
diverged seven or eight miles out of his direct route
and lost twelve hours of daylight before he could
venture to resume his hobble towards the river of his
hopes. He lost his way in the barren marshes to the
south of Dr. Mudd's and was rescued by a negro who
carried him in his wagon about fifteen miles to the
residence of Samuel Cox — a prominent sympathizer
with the South, who in all probability had been cog
nizant of the plot to capture — where he was within
four or five miles of the Potomac. Here, in the early
hours of Sunday, his forty-five mile race for life came
to an end. He could go no farther, either by horse,
wagon or afoot. For thirty hours he had been upon
the rack and he could endure the incessant agony
no longer. The master of the house, on whose thresh-
hold he lay, having heard of the terrible event of
Friday night, refused to admit stragglers at such an
hour; and, with his companion and the horses, he was
driven to seek such shelter as he could find in the open
air. After sunrise. Cox, in view of the helpless plight
of one of the outlaws, relented so far as to conduct
them to the centre of an almost impenetrable thicket
of short pines, a mile or two from his premises, and to
persuade his foster-brother, Thomas A. Jones, to take
* Poore, I, 255 ; Lloyd 's testimony on C. T., Poore, I, 130.

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 77
measures to transport them across the river and to
care for them in the meantime. Here they languished
for six long days and five longer nights, a prey to
undefined fears and unspeakable misery ; Booth lying
on the ground, his illset limb irritated to the verge of
mortification by his long ride ; Herold loitering about
with his carbine, on watch for the possible approach
of the hunters, hearing in the distance the occasional
tramp of cavalry, and driven at length to shoot the
two horses that had carried them so far lest the
neighing of the animals betray their whereabouts.
Jones belonged to a well-known type of Southern man
hood: cool, reticent, absolutely fearless, ready to lay
down his life for a cause once he had espoused it;
incapable of entertaining the thought of deserting any
enterprise he had undertaken, no matter how perilous
or even hopeless it might become. He watched over
the fugitives while he scanned the river for a propi
tious moment for them to cross; a slave who had
spurned the boon of freedom, to tread in the footsteps
of his master, carrying their food and holding in readi
ness for their use the boat which he fished in by day
and hid on shore at night. Jones, who had been the
chief agent on the Maryland side of the underground
mail between Richmond and points north, kept Booth
supplied with the current newspapers, the reading of
which must have superadded mental, to his physical,
anguish.* To give vent to his feelings as well as to
wile away the heavy-laden hours, he scribbled with a
pencil on the blank leaves of his pocket diary of the
* See account by George Alfred Townsend in Century for AprU, 1884.

78 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
last year an appeal to posterity: an appeal which
might never have reached its destination had not the
sedulous concealment of the book on the Conspiracy
Trial and its mutilated state when unearthed, led to
its production on the impeachment proceeding against
President Johnson. The first entry begins :
"April 13, 14, Friday, the Ides. Until to-day nothing was
ever thought of sacrificing to our country's wrongs"; (obvi
ously, these words could not have been written before the
writer had caught sight of the newspapers, which he had no
opportunity to do until he reached his present asylum). He
goes on: "For six months we had worked to capture. . . .
I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I walked with
a firm step through a thousand of his friends; was stopped,
but pushed on. A colonel was at his side. I shouted sic
semper, before I fired. ... I can never repent it though we
hated to kill. . . . This night (before the deed) I wrote a long
article and left it for one of the editors of the National
Intelligencer, in which I fully set forth our reasons for our
proceedings. He or the govnt— " (Here, apparently, the
writing was laid aside to make an attempt to cross, as he
resumes) : "Friday 21. After being hunted like a dog
through swamps, woods and last night chased by gunboats
till I was forced to return wet, cold and starving, with every
man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why?
For doing what Brutus was honored for— what made Tell a
hero. . . . The little, the very little I left behind me to clear
my name, the Govnt. will not allow to be printed. So ends
all. ... I have only heard of what has been done (except
what I did myself) and it fills me with horror. . . . To-night
I will once more try the river with the intent to cross. I have
a greater desire and almost a mind to return to Washington

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 79
and clear my name which I feel I can do. . . . To-night I
try to escape these bloodhounds once more. ... I have too
great a soul to die like a criminal. ... I do not wish to shed
a drop of blood, but 'I must fight the course.' 'Tis all that's
left me."*
In the dusk of this same evening, with two seven-
shooting revolvers and his blood-stained knife in his
belt, his field-glass slung over his shoulder, still cling
ing to his crutch, resolved to die before being taken
alive — he is lifted on a horse and, with Herold carry
ing the carbine and Jones leading the way, is guided
through the dense undergrowth and down a steep
ravine to the water's edge, placed in the stern of the
boat brought from its hiding place by the faithful
negro, and, Herold taking the oars, launched on the
surface of the stream. The Potomac, at this point
three or four miles wide, having made a mighty sweep
to the east and then to the south, the exhausted men,
after rowing all night, find themselves ten miles up
the river and still near the Maryland side. Forced to
lie hid in the swamps of the Nanjamoy Cove during
the hours of daylight, they push off again when dark
ness comes, descend the river, passing their starting
point of the night before, and, early Sunday morning,
land at last on the Virginia shore five miles below. A
lady living on the bank furnished them with means of
transportation to the cabin of a Mr. Bryan, where,
after stopping during a portion of the day, they were
taken by him to the country residence of Dr. Richard
* Cf. version in Imp. Inv., 286, with one in S. T., 310. Facsimile of close
iu Centwy, AprU, 1896. See testimony of Holt on Imp. Inv., 28, 285.

80 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Stewart, some eight miles inland, reaching there at
seven o'clock in the evening. The doctor, having
repeatedly suffered arrest on the charge of aiding the
rebellion, at this crisis was in no humor to risk his
neck by harboring possible assassins, and he denied
them admittance, though he provided them with sup
per and directed them to a hut on his premises occu
pied by a negro, named Lucas, where they passed the
night. From this squalid lodging, the actor, so re
cently "the glass of fashion and the mould of form,"
despatched a note to the doctor written on a leaf from
the diary, the tone of which may serve to show that
neither crime, nor wounds, nor suffering, nor banish
ment, not even the imminence of capture and a felon's
doom could quell the vainglorious self-consciousness
of this hero of the boards :
"Deae Sie: Forgive me, but I have some little pride. I
hate to blame you for your want of hospitality; you know
your own affairs. I was sick and tired, with a broken leg,
in need of medical advice. I would not have turned a dog
from my door in such a condition. However, you were kind
enough to give me something to eat, for which I not only thank
you, but on account of the reluctant manner in which it was
bestowed, I feel bound to pay for it. It is not the substance,
but the manner in which kindness is extended, that makes
one happy in the acceptance thereof. The sauce in meat is
ceremony; meeting were bare Tvithout it. Be kind enough
to accept the enclosed two dollars and a half (though hard to
spare) for what we have received.
April 24, 1865. ^°^^ respectfully.
To Dr. Stewart Stranger."*
* See Note IV to this chapter in Appendix; Imp. Inv., 677; S. T., 402.

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 81
The next morning (Monday the 24th) Lucas drove
his unwelcome guests the twelve miles to Port Conway,
arriving there about half -past nine o 'clock, where they
tried to engage a fisherman who lived close by the
river (Rollins by name)* to take them across to Port
Royal on the opposite side; but, before he got ready
to do so, three Confederate cavalrymen coming home
from the war — Jett, Ruggles and Bainbridge — hailed
the ferry, and, after a parley with them, Booth and
Herold were poled across by the negro ferryman in
company with the officers — Booth astride one of their
horses. Three miles farther on. Booth was left, under
the guise of a wounded Confederate by the name of
Boyd, at the residence of Richard H. Garrett, and
Herold went on with the soldiers to Bowling Green,
thirteen miles distant. The next day (Tuesday)
Herold came back in company with Ruggles and Bain
bridge as far as Garrett's, where he joined his leader;
the two officers riding on toward Port Royal until
hearing that the place was alive with Union soldiers
searching for the assassins, they hid themselves in the
woods. That afternoon a troop of cavalry passing
along the road so frightened Garrett that he urged the
instant departure of his questionable guests, who
thereupon sought refuge in a plantation in the rear of
the house, but after nightfall returned, pleading for
shelter, and were given lodgings in a tobacco ware
house on the premises by one of Garrett's sons, who,
* Testimony is discrepant as to the role of Eollins and who the
ferryman was. The clearest witness is L. B. Baker on 8. T., 317. See
Kuggles' narrative in Century for January, 1890, and Oldroyd, 302.
6

82 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
apprehensive they might make off with his father's
horses, locked them in and remained on the watch in
a corn-crib near by.
We now return to Baker's men, who struck Port
Conway about noon the day after their quarry crossed
the Rappahannock. Rollins recognized the photo
graphs of Booth and Herold shown him by one of the
detectives as those of the two men who had tried to
hire him to put them over the river and were in fact
ferried over in company with the three Confederates,
one of whom (Jett) he knew as a visitor at Bowling
Green. He was immediately impressed into the serv
ice as guide, and the whole party of nearly thirty men
with their horses were hurried aboard the scow, nearly
swamping the boat in their passage. On they sped
for Bowling Green, passing the Garrett homestead that
stood in a clump of trees back of the road, where
Booth caught a glimpse of the riders as he lay on the
lawn. Jett was seized in his bed at midnight, forced
at the point of a pistol to disclose the whereabouts of
the fugitives he had aided the day before and then to
guide the officers to the spot. Back they go, reaching
Garrett's at two o'clock Wednesday morning. Aroused
from slumber by the inrush of mounted men, the owner
of the mansion tremblingly protested that the two
strangers had gone to the woods ; at which unwelcome
tidings the leader of the band called for a rope to hang
the old man on one of his own trees. To save his
father, the son came forward and pointed to the build
ing in which the outlaws lay hidden; and with an

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 83
exultant shout the whole force surged forward and
invested the last refuge of their priceless prey.*
The warehouse was sixty feet square, empty save
for a few articles of household furniture and some
loose straw and hay in one corner ; having large double
doors in front and open spaces four inches wide in the
boarding on the sides, to air the tobacco when the
structure was in use. All was dark and still inside.
Lieutenant Baker advanced to the front and, taking
the key from young Garrett, unlocked a small door in
one of the large doors, opened it, and pushed the
reluctant boy inside, who was immediately driven back
by a threat to take his life. Thereupon, raising his
voice. Baker spoke : ' ' We have fifty armed men around
the barn and unless you surrender we will set fire to
the building." Out of the darkness within came the
response : * ' Captain, give a lame man a chance. Draw
up your men before the door and I'll come out and
fight the whole command." This foolhardy challenge
being put aside with the remark that they "came not
to fight him, but to take him prisoner," the voice was
heard again: "Well, my brave boys, you can prepare
a stretcher for me. ' ' In the meantime, the cavalrymen
had dismounted and, two by two, led the horses out
of range of the threatened fire; but, exhausted as the
men were from having been in the saddle without sleep
or rest since Monday night, instead of taking their
stand to guard the rear and sides of the building, they
dropped down promiscuously under the trees; and it
was with the utmost difficulty that Conger could pre-
* Garrett's testimony, S. T., 302.

84 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
vail upon as few as six of their number to sit upon
rails placed not less than thirty feet from the ware
house. While this movement was being executed the
strain had become too much for Herold, and, after a
parley over the surrender of his arms which Booth
claimed as his own, he was pulled out emptyhanded
by the wrists and passed over to Doherty, who tied
him to a tree. Conger, then, leaving positive orders
that not a soldier should come nearer than the pre
scribed distance, and under no circumstances to fire a
shot, started from the front around to the right to the
corner in the rear, and, inserting a lighted wisp of
straw, set fire to the stubble on the floor. As the
flames lit up the lofty interior, Baker caught sight of
the trapped tragedian as he was about to make his
final exit. Just risen from his bed of straw, with a
crutch under his left arm and the carbine in his right
hand. Booth was in the act of starting towards the
fire, peering through the interspaces to catch sight of
the invisible foe. He caught up an old table as if to
throw it on the blaze but dropped it and, looking up,
saw the flames mounting to the roof. ' ' Then he seemed
to give it up"; and his countenance fell. Dropping
his crutch and passing the carbine to his left hand, he
drew his revolver and, "with a kind of limping, halting-
jump," advanced within twelve feet of the door where
Baker, unseen by him, was awaiting his approach;
and, there, stood for one brief moment — encompassed
by armed men, to every one of whom, in the light of
the fire, he was an easy mark — weighing the supreme
alternative before him; should he "live to be the

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 85
show and gaze of the time," "be baited with the
rabble's curse," or should he die by his own hand?
A pistol shot breaks upon the smoky air. The actor
with an upward spring falls on his back. Baker is
upon him in an instant, twisting out of his clenched
hand the revolver; the carbine having fallen between
his legs. Garrett is the next man to enter, calling for
help to put out the fire. Conger rushing in exclaims :
"He shot himself." Baker answers: "He did not.
You shot him." Conger rejoins: "I did not"; and,
pointing to the wound in the right side of the neck
whence the blood was oozing, reiterates: "Yes, sir; he
shot himself." Baker persists, saying "He did not.
I saw him the whole time, and the man who shot him
goes back to Washington under arrest."
Doherty, having disposed of Herold, here comes in,
takes possession of the carbine and the weapons in
Booth's belt; and the apparently inanimate body is
dragged out of reach of the flames and laid under a
tree. Signs of life reappear, the parched lips mur
muring: "Tell, mother — tell mother — I die for my
country." The captive is carried to the porch of the
house and a physician is sent for to Port Royal. On
his arrival, discovering that the ball had passed
through the neck-bone "perforating both sides of the
collar," he gives his opinion that the patient cannot
live more than an hour. Thereupon, Conger, in haste
to be off with the momentous tidings, and his col
league, each kneeling on one side of the still breathing
man, rifle his pockets and his person, Booth mumbling
once and again, "Kill me! Kill me!" until he relapses

86 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
into unconsciousness which at about seven o'clock
deepens into death. The breath was hardly out of the
body before Conger, with the articles taken from it
tied up in a handkerchief, is in the saddle bound for
Belle Plain; and, catching the regular steamer there
for Washington, reached the headquarters of his chief
at four o'clock in the afternoon. Thence the two
officers hurried to the War Department and, Stanton
having gone home, to his residence, and there an
nounced the capture and death of the assassin. The
handkerchief was opened, the articles examined, and
Stanton, retaining the diary, confided the rest to
General Baker. That redoubtable officer was further
marked out by the head of the War Office as entitled
to the credit of the glorious success, by being ordered
to board the monitor Montauh, sail down the river to
meet the steamboat coming up with the captives — the
living and the dead — and have them transferred to the
vessel of which he was in charge.
As soon as Booth was dead, his body was sewn up
in an army blanket and, with the weapons on his per
son when he fell, put into an old market wagon driven
by a negro and started for Belle Plain; the cavalry
escorting and Herold following on foot until he could
walk no longer, when he was tied on a horse. At six
in the evening the cavalcade reembarked on the Ide,
met the monitor halfway to the capital, followed in its
wake until they reached the Navy Yard, where, on
Thursday morning, at two o'clock (the 27th), the
transfer was made, the corpse being laid on the deck
and Herold joining the double-ironed and canvass-

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 87
bagged prisoners in the hold. Later in the day a post
mortem examination was made for the purpose of
identifying the body as Booth's beyond question; and
the surgeon-general removed the perforated section of
the vertebrae for preservation as a national memento.
In the dead hours of the night, under the superintend
ence of the chief of the detective force, the remains
were lowered into a boat, rowed over to the arsenal
grounds, placed in a gun box and buried beneath the
pavement of a large cell on the ground floor of the Old
Penitentiary, the iron gate locked and the key de
livered to Stanton. No effort was spared to conceal
the time, place and circumstances of the burial. False
stories were set afloat more effectually to further this
purpose. From earth, air, river or ocean, no relic
should be filched to be made the subject of rebel
glorification. Who fired the shot that baulked the complete ven
geance of an outraged people? This question, to set
tle which beyond controversy the authorities were in
possession of evidence abundant and conclusive, they
preferred to let rest upon testimony inconclusive, im
peachable and contradictory.
Booth was carried out of the burning warehouse and
laid upon the porch of the Garrett homestead between
three and four o'clock in the morning, and during the
interval that elapsed before the arrival of a physician,
Conger went in search of the soldier who, his colleague
insisted, in direct defiance of his orders, anticipated
the suicide of the fugitive at the moment his capture

88 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
was certain. He found the offender in the person of
Boston Corbett, the first sergeant of the company from
which the detachment of cavalry was drawn, — a strict
disciplinarian, "with an odd expression of counte
nance," a gloomy disposition, eccentric habits, an
extravagant estimate of his own importance, and, in
any cause he espoused, earnest to the point of fanati
cism. When called to account for shooting without
orders, he drew himself up, saluted and said: "Col
onel, Providence directed me" — a line of defence that
"rather non-plussed the colonel," who decided "to let
Providence and the Secretary of War take care of
him." When arraigned by Doherty, his immediate
superior (if that officer is to be believed), he invoked
no supernatural authority, but pleaded that seeing
Booth holding his carbine as if about to shoot, he fired
to disable him in the arm, but the bullet miscarried
and struck a spot corresponding to the one where the
assassin's entered the head of Lincoln; — another
providential interposition, as the lieutenant appears to
have considered — this time, however, not inspiring the
shooter but guiding the ball. Corbett 's story, highly
improbable because of the relative position of the
parties, and uncorroborated by the testimony of a
single witness out of the twenty-four comrades pre
sumably on the watch, seems to have been accepted
without question. The only alternative solution was
suicide — a mode of death regarded by captors, authori
ties and the people at large as too heroic for such a
monster in crime. The offending sergeant did not go
back to Washington under arrest. So far from re-

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 89
penting of his insubordination, he gloried in his deed.
He was used by the government as a witness before
the Military Commission, where, only twenty days
after his boasted exploit, he testified that "from his
desperate replies" he knew the "man would not be
taken alive." "My impression was it was time the
man was shot, and I took steady aim on my arm and
shot him through a large crack in the barn." Be
cause, as he further said, improper motives had been
imputed to him for his act, he embraced the opportu
nity to set himself right. ' ' I twice offered to my com
manding officer. Lieutenant Doherty, and once to
Mr. Conger to go in the barn and take the man; . . .
that it was less dangerous to go in and fight him than
to stand before a crack exposed to his fire ; . . . but I
was not sent in." (An incident of which we hear
nothing from the testimony of the three officers them
selves.) "It was not through fear at all that I shot
him. ... I thought he would do harm to our men in
trying to fight his way out through that door if I did
not." Unrebuked, he left the stand to start on a
triumphant tour over the North, everywhere welcomed
as an avenger of blood. He received his proportionate
share of the reward for the capture, notwithstanding
(if his story is to be believed) it was his own wanton
aet that saved the captive from paying the penalty of
his crime. For him, the Secretary of War smoothed
his terrifying front. Providence, the other authority
to whom his commanding officer consigned him, was
not so favorable. In after years, having been ap
pointed doorkeeper of the Kansas House of Repre-

90 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
sentatives, he tried his skill with the pistol in an effort
to exterminate the entire membership of that body
and, in consequence, landed in a lunatic asylum.
On the other hand, the government made no effort
to countervail the presumption of suicide raised by
certain incidents of the capture. Lieutenant Baker,
the first to reach the fallen man, twisted out of his
right hand a tightly clenched revolver, a seven-shooter,
and must have noticed whether it had just been
fired or not. He was not asked the question, and was
not even sworn before the Military Commission.
Colonel Conger supposed Booth had shot himself and
with that impression examined the wound as soon as
he entered the warehouse; and he testified: "He had
the appearance of a man who had put a pistol to his
head and shot himself — shooting a little too low."
The autopsy should have disclosed the calibre of the
pistol and the size of the ball with which the wound
was inflicted ; the War Department having possession
of Booth's weapons might easily have shown whether
or not one chamber of the revolver was empty, as it
was asserted at the time it was. But the autopsy, so
far as the evidence discloses, amounted to but an
identification of the corpse; and it does not appear
that the pistol, with which the assassin might have
carried out his resolve never to be taken alive, was
ever examined.
When Robespierre was captured — "a pistol clenched
convulsively in his hand" — a young gendarme named
Meda claimed the honor of having fired the shot that
shattered the underjaw of the hated triumvir. On

CAPTURE AND DEATH OF BOOTH 91
this claim, Carlyle remarks : ' ' Meda got promoted for
his services of this night and died General and Baron.
Few credited Meda in what was otherwise incredible."
Mr. John Morley declares : "Whether Robespierre was
shot by an officer of the Conventional force or at
tempted to blow out his brains we shall never know."
The two cases furnish a striking parallel. The
immense weight of odium under which the captive was
laboring; the beckoning opportunity to pose as the
instrument of a nation's justice; the indications and
the likelihood that the wound was self-inflicted; the
popular revtdsion from any such hypothesis and the
consequent eagerness to welcome a candidate for
the glory of the deed — features unique in their concat
enation — all these were common to both. In the case
of Robespierre, however, there was some semblance
of investigation ; in the case of Booth, there was none.*
* See Note V to this chapter in Appendix, where the authorities on
which the foregoing narrative is founded are given.

CHAPTER IV
The Conspibacy Teial
In the very focus of the hurlyburly of pursuit occa
sioned by the disappearance of the assassin, that
branch of the War Department yclept the Bureau of
Military Justice, presided over by Joseph Holt, the
judge advocate general of the army, was steadily at
work gathering in and manipulating witnesses and
accumulating testimony in support of the hypothesis
fixed upon to govern the prosecution. That the calam
ity stunning the nation in the hour of victory was the
work of a half -crazed actor and his madder tool, seiz
ing favorable opportunity to murder the President in
the theatre and the Secretary of State in his bed, was
a solution altogether too commonplace to find harbor
in the overheated imaginations of the managers of that
institution. So stupendous a crime must have had its
origin in the rebellion — in itself a gigantic assassina
tion; must have been the outcome of months if not
years of preparation, numbering adherents high and
low in every part of the continent from Montreal in
the north to Richmond in the south. On the morning
of Lincoln's death, Stanton advised the American
minister at London: "The murderer of the President
has been discovered and evidence obtained that these
horrible crimes were committed in execution of a con
spiracy deliberately planned and set on foot by rebels
(92)

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 93
under the pretense of avenging the South and aiding
the rebel cause." The theory of the prosecution was
set forth by its special counsel: "Because Abraham
Lincoln had been clear in his office, ... he must be
murdered; because Mr. Seward . . . had thwarted
the purpose of treason to plunge his country in a war
with England, he must be murdered ; because . . . An
drew Johnson would succeed to the Presidency . . .
he must be murdered; because the Secretary of War
had taken care that the republic should live and not
die, he must be murdered." Already convinced that
Jefferson Davis and his agents were guilty of such
atrocities as starving Union prisoners, smuggling
clothing infected with yellow fever and smallpox into
Union cities, planning to dump strychnine and prussic
acid into the New York reservoir and actually attempt
ing to set the city on fire, Stanton and Holt had no
reason to presume that such case-hardened traitors
would shrink from plunging into assassination by the
wholesale ; and their minds, in consequence, were in a
condition to receive with facile credulity and lucrative
welcome every scrap of testimony looking in that
direction which the expert purveyors of such wares
offered for sale in open market. The chief of these
was Sanford Conover, who had already served as a
spy on the Confederate agents in Canada, passing
among them as a congenial spirit under the name of
James Watson Wallace. Of this accomplished per
jurer, it suffices for the present to say that, in his long
career of iniquity before he finally came to grief, he
never failed to bring back to the tribunal, blind enough

94 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
or reckless enough to accept his service, precisely the
kind and quantity of testimony he was sent to get,
even if he had to back it by his own overtasked oath.
What started the flight of such unclean birds for the
harvest fields of the British province, however, was
not altogether the figment of a fevered imagination.
The evidence of "a conspiracy deliberately planned
and set on foot by the rebels," which the Secretary of
War informed the court of St. James's had been ob
tained as early as the morning after the assassination,
could have consisted alone in the letter signed "Sam,"
found in Booth's trunk, which proved the pendency
for an indefinite period prior to its date in March of
a conspiracy with which the authorities at Richmond
might have had something to do. This something, it
is true, was little but, in this time of stress, enough.
Here was a conspiracy of dimensions suited to the
catastrophe ; and it mattered little that the conspiracy,
as it developed, appeared to be a conspiracy not to
assassinate but to capture the President, the failure of
which, besides, antedated the collapse of the rebellion
— a result which was the direct antecedent of the
assassination. The prosecuting authorities were in
no humor for nice distinctions and they seized upon
the position as invulnerable that a plot to capture was
equivalent to a plot to kill, participation in the one
being proof of participation in the other. Macaulay,
speaking of the incipient plans for revolt against
Charles II in the last years of the reign of that
monarch, remarks : ' ' There were two plots, one within
the other. The object of the great Whig plot was to

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 95
raise the nation in arms against the government. The
lesser plot, commonly called the Rye House plot, in
which only a few desperate men were concerned, had
for its object the murder of the King and the heir
presumptive. . . . That only a small minority had
admitted in their minds the thought of assassination
is fully established; but as the two conspiracies ran
into each other, it was not difficult for the government
to confound them together." And John Richard
Green, treating of the same incident, concludes: "Both
projects were betrayed, and though they were wholly
distinct from one another, the cruel ingenuity of the
crown lawyers blended them into one."*
In the present instance there was an additional
incentive to the exercise of the same "cruel ingenuity"
on the part of the prosecution. Death had snatched
the arch-assassin from their grasp; Payne, Atzerodt
and Herold they might have hung " in a corner, ' ' with
none to call in question the validity or justice of the
process. But an expiation so unspectacular would
have been but a sorry afterpiece to a world-historic
tragedy. To fill the measure of the people's ven
geance, they must bring within the sweep of the sword
of the republic every participant, high or low, far or
near, active or passive, from the fugitive president of
the moribund Confederacy, his cabinet ministers and
his agents in Canada, down to the lackey who swept out
the building within whose guilty walls the tragedy was
enacted. "The agreement and combination," so the
special judge advocate insisted, "was not to kidnap"
* Macaulay 's Hist., Vol. I, Chap. II, 208-9. Green's, III, 451.

96 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
— a conspiracy, by its very name, restricted to a single
victim — "but to kill and murder Abraham Lincoln,
William H. Seward, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S.
Grant, Edwin M. Stanton and others of his advisers";
— a conspiracy susceptible of enlargement so as to
embrace the entire staff of the executive.*
This obstinate insistence on the identity of the two
plots was exemplified remarkably in the treatment of
the case of John H. Surratt. That this young man
was deeply implicated in the plot to capture, the evi
dence was abundant ; but it was equally so that, after
the failure of the plot and the departure of the Presi
dent to the front, he left Washington for Richmond
and did not return until the night of the day Richmond
was evacuated and then only to pass directly through
Washington on his way to Montreal. His association
with Booth since the beginning of the year appeared
to have been so close as to point him out as the
assailant of Seward and to cause the arrest of his
mother and every inmate of her boarding house. Yet,
at the same time, it was apparent that the association
came to an end with his departure from Washington,
and the discovery of Payne left him with no part to
play on the fatal night. Nevertheless, the prosecution
could not afford to lose the benefit of the mass of proof
that clustered around the house in H Street. The
meetings of the conspirators there, though not extend
ing into the month of April, were nevertheless con
strued to be the meetings of assassins, and the pretence
* Bingham 's argument in Pitman. See Note I to this chapter ia
Appendix.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 97
of a plot to capture should not avail to mitigate their
common guilt.
When, therefore, after an absence of twelve days,
the posse sent to Canada in pursuit of Surratt returned
with the tidings that the culprit had left Montreal the
day before the assassination to come back the Tuesday
after, the fate of the two male boarders at Mrs.
Surratt 's — drafted into the service of the expedition — -
hung trembling in the balance. Against Holahan,
however, the severest scrutiny failed to detect a single
criminating circumstance; but, on the other hand,
against Wiechmann they cropped out on every side. A
clerk in the War Department, he was the roommate of
Booth's chief of staff, the favorite boarder of the lady
of the house, and hail-fellow-well-met with every
visitor of her son. The day after he reached Wash
ington from Canada he was summoned to appear
before the War Minister — then in the mood of "the
enraged Northumberland." The details of the inter
view must be left to the imagination. Doubtless, but
one alternative was held out to him — to make a clean
breast of it or join his former companions in the hold
of the monitor. A stenographer being called in, his
statement was taken down and sworn to. As he had
not seen his chum since the night in April when Surratt
passed through Washington on his way to Montreal,
his testimony against the son went no further than to
connect him with the plot to capture, on which point
it was not needed ; but he was able to furnish two items
of evidence tending to implicate the mother in the
assassination. He had driven his landlady twice dur-
7

98 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ing the fatal week to her old place in the country, —
on Tuesday and Friday, on the later date carrying a
field-glass which Booth left that afternoon at her
house for the purpose, and which he called for at the
tavern in his flight. At the close of the examination,
his stern inquisitor said: "Mr. Wiechmann, for your
safety in this thing, you will have to go to Carroll
prison"; and to Carroll prison Mr. Wiechmann went,
"laboring under a great deal of excitement and under
a great deal of nervousness" (as he himself says and
we may well believe) — there to be warned "by an
officer of the government" "that unless he testified to
more than he had already stated they would hang him,
too."* The right arm of the Bureau in its work of prepara
tion was La Fayette C. Baker, the detective who had
so highly distinguished himself in planning the cap
ture of Booth and whose methods are thus described
by a writer of the day : ' ' He made himself thoroughly
conversant with the associations and habits of the
chief actor's acquaintances in Washington, Baltimore,
Montreal and other cities. Some were promptly
arrested; a careful espionage was established over
others; confidential agents were sent far and wide,
and some of them in disguise ; the magnetic telegraph
and the photographic camera were called into the
service for the transmission of intelligence and the
multiplication of portraits of identification"; and
(what by these efforts was a matter of course) "it was
not long before the proofs of a conspiracy organized
* S. T., 446, 820, 836.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 99
at Richmond and perfected in Canada were over
whelming."* Baker in his book states that Stanton's
despatch to the Associated Press awarding him "the
honor and prestige of the capture induced all those
previously engaged in the search to immediately aban
don the whole case. Evidence to convict the assassins
had yet to be obtained. On my bureau devolved the
task of procuring, compiling and arranging the testi
mony. I subpoenaed for the prosecution and defence
more than two hundred witnesses."! And yet, of this
Atlas of the prosecution, when, but little more than
two years afterwards, he was devoting his unrivaled
powers to implicate President Johnson in the assas
sination, a minority of the judiciary committee of the
House of Representatives reported as follows: "Al
though examined on oath, time and again, and on
various occasions, it is doubtful whether he has in any
one thing told the truth even by accident. . . And
we are glad to know that no one member of the com
mittee deems any statement made by him as worthy
of the slightest credit. . . . Clothed with power by a
reckless administration, and with his unprincipled
tools and spies permeating the land everywhere, with
uncounted thousands of the people's money placed in
his hands, . . . this creature not only had power to
arrest without crime or writ, and imprison without
limit, any citizen of the republic, but that he actually
did so arrest thousands all over the land."!
* Poore 's Introduction.
t Hist, of Secret Service, 563.
t Imp. Inv., p. Ill of Reports.

100 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Such were the means and such the instruments
employed in the procurement of witnesses to establish
the charges drawn up by the judge advocate general.
It remained to provide a tribunal to hear and deter
mine. That the accused were entitled — every one by
himself — to a trial by jury in the civil courts of the
District was a proposition inadmissible by the authori
ties because incompatible with their entire scheme of
procedure. In the first place, the whole array of con
spirators must be arraigned at the same time ; and, in
the next, the disloyal element in the vicinage must be
allowed no chance to put in jeopardy the anticipated
verdict. What the crisis demanded was a tribunal
that would be troubled with no technicalities of con
stitutional law, no pedantic adherence to the rules of
evidence or by that obnoxious creation of legal meta
physics — a reasonable doubt; in short, a court, the
members of which would submit without demur to the
guidance of the prosecuting officers. Accordingly, on
the first day of May, President Johnson ordered the
assistant adjutant general to detail nine officers of the
army to serve as a military commission to try all per
sons implicated in the murder of their late com
mander-in-chief and "in a conspiracy to assassinate
other officers of the federal government"; and, the
members having been picked out by the Secretary of
War, they were summoned to meet at Washington on
the ensuing Monday. On the second, the President
issued a proclamation, which, after reciting that "it
appears from evidence in the Bureau of Military Jus
tice that the atrocious murder of . . . Abraham Lin-

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 101
coin and the attempted assassination of William H.
Seward . . . were incited, concerted and procured by
and between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Vir
ginia, and Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly
Tucker, George N. Sanders, WiUiam C. Cleary and
other rebels and traitors against the government of
the United States, harbored in Canada," — offered the
following rewards: "$100,000 for the arrest of Jef
ferson Davis," and $25,000 for the arrest of every one
of the others named, except Cleary, ' ' the late clerk of
Clement C. Clay," for whose arrest $10,000 were
offered; and, thus, having provided the requisite
tribunal and the proper machinery to apprehend the
conspirators still at large — from the number of persons
undergoing confinement, those whom the Bureau had
pitched upon to be put upon trial were segregated in
the Old Penitentiary, under the ground floor of which
Booth lay buried. A room on the top floor was fitted
up to do duty as a temple of justice; for, in this
instance, instead of the prisoners being taken to the
court, the court was to be taken to the prisoners.
On Wednesday, the tenth day of May, the commis
sion, as finally constituted, held its first session. As it
happened, at the dawn of this day Jefferson Davis was
captured; and Clay, within twenty-four hours, sur
rendered himself to the authorities. No postpone
ment, however, was asked for to allow these two
notable captives to be added to the group of con
spirators to be brought to the bar; on the contrary,
hurried off to the casemates of Fort Monroe they were
tried and found guilty in their absence. The court

102 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
room was but a larger cell in the penitentiary; forty-
five feet in length by twenty in width, its ceiling eleven
feet high supported by wooden pillars standing along
the middle line of the floor and its four windows grated
with iron. The members of the commission, in full uni
form, were ranged about a table near the eastern end
and parallel to its north side — Major General Hunter
(fresh from the grave of his beloved friend and com
mander, whence he had hurried to preside over the
court) sitting at the head; on his right. Generals Wal
lace and Ekin and Colonel Tomkins ; on his left Generals
Kautz, Foster, Harris and Howe and Lieutenant-Col
onel Clendenin. At the foot of this table was another,
at which sat Joseph Holt, the judge advocate general,
John A. Bingham, the special assistant judge advo
cate and Henry L. Burnett, the judge advocate of the
Western Department — these three being not only
counsel for the government but, under the rules of
war, members of the commission. In the centre was
the witness-stand facing the judges and behind it were
a table for the prisoners' counsel and another for the
official reporters. There was no space for spectators,
the rule being, "No admittance except on business."
Along the western side was a platform, one foot in
height and four in width, having a railing in front and
divided near the south corner by a door opening into
the corridor leading to the cells. Under the command
of General John F. Hartranft, the special provost-
marshal of the commission, were a brigade of volun
teers and a detachment of the veteran reserve corps,
detailed to stand guard outside and inside the prison,

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 103
protect the members of the court, prevent the escape
of the prisoners and repel any hostile attack.
At the appointed hour the door in the western wall
was thrown open and a woe-begone procession wound
its painful way into the court room. Arnold, Mudd,
Spangler, O'Laughlin, Atzerodt, Payne, Herold — each
attended by an armed soldier — enter in the order
named and, turning to their left, mount and march
along the platform, taking their seats with the soldiers
sandwiched among them. On their wrists were heavy
bracelets of iron joined by a bar of the same metal
ten inches long (except Mudd, whose handcuffs were
joined by a chain) ; on their ankles, shackles joined by
chains short enough to hamper their walk. Payne and
Atzerodt, in addition, have iron balls attached to their
legs, which the guards carry on entering or leaving
the room; the canvass bags they wear in the cells are
removed, but this is the sole relief allowed during the
long days of the trial. Last of all, emerges from the
darkness of the corridor Mary E. Surratt, who, turn
ing to her right, has the cut-off corner of the platform
to herself. The brutality of loading down with fetters
the seven male prisoners, guarded as they were, while
in the presence of their judges, passed with indiffer
ence if not with positive approval — so cruel was the
humor of the time; but the presence of a helpless
woman in that iron-bound row before a court com
posed of nine officers of the army with swords by their
sides, sent a shock through the civilized world. The
newspapers in their accounts of the session stated that
she, too, was ironed — a report never publicly denied

104 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
until the lapse of eight years had generated a uni
versal horror at the mere possibility of the outrage.*
This gruesome ceremony being over, the Charge and
Specification were read to the eight defendants. By
the Charge they were jointly and severally accused of
"traitorously" conspiring, "together with John H.
Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, Jefferson Davis" and the
Confederate agents named in the proclamation of the
second instant (to whom were now added "George
Harper, George Young and others unknown"), "to
kill and murder the late President and Commander-
in-Chief of the Army and Navy, the Vice-President,
the Secretary of State and the Lieutenant-General ;
and of having, in furtherance thereof, "together with
John Wilkes Booth and John H. Surratt," murdered
the late President, assaulted with intent to kill the
Secretary of State and lain in wait to murder the
Vice President and Lieutenant General. The Specifi
cation, as its title imports, was designed to distinguish
the particular parts the accused respectively had taken
in the execution of the conspiracy — a task which the
pleader had but little difficulty in performing in the
cases of Spangler, Herold, Payne, Atzerodt and
O'Laughlin who were in evidence on the night of the
tragedy; but, in the cases of Arnold, Mudd and Mrs.
Surratt, inasmuch as they were absent from the scene,
he was compelled to employ such vague and general
allegations as "harboring, aiding and assisting" the
more active conspirators, and for a period of time
"from, on or before the sixth of March up to the
* Note II of this chapter in Appendix.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 105
fifteenth of April"; — by this means, moreover, ren
dering evidence of complicity in the plot to capture
competent on the question of complicity in the assas
sination. After the prisoners had pleaded not guilty,
the commission adopted rules of procedure, among
other matters providing that the sessions should be
secret, — no one to be admitted except by permit of the
president of the tribunal except the attendants and
counsel, and, also, that only such portions of the tes
timony as the judge advocate allowed should be made
public; and then adjourned to enable the accused to
employ counsel.
On Friday the testimony began, the major portion
at first directed to proving the complicity of Jefferson
Davis and his agents in Canada — a class of testimony
submitted every now and then during the trial and
withheld from the public until the trial was virtually
concluded ; given by spies in the pay of the Bureau and
having but the remotest bearing on the guilt or inno
cence of the several prisoners at the bar ; the witnesses
being aUowed to tell their stories in their own way
without objection and without cross-examination. On
Saturday occurred an incident which cast a flood of
light on the judicial temper of certain members of the
commission. Among the counsel for the prisoners was
Thomas Ewing, Jr., an officer of equal rank in the
army with members of the court, enjoying an estab
lished reputation for gaUantry and skill in the war,
and a brother-in-law of General Sherman. His ap
pearance on behalf of Spangler and Doctor Mudd,
however much it may have surprised his fellow-

106 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
soldiers on the bench, could not be made the sub
ject of public animadversion; but when Reverdy
Johnson took his seat among the counsel of Mrs.
Surratt, it was considered high time to assert the
sensitive loyalty of the tribunal. For Johnson, though
for a long time past a distinguished statesman in the
service of the country and at present a United States
senator from Maryland, sided with the opposition, and
for that reason in the view of the court was tainted
with the disloyalty prevalent in his state. Accord
ingly, when, in reply to an inquiry of the judge advo
cate, he declared his intention to act as counsel for
Mrs. Surratt if the court would permit him to leave at
any time to attend to his duties in the Senate, General
Hunter read aloud a note sent him by one of his
colleagues objecting to the admission of the senator
"on the ground that he does not recognize the moral
obligation of an oath that is designed as a test of
loyalty"; in support of the objection citing Johnson's
letter to the people of his state in the fall of 1864
advising them to take the oath the convention had
prescribed as a condition precedent of the right to vote
on the question of the ratification of the constitution it
had framed. In response to this attack, Johnson asked
what member of the court made the objection ; and the
presiding officer thought proper to reply: "It is Gen
eral Harris ; and if he had not made it, I should have
made it myself." The indignant lawyer called for
the letter, and it appearing that the objector relied
solely on his having read it six months or more ago,
protested that his opinion "could not be tortured by

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 107
any reasonable man into any such conclusion."
"There is no member of this court, including the
President and the member who objects, who recognizes
the obligations of an oath more absolutely than I do ;
and there is nothing in my life, from its commence
ment to the present time, which would induce me for a
moment to avoid a comparison in all moral respects
between myself and any member of this court. . . .
I have lived too long, gone through too many trials,
rendered the country such services as my abilities
enabled me and the confidence of the people in whose
midst I am has given me the opportunity, to tolerate
for a moment — come from whom it may — such an
aspersion upon my moral character. I am glad it is
made now, when I have arrived at that period of life
when it would be unfit to notice it in any other way. ' '
He continued: "All that the opinion said, or was in
tended to say, was, that to take the oath voluntarily
was not a craven submission to usurped authority, but
was necessary in order to enable the citizen to protect
his rights under the then constitution; and that there
was no moral harm in taking an oath which the con
vention had no authority to impose." And he con
cluded: "The court, therefore, or the honorable
member . . . who thinks proper ... to make this
objection and the President who said he should have
thought it his duty to make the objection if no member
of the court had done it, are to understand that I am
not pleading here for anything personal to myself.
I stand too firmly settled in my own conviction of
honor and in my own sense of duty, public and private.

108 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
to be alarmed at all at any individual opinion that
may be expressed; but I ask the court to decide. . . .
If it shall be such a decision as the President seems
himself to be disposed to make, I can take care of
myself in the future." General Harris here inter
posed with the remark that he could not see that the
counsel's explanation "removed the difficulty." "I
understand him to say that the doctrine he taught the
people . . . was that because the convention had
framed an oath and required the taking of that oath
as a qualification of the right of suffrage, which oath
was unconstitutional . . . therefore it had no binding
force and that the people might take it and then go
and vote without any regard to the subject-matter of
the oath." Johnson repudiated any such interpreta
tion of his teaching, pointing out the difference between
his saying "there was no harm in taking the oath"
and his "telling the people of Maryland there would
be no harm in breaking it after it was taken." And
then he opened upon a new line: "But, it is something
new to me that the objection, if it was well founded in
fact, is well founded in law. . . , Who gives to the
court the jurisdiction to decide upon the moral char
acter of the counsel who may appear before them?
Who makes them the arbiters of the public morality
and professional morality? What authority have
they ... to rule me out, or to rule any counsel out,
upon the ground, above all, that he does not recognize
the validity of an oath, even if they believe it?" Gen
eral Harris calling attention to the rule requiring
counsel to take the oath in court or produce a certifi-

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 109
cate of having taken it elsewhere, Johnson subjoined :
"I have taken the oath in the Senate of the United
States — ^the very oath you are administering; I have
taken it in the Circuit Court of the United States; I
have taken it in the Supreme Court of the United
States; . . . and it would be a little singular if one
who has a right to appear before the supreme judicial
tribunal of the land, and who has the right to appear
before one of the legislative departments . . . whose
law creates armies and creates judges and court-
martials, should not have the right to appear before a
court-martial. ' '
As the court was about being cleared for delibera
tion the presiding officer burst out: "Mr. Johnson has
made an intimation in regard to holding members of
this court responsible for their action"; — and, that
gentleman disclaiming any such intent, he ordered the
court cleared with the remark: "I was going to say
that I hoped the day had passed when freeman from
the North were to be bullied and insulted by the hum
bug chivalry; and that, for my part, I hold myself
personally responsible for everything I do here."
On the resumption of the session. General Harris
withdrew his objection, avowing his gladness "to give
the gentleman the benefit of his disclaimer," but in
sisting that it was "a tacit admission that there was
some ground for" his own "view"; and General
Wallace, who probably was ashamed of the whole
affair, suggesting that every member of the commis
sion must know that the senator had taken the oath,
that formality was dispensed with and the counsel

110 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
suffered to appear without further opposition. The
mischief, however, was done. The woman on whose
behalf the senator gratuitously tendered his services,
she being, as he said, ' ' a Maryland lady, ' ' was robbed
of the help she might have gained from the skill of so
celebrated an advocate. He himself apprehending
that his appearance might do her more harm than
good gradually withdrew from attendance on the com
mission, sending in his argument on the question of
jurisdiction to be read by one of his juniors. And his
fears were not without foundation. Little as he was
able to do for his client on the trial proper, his dem
onstration that the tribunal before which she was
dragged had no right to try her at all subjected him
to be held up in his absence to "public condemnation"
by Judge Bingham for "denouncing the murdered
President and his successor"; making "a political
harangue, a partisan speech against his government,
thereby swelling the cry of the armed legions of sedi
tion and rebellion that but yesterday shook the
heavens" — and doing "without pay" what his "col
league" — the proprietor of the New York Daily News
^for $25,000 was doing "with greater plainness of
speech."* Another incident that took place after the testimony
for the defence began was, if possible, a grosser out
rage. Edward Johnson, late a major-general in the
Confederate service and now a prisoner of war, was
brought from Fort Warren in Boston harbor to testify
in Mrs. Surratt 's behalf; and, when he was about to
* See Note III to chapter in Appendix.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 111
take the oath. General Howe conceived it to be his
duty as a judge to interpose as follows: "It is well
known to me . . . that Edward Johnson was educated
at the national military academy at the government's
expense and that since that time he held a commission
in the army of the United States. ... In 1861 it
became my duty as an officer to fire upon a rebel party,
of which this man was a member, and that party fired
upon, struck down, and killed loyal men that were in
the service of the government. ... I understand he
is brought here now as a witness to testify before the
court, and he comes here as a witness with the blood of
his loyal countrymen shed by him or by his assistance,
in violation of his solemn oath as a man and his faith
as an officer. I submit to this court that he stands in
the eye of the law as an incompetent witness, because
he is notoriously infamous. To offer as a witness a
man who stands with this character ... is but an
insult to the court and an outrage upon the adminis
tration of justice. I move that this man, Edward
Johnson, be ejected from the court as an incompetent
witness on account of his notorious infamy ..." Gen
eral Ekin, rising to second the motion and overlook
ing the fact that the witness had no alternative but to
come, characterized his appearance "with such a
character" as "the height of impertinence." One of
the counsel of the prisoner reminded the court that
persons with just such a "character" had been sworn
on behalf of the prosecution, including the very wit
ness General Johnson was called to impeach; and
Judge Holt was forced to instruct the commission that

112 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the laws required a record of conviction to exclude the
witness though the tribunal, on the grounds stated,
might discredit his testimony. Whereupon, General
Wallace expressing the hope that "for the sake of
public justice" the motion be withdrawn. General
Howe succumbed, the soldier who returned his fire
was sworn and the commission, to get rid of his tes
timony, adopted the alternative method pointed out
by the judge advocate.
Indeed, throughout the entire trial the commission
acted upon the theory that false swearing was to be
expected from any witness for the defence who had
participated in the rebellion either in word or deed.
Nay, the court went still further under the dictation
of the judge advocates. At one stage of the proceed
ings proof was offered that Arnold had served in the
Confederate army, and Ewing objected to the tes
timony as tending to prove his client guilty of a crime
for which he was not on trial. Holt, in support of his
offer, said : ' ' How kindred to each other are the crimes
of treason against the nation and the assassination of
its chief magistrate." "When we show the accused
bearing arms in the field against the government, we
show with him the presence of an animus toward the
government which relieves this accusation of much, if
not all, of its improbability." Bingham came to the
assistance of his associate with the rule that, the con
spiracy as charged being "in aid of the rebellion," the
evidence offered was competent on the question of
intent; demanding: "When he entered it, he entered
into it to aid it, did he not?" — and, Ewing rejoining:

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 113
"He did not enter into that to assassinate the Presi
dent," Bingham, soaring to the height of his argument,
launched forth the following as a proposition of law:
"Yes, he entered into it to assassinate the President;
and everybody else that entered into the rebellion en
tered into it to assassinate everybody that represented
the government, that either followed the standard into
the field or represented its standard in the counsels.
That is exactly why it is germane"; and the commission
so ruled.* In fact, on all questions of law the court
followed the opinion of the judge advocates with the
same docility as a jury follows the judge in the civil
courts; and this habitual acquiescence could not but
lend a preponderating force to the argument of these
officers on questions of fact. The hypothesis of a
widespread conspiracy to take off the heads of the
government was accepted without question and became
a convenient device to make every item of evidence
bearing upon the guilt of any individual named in the
charge, whether on trial or not, tell as evidence against
all the prisoners at the bar. Union soldiers from
Libby, Belle Isle and Andersonville staggered to the
witness stand to testify concerning their ill-treatment
by the Confederates with all its ghastly details ; letters
offering to rid the world of the South's "deadliest
enemies" picked up in the abandoned Confederate
capital ; the burning of Union transports and bridges ;
the raids from Canada over the border; the plot to
introduce infected clothing into northern cities; the
confession of Kennedy, hung for an attempt to bum
* Poore, II, 139-147.
8

114 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
New York: — all came in, first as evidence against
Jefferson Davis and his subordinates on the ground
that the perpetrators of such atrocities were just the
men to participate in assassination, and, secondly, as
evidence against the parties on trial on the ground
that Jefferson Davis was their co-conspirator. Walter
S. Cox, the counsel of O'Laughlin and Arnold, in his
final argument spoke of the charge as follows: "It
described one offence of some kind, but, however
specific in form, it seems to have been intended, like a
purser's shirt, to fit every conceivable form of crime
which the wickedness of man can devise. The crime
is laid in Washington, yet we have wandered far
away. . . . We have been carried to the purlieus of
Toronto and Montreal, skirted the border of New
York and Vermont, passed down the St. Lawrence and
out to sea; visited the fever hospitals of the British
Islands, returned to the prison pen of Andersonville;
penetrated the secret counsels of Richmond; passed
thence to the hospitals of the West, ascended the
Mississippi and, at length, terminated this eccentric
career in the woods of New York"; and, with a fine
irony which, now that it is seen to have been deserved,
reddens the cheek with shame, subjoined: "I cannot
for a moment suppose that the object was to inflame
prejudice against the accused because of the remote
connection with the authors of all these evils and, for
want of higher victims, to make them the scapegoats
for all the atrocities imputed to the rebellion; to
immolate them to hush the clamors of the public for a
victim . . . ; — ^for such a proceeding would disgrace

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 115
this government in the eyes of all Christendom as
much as assassination would disgrace the spurious
government which has just vanished into thin air."*
The direct testimony for the prosecution closed on
the twenty-third day of May ; a little over nine work
ing days having been consumed, and one hundred and
thirty-one witnesses examined, of whom the testimony
of seventeen was directed against Payne particularly,
of ten against Atzerodt, of nineteen against Mudd, of
eleven against O'Laughlin, of eight against Arnold, of
four against Spangler, and of seven against Mrs.
Surratt, making in all sixty-eight. Of the remaining
sixty-three, the testimony was directed to incidents
immediately connected with the assassination and to
the complicity of the Confederate officials. The testi
mony for the defence closed formally on the tenth of
June, having occupied parts of the intervening work
ing days. About one hundred and twenty-eight wit
nesses were sworn, besides the witnesses to the general
conspiracy interspersed by the judge advocate nearly
every session. Four more days were taken up in
rebuttal and then (the sixteenth) the argument of
counsel began.
On behalf of Herold, Payne and Atzerodt no defence
was possible. Associated as Herold was with Booth
in his flight and capture, the plea that he lent no aid to
his principal in the article of crime could not avail him.
For Payne, the same plea was interposed that he him
self uttered when dealing his death blows ; but, though
it was shown that his intellect was weak and sluggish,
* Pitman^ 333-4. See Note IV to chapter in Appendix.

116 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
and he was subject to fits of unbridled rage, no doubt
was thrown on his sanity within the definition of the
law. Atzerodt, doubtless, did nothing in pursuance
of the part thrust upon him at the last moment; but
his guilty knowledge of the bloody work going on left
no room for mercy. On the other hand, for the four
other male prisoners, defences were put up strong
enough to break up the unanimity of the commission
and even to shake the self-confidence of the judge
advocates. In Arnold's case, all the evidence against
htm pointed to his participation in the abandoned plot ;
there was not a scintilla that he knew anything of a
design to assassinate — that idea first entering Booth's
head after this prisoner had sought and found employ
ment at Fort Monroe. O'Laughlin, his yoke-fellow in
the plot to capture, was present, as it happened in the
capital on Thursday and Friday nights of the fatal
week; but his whereabouts were so clearly and
minutely traced by witness after witness of unexcep
tionable loyalty that even the commission declined to
follow Bingham in identifying him with the stranger
who was to dispose of General Grant. Spangler and
Mudd could not boast of so clean a bill of health.
Spangler, according to a preponderance of the evi
dence, had no hand in tampering with the doors of the
President's box or in providing the means to bar an
entrance from the outside ; but there was testimony to
the effect that he tried to check the instant pursuit
and hush up the identification of the assassin. Simi
larly, in the case of Doctor Mudd, though the insidious
attempt of Wiechmann to connect him with the plot to

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 117
capture came to naught, the testimony of the detec
tives, colored though it was by the hope of reward,
left two questions doubtful ; whether the doctor recog
nized Booth when he set his leg, and whether, after he
learned of the assassination, he suppressed the fact of
the harboring of the fugitives.
So much for the seven men ; now for the one woman.
It will not be denied that her case was one which, for
the sake of common decency, if from no higher con
sideration, it behooved the prosecution to so handle as
to avoid even the slightest semblance of prejudgment.
Yet it was upon her case that the joint trial bore with
the most deadly effect. To try a woman, a civilian, a
householder of Washington city, by a tribunal of sol
diers, was a thing hitherto unheard of; to hook her
fast to the same chain with Arnold and O'Laughlin
whom she had never seen, with Herold and Atzerodt
and Payne whose guilt was taken as a matter of course,
and, in addition, to make her a partner with Jefferson
Davis in the atrocities alleged to have been perpetrated
in his name ; this was simply disrobing her of her sex
preparatory to handing her over to the executioner.
The only evidence against her of any weight — without
which the Bureau would not have ventured to arraign
her in such company — bore no relation whatever to the
plot to capture and, if it showed anything in regard
to the matter, showed she knew nothing of the project
in which her son was so active a participant. The
evidence on which the Bureau mainly relied consisted
of incidents of the week of the assassination and tended
to prove her an accomplice in that foul deed. The

118 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
non-recognition of Payne, on the night of her arrest —
the only other circumstance on which great stress was
laid — was, as we have already intimated, divested of
most, if not all, its criminating significance by the
testimony of one of the two leading officers who were
present on the occasion. The incidents which in fact
constituted the gist of the evidence against the woman
took place on two drives to Surrattsville — one on
Tuesday the eleventh and the other on Friday the
fourteenth of April — when she was escorted by her
favorite among the boarders at her house. This man
and her tenant at the tavern were the two wit
nesses, both implicated in the conspiracy and both
testifying in peril of their lives. Lloyd, after his
arrest, and Wiechmann, after his interview with
Stanton and his imprisonment, alike sought safety in
shifting the load weighing themselves to the earth
upon the shoulders of the mother of the co-conspirator
stU] at large. Lloyd, sodden with drink and unmanned
by terror, crying aloud: "That vile woman! She has
ruined me," revealed clearly his purpose; but Wiech
mann, the likelihood of a pardon having quieted his
nerves, proceeded with feline caution. When he heard
of the assassination from the police searching the
house for Booth and Surratt, he exclaimed: "Great
God! I see it all now"; and he saw it all to the end.
Apparently with the utmost frankness, he put himself
in the very focus of the conspiracy, associating con-
vivially with the conspirators, present at their half-
veiled consultations, surprising them at drill with their
weapons; but, as he would have you bear in mind,

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 119
merely as a hoodwinked looker-on, an innocent spy
upon his comrades that they might not escape their
fitting doom. At moments in his fluent narrative when
his own implication seems inevitable, he suddenly
shies away, disappointing the hearer of the expected
catastrophe, leaving his evidence inconclusive while
pointing out the way to corroboration. For example :
both trips to Surrattsville were on business that im
peratively called for Mrs. Surratt 's attention, and was
in fact transacted with the assistance of the witness;
but in his description of each journey he interweaves
incidents which, while passing harmless by himself,
were calculated to cast suspicion on his companion.
On Tuesday, on the way down, they met Lloyd — and
Lloyd held a conversation with Mrs. Surratt in so low
a tone that Wiechmann sitting beside her failed to
overhear it. Again, on Friday, at about two o'clock
in the afternoon, the carriage to take them being at the
door. Booth came in, remained a few minutes, and left
a package (subsequently shown to have contained the
field-glass Booth called for in his flight) which was
deposited on the bottom of the buggy and carried to
SurrattsviUe ; in the evening when about to return
home without seeing Lloyd, who was absent attend
ing court at the county seat, they (having given
the package to his sister-in-law) discovered that the
axle of their vehicle was broken; and the tavern
keeper, arriving during the interval of delay occa
sioned by the accident, held a conversation with Mrs.
Surratt alone in the back yard as he alighted from his
wagon. Thus far Wiechmann; and on this trial he

120 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
went no farther, leaving two significant gaps for his
partner in turning state's evidence to fill. Lloyd, on
the other hand, who, having served for a time on the
police of the capital, fully realized the plight he was
in, first confessed to the officer who took him in custody
and who subsequently boasted he extorted the confes
sion "through strategy,"* that when Mrs. Surratt met
him in the back yard she handed him the field-glass
and told him "to have those shooting irons ready that
night; parties would call for them"; but he made no
mention of any meeting on Tuesday. It was not until
he joined Wiechmann in Carroll prison that he was
reminded of the conversation which Wiechmann was
too loyal to listen to. His advanced state of intoxica
tion at the moment he met Mrs. Surratt on Friday
discredited his report of the conversation on that day,
and, therefore, an appeal was made from the witness
when drunk to the witness when sober. On the Surratt
Trial, Lloyd testified that while he was in Carroll
prison, a military officer (who resembled General Fos
ter of the commission), irritated at the lack of "full
ness" in his statement, told him he was "guilty as an
accessory to a crime, the punishment of which was
death";! and it was probably under some such pres
sure as this that he yielded up the contents of the
conversation of Tuesday: "She told me to get the
shooting irons ready; they would be wanted soon."
The meeting taking place on the highway, and the only
outside person having turned a deaf ear to the words
* See Note V to chapter in Appendix.
t S. T., 290.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 121
used, the unfortunate woman, her own mouth being
sealed, was completely at the mercy of the craven
informer, and could only point to the improbability of
her being intrusted with a message so wholly uncalled
for. Friday's conversation, as given by Lloyd, dis
credited though it was by his condition, at least con
stituted a link in a chain of events having a logical
antecedent and a logical consequence. Tuesday's
stood isolated — brought about, so far as appears, by
no incident before and leading to none after — a com
mon badge of manufactured evidence.*
As a matter of fact, the managers of the Bureau
would never have dragged this poor woman before the
commission instead of these two main witnesses
against her, had it not been for the expectation that
her arraignment would serve as a decoy to a much
more prominent conspirator. It was not the mother
they were after, it was the son. According to the
hypothesis with which they were infatuated, John H.
Surratt was, next to Booth, the moving spirit of the
assassination conspiracy. In spite of every indication
to the contrary, they persisted in believing that he was
present on the scene, actively aiding and abetting the
actual perpetrator of the crime. Among his numerous
friends, acquaintances, the tradesmen with whom he
dealt in the capital and the witnesses whose testimony
implicated him in the plot to capture, not one, not even
Wiechmann, had set eyes on him since his departure
for Canada in the early morning of the fourth of
* Lincoln 's speech, which in aU probabUity set the assassin in motion,
was not made until Tuesday night. See Chap. II, p. 40.

122 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
April. Detectives found trace of him in Montreal on
the twelfth and again on the eighteenth, but not one
could they find during the interval. At the moment
when the blood of Lincoln was being shed inside the
theatre, when Payne was wreaking his fury on the
Seward household, when such minor accomplices as
Herold and Atzerodt and Spangler were to the fore,
and even the as yet unidentified stranger who called
the hour* was playing his part, the twin leader with
Booth failed to put in an appearance, — left his role, if
any were assigned him, vacant. One witness and but
one, they did unearth — a merchant tailor, acquainted
with Surratt in his boyhood but never having ex
changed a word with him in his life ; who testified that
at half-past two in the afternoon of the fourteenth he
recognized the young man walking up the avenue, his
attention being specially attracted by the neatness of
his attire and the bran-new spurs he wore.!
Upon this frail foundation the Bureau erected its
case against the son of the woman the court was to
condemn in his stead. As outlined by the special
judge advocate, it was as follows : When Surratt went
to Richmond on the twenty-fifth of March, his mission
was "to get funds to carry out the conspiracy; he
brought back with him gold, the price of blood";
immediately he went to Canada "with despatches from
Jefferson Davis to Jacob Thompson approving the
conspiracy" ; and while he was there, "Thompson drew
from the bank $180,000 of the rebel funds on deposit."
* Dye 's testimony on both trials.
t Poore, I, 170 ; Pitman, 138.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 123
"This being done, Surratt finding it safer to go to
Canada for the great bulk of the funds to be dis
tributed among these hired assassins than to attempt
to carry it through our lines direct to Richmond,
immediately returned to Washington and was present
in this city . . . booted and spurred, ready for flight
whenever the fatal blow was struck. If he was not a
conspirator, how comes it that from that hour to this,
no man had seen him in the capital, nor has he been
reported anywhere outside of Canada — having arrived
in Montreal on the eighteenth, four days after the
murder ? Nothing but his conscious coward guilt could
possibly induce him to absent himself from his mother,
as he does upon this trial." According to the counsel,
his were ' ' the retreating footsteps ' ' heard by the wit
ness Wiechmann, "at about half-past eight in the
evening" of the fatal Friday, when the son paid "the
secret and last visit to his mother who had instigated
and encouraged him to strike this traitorous and mur
derous blow against his country."*
On Friday, June the sixteenth, the argument of
Reverdy Johnson, adverse to the jurisdiction of the
tribunal, was read by his associate, Mr. Clampitt ; and,
on the succeeding Friday, General Ewing addressed
the commission on the same subject, the consideration
of which is postponed until another chapter. The
sessions intervening and the two after the twenty-
third were taken up by the summing up of the testi
mony by the counsel for the accused. The plea for
Herold was submitted "at the earnest request of his
* See Note VI to chapter in Appendix.

124 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
widowed mother and estimable sisters"; at the end of
the plea for Atzerodt was appended a statement of
the prisoner himself confessing his participation in the
plot to kidnap but disclaiming participation in the plot
to kill; the plea for Payne was a curious disserta
tion on the overpowering influence of environment in
brutalizing this offspring of the social system of the
South, thrown in his early youth into the horrors of
civil war. The able address of Walter S. Cox may be
said to have demonstrated the innocence of Arnold
and O'Laughlin; and nothing less convincing than the
tactful and closely reasoned review of the evidence by
Ewing could have snatched Mudd and Spangler from
the jaws of death.
On Tuesday, the twenty-seventh, the case was re
opened to allow Sanford Conover to be heard. This
parent and tutor of the brood of false witnesses sworn
to establish the complicity of the Confederates, after
giving his testimony in secret session, had gone back
to his hunting grounds after further game, to be con
founded by the report of the evidence published in a
New York journal, in the first part of June. Im
mediately he came forward with an affidavit sworn to
under the name by which he was known in Canada,
denouncing the witness as an imposter, and with an
offer of five hundred dollars for the arrest of "the
infamous and perjured scoundrel who secretly per
sonated me (him) under the name of Sanford Conover
and deposed to a tissue of falsehoods before the mili
tary commission at Washington." Having thus put
himself right with the men whom he had implicated.

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 125
he was allowed to repair to Washington; and the
Bureau could do no less than to afford its prize witness
an opportunity to explain. Accordingly, the flow of
forensic eloquence was interrupted while this detected
spy, with unabashed forehead, told how his affidavit
and his offer of reward for his own arrest were
extorted from him at the muzzle of a rebel's pistol.
Conover 's self -vindication being complete, the field
was clear for Bingham to enter upon the discharge of
the function for which he was specially retained.
Under military procedure, the final argument of a
judge advocate corresponds to the charge of a judge
in jury trials rather than to the summing up of
counsel; but the address of this member of the
commission was decidedly non-judicial. The crime
committed was "not simply the murder of a human
being," but "a combination of atrocities" committed
"upon the instigation of Jefferson Davis" and his
agents in Canada. In one respect he was strictly
impartial; every one of the conspirators — those on
trial and those absent — ^was guilty beyond the slightest
shadow of doubt. "Who doubts," he asks, "that
Kennedy was commissioned by the accredited agents of
Jefferson Davis to bum the city of New York?" that
"Davis by his agents . . . adopted a system of starva
tion of our soldiers, . . . paid money for the import
ing of pestilence into our camp and cities?" "It only
remains to be seen," he continues, whether this "pro
curer of arson and of the indiscriminate murder of the
innocent and unoffending was capable ... of direct
assassination." And, in this connection, he cites the

126 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
testimony of Conover, whom he holds up before the
commission as a model witness whose credibility is
beyond question. Not only Payne, Herold and At
zerodt, but Arnold, O'Laughlin, Mudd, Spangler and
Mary E. Surratt are brought within the compass of
the counsel's sweeping condemnation. Arnold, so far
from withdrawing from the plot, went to Fort Monroe
to wait for the arrival of funds from Richmond or for
Booth's signal. "Who doubts," he asks, "that Booth,
having ascertained in the course of the day that Gen
eral Grant would not be present at the theatre,
O 'Laughlin who was to murder General Grant, instead
of entering the box with Booth, was to lie in wait and
watch to support him? His denial that he knew noth
ing of the affair is as false and inexcusable as Peter's
denial of our Lord." Mudd, according to the counsel,
was present in Washington ' ' on the day preceding the
inauguration, when Booth was to strike the traitorous
blow, ... to abet, to encourage, to nerve his co-con
spirator for the commission of this great crime."
" Spangler 's complicity" is clear: he provided the bar,
cut the mortise in the wall, loosened the locks of the
boxes, and "undertook and promised to do" what
Chester refused. "It is almost imposing upon the
patience of the court," the counsel remarks, "to con
sume time in demonstrating the fact, which none
conversant with the testimony in this case can for a
moment doubt, that John H. Surratt and Mary E.
Surratt were as surely in the conspiracy to murder the
President as was John Wilkes Booth himself." He
scouts the idea that there ever was a "purpose to

THE CONSPIRACY TRIAL 127
abduct the President and take him South," holding it
up to derision as "another silly device like that of the
'oil business' "; scorning "to waste time in combating
such an absurdity"; disposing of Wiechmann 's ac
count of the actual attempt that failed, as follows:
"When these parties left the house that day, it was
with the full purpose of completing some act essential
to the final execution of the work of assassination. . . .
They returned, foiled — for what cause is unknown —
dejected, angry and covered with confusion."*
This impassioned appeal for the condemnation of
every one of the prisoners at the bar closed the case.
* See Note VII to this chapter in Appendix.

CHAPTER V
The Findings, Sentences and Execution
When the court reassembled on Thursday, the
twenty-ninth of June, the prisoners' dock and the table
of their counsel were empty ; even the official reporters
were excluded; the doors were locked and the guard
stationed outside. But the counsel for the govern
ment, who for two months had bent all their energies
to convince the tribunal of the guilt of the defendants,
including the special judge advocate who had just
exhausted his celebrated oratorical powers in winding
up the patriotic prejudices of its members to the
highest pitch, were present and permitted to take a
leading part in making up the judgment; a judgment
which, under the rules of military procedure, com
prised not only the finding of the verdict, but also the
meting out of the punishment. Of what took place
in that third-story room we have only the formal
record now on file in the office of the judge advocate
general ; a document meagre in the extreme, but from
which we may gather, with the aid of plausible con
jecture, the line of discussion and the partial revolt of
some members of the commission from the guidance
of the judge advocates that necessitated a prolongation
of the session into the second day. The first day,
from the hour of ten in the morning until six in
the evening, was consumed in deliberating "upon the
(128)

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 129
evidence in the case of each of the accused" in the
order named in the Charge, from Herold to Mudd ; in
finding all, except Spangler, guilty of the conspiracy
as charged ; and in affixing the sentences, except in the
case of Mudd, the consideration of whose case was
interrupted by the adjournment. It is probable, how
ever, that on the first day a mere memorandum of the
decisions of the court was noted down, the formal
record not being drawn up until the labors of the
commission were concluded. No doubt seems to have
been entertained that the assassination was the
product of a widespread conspiracy premeditated for
several months, since the commission found Jefferson
Davis and his Canadian agents as well as John H.
Surratt to have been co-conspirators of the defendants.
Herold, Atzerodt and Payne, it is clear, were found
guilty of both Charge and Specification without debate,
and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead,
nem. con. But the case of O'Laughlin, coming next,
occasioned the first symptom of a disinclination on the
part of some members of the tribunal to follow the
sweeping condemnation of Judge Bingham. They
were willing to find this prisoner guilty of the Charge
in general, but a majority refused to find him guilty
of that part of the Specification which charged him
with lying in wait for General Grant — the only part in
the conspiracy he was accused of having undertaken.
Moreover, in affixing the sentence the two-thirds vote
required for the death penalty could not be secured
and O'Laughlin who, under the evidence, ought to
have been acquitted, got off with imprisonment for life.

130 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"The testimony of Spangler 's complicity" seemed by
no means so "conclusive" to the commission as to
Judge Bingham, a majority being in favor of limiting
his guilt to having been an accessory after the fact;
and, in his case, accordingly, death was out of the
question, and the majority astonished the special judge
advocate by imposing so slight a sentence as six years '
imprisonment. In the three succeeding cases — Ar
nold's, Mrs. Surratt 's and Mudd's — the commission
found the prisoners guilty of both Charge and Speci
fication, as it had done in the cases of Herold, Atzerodt
and Payne ; and yet the majority persisted in the dis
inclination to take any more lives. The holocaust was
ample enough, they seem to have thought. In Arnold's
case, the six voices required could not be persuaded
to speak the fatal word, and life imprisonment was
decreed in its stead. The hot midsummer day was
drawing to a close when the doom of the single female
culprit came up for consideration. Through the long
days of the trial she sat in her isolated corner, if un
fettered, only so in homage to her sex and because of
her widowed motherhood; — an object of pity to both
gods and men. Guilty, it is true, the court had found
her, but of the same grade of crime as Arnold's,
O 'Laughlin 's and Mudd's. No reason whatever is
apparent why the majority, especially in the case of a
woman, should abandon the course of clemency they
had entered upon and revert to the severity they had
inflicted without question on such outlaws as Herold,
Atzerodt and Payne. Again, therefore, the six voices
were wanting. Four voted for the extreme penalty,

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 131
as in all likelihood they had voted in the cases of
Arnold and O'Laughlin; but five continued to lean to
the side of mercy and undoubtedly would have gone
on and done in the case of the woman what they had
done in the cases of the two men — that is, imposed the
milder punishment — had it not been for the interposi
tion of the judge advocates. These three officers, as
well as the Secretary of War whose obedient servants
they were, if we are to judge from the address of the
one who was the mouthpiece of the prosecution, must
have been opposed to the exercise of clemency towards
any one of the prisoners; in which respect, in all
probability, they were sustained by a minority of the
commission. And, in the case of Mrs. Surratt, their
opposition was greatly intensified by the escape of her
son. They had failed to move the majority in the
contested cases of the men; but in the case of the
woman they were reinforced by an additional con
sideration which they brought into play with telling
effect. Clemency to her, they argued, would be of evil
example; the women of the South were worse rebels
than the men ; above all, to save the life of the mother
was to allow the son to go unwhipped of justice. We
can almost hear the voices of Holt and Bingham as
they exhorted in these terms the too soft-hearted
members of the court ; nevertheless, as we have a right
to infer, the majority stood firm; so much so that it
became necessary to bring forward a final suggestion.
The President was in full command of the situation;
his approval must be given before the sentence could
be executed ; let him, therefore, take the responsibility ;

132 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
sex and age will appeal to him no less powerfully than
to your own chivalrous hearts, and that, too, at the
proper moment, for he and he alone can hold the fate
of the mother in terrorem over the fugitive son.*
Under this heavy pressure, two at least of the five
come over; and Mary E. Surratt is sentenced "to he
hanged hy the neck until she is dead • . ¦ ; two thirds
of the commission concurring therein.'^ It is now six
o'clock. The commission adjourns until to-morrow;
and the judge advocates hurry to the War Office to
report to their chief. The next morning the court
resumes its secret deliberations; and the majority,
still bent on clemency, sentence Doctor Mudd to im
prisonment for life. This act completes the labors of
the commission. The official record is then made up
from the memorandum; signed by "D. Hunter" and
countersigned by "J. Holt." There must have taken
place among the members, however, a discussion, the
outcome of which does not appear in the record itself.
It is plain that the officers favoring clemency toward
Mrs. Surratt were not content to leave the question of
commutation to the naked discretion of the executive,
but were determined that their own predisposition
should be embodied in a petition to be brought to the
attention of the President at the same time with the
recorded sentence. Such a demand, under the cir
cumstances, could not very well be gainsaid, and, there
fore, Bingham, much against the grain, redacts upon
a loose piece of paper the following attenuated prayer :
* See Note I to this chapter in Appendix.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 133
"The undersigned, members of the Military Commissioa
detailed to try Mary E. Surratt and others for the Conspiracy
and the murder of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the
United States &c., respectfully pray the President, in con
sideration of the sex and age of the said Mary B. Surratt,
if he can, upon all the facts in the case, find it consistent
with his sense of duty to the country, to commute the sentence
of death, which the Court have been constrained to pronounce,
to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.
Eespectfully submitted"
General Ekin makes a fair copy on legal-cap paper,
to which the five affix their names : D. Hunter, August
V. Kautz, R. S. Foster, James A. Ekin, Chas. H.
Tompkins; — Ekin retaining the draft as a memento
of the occasion. The record and petition are placed
in the hands of Colonel Burnett; an adjournment is
taken without day; the members disperse and the
work of the commission is done.
The record itself is a document of five half-sheets
of legal-cap paper, four of them written over on both
sides from top to bottom and from bottom to top
alternately; the account of the first day's proceedings
ending on the back page of the fourth, leaving a por
tion of the page blank. The account of the second
day's proceedings occupies but a small space of the
first page of the last half-sheet, leaving blank a full
half of that page and the whole of the back thereof.
The document is complete in itself, its leaves being
fastened together by a narrow yellow silk ribbon
pushed through a hole in the top in the fashion of law
papers which are read by turning them over from the

134 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
bottom.* According to Colonel Burnett's own state
ment, when he reached his "office in the War Depart
ment on the 30th — possibly on the morning of the
1st of July" he "attached the petition or recommenda
tion of mercy to the findings aud sentences and at the
end of them," and "carried . . . and delivered them
to the judge advocate general in person or to the clerk
in charge of the court-martial records."!
There they remained through the first four days of
July, the President being so ill as to "have no oppor
tunity of conferring with any members of his cabi
net."! During this interval, Washington, Maryland,
and to some extent the whole country waited in painful
suspense to hear the fate of Mrs. Surratt — that of her
companions in misery being almost taken for granted.
In fact, an impression prevailed generally that the
court would not, and could not if it would, belie the
final cause of its organization ; but a ray of hope kept
flickering that a majority of the distinguished officers
composing the tribunal would stop short of hanging
a woman of the character and standing of Mrs.
Surratt upon the same scaffold with a desperado like
Payne. At length, on Wednesday, the day after the
Fourth, Preston King, late a senator in Congress from
New York and now a favored guest at the White
House, sauntered into the judge advocate's office and
incidentally let fall the remark that the President was
*See copy of part of record in Appendix, Note II of this chapter.
t See paper read by Col. Burnett before Loyal Legion, N. Y., AprU 3,
1889: printed in Appendix to Harris' Hist, of Assassination.
t Holt's Refutation (1873), pamphlet.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 135
able to leave his bed; and being informed that Holt
was waiting to submit the record of the trial for
executive approval, a messenger from the White
House, later in the day, summoned that officer to an
interview with his titular commander-in-chief. The
President, not being expected to wade through the
mass of testimony, depended for his knowledge of the
merits of the cause almost exclusively on the Secre
tary of War and his immediate subordinates of the
Bureau. Holt, therefore, did not burden himself with
the stenographer's minutes of the examination — direct
and cross, by question and answer — of three hundred
witnesses ; but, in lieu thereof, prepared what he styled
a "formal brief review of the case"; and, with this
document and the secret record, set out on his errand!
of doom. As he says, he found the President "alone,"
very pale, as if just recovered from a severe illness";
and "without delay" he "proceeded to discharge the
duty which brought me (him) into his presence."*
No more was required from him but to read, or submit
to the President for him to read, his "brief review"
dated that day, addressed to that officer and signed by
hunself. This, after reciting the Charge and Specifi
cation, the findings and sentences (changed in their
order, however, so as to bring Mrs. Surratt 's next to
the three condemned with her to death), concluded as
follows :
"After a trial continuing for fifty-three days, in which
between three or four hundred witnesses were examined for
* Refutation, ut sup.

136 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the prosecution and defence and in which the rights of the
accused were watched and zealously guarded by seven able
counsel of their own selection, the commission have arrived
at the conclusions presented above." (Bingham's argument
thereunto annexed is here referred to.) "The opinion is
entertained that the proceedings were regular, and that the
findings of the commission were fully justified by the evidence.
It is thought that the highest considerations of public justice,
as well as the future security of the lives of the officers of
the government, demand that the sentences based on these
findings should be carried into execution";—*
There was no mention or hint of the petition.
Further exhortation was uncalled for. "At the
time," to quote Holt himself, "Johnson needed no
urging"; his ruling impulse was to get rid of a dis
tasteful duty in the shortest possible time. The ques
tion of commuting the sentence of the one woman
among the eight condemned must have arisen even
had there been no suggestion emanating from the
judges of the court ; and the President was notoriously
of the opinion that sex furnished no ground for his
interference — a doctrine which his interlocutor saw
no reason to combat.! The only question raised being
thus settled, the day of execution is fixed for the
succeeding Friday, and then the judge advocate pro
ceeds to draw up the executive order in due form.
Turning the sheets over until he reaches the last, on
the upper part of the first page of which the record
terminates, and beginning on the second line below the
* See Eeport of Jud. Adv. Gen., Nov. 13, 1865, to Sec. of War.
t See Note III to this chapter in Appendix.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 137
signature "D. Hunter," he writes out what was called
the death warrant, approving the sentences and direct
ing them to be carried into execution. The page is
filled before his task is done, when, instead of turning
the page up and continuing to write on the back from
the bottom dovsm — the method employed as to all the
other sheets — he turns the entire record over and con
tinues writing on the back page from its top, proper,
down; a change, whether unintentional or not, likely
to have the effect of throwing any leaf flying at the
end of the record out of the sight of the signer of the
paper.* Completing his draft, the judge advocate
pushes the roll over to the President who signs "An
drew Johnson" with a tremulous hand. The "con
fidential interview" is over, and Holt, gathering up
the sheets, hurries over to the War Office, communi
cates the result of the consultation to Stanton,! and,
passing down stairs to the room of the adjutant gen
eral, delivers to that officer so much of the record as
enables him to promulgate the death sentences and the
death warrant on the morning of the next day.
When the tidings spread through the capital that
Mrs. Surratt was to die on the same scaffold with
Herold, Atzerodt and Payne within twenty-four hours,
her relatives and friends were struck dumb with dis
may ; something like consternation swept over the bulk
of the inhabitants and sombre misgivings troubled the
most loyal breasts. A rumor that five of the officers
had joined in a recommendation of mercy in which the
* See part of record in Appendix, Note H of this chapter.
t Burnett's paper in Note III of this chapter.

138 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
entire commission concurred aroused a forlorn hope
that the President might even yet relent ; and a stream
of suppliants set in towards the White House — priests
of the church to which the doomed woman belonged,
and high-placed men and women of the world ; but they
were repelled by Preston King and James Lane (a
senator in Congress from Kansas) who between them
divided the task of keeping the seclusion of the execu
tive inviolate. In the evening, the half-crazed daugh
ter managed to reach Judge Holt at his residence and
implored him to beg from the President three days
more of life for her mother, which the judge promised
to do.* No pause, however, was made in the prepara
tions for the fourfold execution of the morrow. The
scaffold, with its long platform in which were two
drops and its four ropes dangling from the cross
beam, was being constructed in the prison yard; and,
at five in the morning, the four condemned prisoners
were removed from the tier of cells on the upper floor
which they had hitherto occupied, to separate cells on
the first floor, so as to be in closer proximity to the
instrument of death. As a last desperate resort,
application was made for a writ of haheas corpus,
which was granted by Judge Wylie of the Supreme
Court of the District and made returnable at ten
o 'clock ; on the service of which. General Hancock, who
commanded the military division, hastened to report
to the President. To him, also, came Holt with the
last prayer of the daughter whom, after his interview,
he meets in the hall with the annoimcement that there
* See Holt to Gen. Mussey in Refutation.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 139
is no hope.* The young girl cast herself down at the
foot of the stairs leading to the executive office,
appealing to the guardians of the door in the name
of God to let her in; conjuring the distracted by
standers to intercede for her; pleading that her
mother was too good, too kind to be guilty of the
heinous crime laid to her charge. The door remained
shut. Inside, the President was being stayed with an
"informal discussion" of the subject of commutation
on the ground of sex, with wliich two or three of his
confidential advisers saw fit to favor him, the Minister
of War delivering himself as follows :
' ' Surely not, Mr. President, for if the death penalty should
be commuted in so grave a case as the assassination of the
head of a great nation on account of the sex of the criminal,
it would amount to an invitation to assassins hereafter to
employ women as their instruments, under the belief that if
arrested and condemned they would be punished less severely
than men. An act of executive clemency on such a plea would
be disapproved of by the government of every civilized nation
on earth, "t
At the hour of half-past eleven, Hancock, accom
panied by the attorney general appeared before Judge
Wylie and, by order of the President, declined to obey
the writ on the ground that it was suspended; and,
although cavalrymen were still kept stationed at points
along the line from the White House to the arsenal to
* See article by Clampitt, North Amer. Rev., September, 1880.
t See Note IV to this chapter in Appendix.

140 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
transmit a reprieve at the last moment, all hope was
finally abandoned.
In the meantime, crowds of people had been making
their way by land and water to catch sight of the exe
cution. The wall inclosing the arsenal grounds con
cealed the scaffold from persons outside, and those not
privileged to enter sought the tops of buildings in the
vicinity, the masts of vessels in the river and other
places of vantage whence to view the awful scene
about to be enacted. The corridors of the prison were
filled with soldiers, and none but the relatives, the
counsel and religious advisers of the condemned were
allowed within the precincts of the prison. On the
top of the wall was stationed the Sixth Regiment of
Veteran Volunteers and in the yard the First Regi
ment of the same corps ; for the execution was to be of
an exclusively military character — General Hartranft
being in command and, as an enthusiastic reporter
noted, "fine, stalwart specimens of Union soldiers,"
the executioners, "who did their work well."* Be
tween the hours of one and two, the death march
began; first, the woman already half dead and in her
shroud, two soldiers holding her erect; next, Payne,
his lips fresh from a declaration of the absolute inno
cence of the woman before him; unconcerned for his
own fate ; unobservant of his surroundings ; impatient
for the end. Herold and Atzerodt follow. The four
are ranged on the high scaffold, two on one drop, two
on the other. Four graves yawn open close by. The
death warrant is read, the nooses adjusted, the hoods
* Baker 's Hist. Secret Service, 508, 513-523.

FINDINGS AND EXECUTION 141
drawn down. Hartranft waves his sword, the two
drops fall and the four figures shoot down and then
sway to and fro between heaven and earth. The
bodies are cut down; a hurried post-mortem examina
tion is made; and, then, inclosed in gun boxes for
coffins, they are buried in a row. The soldiery depart
to the wail of trumpet and beat of drum. Silence
descends on the old arsenal, broken only by the tramp
of the sentinel set to guard the unhallowed dead.*
* Mr. Clampitt, iu his article in the North American Review for Sep
tember, 1880, quotes from a letter of Gen. Hartranft sent to the Presi
dent on the morning of the execution:
"The prisoner Payne has just told me that Mrs. Surratt is entirely
innocent of the assassination of President Lincoln, or of any knowledge
thereof. He also states that she had no knowledge whatever of the
abduction plot, that nothing was ever said to her about it, and that her
name was never mentioned by the parties connected therewith."
At the close of the letter General H. wrote ... "I believe that
Payne told the truth in this matter."

CHAPTER VI
The Question of Jukisdiction
The "Instructions to the Armies of the United
States in the Field," of April, 1863, state that military
jurisdiction is of two kinds : first, that which is defined
by act of Congress, and, second, that which is derived
from "the common law of war."* General Ewing, at
the close of the testimony on the trial just reviewed,
complaining of the multiplicity of offences included in
the Charge, and the judge advocate maintaining there
was but "one transaction" — "a traitorous con
spiracy" — and various acts "traitorously" committed
in pursuance thereof, the former inquired by what
statute the offence was defined and its punishment
fixed; and his adversary made the following reply:
' ' I think the common law of war will reach that case. This
is a crime . . . committed in the midst of a great civU war,
in the capital of the country, in the camp of the Commander-
in-Chief of our armies, and if the common law of war cannot
be enforced against criminals of that character, then I think
such a code is in vain in this world.
"Mr. Ewing: Do you base it, then, only on the law of
nations ?
"The Judge Advocate: The common law of war."!
* Appendix to Pitman.
t Pitman, 247. (142)

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 143
And it was upon "the common law of war" that the
government was obliged in the end to rest the juris
diction of the tribunal it had called into existence.
This fundamental question was lost sight of amid the
universal outcry for the punishment of those clearly
guilty of taking part in the crime against the nation;
but the presence of a female citizen of the United States
on trial before a board of army officers, provoked, even
in this period of vengeful feeling, the unfavorable criti
cism of the press, the courts and the legal profession.*
By its own members, the jurisdiction of the commission
was regarded as a matter of course. Indeed, as they
were told by the special judge advocate, "they could
question the authority constituting them no more than
they could question their own existence." They were
constrained, nevertheless, to tolerate two powerful at
tacks upon their right to try the defendants, which
must have ruffled their professional equanimity.
The argument of Reverdy Johnson was a model of
closely-reasoned, convincing speech. He contended
that military tribunals could try none but military
offences, and those only when the persons committing
them belonged to the army or the navy ; that civilians
cannot be subjected to military law in time of war any
more than in time of peace ; that, even if the power to
institute such a commission as the present was an inci
dent of the war power, that power is lodged not in the
executive but exclusively in the Congress, and the Con
gress, neither by the articles of war nor by the two
acts in pari materia passed during the rebellion, had
* See Note I to chapter in Appendix.

144 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
authorized any such tribunals; on the contrary, "until
the rebellion a military commission like the present^
organized in a loyal State or Territory where the
courts are open and their proceedings unobstructed
... is not to be found sanctioned or the most remotely
recognized, or even alluded to, by any writer on mili
tary law in England or in the United States, or in any
legislation of either country." The counsel further
maintained that "traitorous conspiracy" is nothing
less than treason, and treason, under an express pro
vision of the Constitution, must be tried by the civil
courts. " " We learn that the very chief of the alleged
conspiracy has been indicted and is about to be tried
before one of these courts." If he ... is to be and
can be so tried, upon what ground of right, of fairness
or of policy, can parties who are charged to have been
his mere instruments be deprived of the same mode
of trial?" In conclusion, the counsel claimed that
the District of Columbia had not been occupied as
enemy's territory; that martial law had never been
declared in the loyal states by any competent au
thority; that the suspension of the writ of haheas
corpus carried with it no other rights than the
right to inquire into the cause of arrest ; and, in illus
tration of the general scope of his argument, cited the
trials in the civil courts of England, in the time of war
and domestic violence — the writ of haheas corpus
being suspended — of persons who attempted to assas
sinate the king, of the assassin of Percival, the prime
minister, and of Hardy and Home Tooke — "no one
suggesting any other mode."

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 145
Ewing's attack, coming from a comrade of the
officers composing the commission, was outspoken to
the point of audacity. He put it in syllogistic form.
"Under the Constitution none but courts ordained and
established by Congress can exercise judicial power,
and these courts must be composed of judges who hold
their offices during good behavior. Congress has not
'ordained or established' you a court and you are not
judges who hold your offices during good behavior.
You are, therefore, no court under the Constitution,
and you have no jurisdiction in these cases, unless you
obtain it from some source which overrules this con
stitutional provision.
"The President cannot confer judicial power upon you,
for he has it not. His mandate . . . were no better than the
simple mandate to take A. B., C. D., E. F., or G. H. and puf
them to death.
"The President . . . may constitute courts pursuant to
the Articles of War, but he can give them jurisdiction over
citizens," only 'in cases arising in the land or naval forces,*
to which "these defendants did not and do not belong.
"Congress has not attempted to grant you the power;
Congress could not grant it. . . . Congress has authorized
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus" . . ., but "this
goes to imprisonment not trial, conviction or punishment. ' '
The gallant general even sought out the judge advo
cate in his last refuge — silent leges inter arma — and
expounded his "common law of war" after the follow
ing fashion :
10

146 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"Cases have often arisen, in which robber-bands, whose
vocation is piracy on the high seas, or promiscuous robbery
and murder on land . . . may be lawfully put to the sword
without quarter, in battle, or hung on the yard-arm or other
wise put to death, . . . without trial. ... A military court
may be called, but it is advisory merely; the general acts,
condemns and executes. . . . Over these classes his power is
restrained only by the usages of war among civilized nations.
But these defendants are not charged as spies, pirates, or
armed and organized marauders or enemies captured in war
. . . They belong to none of these classes over whom
military discretion or martial law extends, unless they extend
over and embrace all the people of the United States. ' '
The counsel closed with a warning which now will
be regarded as prophetic:
"Our judicial tribunals at some future day . . . will be
again in the full exercise of their constitutional powers and
may think, as a large proportion of the legal profession think
now, that your jurisdiction in these cases is an unwarranted
assumption." And, in that event, "your sentence will be
held in law no better than the rulings of Judge Lynch 's courts
in the administration of lynch law. ' '*
The special assistant in his reply was as dogmatic
in the affirmance of the jurisdiction of the tribunal of
which he was a member as he had been in the affirm
ance of the guilt of every one of the accused. He, in
fact, viewed the attacks of counsel as an aspersion
upon the President for attempting "to prevent the
consummation of the traitorous conspiracy." His
characterization of the argument of Reverdy Johnson
* Pitman, 264.

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 147
as a "plea on behalf of an expiring and shattered
rebellion" has already been noticed; but discourtesy
of this character the brilliant career of the junior
counsel forbade, and Bingham did but gently remind
Ewing that in the enforcement of martial law in the
West, where he had been recently in command, he
might have subjected himself to "the same stern judg
ment he now invokes on others." To the assertion of
the counsel that the civil courts are open, he made
answer: "They are closed throughout half of the
republic, and were only open in this District on the
day of . . . the traitorous assassination of your Presi
dent, and are only open at this hour by force of the
bayonet. ' ' Booth, he said, ' ' was pursued by the mili
tary power of the government, captured and slain.
Was this an act of usurpation? If not, I would be
glad to know by what law the President is condemned
for arresting in like manner and . . . subjecting to
trial . . . any and all the other parties to the same
damnable conspiracy ... by a military tribunal."
To Ewing's audacious arraignment of the officers sit
ting around the table as "no court under the Consti
tution," he replied: "The power of this government to
try and punish military offences by military tribunals
is no part of the 'judicial power of the United
States ' " ; it is implied in the grants of power to make
war, to make rules for the government of the land and
naval forces, and is necessary to carry the enumerated
powers into effect. In fact, the special assistant did
not share the fondness of his chief for "the common
law of war." On the contrary, he rested his case

148 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
mainly on the President's order of September 24th,
1862, suspending the writ of haheas corpus and declar
ing ' ' all rebels, their aiders and abettors, within the
United States, and all persons discouraging enlist
ments, resisting drafts or guilty of any disloyal prac
tice . . . subject to martial law and liable to trial
and punishment by court-martial and military com
mission"; construing the order as a proclamation of
martial law over the entire Union, whether the par
ticular state or district were the theatre of war or
not, and upholding the authority of the executive of its
own motion to do such an act ; in effect enthroning the
military commanders of the departments in the loyal
states as absolute masters of the life and property of
the citizen. ' ' To my mind, nothing can be clearer than
that citizen and soldier alike, in time of civil or foreign
war, after a proclamation of martial law, are triable
by military tribunals for all offences in the interest of
or in concert with the enemy." Again: "Who will;
dare say that in time of civil war, no person can be,'
deprived of life, liberty or property without due
process of law? This is a provision of your Constitu
tion, than which there is none more just and sacred in
it. It is, however, only a law of peace and not of war.
In war, it must be and is to a great extent inoperative
and disregarded." And the counsel adds: "That the
proclamation covers the offence charged here, no man
will or dare to deny. Was it not a disloyal practice?
Was it not aiding and abetting the insurgents to enter
into conspiracy with them to kill and murder within
your capital and your intrenched camp your Com-

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 149
mander-in-Chief, your Lieutenant-General, your Vice
President and your Secretary of War?"
Nevertheless, confident of the validity of such a
proclamation as he would have the court believe he
was, this leading member of the House of Representa
tives did not venture to rely for the exercise of so
sweeping a power upon the executive alone; but, call
ing to its aid the department to which he himself
belonged, cited the act of Congress of March 3rd, 1863,
which authorized the President to suspend the writ of
haheas corpus and made his orders a defence in all
suits brought in consequence of acts done in pursuance
thereof, as having ratified and confirmed the procla
mation, though no express mention was made of it in
the act. Moreover, near the close of his argument, he
accepts the challenge of his learned adversary to pro
duce a single statute authorizing or regulating military
commissions in cases similar to the one at bar, by
producing two; one, a section of the act of March,
1863, providing that "all persons who, in time of war
or rebellion against the United States, shall be found
lurking as spies in or about the camps, etc., of the
army or elsewhere shall be triable by military com
mission and shall, upon conviction, suffer death"; the
other, the act of July 2nd, 1864, that provides: "The
commanding general in the field or the commander of
the department, as the case may be, shall have power
to carry into execution all sentences against guerrilla
marauders for robbery, arson, burglary, etc., and for
violations of the laws and customs of war, as well as

150 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
sentences against spies, mutineers, deserters and
murderers." From the counsel's premises, the conclusion is in
evitable that, if the prisoners at the bar properly
belonged in the category of offenders mentioned in
these statutes, the military commander of the District,
according to the "Instructions" to the army cited
above, might have dispensed with a commission and
summarily strung up in the arsenal yard the whole
eight as "enemies of the human race."
The commission, after hearing these weighty argu
ments on the question of its jurisdiction, did not deem
it worth while even to take a vote in reconsideration
of its formal action overruling the plea interposed on
the arraignment; but the attorney general, thinking
something more should be done to satisfy public
opinion, reduced to writing the verbal opinion he
appears to have rendered to the President before the
commission was organized. This official deliverance
is in some respects unique. In the first place, no men
tion is made of the proclamation of martial law the
special assistant principally relied on, but the law
officer of the government bases his opinion upon the
ground so much favored by the judge advocate gen
eral, viz.: "the common law of war." He first sum
marizes the facts : the President was assassinated at a
theatre in Washington; civil war being flagrant, the
city defended by fortifications, the principal police
being federal soldiers and the President's house and
person under the guard, or should have been, of sol
diers; martial law declared in the District; but the

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 151
civil courts open, holding regular sessions and transact
ing business as in times of peace. On this state of facts,
he gives his reasons why the conspirators in ques
tion ought to be tried by a military tribunal. First:
Civil courts are created by a law of Congress, military
tribunals exist in time of war. Congress having the
power to prescribe how they may be constituted ; but,
if Congress do not, they nevertheless are constituted
under the laws and usages of civilized warfare. It is
too plain for argument, in the view of the attorney
general, that Congress cannot, either in war or in
peace, create military tribunals to try persons not in
the land or naval forces; but it does not follow that
they cannot be created at all. Second: The law of
nations is a part of the law of the land; and the laws
of war constitute much the greater part of the law of
nations. By that law all the people of the respective
beUigerents, in war, are enemies to each other — open
and active enemies or secret active participants, such
as spies, brigands, jayhawkers, rebels and assassins.
As to the former class, there is no question, the com
mander of an army having the same power to organize
military tribunals when occasions arise as to set his
squadrons in the field. As to the latter, the question
is whether the laws and usages of war authorize such
tribunals to determine their fate; and, in the affirma
tive, the attorney general cites Wheaton as holding
that irregular bands of marauders are liable to be
treated as lawless banditti, and, also, Patrick Henry's
speech in the Virginia Convention to ratify the Con
stitution of the United States, declaring that a pirate,

152 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
an outlaw, or a common enemy of mankind may be put
to death at any time — "hunted down like wolves."
In response to those who say that when they conflict
with the Constitution the laws of war must give way,
this expounder of ' ' the common law in war ' ' advances
a distinction which has the merit at least of being
altogether new:
"The guarantees of the Constitution refer to crimes. In
fractions of the law of nations are offenses, many of which
are not crimes at all, such as running blockades, holding
intercourse with the enemy, acting as a spy, joining banditti,
jayhawking guerillas, etc. Offenses against the laws of war,
whether crimes or not, must be punished under the laws of
war. Crimes must be dealt with under the provisions of the
Constitution. "The law of nations . . . has decided that jayhawkers,
banditti, etc., are offenders against the laws of nature and of
war, and as such amenable to the military.
"Booth and his associates were secret active public enemies.
His exclamation 'sic semper tyrannis' on the stage . . . and
his dying message, 'Mother, I died for my country,' shows he
was not an assassin from private malice but that he acted as
a public foe. ' '
The attorney general's conclusion, therefore, is:
"If the persons who are charged with the assassination of
the President committed the deed as public enemies, as I
believe they did, and whether they did or not is a question to
be decided by the tribunal before which they were tried, they
not only can, but ought to be tried before a military tribunal.
If the persons charged have offended against the laws of

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 153
war, it would be as palpably wrong for the military to hand
them over to the civil courts, as it would be wrong in a civil
court to convict a man for murder who had in time of war
killed another in battle. ' '*
In the meantime, the question, which the commission
treated as a technicality of constitutional law it was
bound by the very law of its existence to ignore, was
passing up for final adjudication to the highest trib
unal in the land. In the fall of 1864, in the state of
Indiana, by order of the commanding general of the
district, certain members of an organization called the
"Sons of Liberty" were arrested and put in jail.
This secret society the judge advocate general de
nounced in his official report as ' ' the echo and faithful
ally" of the rebellion, and the guilty men engaged in
it as having "trodden under foot every sentiment of
honor and every restraint of law, human and divine. ' '
" Judea," he stated, "produced but one Judas Iscariot
and Rome . . . but one Catiline; and yet . . . there
has arisen in our land an entire brood of such traitors
all animated by the same parricidal spirit and all
struggling with the same relentless malignity for the
dismemberment of our Union. ' ' Three of these Judas-
Catilines were brought to trial at Indianapolis before
a military commission appointed by the commanding
general, on charges, preferred by Colonel Burnett, of
conspiracy against the government, affording aid and
comfort to rebels, inciting insurrection, disloyal prac
tices and violations of the laws of war; and, on the
* Atty.-Gen. 's Opinion in Pitman 's Appendix.

154 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
eighteenth of December, found guilty and sentenced
to be hung. The findings and sentences, approved by
the commander, were sent to the President and by him
referred to the judge advocate, who recommended that
the sentences be carried into effect. Lincoln, at the
time of his death, still had the proceedings under
advisement; but his successor ordered the condemned
to be executed on the nineteenth of May, 1865. On the
tenth of that month, just as the trial of the assassins
was about to commence, Milligan — one of the three —
filed in the circuit court of the United States, in pur
suance of the act of March, 1863, a petition for his dis
charge, setting forth that he had never belonged to the
land or naval forces or to the militia while in actual
service; and the two judges, differing in opinion, cer
tified the questions involved to the Supreme Court.
Thereupon, President Johnson, after commuting the
sentence of one of the others to imprisonment for life,
directed the suspension of the other sentences until
the second day of June; and, at the last moment, in
deference to the expostulations of Justice David Davis
and Governor Morton, sent by telegraph a like com
mutation in the case of Milligan and his fellow-
prisoner.* The main question — had the military commission
jurisdiction to try Milligan? — came on for argument
at Washington in the January term of 1866 ; Benjamin
F. Butler being associated with the attorney general,
and a distinguished array of counsel appearing for the
*Headley's Confederate Operations in Canada (Neale Pub. Co.), p.
452-4; Ehodes, V, 328.

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 155
petitioner. Speed repeated in somewhat diluted form
the disquisition on the law of war he submitted to the
President in the case of the assassins, reinforced on
this occasion by Bingham's argument in support of the
proclamation of September, 1862, and its ratification
by Congress; claiming that Milligan's offences came
under one of the classes mentioned in that paper. That
Milligan never belonged to the land or naval forces,
according to the attorney general, was of no con
sequence. "Neither residence nor propinquity to the
field of actual hostilities is the test to determine who
is or who is not subject to martial law." The crimes
charged were committed within the military lines of
the army and upon the theatre of military operations,
in a state which had been and was then threatened with
invasion. The guarantees of the Constitution are no
"restraint on the war-making power." "These, in
truth, are all peace provisions, and, like all other con
ventional and legislative laws and enactments, are
silent amidst arms."
David Dudley Field, who was first heard on behalf
of the petitioner, defined a military commission as
"originally an advisory board of officers convened for
the purpose of informing the conscience of the com
manding officer in cases where he might act for himself
if he chose." The commission in the present case
depends entirely on the executive will, he said, putting
the question: "Has the President in time of war, upon
his own will and judgment, the power to bring before
his military officers, any person in the land and subject
him to trial and punishment even to death?" Whence

156 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
is this "awful power" derived? Not from the "exe
cutive power" granted by the Constitution. Not from
the clause making the President commander-in-chief.
To command an army requires the control of no other
persons than the officers, soldiers and camp followers.
Congress is empowered to do all the rest necessary.
Military tribunals for the trial of non-military persons
"are inconsistent with the liberty of the citizen, and
can have no place in constitutional government."
Strictly speaking, the counsel points out, "there is no
such thing as martial law; it is martial rule; the will
of the commanding officer, and nothing more, nothing
less." James A. Garfield, then a representative in Congress
from the state of Ohio, was heard next. ' ' To maintain
the legality of the sentence," said the man to be the
next President of the United States to fall by the hand
of an assassin, "opposite counsel were compelled not
only to ignore the Constitution but to declare it sus
pended — that from the fifth day of October, 1864, to the
ninth day of May, 1865, martial law alone existed in
Indiana"; the commanding general having power "to
lay his hand on every citizen, try him, sentence him
and put him to death." To show what the representa
tives of the people thought on the subject, he quoted
from an appropriation bill, passed by the House near
the close of the thirty-eighth Congress (1863-5), a sec
tion providing that "no person shall be tried by court-
martial or military commission in any state or territory
where the courts are open, except persons in the mili
tary and naval service ... or rebel enemies charged

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 157
with being spies"; — a section, as the counsel noted,
inserted because of "alarm at the growing tendency
to break down the barriers of the law," and the strik
ing out of which by the Senate resulted in the failure
of the entire measure.*
But it was the argument of Jeremiah S. Black that
rendered the discussion a contribution to the litera
ture of the country. It consisted of a series of weighty
propositions clothed in that racy diction in the use of
which he was without a rival. "We submit," thus the
counsel began, "that a person not in the military or
naval service cannot be punished at all until he has a
fair, open and public trial before an impartial jury
. . . ; a proposition which ought to be received as true
without any argument to support it; because if it be
not a part of our law, then this is not a free country."
So far from the guarantees of the Constitution being
in force only in time of peace, it was in time of war,
the counsel contended, that they were most needed.
"Our wise forefathers knew that tranquility was not
to be always anticipated in a republic ; the spirit of a
free people is often turbulent; civil war might come,"
and "prosecutions for political offences" instituted
"on charges founded upon the information of spies
and detectives who make merchandise of their oaths
and trade in the blood of their fellowmen"; and it
was for this very reason that they made trial by jury
"perpetual and universal." "The truth is that no
* The counsel further stated that almost every senator acknowledged
the "justice" of the section but "feaied it might cripple the exe
cutive. ' '

158 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
authority exists anywhere in the world for the doc
trine of the attorney general. No judge or jurist, no
statesman or parliamentary orator, on this or the other
side of the water, sustains him. Every elementary
writer is against him. ... No book can be found in
any library to justify the assertion that military trib
unals can try a citizen at a place where the courts are
open." The counsel closed by delineating with a few master
strokes what a military commission particularly is :
"No human being in this country can exercise any kind
of public authority which is not conferred by law ; and under
the United States, it must be given by the express words of
a written statute. . . . Courts-martial . . . are authorized;
they are legal institutions; their jurisdiction is limited, and
their whole code of procedure is regulated by act of Congress.
Upon the civil courts, all the jurisdiction they have or can
have is bestowed by law. But a military commission is not
a court-martial, and it is not a civil court. ... It has no law
of its own. Its terrible authority is undefined, and its exer
cise without any legal control. It has no legal origin and no
legal name among the children of men"; and it exercises
"all power for the paradoxical reason that none belongs to
it rightfully. "
"The power exercised through these military coromissions
is not only unregulated by law, but it is incapable A being so
regulated. It asserts the right of the executive government
without the interposition of the judiciary, to capture, imprison
and kill any person to whom that government or its paid
defendants may choose to impute an offence. ... It operates
in different ways; the instruments which it uses are not
always the same; it hides its hideous features under many

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 159
disguises; it assumes every variety of form. But, in all its
mutations of outward appearance, it is still identical in
principle, object and origin."
"But, while powerless to do good," military commissions
"may become omnipotent to do harm. They would be organ
ized to convict, and the conviction would follow the accusation
as surely as night follows day. A government, of course,
will accuse none before such a commission except those whom
it predetermines to destroy. The accuser can choose the
judges, and will select those who are known to be . . . the
most ready to do whatever may please the power which gives
them pay and promotion. The willing witness could be found
as easily as the superserviceable judge. The treacherous spy
and the base informer would stock the market with abundant
perjury; for the authorities that employ them will be bound
to protect as well as to reward them."
The voice is the voice of Jeremiah Black, but the
doctrine is the doctrine of Reverdy Johnson; in this
instance received without insult at the bar and soon to
be sanctioned from the bench.
General Butler replied for the United States, and,
by his very first concession, nullified by anticipation
the sole distinction subsequently sought to be drawn
between the case in which he was engaged and the
case of the accused assassins. "We do firmly agree
that if at the time of these occurrences there were no
military operations in Indiana, if there was no army
there, if there was no necessity of armed forces there
. . . then this commission had no jurisdiction to deal
with the relator, and the question proposed may as
well be answered in the negative. . . . The great and

160 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
determining fact stated, without which we have no
standing in court, is that these acts of Milligan and his
felonious associates took place in the theatre of mili
tary operations within the lines of the army, in a
state which had been and then was threatened with
invasion." In warding off the point that the civil courts were
open, Butler did but echo Bingham: "If the soldiers
of the United States, by their arms had not held the
state from intestine domestic foes within and the
attacks of traitors without . . . there would have been
no courts in Indiana where a judge could sit in peace
to administer the law. ' ' He reminds the court that civil
courts were in session in Washington during the whole
of the rebellion and yet the capital was "nearly the
whole of the whole time under martial law"; their
courts being but the ordinary tribunals and in opera
tion "only by permission by the military power" —
overlooking the fact that the tribunal he was address
ing held its regular terms every winter of the war.*
What is still more noteworthy. General Butler
agreed with General Ewing in the latter 's audacious
assertion: "You, gentlemen, are no court." To call
a military commission "a court," says the recent mili
tary commander of New Orleans, is a "mistake." "It
is not a court either under or by virtue of, or without
the Constitution." "Whatever it may be" it "de
rives its power and authority wholly from martial law
and by that law . . . only are its proceedings to be
adjudged and reviewed." A dearth of precedents he
* Note II to this chapter in Appendix.

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 161
admits, but he claims "it is because the facts are un
precedented." Show us an instance "in a civilized
and Christian country where almost one half of its
citizens undertook, without cause, to overthrow the
government and where coward sympathizers . . .
plotted in the security given by the protecting arms
of the other half to aid such rebellion and treason, and
we will perhaps show a precendent for hanging such
traitors by military commissions." "This," says the
counsel, as if certain of his cause, "is the value of this
case ; whenever we are thrown into war again ... we
shall have set precedents how a nation may preserve
itself from self-destruction."
The court did indeed establish a precedent of exceed
ing great value; but of a kind the reverse of that
which the counsel so confidently anticipated. On the
third day of April, this tribunal created by the Con
stitution, composed of nine judges holding office during
good behavior, without a dissenting voice ordered the
discharge of Milligan and his co-defendants on the
ground that the military commission had no right to
try and condemn them ; and, in pursuance of the order,
the President remitted the further execution of their
sentence. At the opening of the December term, two
opinions were handed down; one written by Justice
Davis — the life-long friend of Lincoln who, while Presi
dent, elevated him to the bench — and concurred in by
four of his associates ; and one by the Chief Justice —
concurred in by three. That, as a matter of law, the
President had no power to institute the commission in
11

162 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
question and that, as a matter of fact, the Congress
had not empowered him to do so, the court was unani
mous; but, whereas the majority held that the Con
gress had no power to authorize such a tribunal, the
minority held otherwise had the Congress seen fit to
exercise it.* The guarantees of the Constitution were
treated with much more reverent touch by the Supreme
Court than by Bingham and Butler. "These securi
ties for personal liberty," said Judge Davis, "were
such as wisdom and experience had demonstrated to
be necessary for the protection of those accused of
crime. And so strong was the sense of the country
of their importance, and so jealous were the people
that these rights might be denied by implication, that
when the original Constitution was proposed for
adoption, . . . but for the belief that it would be
amended so as to embrace them, it would never have
been ratified."
Listen to the judicial refutation of the doctrine that
governed, alike, the commission in the Milligan case
and the commission in the case of Mrs. Surratt :
"The Constitution of the United States is a law for
rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers
with the shield of its protection all classes of men at all times,
and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more
pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of
man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during
any of great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads
directly to anarchy or despotism."
* See Note at end of chapter.

QUESTION OF JURISDICTION 163
"It is not pretended that the commission was a court
ordained or established by Congress." They cannot justify
on the mandate of the President; because he is controlled
by law and has his appropriate sphere of duty, which is to
execute and not make the law. ' '
On the other hand "the common law of war," so
cherished by Holt and Speed, found but scant favor:
"But it is said that the jurisdiction is complete under the
'laws and usages of war.' It can serve no useful purpose to
inquire what those laws and usages are, where found, and
on whom they operate; they can never be applied to citizens
in states which have upheld the authority of the government,
and where the courts are open and their process unobstructed.
And no usage of war could sanction a military trial there for
any offence whatever of a citizen in civil life, in nowise con
nected with the military service. Congress could grant no
such power; and to the honor of our national legislature be
it said it has never been provoked by the state of the country
even to attempt its exercise."
"Citizens of states where the courts are open, if charged
with crime, are guaranteed the inestimable privilege of trial
^y jury. This privilege is a vital principle, underlying the
whole administration of criminal justice; it is not held by
sufferance, and cannot be frittered away on any plea of state
or political necessity. ' '
"But it is claimed that martial law covers with its broad
mantle the proceedings of this military commission. ... It
will be borne in mind that this is not a question of the power
to proclaim martial law, when war exists in a community and
the courts and civil authorities are overthrown. ... If armies
were collected in Indiana, they were to be employed in

164 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
another locality, where the laws were obstructed and the
national authority disputed. On her soil there was no hostile
foot; if once invaded, that invasion was at an end, and with
it all pretext for martial law. Martial law cannot arise from
a threatened invasion. The necessity must be actual and
present ; the invasion real, such as effectually closes the courts
and deposes the civil administration. ... As necessity asserts
the rule, so it limits its duration; for if this government is
continued after the courts are reinstated, it is a gross usurpa
tion of power. Martial law can never exist where the courts
are open, and in the proper and unobstructed exercise of
their jurisdiction. It is also confined to the locality of actual
war. ' '*
*The following from the opinion of Chase presents the precise point
of difference between the majority and the minority of the court:
' ' We cannot doubt that in such a time of public danger, ' ' as existed
in the state of Indiana at the time of the arrests in this case, ' ' Congress
had power ... to provide for the organization of a military commission
for the trial of persons engaged in this conspiracy. The fact that the
Federal courts were open was regarded by Congress as a sufficient rea
son for not exercising the power; but that fact could not deprive
Congress of the right to exercise it. . . . That body did not see fit to
authorize trials by military commissions . . . but" (in the act suspend
ing the habeas corpus providing for the discharge of the prisoners held
under it, if not brought to trial speedily in the regular courts) "by the
strongest implication prohibited them."
Majority: Davis, Nelson, Grier, Clifford, Field.
Minority: Chase, Wayne, Swayne, Miller.
{Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. U. S. Eep., p. 2.)

CHAPTER VII
The Dwindling of the "Geeat Conspibacy"
This blow to the validity of the military commission
that tried the accused assassins had scarcely been
delivered before the cornerstone of its judgment began
to crumble. To its death-dealing sentences was indis
solubly linked its finding that Jefferson Davis was the
prime instigator of the assassination. Two companies
of United States soldiers, having fired upon each other
in their furious haste to be the first to seize the dis
tinguished fugitive, were already engaged in a shame
ful scramble before the House of Representatives over
the enormous reward offered for his capture. The
country clamored for his punishment; and, if the
tribunal that convicted his alleged accomplices was
justified in pronouncing him guilty, there was nothing
to do but to convene another of the same species to
reiterate the verdict and order its execution. To this
plain course, the chief obstacle was that the late presi
dent of the Southern Confederacy was, at least, no
"brigand, bushwacker or jayhawker" to be arraigned
in his irons within the walls of Fort Monroe before a
board of officers, every one of whom, it might be said,
he had confronted on the field of battle. If a trial,
under "the common law of war," must take place it
must be a trial that, like a city set upon a hill, could
not be hid — ^must be, as the doomed regicide boasted,
"a deed not done in a corner." (165)

166 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
It behooved the Bureau of Military Justice, there
fore, to look well to its evidence. On the recent trial
the witnesses on this branch of the issue, as we have
seen, were paid emissaries detailing scraps of con
versation with the leading Confederates in Canada
and parol versions of letters purporting to be from the
Richmond authorities — testimony taken behind closed
doors, without regard to the elementary rules of evi
dence and unchecked by cross-examination. The man
agers of the Bureau were fully conscious that, if they
could not make a better showing than this, they would
not dare to bring their case into the fierce light that
would beat upon a military commission before which
Davis and Clay were battling for their lives. Accord
ingly, they cast about to obtain some of the documents
with the contents of which their witnesses claimed to
be so familiar. The indefatigable Baker, as the result
of another trip to Canada, brought back a memor
andum of eight letters from Davis to Thompson which
he said he saw but was not permitted to copy, much
less to carry away, unless their holders were paid a
sum which Baker put as high as twenty thousand
dollars. Of one of them, dated the eighth of March,
he went so far as to furnish a specimen extract: "The
consummation of the act that would have done more
to have ended strife, being delayed, has probably
ruined our cause," — followed by a Latin sentence
which Baker could not recall but which Holt thought
"would furnish a key to the whole matter." But this
promising clue was not followed up, probably because
Baker's price was too high, and, the next summer,

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 167
when Holt sent his own agent with funds after the
letters, the messenger returned empty-handed and
with the decided impression that the precious docu
ments were fabulous.* Parallel with Baker's search,
the attorney general entered into a negotiation with
Cleary to purchase the papers of his chief for the same
amount of money offered for the private secretary's
own arrest ; but, by the time this member of the cabinet
reached the border with the money in his hand, Cleary
had read the testimony against him before the com
mission and refused to surrender papers to be used
in its support.f In such a dearth of corroboratory
proofs, the only recourse was another draft upon the
unlimited resources of the acknowledged head of these
witnesses by profession.
The judge advocate general, it has been said by an
excellent authority, "was credulous to the extent of
accepting as truth nearly all the statements of detec
tives and alarmists" ;t nay, more, by daily intercourse
with creatures of this species, he had contracted a
veritable mania, so that the wilder a tale the more
hospitable was its welcome. If Conover was, as he
was called, the Titus Oates of the "Great Conspiracy,"
then Holt was its Shaftesbury; swallowing with gusto
every romance this most abandoned of men was ever
ready to invent for him. And, as will be seen, nothing
could shake permanently his faith in his protege —
neither confession nor flight, neither betrayal, con-
* Holt's testimony, Imp. Inv., 28-29; Baker's testimony. Imp. Inv.,
30-31. t Speed's testimony, Imp. Inv., 804-5.
.t Rhodes' Hist. (U. S.), V, 327.

168 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
viction nor imprisonment. It was Conover who testi
fied before the commission that about a week before
the assassination he was in Thompson's room in Mon
treal when Surratt entered with despatches from
Richmond — one from Benjamin, the Confederate Sec
retary of State, and a letter in cipher from Davis — on
the perusal of which Thompson exclaimed: "This
makes it all right." To bolster up this bit of testi
mony, Conover, in the fall of 1865, brought to the
Bureau seven deponents — among them his wife and
sister, — and Holt reduced their statements to writing
which were sworn to before him. Among the rest
were two men, passing under the names of Campbell
and Sneval, who deposed that early in the spring of
1865 they were present at an interview between
Surratt on the one hand, and Benjamin and Davis on
the other, in the capitol at Richmond, when the plot
to murder President Lincoln was discussed and ap
proved. Some of these witnesses were taken by Holt
before the President and the Secretary of State and
subjected to another examination, but so far as
appears, without result.* In fact, it was from the
President and the Secretary of State that the pro
pulsive ardor of the managers of the prosecution
received its first check. Johnson's persistence in fol
lowing the plan of his predecessor for the recon
struction of the lately insurgent states wrought a
change in his attitude toward traitors most surprising
in one whose life had been spared only because of the
* Reports of Assassination Committee, No. 104, 1st Sess., 39th Cong.,
H. E., July, 1866.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 169
lack of nerve in the wretch appointed to slay him.
Not only was a general amnesty proclaimed, but
special pardons to prominent secessionists in the
excepted classes fell thick and fast. Baker, by a too
rigid surveillance over the pardon-brokers haunting
the White House, made his presence there intolerable,
and the veteran detective, in revenge, was soon in hot
pursuit of a letter from the former military governor
of Tennessee making overtures to President Davis,
wliich, like the letters from Davis to Thompson, he
professed to have read but never was able to recover.*
Clemency, indeed, became the order of the day. Even
O'Laughlin, Arnold, Spangler and Mudd, languishing
on the burning sands of the Tortugas, caught gleams
of hope.f As for Jefferson Davis, did not Speed, the
author of the opinion in pursuance of which the mili
tary commission was organized, declare he could not
be tried by such a tribunal, but must be tried by a jury
for treason? In November, the Minister of War re
voked the rewards for the arrest of Thompson, San
ders and Cleary and John H. Surratt. $ In the midst
of this retiring ebb, came the opinions in the Milligan
case, and the discomfiture of the Bureau was complete.
But the radicals in the Congress, crowding to the
front of the hand-to-hand struggle with an apostate
President, knew but little of, and cared less for, the
embarrassments of the managers of this institution.
* L. C. Baker 's testimony on Imp. Inv.
t Ufe of Dr. Mudd by daughter (Neale Pub. Co.), Chap. XII.
I Speed's testimony on Imp. Inv. ut supra; Stanton's testimony in
Eeport of Sec. of State to H. E., 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Dec, 1866. Ex-
Doc. No. 9.

170 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On the ninth of April, 1866, the House adopted a reso
lution instructing the judiciary committee to inquire
whether there was probable cause to believe that any
of the persons named in the proclamation of rewards
of May 3rd, 1865, were guilty as alleged, and, if so,
whether any legislation was necessary to bring them
to trial ; and in the debate that ensued the views of the
leaders were given to the world.
"Jefferson Davis is no ordinary assassin or pirate. . . .
He stands charged by the government with the murder of
the President . . . and that charge, as I am well assured,
is amply verified by proofs which wUl soon be given to the
public, and awaken a stronger and sterner demand for his
punishment. "The nation cannot afford to submit the question of the
right of a state to secede to a jury of twelve men in one of
the rebel states. . . . Let Jefferson Davis be tried by a mili
tary court as he should have been promptly at the time other
and smaller offenders were dealt with a year ago. Let him
have the compliment of a formal inquiry to determine what
the whole world already knows, that he is immeasurably
guilty. And when that guilt is pronounced, let the govern
ment erect a gallows and hang him in the name of the Most
High."* The proofs so confidently alluded to by the orator
as about to be given to the public consisted of Cono
ver 's testimony on the Conspiracy Trial and the de
positions of the witnesses he had brought to the Bureau
and which Holt laid before the committee, accom
panied by an "explanatory argument." Before the
* Glohe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 1854, 2283-4.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 171
committee, Conover appeared in person ; his testimony
was read over to him and he re-swore to its truth.
Merritt, another witness before the commission, also,
appeared and acknowledged on cross-examination that
he had received for his services six thousand dollars.
Campbell and Sneval, having been brought from New
York, confounded their suborner by testifying that
the depositions were written out for them by him and
sworn to for pay. Conover denounced his betrayers
as enemies to his country in such moving terms that
the committee allowed him to go to New York to find
other witnesses; in which city he escaped from the
officer having him in custody and disappeared. The
crestfallen judge advocate reappeared before the com
mittee, protesting that ' ' there was nothing in the testi
mony" of the persons he examined, " or in their manner
calculated to excite doubt as to their truthfulness,"
but acknowledging that Conover 's disappearance "had
left on his mind" a strong impression that Conover
had been guilty of a most atrocious crime committed
under what promptings he "was unable to determine."
The majority of the committee, in their report to the
House, observed that the retracting deponents "failed
to state any inducement or consideration which seemed
a reasonable explanation of the course they had pur
sued," and, on this account, the committee were "not
able to say whether the original statements are true
or false"; nevertheless they conclude that "the testi
mony taken on the trial of the assassins justifies the
inference that the murder of Mr. Lincoln was pro
cured by the use of money furnished by the Richmond

172 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
government"; and recommend the adoption of a reso
lution ' ' that it is the duty of the executive department
... to proceed with the investigation of the facts
connected with the assassination . . . without un
necessary delay, that Jefferson Davis and others
named in the proclamation . . . may be put upon trial
and properly punished if guilty, or relieved from the
charges against them if innocent"; — a recommenda
tion which the House followed at the close of the
session.* During the recess the judge advocate appealed to
the public in a pamphlet entitled: "A Vindication of
Judge Holt from the foul slanders of traitors, con
fessed perjurers and suborners, acting in the interest
of Jefferson Davis, ' ' to which were appended exculpa
tory letters from Stanton and Boutwell, the chairman
of the committee. That, by the date of this publica
tion, he had discovered "under what promptings" his
favorite witness committed his "atrocious crime,"
which when before the committee he "was unable to
determine," sufficiently appears from the following
extract :
"It is clear that a conspiracy has been formed to defame
the judge advocate general and the Bureau of Military Just
ice. At the bottom of this conspiracy or actively engaged in
executing its purposes is Sanford Conover, who, after having
been fully proved guilty of subornation of perjury, has un
questionably sold himself to the friends of Davis and is seek
ing with them to destroy the reputation of a public officer
* Reports of Assassination Committee cited supra.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 173
whose confidence he gained ... by the most solemn protes
tations. ' '*
Let us hasten to the end of this odious business.
In November following, under a warrant issued on the
affidavit of Campbell under the name of Hoone, Cono
ver was arrested and brought to Washington, enter
taining the officer on the way by confessing that he
suborned the witnesses from a desire to avenge him
self on Jefferson Davis by whose order he had been
confined in "Castle Thunder" and who had, besides,
"insulted his wife." Indicted under the name of
Charles A. Dunham for perjury committed in his tes
timony contradicting Campbell, he was tried in Wash
ington in February, 1867, convicted, and sentenced to
ten years' imprisonment in the Albany Penitentiary.f
Thus fell the main pillar of the ' ' Great Conspiracy. ' '
The President and those members of the cabinet who
stood by their chief, for their part, let Holt's "atro
cious" criminal lie where he had fallen — Secretary
Seward testifying as follows :
"My own theory about Jefferson Davis was that until this
proclamation was withdrawn and peace was proclaimed by
the President, Jefferson Davis was amenable to trial for com
plicity with the a^assin ... if there was evidence of it . . .
One or two witnesses were examined before the President and
myself. . . . Sometime after that, the testimony of these wit
nesses was discredited and destroyed by transactions in which
* Pamphlet in Cong. Lib. See A Belle of the Fifties, by Mrs. C. C.
Clay, 326-7.
t Reports of Assassination Committee cited above and Note I in Ap
pendix.

174 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Conover appeared and the evidence of the alleged compli
city of Jefferson Davis thereupon failed."*
While these disgraceful circumstances were being
brought to light the combat between the ' ' acting Presi
dent" (as his enemies were careful to style him) and
the party who put him in the line of succession deep
ened. Johnson, instead of making treason and traitors
in the South odious by the use of the rope, went ' ' swing
ing around the circle," making treason and traitors
in the North odious by the use of his power of speech.
The principal cities of the West greeted him with
taunts and jeers and threats; and, in the fall, he met
with overwhelming defeat at the polls. When Con
gress met for the short session, the majority, deeply
mortified by the recollection of the panic into which
they had been thrown during the campaign, were so
enraged by the apparent determination of their an
tagonist to keep up the fight as to actually believe that,
in condemning Atzerodt, the commission had fallen
into a shocking blunder, the signer of his death war
rant being in fact his partner in the conspiracy. Loan,
a representative from Missouri, said on the floor: "An
assassin's bullet, wielded and directed by rebel hands
and paid for by rebel gold, made Andrew Johnson
President. The price he was to pay for his promotion
was treachery to the Republic and fidelity to the party
of treason and rebellion." Ashley of Ohio spoke of
Johnson as "the man who came into the Presidency
through the door of assassination," and called atten-
* Imp. Inv., 379-80.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 175
tion to "the dark suspicion that crept over the minds
of men as to his complicity in the assassination plot."
And Conover (alias Dunham), instead of being taken
to the penitentiary to serve out his sentence, was
detained in the jail of the District that he might earn
his pardon by fabricating evidence against this
usurper of the pardoning power. Give him liberty,
he implored the representatives who visited his cell,
and he could lay his hands on witnesses and documents
to prove that Johnson and Booth had corresponded
with each other; that, at the second inauguration, it
was arranged that Booth should kill Lincoln, an
arrangement which accounted for the Vice President 's
strange conduct on that occasion; that Booth paid
several visits to Johnson at the Kirkwood, the con
cealment of weapons in that hotel being a mere blind
to cause it to appear that the Vice President was an
intended victim; that Booth boasted in his flight of
having made Andy Johnson President and "if he went
back on him he would have him hung higher than
Haman. ' '
To such preposterous proposals, the impeachers not
only lent a willing ear, but they drafted for the pro
ponent a petition for his pardon to the officer they
meant to impeach, which the judge advocate, notwith
standing his recent experience of the perfidy of the
witness, backed with his recommendation.*
Another incident of the Impeachment Investigation
added fuel to the flames. The reappearance of Baker
before the committee, while it did not result in the
* See my Impeachment and Trial of President Johnson, 278-81, 292.

176 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
production of the letter of Johnson, did lead to the
unearthing of the diary of Booth. This little book
disappeared from view from the day it was delivered
to Stanton until it was passed over to the judge advo
cate just before the convening of the military commis
sion. Stanton suppressed it for the same reason that
he ordered the secret burial of the dead author. Holt
suppressed it, not so much because it was not, strictly
speaking, competent evidence, as because its produc
tion would have gone far to establish a premeditated
plot to capture, the failure of which begat the design
to kill. The consequence was that, in the voluminous
mass of testimony taken at the trial, there was not the
slightest indication that the crippled outlaw left behind
him an apology for his crime, and the country might
have been dependent upon mere rumor for its knowl
edge of so interesting a relic, had it not been for the
publication of Baker's History of the Secret Service,
in which mention was made of a memorandum record
ing "the adventures of the fugitives."* The author
of the work, being interrogated on the subject by the
chairman of the committee, testified to the delivery of
the diary to Stanton, whereupon a subpoena duces
tecum to Holt brought the hidden document before that
body. Booth's farewell message, so far as himself
was concerned, fell flat enough; but, concerning the
woman whom his deed dragged to a felon's doom, its
effect was widespread, profound and enduring. Gen
eral Butler, the recent defender of military commis
sions before the Supreme Court, of all men in the
* Baker 's book, 508, and his testimony on Imp. Inv., 452-3.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 177
world, became her champion. Bingham, on the floor
of the House, bearing upon his brow the laurels won
as special judge advocate, in an unlucky hour was pro
voked by a jocose remark of the gentleman from Massa
chusetts to hold "the hero of Fort Fisher not taken"
up to ridicule as but a carpet-knight; thereby laying
himself open to the following crushing retort: "The
gentleman has had the bad taste to attack me for the
reason that I could do no more injury to the enemies
of my country. I agree to that. I did all I could, the
best I could. . . . But the only victim of that gen
tleman's prowess that I know of was an innocent
woman hung upon the scaffold, one Mrs. Surratt. And
I can sustain the memory of Fort Fisher if he and his
present associates can sustain him in shedding the
blood of a woman tried by a military commission and
convicted without sufficient evidence in my judgment. ' '
Bingham, in reply, protested that he had executed no
person, had but acted as the advocate of the United
States; and, then, in imperious tones, demanded by
what right the member assailed "the tribunal of true
and honorable men who found the facts upon their
oath and pronounced the judgment. What does the
gentleman know of the evidence in the case, and what
does he care?"
This demand, a few days later, Butler took occa
sion to answer :
"I hold in my hand the evidence as reported under the
gentleman's official sanction. . . . The statement I made the
other day . . . was the result of a careful examination of
12

178 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the case for another and a different purpose, in the endeavor
to ascertain who were concerned in fact in the great con
spiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. The gentleman says
he was 'the advocate of the United States only.' Sir, he
makes a wide mistake as to his official position. He was the
special judge advocate whose duty it was to protect the rights
of the prisoner as well as the rights of the United States, and
to sum up the evidence and state the law as would a judge on
the bench. Certainly, it was his duty to present to the com
mission aU the evidence bearing upon the case. Now there
was a piece of evidence within the knowledge of the special
judge advocate . . . which he did not produce on this most
momentous trial."
And, alluding to the appearance of the diary before
the committee, he continued:
"Now, what I want to know is this: ... If it was good
judgment on the part of the gentlemen prosecuting the as
sassins ... to put in evidence the tobacco pipe, spur and
compass found in Booth's pocket, why was not the diary, in his
own handwriting and found in the same pocket, put in evi
dence . . . ? And, therefore, I did not charge the able and
gallant soldiers who sat on that court with having done any
wrong. They did not see the diary, they did not know of the
diary. If they had they might have given a different finding
upon the matter of this great conspiracy. ... I understand
the theory to be that that evidence was not produced lest
Booth's glorification of himself . . . should go before the
country. I think that a lame excuse. If an assassin can glorify
himself let him do so. ... I believe that piece of evidence
would have shown what the whole case, in my judgment, now
shows ; that up to a certain hour Booth contemplated capture
and abduction, and that he afterward changed his purpose to

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 179
assassination. . . . Now what I find fault with in the judge
advocate ... is that in his very able and bitter argument
against the prisoners, no notice is taken ... of this change
of purpose and brought to the attention of the men who com
posed that military tribunal. And if Mrs. Surratt did not
know of this change of purpose there is no evidence that she
knew in any way of the assassination, and ought not, in my
judgment, to have been convicted of taking part in it. . . .
"Although in some aspects of the case it might not have
been legal evidence, yet in all aspects it was moral evidence,
carrying conviction to the moral sense. It is the dying declara
tion of a man, assassin though he be, who was speaking the
truth, probably to himself, as between himself and his God."
The general was not satisfied with proclaiming the
innocence of Mrs. Surratt, but he took advantage of
the occasion to father the delusion of the impeachers
and insinuate the complicity of the President :
' ' That diary, as now produced, has eighteen pages cut out,
the pages prior to the time when Abraham Lincoln was
massacred, although the edges as yet show they had all been
written over. Now, what I want to know, was that diary
whole?" (Baker when on the stand was positive the leaves
were in the book when he delivered it to Stanton.) "Who
spoliated that book?" the gentleman demanded. "Who
caused an innocent woman to be hung when he had in his
pocket the diary which stated at least what was the idea and
purpose of the main conspirator?"
And, quoting from memory the sentence expressing
Booth's half -formed purpose to return to Washing
ton and clear himself, he vociferated :

180 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"How clear himself? By disclosing his accomplices? Who
were they ? ... If we had only the advantage of all the testi
mony, we might have been able ... to find who, indeed, were
all the accomplices of Booth ; to find who it was who changed
Booth's purpose from capture to assassination; who it was
that could profit by assassination who could not profit by cap
ture and abduction; who it was expected would succeed to
Lincoln, if the knife made a vacancy. ' '*
So lasting was the sensation caused by this en
counter that, when the Congress convened for the July
session, the House, on Butler's motion, authorized a
special committee to investigate "all the facts and
circumstances connected with the assassination tend
ing to show who were the persons engaged in the con
spiracy," many of whom, it was declared, "holding
high positions of power and authority because of the
civil war" acted "through inferior persons who were
their tools and instruments." Furthermore, the com
mittee was empowered to report an act of grace and
amnesty to every person contributing evidence "to
bring to light the facts"; thereby reopening the door
for a second swarm of professional witnesses ready
to place their oaths at the service of their country.
To this body, by order of the House, all the testimony
taken by the judiciary committee concerning the assas
sination was turned over, including a memorandum of
the evidence Conover promised to procure as the price
of his pardon. This convicted felon "as an earnest"
of what he could do in this line, caused to be brought
to Washington two persons prepared to swear to the
* Globe, 1st Sess. 40th Cong., 263, 363-4.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 181
contents of his memorandum, who, after being exam
ined by Ashley and Butler, would have given their
testimony, had not Conover refused to allow them to
do so until after his prison doors were opened.*
But the expiring effort of this committee was the
despatch of an emissary to the Dry Tortugas to extort
from the four prisoners on that barren isle statements
implicating the officer whose warrant sent them there.
For two years and over, Arnold, 0 'Laughlin, Spangler
and Mudd had been kept in close confinement in the
cells of Fort Jefferson. In August, 1867, the yellow
fever broke out in the garrison, carrying off, among
its first victims, the surgeon in charge. In this emer
gency. Dr. Mudd volunteered his services, devoting his
energies and his professional skill to the relief of
the sick and dying. In September, O'Laughlin suc
cumbed to the epidemic, adjuring the doctor with his
last breath to "tell his mother all," and whispering to
Spangler a "goodby, Ned." Every non-commissioned
officer who recovered signed a petition for the doctor's
pardon, which for some reason never reached the
President. At length, Mudd himself was stricken
down and, in the absence of a physician, owed his
life to the assiduous nursing of his two remaining
comrades in misery. Such was the situation at the fort
when the agent of the committee arrived. Giving
notice that his visit must be kept secret, he produced
letters from General Butler authorizing him to obtain
* Globe, id. 515-7. For members of committee, see p. 522; Impeach
ment Inv., 1204, 1194 et seq., 1198-9; Washington Chronicle, August
10, 1867.

182 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the statements of the three survivors. One by one
they were summoned by the commanding officer into
his presence and forced to submit to examination.
Each was told that if he would implicate others in the
assassination, he would be released from imprisonment
and carried to Washington as a witness. Statements
were obtained from them; but, apparently, not of a
tenor that suited the agent or his principals, for the
former left the post "much disappointed"; and noth
ing was ever heard of the papers he took with him.*
Even while he was about his nefarious mission, the
defeat of the first impeachment extinguished the body
that was fitly named an assassination committee ; and
after his return to Washington the removal of Stanton
furnished the majority in Congress a far more tenable
ground of attack than the removal of Lincoln. The
absurd delusion, however, did not die with the com
mittee. Not even the defeat of the final impeachment,
on which Bingham was as violent in denigration of
Johnson as he had been loud in his praise on the Con
spiracy Trial, could kill it. It lingered here and there
— the fixed idea of morbid brains — for six long years,
when, in an elaborate essay to establish its truth,
ex-senator Foote laid it to rest forever.
To this ignominious end was brought the "Great
Conspiracy" which Stanton heralded to the world on
the morning after the assassination. It accomplished
nothing in furtherance of the purpose for which it was
* Letter from Dr. Mudd in his Life by daughter (above cited), p.
296. "The Lincoln Plot," by Arnold, published in Baltimore Amer.,
1902, and N. Y. Sun, same year.

DWINDLING OF THE CONSPIRACY 183
fabricated. Jefferson Davis — all hope of trying him
by military commission being abandoned — was sur
rendered by the military to the civil authorities and
admitted to bail on an indictment for treason; Clay
had been released on parole a year before ; Thompson
and Sanders and Tucker and Cleary were roaming at
wiU, forgotten if not forgiven. The sole result of its
blind advocacy on the part of the prosecuting officers
was to sweep within the purview of the judgment of
the court the woman who stood at the bar with Payne,
Atzerodt and Herold ; and to banish to a prison on the
Florida reefs four men, all of whom, but the one who
died of yellow fever, were about to be pardoned.*
* Jefferson Davis ' surrender. May 13, 1867, see Century for Feb.,
1887; Clay's release, Imp. Inv., 428, 550; Mudd pardoned, Feb., 1868;
Spangler and Arnold, March, 1869. See Life of Mudd, ut sup.

CHAPTER VIII
The Trial of John H. Surratt
One conspirator remained — a conspirator whom the
course of events seemed conspiring to force upon a
government anxious to get rid of him.
John Harrison Surratt, it will be remembered, passed
through Washington on the night of April 3rd, 1865,
on his way from Richmond to Canada; reached Mon
treal on the sixth and, remaining there until the
twelfth, took the afternoon train going south. His
destination was Elmira, a town in the interior of New
York state, whither, to reconnoitre the military prison
there, he was sent by the Confederate general Edwin
G. Lee, whom he chanced to meet in Montreal. On the
thirteenth, he registered at the Brainard House under
the pseudonym of "John Harrison"; the next day
finished the business which brought him to the place;
and, that night, at the hour when Booth and Payne
set about their bloody work, three hundred miles away,
retired to his bed. He woke in the morning to find
the inhabitants horror-stricken at the news of the
assassination of the President; and it was not until
he had sent a telegram to Booth in New York to ascer
tain if the actor was in that city, that he learned his
late colleague in the plot to capture was identified as
the assassin. Unconscious as yet of his own danger,
he took the train for Canandaigua, a village between
fifty and sixty miles distant, arriving there the same
(184)

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 185
evening; and, no train leaving until Monday, he was
obliged to stay over, registering at the Webster House
under the same name. On Monday, seeing in a news
paper John H. Surratt mentioned as the assassin of
Seward, he lost no time in crossing the border, reach
ing his hotel in Montreal on Tuesday afternoon, the
eighteenth, remaining there only long enough to get
his clothes, and vanishing beyond pursuit.
While his mother was undergoing the torture of her
trial, he lay concealed in the house of a friendly priest
of a country parish some forty miles from Montreal ;
hearing no news from Washington until too late to
attempt to save her life by the sacrifice of his own.
After the dreadful catastrophe, he returned to the city
and was hidden there until the fifteenth of September
when, under the name of McCarty and in disguise,
he was taken by boat to Quebec and put in charge of
the surgeon of a steamer about to start for Liverpool.
The reward of $25,000, still on his head, made him a
valuable asset to his custodian, who, as soon as the
vessel reached its destination, hastened to reveal the
presence of his prize to the vice-consul of the United
States. This intelligence, together with certain par
ticulars said to have been confided to the informer by
the fugitive during the voyage, was transmitted to
Minister Adams at London and to Secretary Seward at
Washington, to be met by these officials with the rebuff
that it was not thought advisable to take any steps in
the matter for the present. The surgeon, disappointed
at the result of his first effort, sought out Surratt and
engaged to deliver a letter to a mutual friend at Mon-

186 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
treal, requesting a remittance of cash ; — a trust which
he discharged at the end of his return voyage, and,
then, made a second effort to realize the fruit of his
discovery by betraying the situation to the American
consul at the last-named city. That officer telegraphed
the facts to Washington, suggesting that an agent be
sent out with the steamer about to sail, to arrest
Surratt, who, on his way to Rome, was still at Liver
pool awaiting the supply of funds. Moreover, the
telegram was followed by a despatch giving the par
ticulars of the interview with the surgeon who, by this
time, as he told the consul, "regarded Surratt as a
desperate wretch and an enemy to society."
These repeated calls to action, to the surprise of
every one cognizant of the facts, failed to stir the
managers of the Bureau — recently so remarkable for
their vigilance. The secretary of war and the judge
advocate put their heads together, but did nothing.
Seward went so far as to request the attorney general
to procure an indictment with a view to extradition,
but the request was not acted upon. Nay, the only
step taken was in an opposite direction — the reward
for the arrest of the fugitive was publicly withdrawn,
and that interesting personage traveled unhindered
from Liverpool to London, from London to Paris and
Paris to Rome, where, still unmolested, he passed the
winter at the English college. In the early spring, un
der the name of  Watson, he enlisted in the Papal
Zouaves and was sent on garrison duty to a post near
the Neapolitan frontier, forty miles from the capital.
There he might have remained unknown until the

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 187
expiration of his term of service, had it not been for
the extraordinary coincidence that there was a Zouave
in another company, close by, whose acquaintance
Surratt, with his chum Wiechmann, had made three
years before in a Maryland village. This recruit,
Henry B. Ste. Marie by name, also hailed from Amer
ica. A Canadian by birth, he had been engaged as a
teacher in a Washington college on Wiechmann 's re
commendation; afterwards joined the Union army;
was taken a prisoner of war to Richmond, obtained his
liberty and made his way oversea back to his Canadian
home just in time to hear of the assassination. Alive
to the prospect of gaining a share of the reward offered
by the government, he proceeded to lodge with the
American consul at Montreal the particulars he pro
fessed to know concerning Surratt and Wiechmann,
each of whom, as he said, was as guilty as the other.
Nothing resulted from his revelation of sufficient im
portance to detain him in his native province, for the
next we hear of him he is serving in Italy as a soldier
of the Pope; exceedingly anxious, however, as he ex
presses himself, "to revisit his native land and the
gray hair of his father and mother." In this state of
mind, the appearance of his acquaintance, as a comrade
in arms in a far country, seemed a veritable god-send ;
and as soon as he can gain leave of absence, he hastens
to Rome and astounds the American minister in that
city with the tidings that the survivor of the murderers
of Abraham Lincoln is at present in the service of the
Papal States. At once, the minister — Rufus King —
sends word to his government ; and, while waiting for

188 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
instructions, is plied with letter upon letter from the
border, in which the impatient informer urges haste,
pleads his own peril from the friends of the man he
is betraying, his need of money and his longing to do
justice to "the ever lamented memory of President
Lincoln." The authoritative reminder that so con
spicuous a state-criminal was again within reach of
capture, coming at a moment when the opponents of
the President had secured a two-thirds majority in
both houses of Congress, could not be treated with
the indifference manifested towards a similar an
nouncement the previous fall. The minister at Rome
was instructed to obtain from Ste. Marie a statement
of Surratt 's confession to him; and after that envoy
had sent one unverified which for that reason proved
unsatisfactory, he at last succeeded in obtaining an
other, signed, sealed and sworn to before the minister
himself, which concluded as follows: "This is the
exact truth of what I know about Surratt. More I
could not learn, being afraid to awaken his suspicions.
And further I do not say."
Strange to say, when armed with the verified docu
ment they had declared indispensable, the authorities
neglected to make any use of it. Stanton and Holt
fell back upon the rule that the extradition of a fugitive
from justice was an affair of the Department of State,
and Seward was too busy in his preparations to ac
company the President on his famous tour through
the North and West to take up the matter. But as
fate would have it, on the very eve of his departure
there came a despatch from King announcing that if

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 189
the American government desired the surrender of
the fugitive. Cardinal Antonelli intimated that the lack
of an extradition treaty would not stand in the way.
Even this unprecedented overture failed to have any
immediate effect; and it was not until Seward's return
in October that King was instructed to put the ques
tion to the papal prime minister whether Surratt would
be surrendered on presentation of an authenticated
indictment. The cardinal, for his part, made no delay ;
not only did he answer in the affirmative but, without
waiting for any formal demand, he ordered the arrest ;
and, in consequence, on the second day of November,
1866, "Zouave Watson" was metamorphosed from a
soldier into a prisoner of state. Early next morning,
as, "surrounded by six men as guards," he was start
ing for "the military prison at Rome," he "plunged
down into a ravine, more than a hundred feet deep,
which defended the prison" and succeeded in making
his escape across the frontier. On the seventeenth, he
sailed from Naples in a British steamer bound for
Alexandria, which port, after stopping at Malta, he
reached on the twenty-seventh, and, the American
consul there having been apprized of his coming, he
was finally intercepted and held to await the arrival
of a United States vessel to carry him to this country.*
Thus it was that, after the lapse of more than a
year since the authorities were informed of his where
abouts, this notorious accomplice of Booth was fairly
* For these particulars, see letters and testimony transmitted to H. R.
with Eeport of Sec. of State, Dec. 16, 1866; Ex. Doc. No. 9, 39th Cong.,
2d Sess.

190 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
thrust upon their hands; and against whom, now he
was at length in their power, they seemed at a loss
what course to pursue. The leading radicals in Con
gress, whose fiery zeal had not yet had time to cool,
could account for such lukewarmness on no other
theory than that the traitor sitting in the seat of
Lincoln shrank from any further search into the cir
cumstances attending the assassination; and, accord
ingly, the House ordered the judiciary committee to
find out the causes of such flagrant nonfeasance. And
it is worthy of note that, from one point of view, the
radicals were actually upon the right scent. The
truth was that the administration had been purposely
delinquent; not so far as the President individually
was concerned, who, as the evidence subsequently
showed, was not responsible for the delay; but in the
persons of those very functionaries who were most
active against this particular member of the band
before the military commission. Realizing that the
day of such subservient tribunals was over, and that
their cherished hypothesis of a Great Conspiracy
emanating from the Confederate government was no
longer tenable, they did indeed shrink from reviewing
before a jury of the District of Columbia the trial of
Mrs. Surratt in the person of her son. Moreover, aside
from this general consideration which partook more
or less of a sentimental character, they were haunted
by the uncertainty thrown on the whereabouts of Sur
ratt on the night of the assassination by the statements
of the two informers so hot in pursuit of the reward
on his head. McMillan, the surgeon of the ship that

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 191
carried the fugitive oversea, made it probable that
he was in Elmira, and an investigation provoked by
this statement showed that he was, as matter of fact,
in that town ; while Ste. Marie placed him in New York
"prepared to fly when the deed was done."*
There was no help for it, however; the unwelcome
exigency had to be met. The United States steam
corvette, Swatara, touched at Alexandria on the
twenty-first of December, 1866, and, thence, with its
one solitary iron-bound captive for cargo, ploughed
its slow way through the Mediterranean and across
the Atlantic ; passing between the capes of the Chesa
peake on the eighteenth of February and, three days
after, casting anchor abreast of the Washington Navy
Yard. There, in sight of the prison in which his
mother was tried and condemned and under which
she lay buried, Surratt, by order of the Secretary of
State, was delivered into the hands of the civil authori
ties; the War Office relinquishing without a remon
strance the charge of the prosecution. Two weeks
before, the grand jury of the District had found an
indictment for murder, and the district attorney at
once began to prepare for a trial which bade fair
to become historic.
At such a juncture the Federal administration could
do no less than back the district attorney; and the
Bureau of Military Justice, despite its misgivings,
girded up its mighty loins for the conflict. There being
no allegation in the indictment of Confederate com
plicity, its spies and detectives, whose hunting grounds
* See their testimony in Eeport cited above.

192 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
had been in Canada and Richmond, were functus
officio as witnesses; but those of them who were out
of jail, and their chief, who was in jail, placed their
skill and experience at the service of the prosecution.
Of course, such an outrage as the making evidence
of the horrors of Libby and Andersonville was un-
thought of; but no person sworn on behalf of the
government on the other trial, whose testimony had
the remotest bearing on the guilt of the defendant, not
only, but on the guilt of his mother, of Booth, Payne,
Atzerodt and Herold, and who was within reach,
escaped being summoned, subjected to discipline and
put upon the stand. Additional witnesses — some
drawn by the hope of reward, some caught by the
craze to take part in so celebrated a cause, and many
whom even the argus-eyed subpoena-servers of the
Bureau had overlooked on the former occasion, were
gathered in from all points of the compass. Edwards
Pierrepont, a prominent member of the New York
bar, distinguished for the plausibility with which he
could conceal the weak spots of a popular but shaky
case,* was retained for the United States ; and a judge
was found to preside who, as was shown by his course
during the trial, was (to employ a phrase much in
vogue in that day) "organized to convict." A jury — ¦
regarded by the advocates of courts-martial and mili
tary commissions as an insurmountable obstruction
to the course of justice in such a vicinity as the Dis
trict of Columbia — ^was obtained, every single memben
* Subsequently attorney general under Grant and sent as minister
to Great Britain.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 193
of which was agreed to by both sides; the district
attorney speaking of the panel "as representatives
of the wealth, the intelligence and the commercial
and business character of the community; gentlemen
against whose character there cannot be a whisper
of suspicion."
The trial opened on the tenth of June, 1867, and
the first week was taken up in arguing a challenge by
the United States to the array, which, if successful,
would have postponed the cause until the next fall;
and by the examination of the jurors. It was during
this interval that Pierrepont saw fit to give notice that
"the public mind would be set right with regard to a
great many subjects about which there have been such
active and numerous reports and innuendoes," among
the rest, "that the United States dared not bring
forward the diary found upon the murderer of the
President because that diary would prove things they
did not want to have known."
When, on Monday, the seventeenth, the assistant
district attorney was about to open the case, the scene
in the court room afforded a speaking contrast to the
corresponding scene before the military commission.
The court was not held within the walls of a prison
guarded at all points by soldiers; and the unpreten
tious court house, standing in its peaceful square, with
its doors and windows open, when compared with the
Old Penitentiary pervaded by scarcely suppressed pas
sion and undisguised thirst for blood, seemed the very
sanctuary of even-handed justice. As the prisoner
entered and advanced to the bar, no clank of fetters
13

194 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
jarred upon the ear; and, as he sat at his ease by the
side of his counsel like a citizen the law presumes to
be innocent until proved guilty, the memory of that
group of culprits loaded down with irons as they
crouched before their imperious doomsmen served to
consecrate anew the benignity of the common law of
peace in contradistinction to the barbarity of the com
mon law of war. One overmastering impression there
was, moreover, striking awe into the heart of the most
indifferent spectator. All felt that the woman who
had suffered the extreme penalty of the law two years
before was again on trial with her son, and, as the
defendant stood in the flesh with upraised hand to
answer to the indictment, the ghost of his mother
seemed to hover above his head, echoing with shadowy
lips the plea of not guilty, with the feeble repetition
of which she had tottered to the scaffold.
The prosecution was fully alive to the fearful alter
native with which it was confronted. Though a con
viction, it was likely, would condone the judgment of
the military commission notwithstanding its legal in
validity, an acquittal or even a failure to convict would
brand the execution of its sentence upon the mother
of the defendant as nothing short of judicial murder
under military rule. In the presence of such a tre
mendous issue — as inexorable as the riddle of the
sphinx — the prosecuting officers dared not forego a
single branch or phase of their case, no matter how in
compatible, one with another, they might have become.
For instance, the testimony taken before the commis
sion implicating Surratt with the conspirators before

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 195
that tribunal tended to demonstrate the existence of
a plot to capture as contradistinguished from a plot
to kill; yet, although the names of Arnold, O'Laughlin,
Spangler and Mudd did not appear in the present
indictment and the prosecution was pledged to produce
the diary of Booth, they refused to recognize the
existence of the former plot and followed the judge
advocates in blending the two — a course rendered much
more difficult, if not wholly out of question, by the
explosion of the charge of complicity on the part of
the Confederate government. And in this course they
stubbornly persisted after they had come to the deter
mination, despite of convincing evidence to the contrary
in their own possession, to hinge their whole case upon
the presence of the prisoner in Washington on the
fatal night. The blending of the two plots was not
necessary to convict a conspirator like Pajme or
Atzerodt whose presence on the scene of action was
undisputed; this device was originally resorted to
bring within the compass of the charge parties at a
distance, especially the authorities at Richmond. The
presence of Surratt in Washington once established,
to resort to the tactics of the Bureau in the matter of
the Great Conspiracy was a mere work of supereroga
tion. The truth is that, oppressed by the magnitude
of their task and the alarming uncertainty of the re
sult, they had not sufficient confidence in the strength
of either branch of their case to dispense with the aid
of the other. Both must be utilized for all they were
worth. One might be sufficient for the conviction of

196 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the son but the other was necessary to uphold the con
viction of the mother.
Accordingly, they lavished their resources, exhaust
ed their energies and distracted their aim by pushing
to the front two independent lines of proof, the sub
stantiation of either of which was all-sufficient for
every legitimate purpose; and, in consequence, like a
person attempting to ride two horses at once, they
fell between the two. The assistant district attorney
stated in his opening address: "On the Monday be
fore the assassination, Surratt received a summons
from his co-conspirator. Booth, requiring his immedi
ate presence in this city. In obedience to that precon
certed signal he at once left Canada and arrived here
on the thirteenth. By numerous, I had almost said a
multitude of witnesses, we shall make the proof to be
as clear as the noon-day sun, and as convincing as the
axioms of truth, that he was here during the day of
that fatal Friday, as well as present at the theatre at
night. We shall show him to you on Pennsylvania
Avenue booted and spurred, awaiting the arrival of
the fatal moment. We shall show him in conference
with Herold in the evening; we shall show him pur
chasing a contrivance for disguise an hour or two
before the murder." Such being the case, there was,
surely, no necessity for another attempt to prove a
series of allegations which the Conspiracy Trial left
doubtful and subsequent developments showed to be
unmaintainable; allegations which the assistant dis
trict attorney restated as follows : ' ' The butchery that
ensued was the ripe result of a long-premediated plot.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 197
in which the prisoner was the chief conspirator"; "he
made his home in this city the rendezvous for the tools
and agents in what he called his 'bloody work'; and
his hand provided . . . the very weapons . . . one of
which fell from Booth's death-grip at the moment of
his capture." As a matter of fact, the diary they
themselves put in evidence pointed unmistakably to
the "six months' work to capture" and the sudden
inception of the design "to kill"; and their star-
witness Wiechmann placed the collapse of the former
at least three weeks before the development of the
latter. Yet they strenuously contended that the work
to capture and the design to kill were but parts of one
conspiracy set on foot in the summer of 1863. Beside
the mass of testimony adduced on the other trial, they
further enriched the literature of the subject by bring
ing forward two witnesses : — one a druggist in whose
employ during the summer of the last-mentioned
year, Herold charged the President on the books of
the shop with "a small vial of castor oil," to show
that "poison" was then contemplated;* the other, a
woman who in April, 1864, overheard three men talk
ing on a street corner in Washington about killing
the President with "a telescopic rifle. "f Two of the
men she fancied she recognized among the prisoners
at the Conspiracy Trial, though she did not report
them to the authorities, and the third she had since
become convinced was John Wilkes Booth whom she
had seen on the stage. The "Selby" letter was again
made use of, this time, not as written to Booth by some
* See Note III to Chap. I in Appendix; S. T., 510, 517.
t 8. T., 365.

198 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
person unknown, but as written hy Booth in a dis
guised hand to lure Payne from that imaginary being
— his broken-hearted wife.* They followed Booth and
Surratt to the capitol on the evening of the second
inauguration; Surratt riding during the next day in
the rear of the procession, and both of them at Mrs.
Surratt 's in the evening ; but there was no attempt to
prove that Booth, in trying to force his way through
the crowd in the rotunda on that occasion, was ar
rested ; the policeman who, it was said, was the hero of
such an achievement and promoted for his heroism,
not being produced as a witness.f
It is not our purpose to dwell upon this branch of
the case, which in one sense has grown obsolete; but
something must be said upon that portion of the testi
mony on this trial which bore directly upon Mrs.
Surratt. Of course, the two witnesses who turned
state 's-evidence reappeared. Lloyd manifested a su
perstitious reluctance to speak of the woman whom he
had been instrumental in sending to a felon's grave;
but he was forced to repeat his former testimony; —
his cross-examination, however, bringing into stronger
light the gross intoxication that rendered his evidence
unreliable at the points where it was calculated to be
most deadly. Wiechmann came also ; a spruce, dapper
figure, careful to remind the audience that his name
originally was spelled "Wie" instead of "Wei," as
the reporters would have it at the other trial and as
he thought proper to spell it since. After his perfor-
*See Chap. I, Note III; S. T., 365, 1305-6.
t Note to Chap. II in Appendix; S. T., 379.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 199
mance on that occasion, which in some respects was
not satisfactory to the judge advocate, and before the
execution of the condemned, he made overtures to the
friends of his dead benefactress, pleading duress ; but,
being met with loathing by every mourner of his
victim, he turned back to the government, his position
under which he had forfeited. On the eleventh day of
August, 1865, he sent to Colonel Burnett, at Cincinnati,
his own affidavit ; containing, as he informs that officer,
"facts which have come to my knowledge since the
rendition of my testimony." In this paper, he puts
into the mouth of the woman, executed but little over a
month ago, remarks made in the confidence of domes
tic intercourse indicative of her sympathy with the
Southern cause which she had every reason to believe
her favorite boarder shared, and embellishes his for
mer narrative of their drive to Surrattsville on the
fatal Friday with a few poisonous details ; among the
rest, identifying the caller on their return, whose foot
steps, in his former testimony, he said he heard over
head, but whom he did not see, as Booth.* For this
service he was rewarded by an appointment in the
Philadelphia customhouse, which, owing to the rupture
between President and Congress, he enjoyed but little
over a year. When the extradition of his former
room-mate made another trial inevitable, he began
preparing himself to face an ordeal where ex parte
affidavits would not pass muster. The official report
of the "Trial of the Assassins," he carefully studied;
copied his own testimony ; collated it with his affidavit ;
* Note I to this chapter in Appendix.

200 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
and produced a revised version which he handed to
the district attorney before going as a witness before
the grand jury. After the indictment was found, be
lieving, as he said, that his "character was at stake
in this issue," intending to do all he could "to aid
the prosecution," "hunted and prosecuted," as he
charged he was, by the relatives and friends of his
victim, he sat down to make another study of Pitman's
book, comparing it with a Boston record of the trial,
touching and retouching the revised version, correct
ing errors in dates, raising innuendoes into positive
averments, straightening the logical sequences, and
decorating the whole with a few damning details un
heard of before.*
For all his self-possession and careful study, the
witness did not escape so easily as upon the former
trial. Where third parties happened to be present,
the defence was able to contradict him on several
material points. His looseness in dates, though he
strove hard to correct such discrepancies, was made
apparent. His intense anxiety to help on a conviction
as a vindication of his turning against the mother of
the prisoner was painfully visible in his demeanor
and audible in every word he spoke; and the more
important of the details contained in his affidavit and
those first disclosed in his present testimony were
shown to be fal^e.
One other circumstance which, as we have already
stated, has been cited by writers on the subject ever
since the Conspiracy Trial as strong evidence of the
* Note II to chapter in Appendix.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 201
guilt of Mrs. Surratt must be adverted to. Her non-
recognition of Payne on the night of the arrest of that
conspirator at her house was gone over in much more
elaborate detail than on her own trial; a diagram of
the hall, showing the relative positions of the parties
to the scene being made a part of the evidence. The
same witnesses were called — the two leaders of the
expedition still vieing with each other in setting them
selves right in the eyes of their superiors. Major
Smith laid on the colors and deepened the shades of
his dramatic recital before the military commission;
and Colonel Morgan tried his utmost to tone down his
point-blank contradictions of his rival on the same
occasion. His efforts were vain, however; the sole
result being a demonstration of the unreliability of
the testimony of detective officers employed by the
government in cases where large rewards are at stake
and the government deeply interested in the establish
ment of its side of the issue. Moreover, as was pointed
out on the former trial, there were subordinates pre
sent whose testimony might have cleared away the
chaos, and not one of them was sworn.*
Leaving this branch of the case, we come to what
was after all the real gist of the contention on the
Surratt Trial. Without satisfactory evidence that the
prisoner was present in Washington on the night of
the assassination, the prosecuting officers were aware
that they could gain no hold on the jury. Indeed,
nothing short of the certitude that there was no other
* See Note III in Appendix to Chap. III.

202 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
way open leading to a conviction could have driven
them to enter upon so hopeless an undertaking.
In the first place, that the prisoner was absent from
the scene of the crime was clear from the evidence on
the Conspiracy Trial, and at that date but a single
witness could be ferreted out who testified that he saw
Surratt at about three o'clock in the afternoon on
Pennsylvania Avenue. Before this hour or after,
not another human being had laid eyes on him ; not an
acquaintance, not an inmate of his household, not
even Wiechmann, since the fourth of April. In the
second place, as we have already intimated, they had
in their possession strong affirmative testimony that
on the thirteenth and fourteenth he was either far
away in the interior of the state of New York, or, at
the nearest, in its metropolitan city. Yet, they had
the hardihood to instruct the assistant district attorney
in opening the case to make the sweeping declaration
quoted above. And the number of persons that they
were able to corral, prepared to testify as they desired,
is absolutely astounding. In addition to the single
witness of the Conspiracy Trial, the district attorney
called thirteen. Of these three were witnesses on the
former trial: — Lee, sworn against Atzerodt; Cleaver,
the liveryman at whose stables Booth and Surratt
hired and kept horses ; and Dye, sworn against Spang
ler; none of whom was interrogated anent Surratt
nor volunteered mention of his presence. On the pres
ent occasion, however, Lee testified that, about three
o'clock in the afternoon of the fourteenth, he passed
a man on the avenue "whom he took to be Surratt";

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 203
Cleaver, that, a little after four, he on horseback met
Surratt on horseback and spoke to him; Dye was
able to identify the stranger who, he swore in his for
mer testimony, called out the hour in the front of the
theatre, as Surratt, because as he said "that face"
had appeared in his dreams for the past two years —
"so exceedingly pale." Of the ten witnesses sworn
for the first time, six were not positive. Cooper, a
comrade of Dye's, not having seen the face that so
haunted his companion, did little to corroborate him ;
Grille, who kept a restaurant adjoining the theatre,
"believed," but could not say he knew, the young man
he saw at Willard's Hotel in the afternoon to be the
prisoner; Coleman and Cushman, two officers of the
Treasury, saw Booth on horeback at about six o'clock
in the evening talking earnestly to a man standing
on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, who, the
former swore, "looked like" the prisoner and the
latter, that he "did not resemble" him "very much";
Heaton, a clerk in the land office, on first coming into
the court room discovered "a very distinct resem
blance" between the face of the prisoner and a face
which had attracted his attention in front of the theatre
more than two years before ; and Ramsel, a soldier in
the war, who, between four and five o'clock on the
morning of Saturday, the fifteenth, saw a horseman
riding towards the pickets on the Bladensburg road,
whose back was in the opinion of the witness the back
of the prisoner.
The four witnesses remaining, though none of them
had ever seen Surratt until summoned for this trial,

204 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
were positive in their identification. Wood, a colored
barber, testified that, at about nine o 'clock in the morn
ing. Booth came into the shop where the witness was
at work, accompanied by three strangers, one of whom
he — first trimming Booth's hair — shaved "clean all
around his face with the exception of where the mus
tache was," and whom he now recognized as the pris
oner. Rhodes, a mender of clocks, testified that, near
noon, he strolled into Ford's theatre, walked up into
the dress circle, noticed that the curtain was down,
saw a man fitting a piece of wood to obstruct entrance
from the audience into the passageway behind the
private boxes, who told him that the President was
to be there that night and they were busy ' ' arranging
it so that he won't be disturbed." This man, the wit
ness had no doubt, was Surratt. Vanderpool, a New
York lawyer, who served in the war and happened
to be in Washington on the eventful day as a paroled
prisoner, testified that in the afternoon he saw Booth
and two or three others sitting at a round table in a
hall on the avenue where were fifty or sixty persons
listening to music and watching a woman dancing;
and one of them was Surratt. These three witnesses,
although like the rest of the community they must
have followed the proceedings of the former trial with
the deepest interest, first put themselves into com
munication with the authorities after the present trial
had commenced. To this criticism, however, the fourth
witness was not obnoxious. She was a colored servant
of Mrs. Surratt 's, first coming to her house in the
month of March, 1865, after her son had gone to Rich-

TRIAL OF JOHN H SURRATT 205
mond. She was arrested, with the other inmates, and
was subjected to an examination at General Augur's
headquarters — her answers being taken down in writ
ing. She now testified that between eight and nine
o'clock on the Friday night in question, going into the
dining room with a pot of tea, she saw a young man
there whom Mrs. Surratt told her was her son John —
a statement which she, also, swore she made on her
examination just after her arrest.
One other witness there was, whose testimony took
the shape of a confession of the prisoner. The two
Canadians, who put the authorities on the track of
the prisoner in Europe, had been haunting the capital
for months; the liberal rewards pending being the
governing motive of their zeal. McMillan, the surgeon
of the steamer in which Surratt crossed the ocean,
though doing all the damage to the prisoner in his
power, could not, in view of his affidavit made before
the American consul at Liverpool, venture to put
words into the prisoner's mouth placing him in Wash
ington. Ste. Marie, on the other hand, seemed to have
forgotten the averment in his deposition that Surratt
told him "he was in New York when the event took
place"; the remembrance of which by the prosecuting
officers may explain why, when the witness took the
stand, they guided him as follows:
"Q. Did the prisoner tell you anything about his dis
guises? A. Yes, sir. I asked him how he got out of Wash
ington ; if he had a hard time in escaping. He said he had a
very hard time.

206 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"Q. How did he say he got out of Washington? A. He
told me he left that night.
"Q. What night? A. The night of the assassination or
the next morning, I am not positive."
The counsel for the prisoner not being aware of the
affidavit, the witness escaped cross-examination.*
A truly formidable array this ; furnishing a striking
illustration of the coercive power of a place in the
service of the government over the mind of its holder,
when questions, in which the government is deeply
interested, are at stake, and of the magnetism a cele
brated trial exerts over persons rabid for notoriety
and persons on the watch for prey. But formidable
as it was, the defence was able to meet it witness by
witness. Lee was conclusively impeached; among a
host of other witnesses, the provost-marshal, whose
chief detective he once was, pronounced his reputation
for truth and veracity bad. Cleaver, also, was im
peached ; and he acknowledged on the stand that, while
lying in jail under a conviction for a shameful crime,
he was persuaded by Conover to peach on the prisoner
whom hitherto he was inclined to shield. The phantom
of Dye's dream was dispelled by the introduction in the
flesh of the very man who called out the hour. The
friend Booth was seen earnestly talking to on the ave
nue was shown to be Matthews, his fellow-actor to
whom he delivered the article to be given to the press.
The scene in the dining room of the Surratt house when
* See affidavit of Ste. Marie, Ex. Doc. No. 36, 40th Cong., 2 Sess. in
report. Act for payment of his reward in Appendix to Globe of that
association, p. 602.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 207
Susan Ann Jackson first saw her mistress' son was
proved to have occurred, not on the night of the four
teenth, but on the night of the third of April, when Sur
ratt passed through Washington on his way from
Richmond to Montreal ; the change of date clearing up
the mystery of the colored girl's nonproduction on the
Conspiracy Trial. Wood, the barber, was shown to
have been mistaken in identifying O'Laughlin as one of
the parties coming into the shop, and it appeared that
the man he shaved clean around could not have been the
prisoner, who wore a goatee. Rhodes' strange story
was shown to be a fable by proof that the door leading
from the vestibule to the dress circle of the theatre
was always kept locked in the daytime; that, at the
hour the witness swore he entered, the curtain was up
and a rehearsal going on, and that the fixing up of the
private box did not begin until the rehearsal was over.
Vanderpool 's equally improbable tale was refuted by
proof that there was no afternoon performance in the
hall and no round table on the premises. The identi
fications of the other four witnesses were so indefinite
as, in the opinion of the counsel for the defendant,
to call for no explicit refutation.
By a marvellous coincidence, in which the trial
seemed to abound,* a handkerchief, marked "J. H.
Surratt No. 2," which the prosecution proved was
dropped in the railroad station at Burlington, pre
sumably by the prisoner, on his flight from Washing
ton, was proved to have been taken by mistake by
Holahan, the boarder at the house in H Street, who
* Note III to this chapter in Appendix.

208 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
with Wiechmann was drafted by the officers starting
for Canada in pursuit of Surratt.
Such was the serious inroad made by the defence
on the formidable array marshaled by the United
States. But this by no means constituted the whole
of the counter-attack. They established an alibi as
conclusive as ever was interposed in a court of justice.
That the counsel for the government, when it came to
close quarters, were prepared, from evidence in their
own possession, to concede that the prisoner was at
Elmira the day before the assassination, was sedu
lously concealed during the presentation of their side
of the case, and, of course, was undreamed of by the
counsel for the defence. Guided by information secured
from the prisoner, the Messrs. Bradley, his counsel,
had set on foot a "careful, painstaking investigation
extending over a period of many weeks," tracing his
whereabouts from his departure from Montreal until
his return, ascertaining the nature of his errand, inter
viewing the persons he had met, visiting the hotels he
had stopped at ; and they were rewarded by the verifi
cation of their client's story in every particular. The
Confederate general Edwin G. Lee, who happened to
be in Montreal at the date in question on sick furlough,
was put upon the stand to prove the object of the
prisoner's errand to Elmira and that he made a report
to the witness on his return; but the testimony was
excluded. His presence in that town, however, was
proved by four residents of unblemished character and
exceptionable loyalty, and wholly disinterested; two
of them testifying that they saw and conversed with

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 209
him, on either the thirteenth or the fourteenth of
April, 1865, in the afternoon; the third, that he saw
and conversed with him on both the thirteenth and
fourteenth ; and the fourth, that he held a protracted
interview with him on the morning of the fifteenth, at
about nine o 'clock, just after the news of the death of
the President arrived. Their identification was posi
tive and circumstantial, even to the Garibaldi jacket the
prisoner wore, which, it was proved, was made for him
by a tailor in Montreal just before he started on his
trip. The register of the Brainard House of the date
in question, though searched for high and low, couldi
not be found; but the counsel, at the last moment,
struck the track of a "man upon crutches," whom
their client told them he had conversed with at that
hotel ; and summoned him by telegram from New York.
The man came and testified that, being in Elmira on
the fourteenth in search of a witness in his suit for
injuries inflicted by an accident on the Erie Railroad,
he saw and conversed with the prisoner at the Brain
ard House; but the reputation of this witness for
truth and veracity was seriously impeached, and the
defendant's coimsel contented themselves with point
ing out the absence of any conceivable motive for this
stranger to commit perjury. They had somewhat
better luck with the register of the Webster House at
Canadaigua, where Surratt stopped on his way back,
which they found and produced in court. Under the
date of Saturday, April 15th, 1865, appeared the name
of "John Harrison," proved to be in the handwriting
of the prisoner. But the book having been out of use
14

210 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
since the end of that year, and the defence being
unable to show the presence of the prisoner when the
entry was made, the judge excluded the evidence with
the remark: "The name could as well have been
written by him in Canada, or Rome, or Egypt, as in
Canandaigua. The book has been at the mercy of
anybody for more than two years. It could have gone
to Canada and back a hundred times ; or the prisoner,
during his stay there in Canada, could have gone to
the book just as often."*
Nevertheless, unfortunate as they were with respect
to the two registers, the admission of either of which
would have settled the question, the testimony actually
admitted was strong enough to force the counsel on
the other side to play a card which hitherto they had
held up their sleeve in view of this very exigency.
Their direct testimony left it to be inferred that
Surratt traveled from Montreal straight through by
the usual route to Washington. But, when testimony
for the defendant which they could not contradict and
knew to be in accordance with the facts, made it clear
that he deviated so far as to fetch up at Elmira, they
seized upon the alternative date given by two of the
witnesses for the defence, magnamiously conceded his
presence in Elmira on the morning of Thursday, the
thirteenth, and undertook the herculean labor of trans
porting him over the three hundred miles between
Elmira and Washington within twenty-four hours.
In the execution of this flank movement, however,
they encountered obstacles that in an ordinary case
* See Note IV to this chapter in Appendix.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 211
would have been at once pronounced insurmountable.
In the first place, they were obliged to do away with
the testimony of two other witnesses for the defence
of equal credibility, one of whom was positive that he
met the defendant on the fourteenth as well as the
thirteenth, and the other that he met him on the fif
teenth ; and this they did by insisting that the former
was mistaken as to the fourteenth and by ignoring the
evidence of the latter altogether. In the next place,
they themselves had proved that the prisoner left
Montreal on the twelfth by the three o'clock New York
train, and it was uncontroverted that a passenger by
that train could not have reached Elmira before the
evening of the thirteenth (unless he had been a "bird,"
as Bradley said) ; an hour so late that it was physically
impossible to get to Washington by the next morning.
This difficulty the senior counsel for the United States
met in characteristic fashion. He astonished every
hearer by pointing out that his own witness, on testi
fying that the prisoner left Montreal by the three
o'clock train, omitted to specify whether it was three
o'clock A.M. or three o'clock p.m. — supplementing this
obvious afterthought by the following declaration
which may serve to show the reason for its employ
ment: "We have never taken any pains to overcome
this physical impossibility because we cared nothing as
to how he got to Elmira. . . . The fact exists that he
got to Elmira, and, therefore, the 'physical impossi
bility' is out of the way so far as that is concerned. He
could easily have got there by a special train." The
special train, which they merely guessed at in this

212 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
instance, they took extraordinary pains to prove in
order to overcome another physical impossibility;
namely to get the prisoner (not to Elmira but) from
Elmira, where they admitted he was on the morning of
the thirteenth, to Washington on the morning of the
next day. "Our business," said Pierrepont, "was to
bring him to Washington and that we have done";
that is, they did it in the following manner. The
regular train out of Elmira, at 8 o'clock a.m., not
being available for their purpose, they proved that a
single car, which had brought the superintendent of
the road from Williamsport, left Elmira on its return
between ten and eleven of that day and overtook
the passenger train at Williamsport at half-past
twelve ; and, although the conductor took up no tickets
and saw no passenger, the counsel asked the jury to
presume that the prisoner stole a ride on this extra.
Having by this clumsy method got him seventy-eight
miles on his journey, they were met by the embarrass
ing circumstance that the regular train laid over
until half-past nine in the evening and did not reach
Sunbury, forty miles farther on, until after midnight.
From Sunbury, a train ordinarily left for Baltimore
fifteen minutes later, arriving at its destination at
7:25 Friday morning; and, from Baltimore, a train
left at 8:50 a.m. and carried its passengers to Wash
ington by 10 :25 A.M. This, it should be borne in mind,
was by the regular mode of travel. Unfortunately
for the prosecution, however, travel at the date in
question was seriously impeded; the railroad bridge
over the Susquehanna at Williamsport having been

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 213
carried away by a freshet, so that passengers had to
be taken across by a rope ferry, and the railroad
between Williamsport and Sunbury torn up for miles
and blocked at intervals by construction trains run
ning to and fro. At this critical juncture, the fine
hand of the Bureau of Military Justice becomes plainly
visible. Montgomery, who played Bedloe to the Titus
Oates of Conover on the Conspiracy Trial, was sent
on mission in partibus and returned with two wit
nesses in tow; one, the trainmaster at Williamsport
and the other the ferryman, neither of whom had been
confronted with the prisoner until the witness entered
the court room on the last days of the trial. The
former testified that he remembered a person on the
thirteenth (over two years ago), who seemed very
anxious to get through, inquiring of him about the
trains; and, the prisoner standing up, he swore he
could not be positive but he believed him to be the
man. The latter testified that, on the same day, he
ferried a passenger over the river and, the prisoner
standing up, he swore that to the best of his belief that
was the man. Having thus got him over the river in
the temporary absence of the bridge, they got him over
the broken condition of the road by asking the jury
to take for granted that the prisoner caught rides
on the construction trains and got to Sunbury in time
for the train to Baltimore, reaching Washington at
10 :25 A.M. on the Friday of the assassination.
This elaborate chain of proof, with so many inter
mediate links missing, failed, it will be perceived, to
meet the conditions of the problem both at the begin-

214 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ning and at the end. The two witnesses, the irre-
fragibility of whose testimony forced the concession
of the prisoner's presence in Elmira, although they
left the alternative of the thirteenth as the precise
day, fixed unequivocally the hour at about noon. Con
sequently, the superintendent's car, leaving between
ten and eleven, was, as a vehicle of travel, no more
available for the purpose of the prosecution than the
regular train leaving at eight. Again, at Washington,
the barber fixed the hour at which he shaved the pris
oner at "near about nine o'clock"; whereas a pas
senger alighting at the depot at 10 :25 a.m. could hardly
reach the shop on Pennsylvania Avenue much before
eleven. Thus, the counsel started the prisoner at an
hour too early to fit the evidence, and, after asking the
jury to infer his presence on a private car and on con
struction trains, that, as a rule, take no passengers
and, if they do, the passenger is sure of unusual notice,
they landed him too late at the end. The discrepancy
at the beginning, Pierrepont ignored as too trivial for
notice; that at the end he brushed aside as follows:
"We have now got the prisoner here at 10:25 and are
on the road to the barber's. I now turn to the bar
ber's testimony. ... It is not of the slightest conse
quence whether he should think it was somewhere
about nine o'clock or somewhere about ten o'clock.
It was undoubtedly somewhere about ten o'clock, or
a little after. . . . The witness did not attempt to fix
the time; he did not undertake to fix it at all."
It was thus they brought the "Beelzebub" of the
conspiracy, as the district attorney baptized Surratt,

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 215
upon the scene of action. And, after all the stress
and strain to get him there, they found no part for
bim to play. He goes not near his own house. His
mother and his college chum prepare to drive to
Surrattsville, and, as they are about to start, the
"Satan" of the conspiracy appears; all three in utter
ignorance of his arrival. At the final council. Booth
distributes the divers roles in the impending tragedy;
the slaughter of the Secretary of State is assigned to
Payne, the murder of the Vice President is thrust
upon the shrinking Atzerodt; even the insignificant
Herold is at least to attend the leader in his flight.
But the second in command comes not. His name is
not written among the "men who love their country
better than gold or life." Plunging across more than
a hundred leagues of country, breasting floods and
broken rails, without pause day or night, in obedience
to the summons of his chief, he shows his pale face to
a distracted sergeant and then vanishes over the
northern horizon.
The trial dragged its slow length along until the
twenty-second of July* when District Attorney Car-
rington addressed the jury. Richard T. Merrick, the
junior counsel of the defendant followed, creating a
profound sensation by his impassioned vindication of
Mrs. Surratt. Joseph H. Bradley, the senior counsel,
in the course of his address which ensued, gave utter
ance to his foreboding that this was the last time he
should ever address a Washington jury ; which turned
out to be true, as, at the conclusion of the case, he was
* Note V to this chapter in Appendix.

216 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
disbarred by an order of the judge.* The aged lawyer,
overburdened, as he explained, with other business,
unfit to undergo the wear and tear of such a trial,
knowing that neither the prisoner nor his relatives
were able to recompense him for his services or even
furnish funds for the necessary disbursements, had
been very reluctant to engage. "But," he continued,
"if you had seen her who came to me, you could not
have done otherwise. She did not weep; not a tear
fell from her eyes. . . . Two years of long continued
suffering had wasted that fountain. The eye once
bright in her was dim, the countenance depressed. To
be sure, it was lighted up with the hope that hereafter
she might one day again see her blessed mother. Yet
I refused. I refused until my two younger brothers
undertook to take the laboring part of the case." His
speech, besides, was noteworthy, on account of the
positive charge he made, founded on communications
received from William P. Wood, chief detective of the
treasury, that the government knew before the indict
ment was found that Surratt was in Elmira on the day
of the assassination.
On Saturday, the third of August, Edwards Pierre
pont began the closing argument for the United States
¦ — a labored effort rendered intolerably tedious by
copious readings of the testimony, decorated with
lengthy quotations from the Bible and suffused
throughout with a pious unction. This distinguished
advocate held that the claim on the part of the defence
that the murder of a President was a crime of no
* Note VI to this chapter in Appendix.

TRIAL OF JOHN II. SURRATT 217
higher grade than the murder of a private citizen was
not only "not the doctrine of a statesman, not the doc
trine of the Bible," but, also, was "not the doctrine
of the law," declaring that "this was the first time in
the history of this country when an opportunity ever
has occurred to announce this great legal truth"; and,
turning to the judge with the exclamation, "Your
honor cannot escape it ; and the country will call upon
you, and ask you not to escape it ; and they will hold
you responsible if you dare attempt to escape it."
Thus did he admonish the court. To the jury, his
admonition was of a different tenor. He related an
incident on the trial of a man for murder, at which he
was present as a spectator. The jury had been out all
night deliberating on its verdict, and, when the court
convened in the morning, from the jury room was
"heard the solemn voice of prayer." A devout man
who feared God, sitting by the counsel, said, "That
jury will agree." And, sure enough, "the jury arose
from their bended knees; they walked into the court
room and said 'He is guilty.' Gentlemen, if there is
a man of you who is in doubt in this case, or any num
ber of you, and you will take this test, it is all I ask."
Wednesday, the seventh, was made memorable by
the charge of the judge. A Delaware Unionist, pro
moted to the bench of the District as a reward of his
loyalty, George P. Fisher not only blindly followed the
leading counsel for the government, but he bettered
his instructions. Upholding the validity of the mili
tary commission in the face of the Milligan case, he
characterized the opinion of the Supreme Court as

218 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
"being predicated upon a misapprehension of historic
truth" and, therefore, "we could not, perhaps, have
looked for a more rightful deduction. ' ' He laid down
the law that "to murder the duly elected President of
the most powerful people on earth is not less atrocious
in its character than to compass the death of a King,"
in which case, as in the case of treason, there could be
no accessories for all were principals; overruling Sir
Matthew Hale on this point by citing "two eases
reported in that book of highest authority known
among Christian nations, decided by a judge from
whose solemn tribunal all judges and jurors will, in
the great day, have their verdicts and judgments
passed in review": one, that of Naboth and Ahab in
the twenty-first chapter of the first book of Engs;
and the other, that of David and Uriah in the eleventh
chapter of second Samuel. In conclusion, he reminded
the jury, as Pierrepont had done before him, that a
verdict adverse to the government might lead to the
removal of the capitol from a city where "the persons
of the public servants commissioned by the people of
the nation to do their work" were not "safe and
sacred from the presence of unpunished assassins
within its borders."
The jury retired about noon of the same day and
remained in seclusion until one o'clock on Saturday,
the tenth, when it came into court with a paper inform
ing the judge that the jurors "stood precisely now as
when they first ballotted,"* "nearly equally divided,
and eould not possibly make a verdict." Whereupon
* 8 to 4 for the prisoner.

TRIAL OF JOHN H. SURRATT 219
the jury was discharged against the protest of the
prisoner who was remanded to the custody of the
marshal. The idea of another trial, it is probable, was
never seriously entertained by the government. Under
a recent act of Congress, another jury could not have
been selected before the ensuing February; and, for
the sake of appearances, the defendant was kept in
jail in the meantime; and, subsequently, the case was
set down for the twenty-fourth of that month. On
that day, however, the House of Representatives being
in the act of impeaching the President, the government
was in no condition to enter upon so arduous an under
taking. On the twenty-second of June, 1868, the
defendant was released on bail, and three months later
the indictment was not. prosed.*
That so prominent an accomplice in the murder of
the ever-to-be-lamented Lincoln should have been
allowed to walk the earth a free man, without arousing
an overwhelming outburst of popular wrath, is expli
cable alone on the hypothesis that the public at large
shared in the misgivings of the authorities as to the
strength of their case. The plea that a conviction was
impossible from a jury of such a vicinage as Wash
ington was a gratuitous insult to the citizens of the
capital, in the face of the fact that every member of
the late jury was agreed upon by both sides; and,
moreover, the plea, if foxmded on fact, may have fur
nished a ground for a change of the place of trial, but
could constitute no reason why the surviving murderer
of the President should go unwhipped of justice.
* Eep. of Sec. of State, Feb. 1, 1868.

220 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Another conclusion follows from the discharge of
the prisoner. Had Surratt been caught in time to be
tried by the military commission, nothing could have
saved him from the fate of his mother. Conversely,
had Mary E. Surratt been spared to be tried by a civU
tribunal, she never would have met the death of shame,
but would have been restored to the arms of her now
heart-broken daughter. As the decision of the Su
preme Court of the United States made void the pro
ceedings of the military commission as matter of law,
so the discharge of her son reversed its condemnation
on the merits of the case.

CHAPTER IX
The Petition for Commutation
The trial of the son of Mary E. Surratt was made
historically memorable not only by the destructive
effect of the failure to convict and the subsequent dis
charge of the accused upon the verdict in her case,
but, especially so, by the emergence into the light of
day of the petition in her favor of a majority of the
officers who condemned her to death. This paper, the
knowledge of which was confined to the members of
the tribunal who met in secret session, on the return
of the judge advocate general from his interview with
the President when the death warrant was signed, dis
appeared in the archives of his office. Various rumors
of its existence were put to rest in October, 1865, by
the publication of the official report of "The Trial of
the Conspirators" compiled and arranged by Benn
Pitman, "Recorder to the Commission," with the per
mission of Judge Holt granted under the authority of
the Secretary of War, on condition that the work "be
prepared and issued under the superintendence of
Colonel Burnett, who will be responsible for its
accuracy." The book was designed to be not merely
a transcript of the testimony, but a history of the
assassination; containing not only matters strictly of
record but every document and paper throwing light on
the subject. The evidence was reduced to narrative
form, grouped under appropriate heads and, as far as
(221)

222 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
possible, distributed among the several prisoners re
spectively against whom it was directed. The findings
and sentences were given with the President's war
rant approving them. Every order, from the one con
vening the commission to the one changing the place
of confinement of the defendants sentenced to impris
onment from the Albany Penitentiary to the Dry Tor
tugas, was scrupulously included. Room was found
for the proceedings under the writ of haheas corpus
on behalf of Mrs. Surratt. An appendix contained
the opinion of the attorney general sustaining the
jurisdiction of the court, dated "July, 1865"; "In
structions" to the armies in the field, in ten sections;
the supplementary affidavit of Wiechmann heretofore
commented upon, and another by the officer in whose
custody Dr. Mudd was taken to his distant prison,
detailing an alleged confession of the man he had in
charge. The volume was illustrated by a frontispiece
containing photographs of Booth, Surratt and all the
defendants except Mudd ; by a map of the route taken
by Booth in his flight ; by a diagram of the stage and
proscenium of the theatre as they appeared at the
moment the assassin leaped from the box ; and a plan
of the streets and alleys in the vicinity of the building.
And yet, with all this superabundance of material and
wealth of illustration, there was not the faintest indi
cation of the existence of a paper of such primary
significance as a petition for the commutation of the
death sentence of the one woman among the eight
prisoners on trial.

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 223
The rumors, however, which this official publication
endorsed by a certificate of Colonel Burnett vouching
for "its faithfulness and accuracy," effectually scat
tered, were brought to life again by the rupture of the
President with the Congress and by the suspicious
delay in the extradition of Surratt. During the first
week of the trial just reviewed, Pierrepont followed
up his promise concerning Booth's diary by the fol
lowing statement: "It has likewise been circulated
through all the public journals, that after the former
convictions, when an effort was made to go to the
President for pardon, men active here at the seat of
government prevented any attempt being made or the
President being even reached for the purpose of seeing
whether he would not exercise clemency; whereas the
truth and the truth of record which will be presented
in this court is that all this matter was brought before
the President and presented at a full cabinet meeting,
where it was thoroughly discussed; and after such
discussion, condemnation and execution received not
only the sanction of the President but that of every
member of his cabinet."* The testimony closed with
out the presentation of any such evidence, a breach
of promise with which Merrick twitted his adversary
in his summing up: "Where is your record?" he
asked. "Why didn't you bring it in? Did you find
at the end ... a recommendation of mercy in the case
of Mrs. Surratt that the President never saw?"t
* This, evidently, refers to the informal discussion of the morning of
the execution, mentioned by Harlan in his letter to Holt. See i/nfra,
p. 239.
t See Note I to this chapter in Appendix.

224 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On Saturday (August 3rd) Pierrepont, in opening
his address to the jury, endeavored, under the guise
of a defence of the military commission, to redeem his
broken promise:
' ' The counsel certainly knew when they were talking about
that tribunal . . . that President Johnson ordered it with his
own hand; . . . that President Johnson, when that record
was presented to him laid it before his cabinet, and that every
single member voted to confirm the sentence and that the
President with his own hand wrote his confirmation of it,
and with his own hand signed the warrant. I hold in my
hand the original record, and no other man, as it appears
from that paper, ordered it. No other one touched the paper ;
and when it was suggested by some of the members of the
commission that in consequence of the age and sex of Mrs.
Surratt it might possibly be well to change her sentence to
imprisonment for life, he signed the warrant for her death
with the paper right before his eyes— and there it is (handing
the paper to Mr. Merrick). My friend can read it for
himself." There it was at last! This insignificant-looking
flying leaf! Omitted from the adjutant general's
order promulgating the sentences, omitted from the
official report of the trial, unmentioned by the judge
advocate in his "Brief Review" submitted to the
President and in his annual report to the Secretary of
War, withheld from the public for the last two years ;
there it was hanging at the end of the record which
the counsel for the United States held up in his hand
and flung down upon the table. Even now, its con
tents are not disclosed. It is not put in evidence nor

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 225
read to the jury. The counsel belittles it as a mere
"suggestion." Merrick declines to touch it on the
ground that the opportunity has passed for taking
evidence in relation to it; and the roll lies there
unopened until Holt calls the same afternoon to
reclaim it. But, though still unpublished, enough had
been said in the crowded court room, on a trial attract-^
ing the attention of the whole country, to preclude the
possibility of its sinking back into the suspicious
secrecy in which it has hitherto been enveloped. The
declaration of the counsel was spread abroad by the
newspapers of Sunday, and the President and his
cabinet ministers must have read it. What happened
on Monday, in consequence, the chief clerk of the
Bureau in a letter to its head subsequently narrated :
"On the 5th of August, 1867, Mr. Stanton, then Secretary
of War, sent for me, and in presence of General Grant, asked
me who was in charge of the bureau in your absence. I in
formed him Colonel Winthrop. He requested I should send
him over to him, which I did. The colonel returned and
asked me for the findings and sentence of the conspiracy trial,
telling me he had to take it in person to the President. On
taking the portion of the record referred to from the bxmdle,
I found from the frequent handling of it several of the last
leaves had torn loose from the ribbon fastening, and to secure
them I put the eyelet in one corner of it. ' '
The official relations between the President and his
Secretary of War at this date were strained to the
point of breaking; the President on the previous
Thursday having informed General Grant that he
15

226 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
could no longer tolerate Stanton in his cabinet, and
Grant, on the same day, having written the President
a letter remonstrating against the threatened removal.
The message calling for the record, therefore, must
have startled the occupants of Stanton's office, who
may have been in the act of conferring together over
Pierrepont 's revelation, the amount of truth in which
Stanton was able to appreciate. Holt, whether absent
or present, was in no condition to face the man with
whom he held the confidential interview just two years
and one month ago. Whether he had been too effusive
in detailing the history of the document he carried to
the court room on Thursday and reclaimed on Satur
day, or whether the counsel, in the exuberance of his
verbosity, went outside his brief, the truth was, accord
ing to Holt himself, that, at this date, he was not
aware that the record was ever laid before the cabinet,
much less that the petition had been the subject of dis
cussion as Pierrepont affirmed ; a state of ignorance in
which. Holt subsequently charged, he was kept by
Stanton himself. In this situation it was lucky that a
subordinate who knew nothing of what took place at
the confidential interview was sent with the record, as
thereby, it is probable, an immediate explosion was
averted. According to Andrew Johnson's statement
six years later, he sent for the record "with a view of
examining, for the first time, the recommendation in
the case of Mrs. Surratt"; and "a careful scrutiny"
convinced him "that it was not with the record when
submitted" for his approval, and that he "had neither
before seen or read it." If this statement was true,

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 227
then as a matter of course Pierrepont 's public declara
tion as to the presence of the petition before the cabi
net had no foundation in fact; and, on the same day
and after he had made this astonishing discovery, the
President called for the resignation of the Secretary
of War, and, receiving a refusal couched in offensive
terms, as soon as he could arrange with Grant to take
his place, suspended the offender.
During these eventful hours, Pierrepont, uncon
scious of the flurry he had raised in the War Depart
ment and unmindful of the distressing predicament in
which he had placed the judge advocate, was plodding
his way through the mass of testimony it was his duty
to analyze; while Holt was waiting on the anxious
seat for an opportunity to apprize the counsel of the
necessity to soften down his over-emphatic affirmation.
The desired interview must have taken place, for, on
the morning of Tuesday, before resuming his address,
Pierrepont interjected what on any other hypothesis
would have been an uncalled-for and superfluous piece
of information.
"You will recollect, gentlemen, when a call was made sev
eral days ago by Mr. Merrick . . . asking that we should pro
duce the record of the conspiracy trial, that I brought the
record here and handed it to counsel. I then stated that, as a
part of that record was a suggestion made by a part of the
court . . . that if the President thought it consistent with
his public duty they would suggest, in consideration of the
sex and age of one of those condemned that a change might
he made in the sentence to imprisonment for life. I stated
that I had been informed that when that record was before

228 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the President and when he signed the warrant of execution,
that recommendation was then before him. I want no mis
understanding about that, and I do not intend there shall be
any. That is a part of the original record which I here pro
duced in court. It is in the handwriting of one of the mem
bers of that court, to wit. General Ekin. The original of that
is now in the possession and in the handwriting of Hon. John
A. Bingham. When the counsel called for that record I sent
the afternoon of that day, to the judge advocate general, in
whose possession these records are. He brought it to me with
his own hand, and told me with his own voice, in the presence
of three other gentlemen, that that identical paper, then a part
of the record, was before the President when he signed the
warrant of execution, and that he had a conversation with the
President at that time on the subject. That is my authority ;
subsequently to this, having presented it here, the judge ad
vocate general called to receive it back, and reiterated in the
presence of other gentlemen the same thing. That is my
knowledge and that is my authority."
Here every trace of an allusion to cabinet officers
or a cabinet meeting is carefully eliminated and the
matter in difference narrowed down to what took place
between the President and the judge advocate when
alone together — the former averring that he had not
seen or read the paper, the latter that the petition was
before the President and that the two officials had a
conversation on the subject ; averments, both of which,
curiously enough, might be true and yet the issue
remain undetermined.
In this unsettled condition, the controversy sank into
silence for six years — a period long enough, as it
appears, to obliterate from the memory of the parties

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 229
concerned this interesting incident of the Surratt
Trial. The President, for his part, took no steps to
call his subordinate to account for so grave a derelic
tion of duty. Indeed, there is nothing to show that he
ever countenanced the rumors that prevailed so far
as to question the accused official on the subject. It
is certain that until the startling outburst of Pierre
pont came to his ears, his curiosity had never been
aroused to inspect the record; and even after he got
possession of the criminating document, which he
retained until the following December, it does not
appear that he commtmicated his conviction, "it was
not with the record," to the person most deeply impli
cated. He suspended Stanton, without whose dicta
tion Holt would not have dared to move a finger in the
matter; but, so far as appears from his message
assigning the reasons of his action, the suspension
was not on account of the complicity of the War
Minister in the delinquency of his inferior officer ; and
he suffered the culprit to remain in office until the close
of his administration. It should be remembered, how
ever, as an offset to this non-action, that Johnson at
this time had ample reason to walk warily in such a
delicate affair. The impeachers were on his track,
scanning his whole course of conduct from his appoint
ment as military governor of the state of Tennessee
up to the current moment. The assassination com
mittee, as we have seen, was crying out to every
professional witness in the land, "Ho! come hither
and partake of the bounty of the government. ' ' Stan-
tori and Holt were actively aiding and abetting the

230 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
most inveterate of his adversaries ; Stanton pacing up
and down outside the War Office on the watch for the
signal from the Senate to let him in, and Holt collogu
ing with Butler and Ashley how, by means of the
prerogative of pardon, to let loose upon him the cham
pion perjurer of the Conspiracy Trial.
On the other hand, the judge advocate for his part
drew no consolation from the silence reigning at the
White House. As though apprehending an outbreak
from that quarter, he set about collecting testimony
favorable to his version of the private interview, Stan
ton, to whom he had hastened to tell what had occurred
in the President's office, for some mysterious reason
would afford him no help, and to Colonel Burnett, who,
it appears, heard what he told Stanton, he made no
appeal. From his senior colleague on the Conspiracy
Trial he may have sought counsel, but Bingham was
still nursing the wounds Butler had inflicted, and his
voluble lips were sealed. To General Ekin he did
apply, within two weeks after the Surratt Trial,
reminding that member of the commission by letter
of his call on the day of or immediately after the exe
cution to ascertain the fate of the petition; and the
general sent a reply detailing what the judge advocate
had told him on that occasion as fully as if the cor
respondence had been arranged beforehand ; evidence,
however, liable to the objection that it was given by
one of the parties to the issue.
This, so far as it is known, was the sole fruit of his
researches during the period the President kept the
record in his possession. On its return to the archives

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 231
he took the precaution to obtain from two of his clerks
letters describing the condition of the document when
taken away and when brought back, with special
reference to the precise position of the paper in dis
pute. During the period when more than two thirds
of the House of Representatives were bent upon the
decapitation of the President and thirty-five out of the
fifty-four senators voted to remove him from office,
during the remainder of his term when, stripped of
every prerogative of his office, he was simply holding
on to give place to the head of the army who had been
chosen his successor, the judge advocate takes no
steps to silence "the atrocious calumny" he professes
to trace to the door of the despised apostate. He
himself, still the chief of the Bureau every officer of
which down to the lowest underling is devoted to his
cause, basks in the sunshine of public favor. Stanton,
though forced to quit the cabinet, is still the idol of
the radicals, and the distinguished special assistant
advocate on the Conspiracy Trial has added to the
laurels gained by the conviction of Atzerodt by his
brilliant effort to make under the forms of law the
same vacancy in office that Providence might have
anticipated by endowing the quasi assassin with a
stouter heart. Andrew Johnson, defeated at all points,
retires into what, to aU appearance, is everlasting
oblivion, leaving his trnpunished subordinate, hat in
air, cheering on the triumphal car in which the Con
queror of the Rebellion sits alone in his glory. And,
yet, the judge advocate, pestered as he is by what he
describes as "this slanderous rumor buzzing around

232 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
his ears," takes no advantage of these halcyon days
to vindicate his character. It is true that, in Decem
ber, 1868, he addresses a letter to the pastor of
St. Paul's church in Washington who attended At
zerodt to the scaffold and in the evening called at the
White House, eliciting from the reverend gentleman
a repetition of the talk of the President to the effect
that "very strong appeals had been made" for
clemency toward Mrs. Surratt — telegrams, even threats
had been used — but he could not be moved, for the
woman "kept the nest that hatched the egg^'; but this
inconclusive bit of testimony is all he is able to gather
during the next four years.
As for the ex-President, he seems to have paid no
further attention to the matter. Immediately on his
retirement he threw himself into the contest going on
in his own state against the reign of the negro and the
carpet-bagger, gaining a majority of the legislature
in favor of his return to the United States Senate, but,
eventually being defeated because the other senator
was a resident of his section. In 1872 he ran for rep
resentative in Congress from the state at large against
General Cheatham, the candidate of the recent seces
sionists on the one hand, and Horace Maynard, the
candidate for the radicals on the other, in which he
was assailed for "the murder of Mrs. Surratt," but
made no apology and no mention of the petition. And
so the matter, apparently, sank to its final rest.
On the twenty-fourth day of December, 1869, at the
city of Washington, died the man who knew the whole
history of this interesting document. The device of

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 233
substituting a prayer to the President to do what the
majority of the tribunal had the power of doing and
were inclined to do themselves, if it did not originate
with him, had at least his hearty concurrence.
Whether the President saw that paper or not he knew
as well as Holt himself, and one authoritative word
from him would have settled the question at once.
And yet Edwin M. Stanton died without speaking that
word. According to Holt he not only kept silent him
self, but he enjoined silence on others who knew what
Holt insisted was the truth. Three years after the
death of the member of Johnson's cabinet who might
be fitly styled his confidential enemy, died (in Octo
ber, 1872) another member of that cabinet who was
in truth the confidential adviser of his chief to the end.
This event, although in the lifetime of the deceased he
had never sought his help, seemed to have stirred the
judge advocate to a revival of the search he had
allowed to sleep so long. His first move was to initiate
a correspondence between himself and his distinguished
colleague on the military commission, then living in
the capital, based on the assumption that the two men
had not conferred with each other on the subject for
the past eight years. His letter of the eleventh of
February, 1873, closed with a request that Bingham
would state whether or not he had a conversation
with William H. Seward concerning the petition and,
if so, to state all he said on the subject. Bingham's
reply is more than satisfactory, indeed running over.
He does not confine himself to what Seward said, but
brings in Stanton, whom Holt had not ventured to

234 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
include in his inquiry. After stating that he called
Stanton's attention to the petition "before the final
action of the President" (as if it were possible that
the war minister could have been unaware of its
existence), he goes on to say that "after the execu
tion" hearing the rmnor that the President had not
seen the petition, he "called upon Secretaries Stan
ton and Seward and asked if the petition had been
presented to the President before the death sentence
was by him approved, and was answered by each of
those gentlemen that the petition was presented to the
President, and was duly considered by him and his
advisers before the death sentence . . . was approved,
and that the President and the cabinet, upon such
consideration were a unit in denying the prayer of the
petition; Mr. Stanton and Mr. Seward stating that
they were present." Feeling the need of some ex
planation of his failure for so many years to pass this
conclusive information on to his sorely-tried pro
fessional brother, the writer subjoins the following:
"Having ascertained the fact as stated, I then desired
to make the same public, and so expressed myself to
Mr. Stanton, who advised me not to do so, but rely
npon the final judgment of the people." "A sad, sad
mockery!" indeed, as Holt exclaims; but the explana
tion, such as it is, does not cover the case of Seward
to whom, indeed, the writer had not seen fit to
** express" himself.*
Armed with this hearsay testimony of what the two
members of Johnson's cabinet who were silent in the
* See Note II to this chapter in Appendix.

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 235
grave had said on the subject, the judge advocate felt
warranted at length to call upon the members still
living. To McCidloch and Welles who, like Seward,
remained staunch to their chief, he made no applica
tion. But to Speed and Harlan, who resigned because
of disagreement with the President's policy, he did
apply, inclosing a copy of Bingham's letter. Speed
replied from Louisville, on the thirtieth of March, and
Harlan, who was a senator of the United States from
Iowa at the time of the President's trial and voted him
guilty, on the twenty-seventh of May. In July, the
judge advocate, as if not yet quite confident in the
strength of his case, arranges another correspondence
between himself and General R. D. Mussey — ^who, at
the time of the assassination, happening to be in
Washington on business concerning the freedmen of
Tennessee, was detailed for duty as military secretary
of the new-made President and acted in that capacity
until he went over to the side of the majority in Con
gress in the fall. To him. Holt appealed to disregard,
out of consideration for a man suffering under so
gross a calumny, the confidential character of his
former official position so far as to reveal "any
declarations of the President" on the subject of
clemency to Mrs. Surratt; and, without waiting for a
response, on the fourteenth of August he addressed
a communication to the Secretary of War submitting
"the proofs of his innocence"; viz.: copies of his cor
respondence with Bingham and with Speed and
Harlan, together with the letters of his two clerks and
the correspondence with the reverend doctor Butler,

236 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
on file since 1868. General Mussey delayed no longer
than the nineteenth in coming to the aid of his friend
with "his knowledge of the facts attending the con
viction of Mrs. Surratt," saying : "I am very confident,
though not absolutely assured, that it was at this
interview (i.e. just after the President came out of the
room where he had been closeted with Holt) Mr. John
son told me that the court had recommended Mrs.
Surratt to mercy on the ground of sex (and age I
believe). But I am certain he did so inform me about
that time." And, having in the meantime received
complete absolution by a letter from Secretary of War
Belknap, on the twenty-sixth, the judge advocate laid
"before the loyal public," through the columns of the
Washington Chronicle in its issue of that day, the
entire series of letters with notes and comments, a
publication immediately embodied in a pamphlet en
titled, "Vindication of Hon. Joseph Holt, Judge-
Advocate-General of the United States Army."
In breaking the long silence covering this scandalum
magnatum which its reputed originator seemed to have
forgotten, this veteran in court-martial practice knew
well the risk he was running. To demand a court of
inquiry, as he pleads, while "his enemy and slan
derer" could "play the quadruple role of organizer of
the court, accuser, witness and final judge" would have
been "the very madness of folly." And, during the
four years that had elapsed since his adversary was
swept out of power, he confesses that he could not
muster sufficient confidence in his single oath, cor
roborated by "the circumstantial evidence" he was

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 237
able to collect, to beard the wounded lion in his den.
It was not until, at so late a day, he summoned his
former special assistant to lift the veil from cabinet
deliberations, access to which, he says, had been ' ' thus
far denied him," that he could brace himself for the
encounter. Provided from this source with the neces
sary ammunition, he now revives the declaration of
Pierrepont on the Surratt Trial, which he forced that
counsel to withdraw, and, relegating the confidential
interview to the rear, he constitutes the cabinet con
sideration of the petition as the very head and front
of his defence. And this misplaced strategy turned
out fatal to his contention. To begin with, executive
approval of the proceedings of military commissions
or courts-martial is rarely a cabinet question. The
President acts in the capacity of commander-in-chief,
calling to his aid, if he see fit, the Secretary of War
and, it may be, the attorney general, who alone are
supposed to be familiar with the testimony. Possibly
the commutation of a death sentence in a very cele
brated cause might be broached incidentally at a
cabinet meeting; but whether a prayer for mercy
because of sex made by the majority of a military
court should be granted or not is a collateral question
addressed so exclusively to the discretion of the ex
ecutive as to preclude the possibility of his laying it
before a regular session of his official advisers. And,
moreover, if Andrew Johnson, in the present instance,
had followed so unprecedented and remarkable a
course, there could have been no mystery or secrecy
about the petition any more than about the record to

238 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
which it was attached. The paper would have ap
peared in every subsequent proceeding connected with
the case, and its existence known of all men. Finally,
not one of the officers who handled the secret roU
supposed for a moment that it was a proper subject
for cabinet scrutiny. Not Holt, who kept it strictly
private during the four-days illness of the President,
communicated to Stanton and Burnett the final de
cision of the executive as soon as it was made and
consigned the warrant to the adjutant general to be
promulgated on the morrow. Not Stanton or Burnett
who received the communication, or the adjutant gen
eral who delayed not to promulgate the speedy doom.
Indeed, had such been the rule, concealment of the
petition, being certain of detection, never would have
been thought of and Rumor would have remained
silent, perforce, for want of wind for her trumpet.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the two living ex-
cabinet officers whom the judge advocate summoned as
witnesses failed signally to come up to the mark.
Speed declined to answer pointblank and for a reason
that verges on the absurd. He states that he saw the
paper attached to the record "in the President's
office"; but he goes not a step farther. He does not
say whether or not any other cabinet officer was there
or even that he himself was there in his official capa
city. "I do not feel at liberty to speak of what was
said at cabinet meetings," he says — ^which he was not
asked to do, but simply to state whether or not a par
ticular paper was before the cabinet at a meeting held
eight years ago; and to refuse such a reasonable

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 239
request because of his "sense of propriety" was
stretch of official decorum which throws a sinister light
on the real motive of his silence.* Harlan, for his
part, recalls only "an informal discussion," by three
or four members of the cabinet, of the question of
commutation, at which he declares positively "no part
of the record of the trial, the decision of the court or
the recommendation of clemency was present." He
remembers inquiring at the time whether the attorney
general examined the record and of being informed
that the whole case had been carefully examined by
that officer and also by the Secretary of War; and he
further states that the question was never submitted
to the cabinet for a formal vote.
Notwithstanding these serious flaws, now plainly
discernible, the "Vindication" was hailed by the nu
merous friends of the author with an outburst of
congratulation. His antagonist, far off in the moun
tains, was suffering from a second defeat in the effort
to reenter public life. The columns of the very jour
nal that was the vehicle of his triumph were adorned
by the "Reminiscences" of Henry S. Foote, wherein
the ex-President was "arraigned as having been
in complicity with President Lincoln's murderers."
Months passed by, and it seemed that the object of
this twofold attack was disposed to treat the challenge
of his former subordinate with the silent contempt
under which the insane charge of the ex-senator
withered and died. The judge advocate began to
soothe himself with the imagination that the man who
* See Note III to this chapter in Appendix.

240 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
turned Stanton out of office, outfaced Grant and defied
the Congress, kept in the background from fear. His
idea was that while Seward and Stanton were living
Johnson dared not speak out, and, now, when their
deaths had removed that source of apprehension, he
was deterred from coming forward because he gath
ered from Holt's Vindication that Bingham had
perpetuated their testimony. It required, so Holt
imagined, "the pressure of those who, having for
years engaged in spreading this calumny, would
naturally insist that he should stand up to their labors
in his behalf" to force him to the front. Among the
gifts which nature had showered on Joseph Holt, that
of reading character was not numbered; but he never
made a greater blunder in so doing than when he
imputed reluctance to engage in a fight to Andrew
Johnson. And this notion he soon had good reason
to reconsider.
The answer of Johnson, published in the Chronicle
of the twelfth of November, simply shattered the posi
tion his challenger had deliberately chosen to reas-
sume. That the petition was "duly considered" by
the President "and his advisers hefore the death sen
tence upon Mrs. Surratt had been approved" and that
the cabinet was "a unit" in denying its prayer, he
showed to be, under the undisputed facts of the case,
an absolute impossibility.
' ' The papers . . . were considered and approved by me in
the presence only of Judge Holt; who himself wrote the
approval for my signature, and, after I had affixed to it my
name, took away with him the record. This was the first and

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 241
only time I saw the papers prior to the execution ; and, as my
approval was given ... in the afternoon of Wednesday the
5th of July, 1865; and as immediately afterward the record
must have been taken by Judge Holt to the War Department,
where by an order of the adjutant general of the same date,
the approval was promulgated and General Hancock com
manded to cause the sentences 'to be duly executed'; and as
no cabinet meeting was held thereafter until Friday ....
(the day of the execution), it is impossible that Mrs. Surratt 's
case could have been submitted to the cabinet 'before the
death sentence was by him approved'— as Judge Bingham dis
tinctly asserts." "The years which have intervened seem not
only to have weakened Judge Bingham's respect for" the
advice of Stanton, but "also seriously to have impaired
his recollection of the words of which his ears were the
recipients. ' '
The informal discussion to which Harlan refers and
Holt identifies as "undoubtedly the cabinet meeting
to which Bingham refers," Johnson places on Friday,
"the day of the execution — two days after the ap
proval of the sentence." The point made by the judge
advocate that, because Harlan on that occasion was
informed that the whole case had been examined and
the only question "raised was the one of clemency on
account of sex — the ground taken in the petition
alone," therefore, "the petition itself had also been
examined" and "reported upon"; Johnson meets as
follows :
' ' In passing upon the case of a woman sentenced to under
go the extreme penalty of the law, the simple fact that she is
a woman appeals to sympathy and such mercy, though there
16

242 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
may not be, from a portion of those who tried her, a recom
mendation that the dungeon should be substituted for the
gibbet. This consideration, in connection with that of age, had
influenced five members of the commission. ... If the ques
tion of sex and age presented itself to the minds of those who
had tried and condemned her, is it strange that in the absence
of any petition whatever it also suggested itself to the execu
tive, who had to pass upon their finding?"
The other branch of the Vindication, viz., the con
fidential interview at which the death warrant was
drawn up by the judge advocate and signed by the
President, as we have already intimated. Holt sub
ordinates entirely to the "testimonies" he submits of
the cabinet's consideration of the petition, without
which he would not have ventured to appeal to the
public. Indeed, what he has to say concerning what
took place on this momentous occasion he does not say
directly to the public, but incorporates in his letter of
inquiry to his colleague on the commission :
"In the discharge of my duty, when presenting that
record to President Johnson, I drew his attention to
that recommendation, and he read it in my presence,
and before approving the proceedings and sentence."
To this branch Johnson's answer was just as explicit
as his answer to the other branch of the case, but,
owing to the absence of even so slight corroboratory
testimony as Holt was able to adduce, perhaps not so
conclusive. Referring to Holt's reminder to Bingham that the
President's friends fabricated the charge in question

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 243
"to shield the executive," he embraces the oppor
tunity to say: "I have never attempted, througli
friends or otherwise, to shrink from any responsibility
in connection with the execution of President Lin
coln's assassins or from the faithful discharge of any
other duty imposed by the Constitution and laws of
the country"; and, then he gives the following plain
statement :
"The record of the court was submitted to me by Judge
Holt in the afternoon of the 5th day of July, 1865. Instead
of entering the executive mansion by the usual way, he gained
admission by the private or family entrance to the executive
ofBce. The examination of the papers took place in the library,
and he and I alone were present. The sentences of the court
in the cases of Herold, Atzerodt and Payne were considered
in the order named, and then the sentence in the case of Mrs.
Surratt. In acting upon her case no recommendation for a
commutation of her punishment was mentioned or submitted
to me; but the question of her sex, which had already been
adverted to and discussed in newspaper columns, presented it
self, and was commented upon both by Judge Holt and myself.
With peculiar force and solemnity he urged that the fact that
the criminal was a woman was in itself no excuse or pallia
tion, that when a woman 'unsexed herself and entered the
arena of crime, it was rather an aggravation than a mitigation
of the offense ; that the law was not made to punish men only,
but all, without regard to sex, who violated its provisions ; that
to discriminate in favor of Mrs. Surratt and against Herold,
Atzerodt and Payne, who were sentenced by the same court
and at the same time to suffer the penalty of death, would be
to offer a premium to the female sex to engage in crime and
become the principal actors in its commission; that since the

244 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
rebellion began, in some portions of the country, females had
been prominent in aiding and abetting traitors, and he thought
the time had come when it was absolutely necessary, in a case
80 clearly and conclusively established, to set an example
which would have a salutary influence. He was not only in
favor of the approval of the sentence, but of its execution at
the earliest practicable day.
"Upon the termination of our consultation Judge Holt
wrote the order approving the sentences of the court, I afSxed
my name to it, and rolling up the papers, he took his leave,
carrying the record with him, and departing as he had come,
through the family or private entrance. ' '
He points out in passing that Speed must have seen
the record with the petition attached not, as that
ex-cabinet officer states, in the "President's office,"
but in the War Office whither it was taken by Holt
immediately on the termination of the confidential
interview; unless (as Holt subsequently suggests) he
was a secret witness to that official colloquy.
The head of the Bureau of Military Justice having
had the effrontery to upbraid his present adversary
for "rendering inoperative" the writ of haheas cor
pus in the case of Mrs. Surratt, remarking in depreca
tion of his "defiant action," that otherwise "her life
would not then have been taken," the ex-President,
in reply, displays none of the tardy compunction which
seems to trouble the judge advocate, but justifies his
disobedience of the writ as the discharge of an impera
tive duty imposed upon him by an act of Congress.
He closed his answer, which the hostile journal pub
lishing it pronounced "a remarkably luminous docu-

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 245
ment, dignified and free from needless personalities
and all vituperation," by the following animadversion
upon the absence of the petition from the official re
port of the trial :
"If we may accept the statement of the judge advocate
general, the charge against which he now attempts to defend
himself was made 'soon after the execution of Mary B. Sur
ratt,' and his attention having been then necessarily called to
the subject, it was his imperative duty to supply the omission
or to make the correction. It is doubtful, however, whether,
had not the existence of the petition by some means become
known to 'certain public journals,' it would ever have been
divulged, or carefully attached to the papers by 'patent eye
lets' to become 'confirmation strong' of Judge Holt's 'inno
cence' of the 'cruel imputation' under which he has been con
tent so long to lie.
"It being absolutely certain that if the petition was
attached to the original record before it was submitted to the
President, it is not to be found in the printed record author
ized by Judge Holt and certified to by Colonel Burnett, special
judge advocate of the commission, the question arises, which
of the two is authentic and genuine ? If the record in posses
sion of the judge advocate is true, then that is false which
he has given to the public. If, on the other hand, the record,
published with his official sanction is true, then that in his
bureau is false necessarily. Judge Holt is at liberty to accept
either alternative, and to escape as he may the inevitable con
clusion that he did not only fail to submit the petition to the
President, but suppressed and withheld it from the official
history of the most important trial in the annals of the
nation."

246 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
This "remarkably luminous document" drew forth
a so-styled "Refutation," which imlike the paper it
was intended to refute, was, indeed, full of "needless
personalities and all vituperation." At the outset,
oblivious of his own plea in excuse for his long silence
— "I was without testimony and knew not where to
look for it" — the judge advocate is thrown into a
passion at the bare suggestion of his antagonist, in
excuse for his not calling his delinquent subordinate
to account, that there might have been at that time
"reasons" that "would in all probability have op
erated against any development of the facts of this
case." So far does his wrath carry him away that he
plucks up by the locks the carcass of the self-slain
charge that Butler and Ashley and Conover had
dropped in despair. "There must have been," he
insinuates, "something very fearful in his contempla
tion to lead him to disregard an imperative public
duty, . . . rather than suffer the field of inquiry in
relation to the conspiracy and assassination to be
again opened. Was it apprehended that in the shad
ows of the field an accomplice or accomplices might be
lurking who could not be safely dragged to light?"
And in this denunciatory strain he continues to the
end. Johnson's recapitulation of the arguments used
by Holt at the confidential interview adverse to
clemency to female criminals, which bear so remarka
ble a resemblance to those put into the President's
own mouth by the reverend doctor Butler and General
Mussey in their letters embraced in the Vindication;
his insinuation that the reason why the papers were

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 247
not submitted in the usual way through the Secretary
of War but by the judge advocate in private was "to
save time and hasten the execution, thus evincing
the spirit that animated Holt during the entire pro
ceedings" drove that officer to such a height of exas
peration that with his record on the Conspiracy Trial,
his "Brief Review" of the case and his report to the
Secretary of War behind him, he assumes the attitude
of a horror-stricken witness to the cold-blooded cruelty
of his chief: "I should have shuddered to propose the
brief period of two days within which the sentences
should be executed, for with all the mountain of guilt
weighing on the heads of those wretched culprits, I
still recognized them as human beings, with soids to
be saved or lost, and could not have thought for a
moment of hurrying them into the eternal world, as
cattle are driven to the slaughter pen, without a care
for their future."
Admitting that he assented to the doctrine that
"sex is no excuse for treason" and advised that "the
sentences should be enforced," he asseverates that he
was lamblike in his course during the trial, that he
did not fix the fatal Friday, though "he wrote it
down," yet, in the newborn tenderness in his heart he
burst forth in the following arraignment of his su
perior officer:
"As chief magistrate he was, under the Cionstitution, the
depository of the nation's clemency and mercy to the con
demned, and a pressing responsibility rested upon him to
hear the victims of the law hefore he struck them down. . . .
Did he do this ? On the contrary ... he gave a peremptory

248 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
order to admit nobody seeking to make any appeal in behalf
of the prisoners, . . . even Mrs. Surratt 's spiritual adviser
who came to beg for her a day or an hour of life." And . . .
after having closed his door, his ears and his heart against
every appeal for mercy in her behalf, hurried this helpless
woman almost unshrived to the gallows. ' '
This is rich indeed ! But the strongest evidence that
the judge advocate had lost his self-possession was the
transparent sophistry with which he seeks to evade the
blow to Bingham's cabinet meeting. Conceding that
from the final adjournment of the court to the day of
the approval of its sentences "the President had been
sick in bed and had of course had no opportunity of
conferring with any members of his cabinet," yet he
stigmatizes the conclusion that a meeting hefore the
approval was an 'mpossibility as "intensely disin
genuous," not indeed because it was illegitimate, but
because it left out of view the possibility of a meeting
after the approval. He maintains that the signing of
the death warrant and its promulgation amounted to
"no more than a letter written and remaining on the
'President's' table which he could recall at pleasure
until posted"; that is, his decision was revocable at
any time before the drop fell. "What Messrs. Seward
and Stanton clearly meant was that before the Presi
dent had finally and definitely approved the sen
tences," the question of commutation was raised in
the cabinet. He scouts the "idea" that the President
' ' ever thought of enforcing the sentences, without con
ferring with at least three members of his cabinet
whose duties connected them most intimately with the

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 249
case," as one "not to be entertained for a moment."
Yet that very "idea" he must have entertained him
self. Else, why did he, coming with the signature to
the death warrant hardly dry in his hands, inform the
Minister of War of the President's determination and
"the view" on the subject of mercy to female rebels
which the President so "vehemently presented"?*
Else, why did he "shudder" when the Chief Magis
trate fixed with cruel haste "the brief period of
doom"? Stanton, whose duties, surely, "connected
him most intimately with the case," evidently did not
expect to be consulted after he heard this disposition
of the matter. And General Mussey — Johnson's
private secretary — whose letter, according to Holt,
"constituted so impressive a part" of his Vindication
— appears to have entertained no doubt of its finality :
"Mr. Johnson came out of the room where he had been
with you (i. e. Holt) and said to me that the papers had been
looked over and a decision reached. I asked him what it
was. He told me, approval of the finding and sentences of
the court; and then gave me the sentences, as near as he
remembered them, and said that he had ordered the sentence,
where it was death, to be carried into execution on the Friday
following. I remember looking up from my desk with some
surprise at the brevity of this interval, and asking him whether
the time wasn't rather short. He admitted that it was, but
said they had had ever since the trial began for 'preparation' ;
and either then, or later in the day, spoke of his design in
making the time short, so that there might be less opportimity
for criticism, remonstrances, etc. . . . He also instructed me
* See Note III to Chap. V in Appendix.

250 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
that he did not desire to see any one . . . and to direct aE
. . . , if they had any fresh evidence or any new reason why
the sentence should not be executed, to send them to you that
you might hear their story and communicate it to him."
Finally, the inhabitants of the capital, when, on
Thursday morning, the proclamation of death within
twenty-four hours was heard on the streets, and the
condemned when it was read in their cells at noon,
seemed to be under the same impression.
But although the judge advocate is driven to con
cede that there could have been no cabinet meeting
hefore the approval, he does succeed in making it
appear, and that by the admission of Johnson himself,
that there was some sort of a consultation after the
death warrant was signed. Still this does him no
good; for the meeting could have been no other than
the incidental discussion alluded to by Harlan, when
neither record nor petition was present ; for even Holt
does not contend that there could have been two meet
ings after the President's decision. He urges, how
ever, that the signature was not final because "one of
the questions involved was openly discussed" at this
meeting; yea, verily, but the question discussed was
not raised by the petition which, whether suppressed
or not suppressed, had done its office; but by the out
side pressure for a reprieve. That Friday was the
regular meeting day of the cabinet is immaterial
because on this particular Friday, in view of the
awful scene about to take place in the arsenal yard, no
public business was done and any consultation on the

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 251
subject weighing upon all hearts could not be other
than "accidental."
At the close of this memorable newspaper con
troversy, therefore, the question in dispute was left in
the same condition as at the end of the Surratt Trial.
The issue hung upon what occurred within the walls
of that room where, on the fifth day of July, 1865, the
President and the judge advocate sat alone with the
record lying between them. And there it is destined
to abide. Johnson took no notice of his opponent's
fierce rejoinder, which was subsequently embodied in
another pamphlet. He resumed his contest for the
senatorship and, in less than two years, took his seat
in the body that came within one vote of removing
him from the presidency. So dramatic a triumph he
was justified in regarding as a sufficient answer to the
charge of his former subordinate that he had "de
clared a falsehood than which nothing falser has ever
fallen from the lips of men or devils." On his sudden
death the ensuing summer, his fellow-senators —
friends and foes alike — united in testifying to his
indomitable will, his unfaltering courage, his simple
honesty, his nobility of soul. On the other hand, the
judge advocate could not rest easy on his vaunted
laurels. Ten years afterwards we find him conjuring
the sphinx-like Speed, by every consideration of honor,
friendship and common fairness, now that "the
treacherous executive" had "gone to his own place,"
to come to his help. But the ex-attorney general's
high-flown notion of official propriety neither the lapse
of years nor the ravages of death could modify; even

252 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
the bait held out to him that he was an unseen spec
tator of the confidential interview, he was too wary
to take.*
So that, as we have already remarked, the testimony
as to what took place on that memorable occasion is
reduced to the two versions of the parties thereto ; the
judge advocate affirming that "he drew the Presi
dent's attention specially to the recommendation in
favor of Mrs. Surratt, which he read and freely com
mented on," the ex-President affirming that "in acting
upon her case no recommendation for commutation of
her sentence was mentioned or submitted."
Such being the condition of the testimony, the ques
tion of motive rises to paramount importance. Holt's
answer to the question: "What could have been John
son's motive for the original fabrication of this
calumny?" was as follows: "He had not broken with
the Republican party, and was doubtless, in his heart
at least, a candidate for reelection. When, therefore,
the universal exasperation of the Catholics at the exe
cution of Mrs. Surratt . . . smote clamorously upon
his ears, knowing as he did the vast political power of
this religious sect, his startled ambition grew sore
afraid." This hypothesis was so incompatible with
the known circumstances of the period to which it
refers, that the friends and backers of the accused
offender were forced to discard it and provide a sub
stitute, the chief merit of which was that it stripped
the original of every vestige of plausibility. Accord
ing to their theory, Johnson's pet ambition is still to
* Note ni to this chapter in Appendix.

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 253
be elected President — not by the Republican party,
however, but by its opponent, and, the rumor being
rife that five members of the commission recom
mended that Mrs. Surratt 's death sentence be com
muted, influential members of the Democratic party,
both North and South, and the Catholics all over the
land, "called upon him with a loud voice to know why
he had not heeded the appeal for mercy." Here was
a sufficient motive, not, as Holt charged to fabricate
the lie, but to father it after it had been fabricated by
others. StiU, even yet, Johnson's "ambition" was
not sufficiently "startled" to force him into the open;
he dared do no more than whisper his apology in a
comer, being silly enough to imagine he could pro
pitiate the Catholics by playing "the juggler behind
the screen" in front of which "his puppets were
dancing."* Even when his name was brought before
the Democratic National Convention, even when can
vassing in Tennessee for the Senate, he has not the
courage to play his card. At length, long after every
chance of being President is gone, and, then, only in
pursuance of the loud challenge of his adversary, he
is forced into the lists. But he comes not as a cham
pion unknown and unnamed; he comes "with banner,
brand and bow as leader seeks his mortal foe." He
utters no word in palliation, excuse or deprecation.
He indulges in no shudder over the victims of his pen.
He defends his disregard of the haheas corpus. The
woman whom he hurried to the gallows he classes
with "President Lincoln's assassins." Nay, he does
* Note rV to this chapter in Appendix.

254 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
not even plead that his course might have been differ
ent had the petition been brought to his knowledge.
He is careful to go no further than to state that, if
Holt's and Bingham's names had been affixed to it,
"such an application would have been duly weighed
by the executive before final action in the premises."
The judge advocate, on the other side, presses the
question: "What motive had I to do the deed of mur
derous perfidy alleged against me?" — to which an
intelligent answer cannot be given until we define what
the deed alleged against him precisely was. It was
not charged that, when he carried the record to the
President, he left the petition behind. Johnson's
statement that a careful scrutiny two years after
wards convinced him that the recommendation was
not with the record when presented to him is a mere
matter of inference from the aspect of the roll.
Neither was he accused of not broaching the question
of clemency to the prisoner on account of her sex ; for
both parties agree that there was a consultation on
the subject. The head and front of his offending was
that, while conferring with the President about the
case, he did not call the latter 's attention to the recom
mendation. And this simple act of nonfeasance the
judge advocate gives us good reason to believe he
regarded as no "deed of murderous perfidy." Hold
ing, as he says he did, that "recommendations to
mercy by members of military courts do not in law
constitute any part of the records" he did not con
sider himself under any obligation to call particular
attention to such an unimportant addendum. As he

PETITION FOR COMMUTATION 255
says, "If being there, the President did not examine
it, . . . the responsibility for such remissness cer
tainly would not rest on me. ' ' Again : ' ' My duty and
connection with them (that is, the record and recom
mendation) ended on laying them before the Presi
dent." In fact, no overt act was necessary to the
suppression of the paper. Silence was in itself
suppression. The precise dimensions of the delinquency being
thus marked out, the motive is clear as day. It stares
out at us from every step of the military procedure
from the woman's arraignment with seven male cul
prits to the hour of the judge advocate's departure by
the private entrance to the White House with the last
hope of the trembling widow clutched in his furtive
hand. In truth, the petition was substituted for a
regular sentence to life imprisonment for the very
reason that the one might be easily got rid of and the
other could not be got rid of save by the disapproval
of the commander-in-chief. The resolve of the War
Department that, in default of the appearance of her
fugitive son, Mary E. Surratt must die, constituted a
sufficient motive to intercept the clemency of the ma
jority of the court and to hoodwink the clemency of
the executive.

L'ENVOY
'And thus the whirligig of Time hrings in his revenges
The Great Conspiracy postulated by the military
commission, it is now conceded, never had an exist
ence other than imaginary, and every person found
guilty of being a party to it stands acquitted by public
opinion — save the four who perished on the scaffold.
Jefferson Davis and the Confederate agents were not
tried at all. Davis outlived the charge, and statues
have been erected to his memory around the base of
which soldiers of the Union and soldiers of the Con
federacy mingled their applause. When Thompson
died, the flag of the United States was lowered at half-
mast over the Department of the Interior in honor of
him who once had been its head. Clay anticipated in
his lifetime the vindication published by his widow
after his death. Surratt still lives in the full enjoy
ment of his rights as a citizen. The convicts who
were sent to the Dry Tortugas were pardoned by
President Johnson before the expiration of his term,
except the one who died in the meantime; and their
pardon, as well as the discharge of Surratt, passed
without a ripple upon the surface of human affairs,
although, according to the evidence, they were parties
to a plot which the prosecuting officers insisted was
but a preparatory step to the assassination.
It remains to pass judgment upon the woman whose
life a majority of the commission was inclined to
(256)

L'ENVOY 257
spare and who, if her life had been spared, might have
been freed with her fellow-prisoners and restored to
her children. The guilt of her companions in death
was virtually undisputed. Her own was never more
than a matter of conjecture ; resting wholly on the tes
timony of two witnesses swearing against her in peril
of their lives and whose evidence, even if credited, is
not irreconcilable with innocence. That, if she had
been awarded a trial by jury, she would not have been
convicted will not be denied. The trial actually
awarded her was not only unconstitutional and illegal,
it was not even fair. She was tried, convicted and
executed in the place of another who, when afterwards
caught, though tried, was not convicted or executed;
and about her scaffold there lingers a dark suspicion
that her death sentence was extorted by one sur
reptitious device and her death warrant procured by
another. In view of these considerations it seems that the
benefit of the doubt denied the woman in life should
be given her in death; that the pardon the President,
ia all probability, would have issued had she survived
with Arnold and Spangler and Mudd, should be
granted to her memory by that tribunal whose decrees
are effectual where executive clemency ceases to run.
She was not a queen, it is true; and no Burke has
arisen to win the sympathies of the world by depicting
her "just above the horizon, decorating and cheering
the elevated sphere she just began to move in, glitter
ing like the morning star, full of life and splendor and
joy." But no American citizen, without first renounc-
17

258 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ing his birthright, can allow the accident of being but
a plain woman to rob her of rights held inalienable by
the Declaration of Independence.
And yet there is a feeling predominant in many
minds that because the injustice done her cannot be
undone, to avow it is needlessly to expose the shame
of one's country; that because her fate was but an
incident in the triumph of the Union, it is the duty of
the historian to let it sink into oblivion so that the
madness that wrought it may be remembered no more.
The present writer reads history otherwise than so.
The judicial murder of a woman committed in the
name of the nation, if judicial murder it was, ought
not to be and, to the credit of humanity, cannot be
forgotten. To ask that it be buried in the grave of
the victim because of her lowly station is an insult to
the manhood of the generations to come.
I cannot more fitly close this book than by repeating
the words of England's mighty prophet of the nine
teenth century:
"The grand question still remains, Was the judgment
just? If unjust, it will not and cannot get harhour
for itself, or continue to have footing in this Universe,
which was made hy other than One Unjust. Enforce
it hy never such statuting, three readings, royal
assents; blow it to the four winds with all manner of
quilted trumpeters and pursuivants, in the rear of
them never so many gihhets and hangmen, it will not
stand, it cannot stand. From all souls of men, from
all ends of Nature, from the Throne of God ahove,
there are voices bidding it: Away! Away!"

APPENDIX
NOTES TO CHAPTER I
NOTE I. (pp. 3, 6)
For these and following particulars, see Passages, Incidents and
Anecdotes in the Life of Junius Brutus Booth (the Elder) by his
daughter (Carleton, N. Y., 1866) ; The Elder and the Younger Booth
( Jas. E. Osgood and Co., 1882) ; Macready 's Rem., 100-3, 126 and 149.
In the introduction to the first-mentioned work his daughter states:
' ' Of my father 's family there were ten children, five of whom are
living — Junius, Eosalie, Edwin, Asia and Joseph. By a boyish
mesalliance, contracted in Brussels in the year 1814, there was one son,
who, if alive, is a resident of London, and of whom we have no further
knowledge. ' '
By comparison of this last piece of information with the early tour
of the Low Countries and the public marriage iu London, related in the
body of the work, the reader may be able to weigh the amount of credence
to be given to the scandal put in the mouth of one of the characters in
Katy of Catoctin (at p. 471), and backed up by a note (p. 472) making
a general reference to court records, newspapers, and correspondence
and containing what purports to be a copy of a tombstone inscription.
NOTE II. (pp. 8, 197-8)
ON THE ALLEGED POISON PLOT
In a paper entitled "Four Lincoln Conspiracies," contributed to the
Century Magazine for April, 1896, Victor Louis Mason accepts as
authentic the story that Booth while playing at Meadville, Pa., scratched
on a window pane of the room he occupied in the McHenry House at
that place the inscription: "Abe Lincoln Departed this Life August
13th, 1864 By the Effects of Poison"; and adds that, though discovered
"the next morning" "after Booth had left the hotel and city," "little
attention was paid to the writing at the time," but as soon as the
assassination was heard of — eight months after — "the glass was re
moved from its sash, framed in a plain black wooden frame, a piece of
dark velvet placed on the back to facilitate reading, and the signature
of Booth, entered on the register on August 13, waa cut from the book
(259)

260 APPENDIX
and attached to the window glass." A photograph of the pane was
given, the original, as the writer states, having been presented to the
War Department by Miss McHenry, the daughter of the owner of the
hotel, "some time after the assassination."
This circumstantial narrative, backed by documents, illustrates the
growth of legendary material around men and events celebrated in
history. I might have admitted the tale into the text notwithstanding no
allusion was made to it either on the Conspiracy Trial or the Surratt
Trial, had I not come across a letter from the cashier of the McHenry
House to Stanton, written so soon after the death of Lincoln as the
twenty-fifth of April, 1865, which explained why the all-devouring war
minister did not fasten upon an incident so relevant if true. The letter
appears in Baker's History of the United States Secret Service on pages
547-8 and from it I give the following extract:
' ' Sometime ago the following words were observed to have been
scratched upon a pane of glass in room No. 22 of this house, evidently
done with a diamond": (giving the inscription). "In view of recent
events it was deemed best to take the pane of glass out and preserve it,
and we have it safe. As to the date of the writing, we cannot determine.
It was noticed some months ago by the house-keeper, but was not
thought particularly of until after the assassination, being considered
a freak of some individual who was probably partially intoxicated.
My theory now is, that the words were written in prophecy or bravado
by some villain who was in the plot, and that they were written before
the date mentioned, August 13th.
"As to who was the writer, we can, of course, give no definite infor
mation. J. WOkes Booth was here several times during last summer
and fall on his way to and from the oil regions. He was here upon the
10th, and again upon the 29th of June, 1864, but does not appear to have
been assigned to that room, still he may have been iu it in company with
others who did occupy it" —
and the writer gives the names of four men to whom the room was
assigned on the 10th and two on the 29th, and offers to furnish "a list
of the persons occupying the room in question for a long time preceding
the above date."
The relic was not presented to the War Department until after the
lapse of fourteen years—December 26, 1879 — when it was accompanied
by a letter from Miss McHenry from Philadelphia in which she states
that she "received it" from Mr. Taylor, "the proprietor of the

APPENDIX 261
McHenry House" "towards the end of April, 1865" and that she had
had it in her possession ever since. Her statement that Booth regis
tered at the hotel on the thirteenth of August, 1864, is obviously hearsay
and cannot prevail over the positive testimony of the cashier. (See
typewritten copy of Miss McHenry 's letter pasted on back of relic.)
The story of a poison plot originated from two sources — one the
" Selby ' ' letter in which occurs the sentence : ' ' The cup failed us once
and might again"; the other, a circumstance stated by Mr. Mason as
follows: "At the same time" (i.e., August, 1864) "David E. Herold was a
drug clerk in the establishment of Mr. William 8. Thompson, Fifteenth
Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House, where the
President was in the habit of having his prescriptions compounded" — of
which it suf&ces to say that, so far from being at the same time with
the window-pane incident, Herold 's term of service, according to his
employer's testimony on the Surratt Trial (pages 510, 517), ended on
the 4th of July, 1863 — more than a year before; and during that time
he put up but one article for the President and that was a small vial of
castor oil. Another druggist, whose shop was far away from the White
House, on Eighth Street, East, in whose employ the young man was for
eleven months from October, 1863, was called on the Conspiracy Trial
and testified to the character of his former clerk; but no allusion to the
clerkship was made by the prosecution. (Pitman, 96.)
The "Selby" letter, signed Charles Selby and addressed to "Dear
Louis (not "Lewis," as Mr. Mason has it) and having no date, together
with the note enclosed, in a female hand, dated ' ' St. Louis, October 21,
1864," addressed to "Louis" as "Dearest Husband" and signed
"Leenea, " was picked up b^ a woman in a street car in New York in
November, 1864; being dropped in an exchange of letters between two
men, one of whom was disguised by a false beard. She took the letter
and note in their envelope to General Scott, who told her General Butler
had left that morning. She then gave them to General Dix, who trans
mitted them to the War Department on Thursday the 17th of November,
1864, stating that "the party who dropped the letter was heard to say
he would start for Washington Friday night." (Pitman, 41.) Gen
eral Butler was ordered to leave New York with his troops on the 11th
of November (Friday), but on his own application was permitted to
remain until Monday the 14th (id.). The letter and note were put in
evidence on the Conspiracy Trial (Poore, I, 27, 28), and the woman

262 APPENDIX
testified that the disguised man's "face was the same" as that of a
photograph of Booth shown her, and that the man had "a scar on his
right cheek" "something like a bite near the jawbone." He said he
would leave Washington the day after to-morrow. According to the
letter, the lot had fallen upon "Louis" to be "the Charlotte Corday of
the nineteenth century." "Abe must die and now." The writer waa
on his way to Detroit and the West.
It appeared in proof that Booth left Washington by an early train
on Friday the 11th and returned on Monday the 14th in the early part
of the evening; so that it would be difficult for him to have been iu a
street car in New York on Monday. (See N. Y. Herald of Tuesday,
15th, for Butler's order.)
Surgeon-General Barnes, who performed the postmortem examination
of Booth's body, testified that there was a "scar upon the large muscle
of the neck three inches below the ear"; and Dr. May, who was not
called on this trial, testified on the Surratt Trial that the removal of a
tumor by himself had caused the scar which was on the "back of the
neck a little to one side." (S. T., 270.)
It was claimed on the Conspiracy Trial that the Selby letter was
written to Booth under the name of Louis by some unknown person,
which was a natural inference provided Booth was the person who
dropped it. (See argument of Bingham, Pitman, 381, 382.) But, by
the date of the Surratt Trial, that hypothesis had been discarded.
Booth was now the writer of the letter. An expert from the telegraph
office of the War Department testified, from two telegrams signed "J.
Wilkes Booth," that the letter, which he considered to be "in a dis
guised hand," was in the handwriting of the deceased actor. (Bates'
testimony, S. T., 506-9.) And Payne was the "Louis" who was to be
the Charlotte Corday — the husband of the heart-broken Leenea of St.
Louis. (Argument of District Attorney on S. T., 1099; argument of
Pierrepont, 1306.)
Payne, at the date of the note from "Leenea," was twenty years of
age (born in 1845) ; had been in the Confederate service since he was
sixteen until he was taken prisoner at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 ; rejoined
the Confederate army in October of that year and remained in the
service until January 1, 1865, when he took the oath of allegiance to the
United States under the name of Lewis Payne. (See testimony compiled
against Payne in Pitman 154 et seq., and the argument of W. E. Doster,

APPENDIX 263
his counsel, id., 308, 310.) That he had a wife and child was never
heard of until the Surratt Trial or that he had ever been in St. Louis.
NOTE III. (pp. 12, 37)
COPY OF ARNOLD'S LETTER TO ME
Ward D, Johns Hopkins Hospital,
Baltimore,
Me. D. M. DeWitt, Oct. 13, 1904.
Dear Sir:
Yours of the 12th at hand. As I will be operated on to-morrow I
hasten to reply, giving you from memory all the knowledge I possess
concerning your questions. The American having copyrighted my arti
cle as published, it became their sole right, hence I could not furnish
you with a copy of the same even had I one, without their sanction for
publication. Booth's first mention of the plot to capture A. Lincoln
and convey him South to be held as an hostage for the exchange of
prisoners was in the month of August, 1864, at Barnum's Hotel, then
located at the corner of Fayette and Calvert Streets. O'Laughlin, a
friend of his youth, was also present and after conversing some time
over the subject, we both engaged to enter the enterprise. Wiechmann
never was known to me nor did I ever see him until the trial, nor were
any of those connected in the plot ever known, outside of J. H. Surratt
under the name of Cole, until 17th of March, 1865, when I was intro
duced to them at a meeting and the only one ever held, on the 17th
March at Gatier's Saloon, Penn. Ave., Washington. A few days after
about 20th March or thereabouts it was determined to intercept Lincoln
at the Soldiers ' Home, 7th Street. All rode out but in pairs, O 'Laughlin
and myself — Atzerodt and Payne — Booth and Surratt, Herold having
been sent to T. B. or Surrattsville to convey a box containing carbines.
I never met, never knew there was such a person as Mrs. Surratt living
in Washington or even in the State of Maryland. The first I knew of
her [was] when her name appeared in the Charge and Specifications
before the Military Court. If any started from Mrs. Surratt 's, both
myself and O'Laughlin were perfectly ignorant in the matter. During
my confinement with Mudd and Spangler at the Dry Tortugas, both
denied any connection with Booth. Such a man as Spangler I am
satisfied would never have been taken into his confidence. Whether
Booth in his visits to that portion of Maryland ever made known his
object, of course I cannot state. Those composing the better class of

264 APPENDIX
people were all in favor of the South, being slave owners and if he
mentioned the fact both he and they kept their own councils.
The following were the entire party connected with the abductioa
plot, viz. : Booth, Payne, Atzerodt, Herold, O 'Laughlin and myself. The
plot was abandoned on or about the 20th March, 1865. I never saw
Booth after the 31st March, nor any of the others connected therewith
and was following my legitimate calling, bookkeeper at sutler's store
at Fortress Monroe, a law-abiding citizen — when Booth the madman
thro' emotional insanity committed his diabolical crime thro' which he
brought shame and suffering upon the innocent.
I trust the information extended will help in establishing a truthful
history in regard to that affair. Be just both to the living as well as
the dead. Very respectfully Saml. B. Arnold.
The Baltimore American in 1902 published in several issues a work of
Arnold's, entitled "The Lincoln Plot" (copyrighted), republished at
the same time by the New York Sun. The files of the former news
paper containing the series were burned in the great fire.
On the 9th, 10th or 12th of September, 1864, Arnold received a letter
containing a fifty dollar or twenty dollar note, probably from Booth.
(Newman's testimony, C. T., Poore, I, 423; Pitman, 239.)
Arnold died in the above-named hospital in 1906.
NOTE IV. (p. 14)
(bunker's mem.)
J. W. B. was not at National Hotel duriag the month of October.
He arrived there Nov. 9 ; occupied Boom 20 ; left on early train, morning
of 11th.
Arrived again Nov. 14 and left on 16th.
His next arrival was Dec. 12; left Dee. 17, morning train. Arrived
again Dec. 22; left 24th 11:15 train. Arrived again Dec. 31; left
Jan. 10, 1865, 7:30 P.M. Arrived again Jan. 12; left 28th 7:30 P.M.
train; occupied 50%.
Arrived again Feb. 22; occupied Boom 231 in company with John
P. H. Wentworth and John McCullough. . . . Left Feb. 28, 8:15 a.m.
train, closing Eis account to date, inclusive. His name does not appear
on the register, but another room is assigned him; and his account com
mences March 1st without any entry upon the register of that date.
2nd, 3rd and 4th he is called at 8 a.m. 21st March pays $50 on

APPENDIX 265
account and left on 7:30 p.m. train. Arrived at March 25; room 231;
to tea; and loft April 1st on an afternoon train.
Arrived again April 8th; room 228. (Poore I, 32.)
NOTE V. (pp. 18, 26)
The Evening Star (Washington, D. C.) of April 20, 1865, published
the letter with its history (taken from the Philadelphia Enquirer) :
"The following verbatim copy of a letter, in writing, which is the
hand-writing of John Wilkes Booth, has been furnished by Hon. Wm.
Milward, U. S. Marshal of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. It
was handed over to that officer by John S. Clarke, who is a brother-in-
law of Mr. Booth. The history connected with it is somewhat peculiar.
In November, 1864, the paper was deposited with Mr. Clarke by Booth,
in a sealed envelope, 'for safe keeping,' Mr. Clarke being ignorant of
the contents. In January last. Booth called at Mr. Clarke's house,
asked for the package, and it was given him. It is now supposed that
he took out the paper and added his signature, which appears to be in a
different ink from that used in the body of the letter and also from the
language employed could not have been put to it originally. Afterwards
he returned the package to Mr. Clarke again for safe keeping, sealed
and bearing the superscription 'J. Wilkes Booth.' The enclosure was
preserved by the family without suspicion of its nature. After the
afflicting information of the assassination of the President, which came
upon the family of Mr. Clarke with crushing force, it was considered
proper to open the envelope. There were found in it the following
paper, with some seven-thirty United States bonds, and certificates of
shares in oil companies. Mr. Clarke promptly handed over the paper to
Marshal Milward, in whose custody it now remains. From a perusal
of this paper it seems to have been prepared by Booth as a vindication
of some desperate act which he had in contemplation; and from the
language used it is probable that it was a plot to abduct the President
and carry him off to Virginia. . . . The letter is as follows:  , 1864
My Dear Sir:
You may use this as you think best. But as some may wish to know
when, who, and why as I know not how to direct, I give it (in the words
of your master) — 'To whom it may concern.'
Eight or wrong, God judge me, not man. For be my motive good
or bad, of one thing I am sure, the lasting condemnation of the North.

266 APPENDIX
I love peace more than life. Have loved the Union beyond expression.
For four years have I waited, hoped and prayed for the dark clouds to
break and for a restoration of our former sunshine. To wait longer
would be a crime. All hope for peace is dead. My prayers have
proved as idle as my hopes. God's wUl be done. I go to see and share
the bitter end.
I have ever held the South were right. The very nomination of
Abraham Lincoln, four years ago, spoke plainly war, war, upon southern
rights and institutions. His election proved it. 'Await an overt act.'
Yes, tiU you are bound and plundered. What folly. The South was
wise. Who thinks of argument or pastime when the finger of his
enemy presses the trigger? In a foreign war, I, too, could say 'country,
right or wrong.' But in a struggle such as ours (where the brother
tries to pierce the brother's heart) for God's sake choose the right.
When a country like this spurns justice from her side, she forfeits the
allegiance of every honest freeman, and should leave him, untrammeled
by any fealty soever, to act as his conscience may approve. People of
the North, to hate tyranny, to love liberty and justice, to strike at wrong
and oppression, was the teaching of our fathers. The study of our
early history wUl not let me forget it, and may it never.
The country was formed for the white, not for the black man. And
looking upou African slavery from the same standpoint held by the
noble framers of our constitution, I, for one, have ever considered it one
of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us) that God ever
bestowed upon a favored nation. Witness heretofore our wealth and
power; witness their elevation and enlightenment above their race else
where. I have lived among it most of my life, and have seen less harsh
treatment from master to man than I have beheld in the North from
father to son. Yet, Heaven knows, no one would be willing to do more
for the negro race than I, could I but see the way to still better their
condition. But Lincoln's policy is only preparing a way for their total annihila
tion. The South are not, nor have they been fighting for the continua
tion of slavery. The first battle of Bull Eun did away with that idea.
Their causes since for war have been as noble and greater far than those
that urged our fathers on. Even should we allow they were wrong at
the beginning of this contest, cruelty and injustice have made the wrong
become the right, and they stand now (before the wonder and admira
tion of the world) as a noble band of patriotic heroes. Hereafter,
reading of their deeds, Thermopolae will be forgotten.

APPENDIX 267
When I aided in the capture and execution of John Brown (who waa
a murderer on our Western border and who was fairly tried and con
victed, before an impartial judge and jury, of treason, and who, by the
way, has since been made a god) I was proud of my little share in the
transaction, for I deemed it my duty that I was helping our common
country to perform an act of justice. But what was a crime in poor
John Brown is now considered (by themselves) as the greatest and only
virtue of the whole Eepublican party. Strange transmigration. Vice
so becomes a virtue, simply because more indulged in. I thought then as
now, that the Abolitionists were the only traitors in the land, and that the
entire party deserved the fate of poor John Brown, not because they wish
to abolish slavery, but on account of the means they have ever endeavored
to use to effect that abolition. If Brown were living I doubt whether
he himself would set slavery against the Union. Most or many in the
North do, and openly curse the Union, if the South are to return and
retain a single right guaranteed to them by every tie which we once
revered as sacred.
The South can make no choice. It is either extermination or slavery
for themselves (worse than death) to draw from. I know my choice.
I have also studied hard to discover upon what grounds the right of
a state to secede has been denied, when our very name United States,
and the declaration of independence both provide for secession.
But there is no time for words. I write in haste. I know how
foolish I shall be deemed for imdertaking such a step as this, where, on
the one side, I have many friends and everything to make me happy,
where my profession alone has gained me an income of more than twenty
thousand dollars a year, and where my great personal ambition in my
profession has such a great field for labor. On the other hand, the
South have never bestowed upon me one kind word; a place now where
I have no friends, except beneath the sod; a place where I must either
become a private soldier or a beggar. To give up all of the former for
the latter, besides my mother and my sisters, whom I love so dearly
(although they so widely differ with me in opinion) seems insane; but
God is my judge. I love justice more than I do a country that disowns
it, more than fame and wealth; more (Heaven pardon me if wrong),
more than a happy home.
I have never been upon a battle field; but D my countrymen, could
you all see the reality or effects of this horrid war, as I have seen them
(in every State, save Virginia) I know you would think like me, and
would pray the Almighty to create in the Northern mind a sense of

268 APPENDIX
right and justice (even should it possess no seasoning of mercy) and
that he would dry up the sea of blood between us, which is daily grow
ing wider. Alas, poor country. Is she to meet her threatened doom?
Four years ago I would have given a thousand lives to see her remain
(as I had always known her) powerful and unbroken. And even now I
would hold my life as naught to see her what she was. O, my friends,
if the fearful scenes of the past four years had never been enacted, or
if what has been was a frightful dream, from which we could now
awake, with what overfiowing hearts could we bless our God and pray
for His continued favor. How I have loved the old flag can never now
be known. A few years since and the entire world could boast of none
so pure and spotless. But I have of late been seeing aud hearing of
the bloody deeds of which she has been made the emblem, and would
shudder to think how changed she has grown. O, how I have longed to
see her break from the mist of blood that circles round her folds, spoil
ing her beauty and tarnishing her honor. But no, day by day, has she
been dragged deeper and deeper into cruelty and oppression, till now
(in my eyes) her once bright red stripes look like bloody gashes, on the
face of Heaven. I look now upon my early admiration of her glories
as a dream. My love, (as things stand to-day) is for the South alone.
Nor do 1 deem it a dishonor in attempting to make for her a prisoner
of this man to whom she owes so much of misery. If success attends
me, I go penniless to her side. They say she has found that "last
ditch" which the North has so long derided, and been endeavoring to
force her in, forgetting they are our brothers, and that it's impolitic
to goad on an enemy to madness. Should I reach her in safety and
flnd it true, I will proudly beg permission to triumph or die in that same
"ditch" by her side.
A confederate doing duty upon his own responsibility. J. Wilkes Booth."
NOTE VI. (pp. 32, 34, 37)
SEE LETTER OF ARNOLD GIVEN IN NOTE HI
That the date of the meeting was Friday, the 17th of March, further
appears from the fact that, according to every witness on the subject,
even Wiechmann who misdates the attempt as of the 16th, the meeting
was held on the same night that Payne attended the theatre with Surratt,
and met Booth in the box ; and that this was Friday and not Wednesday
(as Wiechmann puts it) is rendered certain by the testimony of Miss
Fitzpatrick who explicitly states that the morning after she had been at

APPENDIX 269
the theatre she went to Baltimore and was absent a week. See Poore,
II, 89, 185. Also, Arnold's articles in Baltimore American, referred to
at foot of Note III, supra, wherein he states that:
"About 2 o'clock (March 17, 1865) Booth and Herold met O'Laugh
lin and myself. Booth stated that he was told that the President was
going to attend a theatrical performance out on Seventh Street, at a
soldiers' encampment or hospital at the outer edge of the city. Booth
made inquiries at the Soldiers' Home and learned the President was not
there." And also that instead of Lincoln attending. Chase went at President's
request — obviously a mistake as Chase was no longer a member of the
cabinet. The date of the a-ttempt to capture is fixed positively for Monday,
the 20th, by the testimony of Wm. L. Arnold who saw his brother on the
coach leaving for Hookstown from Baltimore on the 21st (see Poore, II,
518; cf. testimony of Minnie Pole in Poore, III, 352; Pitman, 241), and
by the departure of Lincoln for the front.
The N. Y. Herald of Thursday, March 23, 1865, announces that Mr.
Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln, with "Tad," went on the Eiver Queen from
Washington to City Point on Wednesday, 22nd, at noon.
a. The unreliability of Wiechmann as to dates is remarkable. On
comparing his testimony in the two trials, it is apparent that, with all
his study and painstaking, he is often at sea.
NOTE VIL (pp. 37, 61)
ARNOLD'S LETTER TO BOOTH Poore, I, 420.
Hookstown, Balto. Co., March 27, 1865.
Dear John:
Was business so important that you could not remain in Baltimore
till I saw you? I came in as soon as I could, but found you had gone
to W — ^n. I called to see Mike, but learned from his mother he had
gone out with you and had not returned. I concluded, therefore, that
he had gone with you. How inconsiderate you have been! When I left
you, you stated we would not meet in a month or so; therefore I made
application for employment, an answer to which I shall receive during
the week. I told my parents I had ceased with you. Can I then, under
existing circumstances, come as you request? You know fuU well that
the G — t suspicions something is going on there; therefore, the under-

270 APPENDIX
taking is becoming more complicated. Why not, for the present, desist
for various reasons, which if you look into, you can readily see without
my making any mention thereof. You nor any one can censure me for
my present course. You have been its cause; for how can I come after
telling them I have left you? Suspicion rests upon me now from my
whole family and even parties in the county. I will be compelled to
leave home anyhow, and how soon I care not.
Nobody, no not one, was more in for the enterprise than myself, and
to-day would be there, had you not done as you have — by this I mean
manner of proceeding. I am as you well know, iu need. I am, you
may say, in rags; whereas to-day I ought to be well clothed. I do not
feel right stalking about with means and more from appearances a
beggar. I feel my dependence; but even all this would and was for
gotten; for I was one with you. Time more propitious will arrive yet.
Do not act rashly or in haste. I would prefer your first query ' ' Go and
see how it will be taken in R — d, " and ere long I shall be better pre
pared to be again with you. I dislike writing; would sooner verbally
make known my views; yet your non-writing causes me thus to pro
ceed. Do not in anger peruse this: weigh all I have said; and as a rational
mau and a friend, you cannot censure or upbraid my conduct. I sin
cerely trust this, nor aught else that shall or may occur, will ever be kn.
obstacle to obliterate our former friendship and attachment. Write
me to Balto., as I expect to be in about Wednesday or Thursday; or, if
you can possibly come on, I will Tuesday meet you in Balto. at B — .
Ever I subscribe myself, your friend, Sam.
Extract from Stanton's telegram to Dix, at 7:10 Saturday, 15 April:
"It appears from papers found in Booth's trunk that the murder
was planned before the 4th of March, but fell through then because the
accomplice backed out until 'Eichmond could be heard from.' "
NOTE TO CHAPTER II
NOTE I. (pp. 31, 39)
The testimony, given on both the Conspiracy and the Surratt trials,
leaves no room for the incident of the arrest of Booth in the rotunda
on the day of Lincoln's second inauguration, related by Oldroyd in hia

APPENDIX 271
book on The Assassination, pages 216, 217. (Compare testimony of
Chester on C. T. and of Wiechmann on S. T.)
The remark quoted in text is enough of itself to dispose of the story.
And why was not the policeman, who ' ' probably saved ' ' the President 's
life, called as a witness on the first trial? If it be answered that the
officer had not yet recognized the party he arrested as the assassin, why
did he not give his testimony ou the Surratt Trial, especially as he had
been promoted for his gallant service? And where were the makers of
the dozen or more affidavits which form "part of the 'Oldroyd Lincoln
Memorial Collection' "?
NOTES TO CHAPTER III
NOTE I. (pp. 59, 198)
In the New Yorh Sun of April 16, 1905, appeared a statement of
"Corporal" James Tanner who at the time of the assassination was a
clerk in the Ordinance Bureau and, having a knowledge of shorthand,
employed his evenings in taking down dictation from the reporters of
the Senate. Boarding in the house next to the Peterson house on the
north, he was in the death chamber when the President passed away.
At the hour the fatal shot was fired he was at Grover's theatre; and he
quotes from a letter, written to his mother the day after, the narrative
of what followed:
"Shortly after 10 o'clock, while in the midst of a scene, the entrance
door of Grover's was thrown open and a man shouted: 'President Lin
coln has been shot in his private box at Ford 's ! Turn out ! ' Instantly
all was confusion. I cried out: 'It is a ruse of the pickpockets! Sit
down ! ' Most of the audience agreed to this and took their seats. The
son of one of the actors, who had recited a patriotic poem on the stage,
came from behind the scenes and announced that the terrible news was
too true, and the audience dispersed. My friend and myself went up to
Willard's to learn what we could. We were still more horror stricken
on coming from the theatre to hear it said that Secretary Seward had
had his throat cut in his bed at home. We could learn nothing at Wil
lard's hotel, we got on the cars and went down to Tenth Street and
came up to my boarding house. The President had been removed from
his box at the theatre to a house across the street which adjoins this.
The crowd was very great, and yet what excitement there was! Any

272 APPENDIX
one whispering a word in justification of the deed in the least degree
¦would have been torn to pieces in a moment."
He continues:
"On my statement to the officer in command of the guard that I
lived in the house next door, I was passed through the lines and went up
to my rooms. The parlor and bedroom I occupied comprised the second
story front. There was a, balcony there, and I found my rooms and
the balcony crowded with the other residents of the house. Albert
Daggett, the late postal card contractor, was at the time a clerk in the
State Department and boarded in the same house. Daggett was out
on the balcony when Gen. C. C. Augur came out of the Peterson house
and asked if there was any one present who could write shorthand.
Daggett told him there was a young man inside (meaning myself), who
could do it, and Gen. Augur told him to ask me to come down, as they
wanted me. I came down at once and entered the Peterson house.
"Gen. Augur conducted me into the rear parlor, where I found
Secretary Stanton, sitting on one side of the small library table and
Chief Justice Carter of the Supreme Court of the District at the end.
They had started in to take what testimony they could regarding the
assassination, having some one write it out in longhand. This had
proved unsatisfactory. I took a seat opposite the Secretary and com
menced to take down the testimony. Somewhere, stowed away in my
boxes, I have the original shorthand notes which I made on that table,
and the longhand copy which I wrote out before leaving the Peterson
house. We had Harry Hawk, who had been on the stage; Laura Keene
and various others before us. No one said positively that the assassin
was John Wilkes Booth, but all thought it was he. It was evident that
the horror of the crime held them back. They seemed to hate to think
that one they had known at all could be guilty of such an awful crime.
Many distinguished people came in during the night. Our work was
often interrupted by reports coming in to Secretary Stanton and more
often interrupted by him when he halted the testimony to give orders.
Through all that awful night Stanton was the one man of steel.
"I finished transcribing my notes at 6:45 a.m. and then passed back
to the room in the L where the President was dying."
Compare with Nicolay and Hay, "Life of Lincoln," in Century for
January, 1890.

APPENDIX 273
NOTE II. (p. 62)
Even on a matter so insusceptible, one would think, of mistake aa
the course of the ball, there is discrepancy in the testimony.
The only witness concerning the autopsy sworn on the Conspiracy
Trial was Eobert K. Stone, the family physician who reached ths
patient shortly after he was laid on the bed.
He testifies (Poore, I, 249; Pitman, 81):
"The next day, previous to the process of embalmment, with Dr.
Curtis and Dr. Woodward of the army and in the presence also of
Surgeon-General Barnes, the examination was made. We traced the
wound through the brain; and the ball was found in the anterior part of
the same side of the brain, the left side."
On the other hand, Barnes was the first witness on the Surratt Trial
and the only one as to proof of death. (S. T., 121-3.) He testified
that "the ball entered the skuU to the left of the middle line of the
head and below the line of the ear. It ranged forward and upward
toward the right eye, lodging within half an inch of that organ." The
post mortem was made by Dr. Woodward, his assistant, by his orders.
Dr. Stone was present. The ball "was found . . . behind the orbit of
the right eye and buried iu the brain." Baker (History of U. S. Sec
ret Service, 468) says "right eye." Oldroyd, 41, the same.
"Life of Lincoln" by Nicolay and Hay (in Century Magazine for
January, 1890), left eye.
If Ferguson in his testimony on the Conspiracy Trial is correct in hia
statement of the position of the President at the moment the shot was
fired, this shows that the course of the ball must have been diagonal
and that Barnes is correct. (See Poore, 190-1; S. T., 129. See Dr.
Abbott's minutes of last hours in Oldroyd, 32, and in Baker, 467. See
also statement of Maunsell B. Field, asst. sec. of state, in Baker, 468-
470.) I have seen it stated somewhere that the President was conseions at
moments after the shot, but I have lost the reference.
NOTE III. (pp. 65, 201)
ON MRS. SXJRBATT'S NON-RECOGNITION OF PAYNE
The version of the occurrences at Mrs. Surratt 's on the night of her
arrest and the coming of Payne embodied in the text, is taken from the
testimony of Eichard C. Morgan, the first witness sworn on the Con-

274 APPENDIX
epiraey Trial as to this branch of the case by the judge advocate. (See
Poore, II, 9.) Morgan was acting as chief clerk imder Colonel Olcot,
one of the members of the special commission sitting at General
Augur's headquarters, who instructed him to go to Mrs. Surratt 's and
superintend the seizing of papers and the arrest of the inmates. He
knows nothing of a confrontation of Payne and Mrs. Surratt; on the
contrary, he states that she was in Payne's presence only when passing
out of the door and "no conversation occurred." He also states that
Payne was interrogated after Mrs. S. had gone.
The confrontation and Mrs. S. 's solemn asseveration that she knew
not the man first appear in the testimony of Major Henry Warren
Smith on the same trial. (Poore II, 14.) He claimed to have been in
full charge of the party, classing Morgan as one of his subordinates.
According to his version, he, instead of Morgan, conducted the whole
business and, after interrogating Payne, called Mrs. Surratt from the
parlor and put the question to her to which she made so emphatic a
reply. The two versions are absolutely irreconcilable. If Morgan told the
truth, the incident, upon which great stress has been laid as showing
the complicity of Mrs. Surratt, never took place. It is true that Cap
tain Wermerskirch corroborates Smith, but, on the other hand, Miss
Fitzpatrick swears she neither heard nor saw anything of the kind;
while the other officers present, two of whom heard the remark made by
Mrs. Surratt in passing out which Morgan failed to catch, were not
Bworn. Smith was contending for first place in the capture with an eye to a
lion's share of the reward. A simple non-recognition, such as might
be deduced from Morgan's testimony, would have furnished but little
food for suspicion and on this account was not enough for the prosecu
tion. A solemn and impressive form must be given to the denial to
make it tell with deadly effect. And that Smith was just the man to
do it is apparent from his testimony on the Surratt Trial. There Mor
gan, notwithstanding he strives to reconcile his testimony as far as
possible to that of his competitor for public favor, is obliged to stick
substantially to his former version. But Smith is more dramatic than
ever — ^laying on the colors and deepening the shades, especially on the
points where he is most at war with his brother officer. On this trial,
also, the prosecution fails to produce the subordinates present whose
testimony might have placed the point in dispute beyond controversy.

APPENDIX 275
One thing is certain; so solemn a performance as that narrated by
Major Smith could not have been enacted in that lighted hall at that
midnight hour and have escaped the notice of Morgan; and Morgan, if
he witnessed it, had every motive to relate it and none to conceal it.
NOTE IV. (p. 80)
This missive was first brought to light in May, 1867, before the
impeachment committee. Holt, who produced the diary, said nothing
of it, nor Conger, who testified that the book was in his possession from
the time he took it from Booth's body until he delivered it to Stanton.
(Imp. Inv., 286, 324, 329-331.) Lieutenant Baker, however, testified
that, about ten days after the capture, having been sent by Stanton in
search of further information, he ascertained that Booth while at Lucas'
cabin wrote something on one of the leaves of his diary, tore the leaf
out, enclosed some money in it and sent it to Stewart in the morning;
whereupon Baker went to the doctor's and got the note — Mrs. Stewart
interposing to prevent the detective taking it and finally tearing off
the address. Baker brought the note to General Baker, who took it to
the War Department where the leaf on which it was written was com
pared with those in the diary and so found to have come from the
book. (Id., 484.)
Major Eckert produced the note from a package in the War Depart
ment and it read as given in the text; and he testified that the doctor
stated "that this paper came to his house sealed up." It was pinned
and bears the marks of the pin used in fastening it. The address waa
on the paper itself, and the money was rolled up in it (id. 676-7).
There was another version, still, in the diary itself, with a part of
the writing torn off and the sum sent stated to be five dollars — showing
that Booth wrote first a note purporting to enclose $5 ; and then, conclud
ing to reduce the amount to $2.50, wrote another which was sent, the
original being left in the book.
This latter was introduced on the Surratt Trial (p. 402), and may be
collated with the other. The most material variation, other than the
money statement, is that it has no signature, date or address.
Lieutenant Baker was sworn on that trial (320-1) but makes no
allusion to the note produced although it was mutilated as he describee.
NOTE V. (p. 91) ^""^
ON QUESTION : DID BOOTH KILL HIMSELF?
The exact truth concerning the particulars of the capture of Booth
and Herold cannot be ascertained because of the contradictory char-

276 APPENDIX
acter of the testimony of the principal witnesses — due to the fierce
strife waged over the immense reward offered by the government. Of
the persons present — at least thirty in number — we have the testimony
of but five— Everton J. Conger and Luther B. Baker, the two detectives
whom General La Fayette C. Paker, the planner of the expedition, put
in command; Edward P. Doherty, the captain of the squad of cavalry
detailed for the service; Boston Corbett, the first sergeant of the com
pany; and John W. Garrett, the son of the owner of the place where
the fugitives were brought to bay. Conger, Doherty and Corbett were
sworn before the military commission which met less than two weeks
after the capture; Doherty's testimony being directed by the judge
advocate principally to the surrender of 3erold, for which the captain
claimed the sole credit, and Corbett 's to the circumstances leading up
to the firing of his shot. Conger was the witness the prosecution relied
on for the particulars of the pursuit and capture; L. B. Baker, whose
deposition had been taken by Judge Holt immediately on his arrival
with the body on board of the monitor, though he was in attendance,
not being called.
In December, 1865, Conger and L. B. Baker made a verified joint
report to the Secretary of War, which was transmitted, with the report
of their chief, and is contained in the History of the United States
Secret Service published by the latter officer, at page 532. In it they
refer to statements taken by them from the fisherman, Eollins, from
the two young Garretts, and also the deposition of Baker taken by
Judge Holt — all on file in the War Office, but never published. Conger
and Baker gave testimony before the judiciary committee of the House
of Eepresentatives on the Impeachment Investigation of 1867, and on
the Surratt Trial occurring subsequently in the same year, but Doherty
and Corbett were sworn on neither proceeding. Garrett was sworn on
the Surratt Trial alone.
The feud over the distribution of the rewards had not transpired in
public at the date of the military commission, though unmistakable
traces of its existence were visible in the pointblank contradictions dis
figuring the evidence of Conger and Doherty — ^both witnesses strenu
ously contending for primacy in the expedition. But it burst forth in
full virulence before the commission appointed by the Secretary of War
to hear the claimants, consisting of Judge-advocate Holt and Adjutant-
general Townsend — a commission which, while it conceded that the
expedition "was originated, planned and generally directed by Col.
L. C. Baker," awarded that irate ofScer but $3,000; awarded Conger

APPENDIX 277
4,000; L. B. Baker, $4,000; and Doherty, $7,500." The war was then
carried before the committee on claims of the House of Eepresenta
tives, where in the spring of 1866 some startling disclosures were made.
Doherty, who claimed that he was in sole command of the party — the
two detectives, like his own men, being mere subordinates — was de
nounced on the floor by the chairman of the committee as having acted
as "a downright coward," hiding under a shed and shirking his duty
until he was ordered to the rear ; his men ' ' lying around under the
apple trees and elsewhere," all but six of them refusing to come within
thirty feet of the warehouse and sit upon rails placed at that distance
by Conger. Corbett, one of the six, the chairman stated was "an insane
man" who "'forsook his place," "thrust a pistol through a crack and
fired it without knowing where the ball was going," because, as he
himself said, "Providence directed him to do so." On the other hand,
nothing but good was shown or said of Conger. To him was com
mitted the execution of the plan, and to him and his lieutenant waa
"due the entire credit of capturing the criminal in the warehouse."
The chairman pronounced him to be "as brave and gallant a soldier aa
any who fought in our army." "He was shot twice through the hips
and was now dragging a withered limb." Another member spoke of
him as "really a noble, high-toned gentleman" — "the active man in
the whole affair." Sherman, in the Senate, pointed him out sitting ia
the gallery, "two wounds upon his body, pale and emaciated, not five
dollars in his pocket," "waiting for his pay." The committee gave
General Baker $17,500; Conger the same sum; L. B. Baker, $5,000;
Doherty $2,500. In the House the main fight was over the amount
awarded to the chief of the detective force; and the bill, as passed, to
his unutterable disgust, gave him but $3,750. Conger received $15,000;
Doherty, $5,250; L. B. Baker, $3,000; Corbett and the other cavalrymen
$1,653.48 each. (Act approved July 28th, 1866. App. of Globe, 1st
Sess., 39th Cong., p. 423. Debate, Globe id., 4183-90-1.)
Conger and Baker were the main vritnesses on this branch of the case
on the Impeachment Investigation and the Surratt Trial — the former
was conceded the primacy in the pursuit, the latter dividing it with him
in the capture; Garrett, as far as his testimony went, corroborating
Baker. Indeed the last-mentioned officer, if we except his cousin, the
general, who took no active part in the execution of the plan he con
ceived and, therefore, in this instance had no opportunity to exhibit his
unrivaled powers when under oath — was the most ill-used witness in the

278 APPENDIX
whole proceeding. He undoubtedly — ^his colleague yielding the palm
to him — took the lead from the moment the warehouse was surrounded;
parleying with Booth and conducting every movement except the plac
ing of the men and the setting fire to the barn. If we except Corbett,
he was the sole witness to Booth's fall. He was the first to catch the
fallen man, to twist the pistol out of his clenched hand and consequently
to discern whether the condition of the weapon corresponded with the
condition of the wound. He took charge of the body untU it was deliv
ered to his chief on board of the monitor, and he relates an incident as
occurring during this interval which, it must be confessed, strains his
credibility to the limit. He tells us that, starting ahead of the cavalcade,
alone in the wagon with the darkey driver, he got astray, and, after
traveling all day, struck the river three miles above the rendezvous and
had to conceal the corpse in the bushes, while (leaving the negro on
watch) he drove down the river until he found a boat in which he
rowed back and brought the body to the steamboat. Still, on the
whole, his two narratives give the most graphic, the clearest and the
most intelligent account of the expedition. For some reason he was
under the frown of the mighty Bureau of MUitary Justice. His depo
sition — ^the earliest of all — taken by Holt in the hold of the monitor,
when wanted before the committee on claims, could not be found. He
suspected that he was not called on the Conspiracy Trial because of
some "foul play" in favor of Conger and Doherty. His first impres
sion when Booth fell was that Conger shot him; his second, that if
Conger shot him "it better not be known." Conger's first impression
was that Booth shot himself — an impression confirmed by his examina
tion of the wound. His second may have been that, if Booth shot him
self, "it better not be known" and his colleague may have agreed with
him. If so, Corbett relieved them from the necessity of any further
deliberation, and neither was ever assured by competent authority that
their share of the reward would not be lessened if they discarded policy
and declared the truth.
As for Doherty, after he went home with his share of the spoU, we
have no record of him for twenty-four years, when, in the January num
ber of the Century Magazine for the year 1890, a paper appeared giving
an account of the pursuit and death of Booth, signed with his name, in
which he claims everything in sight. He it was who obtains from Eol
lins the information concerning the fugitives. He it was who arrests
Jett. He seizes old man Garrett. He parleys with Booth. He catches
the falling man when Corbett fires to disable him lest he shoot Doherty.

APPENDIX 279
He ministers to the captive when he revives. He sews up his body in
his own blanket, carries it and Herold to Washington and delivers both
on board the monitor — in each and every one of which particulars he
nms counter to the pointblank testimony of both Conger and Baker,
supported as they are by Garrett.
On the whole, a perusal of the testimony that has come down to us
gives a sickening sense of the unreliability of witnesses when striving
with each other for the biggest share of a large reward. Every one
appears unable to resist the temptation to magnify his own exploits at
the expense of those of his competitors. In the clouds of dust raised
by the ignoble contention, the truth is either obscured beyond recogni
tion or disappears altogether.
And, therefore, the authorities were all the more inexcusable for al
lowing the matter to rest in such exasperating dubiety.
The rumor of suicide was abroad. The truth of the matter could
have been established without difficulty. If Corbett fired the shot, some
of his comrades must have witnessed the act; in fact, he swears that
one of them was watching him at the moment. Whether he used a car
bine or a revolver, is left uncertain. He swears: "I took steady aim
on my arm"; which looks like a revolver; Doherty says a carbine. He
must have stood at least thirty feet from Booth when he fired.
The autopsy ought to have disclosed the size of the ball and whether
it came from a revolver or a carbine; and a proper inspection of the
weapons — the one Corbett said he used and the one Baker took from
the fallen man — ^would have settled the question.
Cf. testimony of Baker (L. B.) on Imp. Inv. and on Surratt Trial
with Conger's on C. T. See Buggies' narrative in January Century
(1890) and Doherty's in same magazine. Also Katy of Catoctin, 536.*
* Lieutenant Baker testified on the Impeachment Investigation (p. 489) that,
about two weeks after the death of Booth, the young Garretts came to Washington
with an application for damages, "which they wanted me to sign but I refused
until I got all the things belonging to Booth which they had." A week or ten
days after he went to Garrett's and one of the sons brought him "a piece of
Booth's crutch and a haversack." A little boy told him "that Booth gave the
opera glass to his sister, Joanna,'' and Baker told Joanna "she could do one of
two things — either produce the opera glass or come with" him "to Washington."
Old Garrett then said that the glass was about nine miles off with another
daughter of his; and Baker rode over and found it hid in a clothes-chest iu the
«ttic. He tells the same story on the Surratt Trial, 321-2.

280 APPENDIX
NOTES TO CHAPTER IV
NOTE L (p. 96)
An article in Blackwood's Magazine for April, 1869, entitled "The
Out-going and the Incoming President, ' ' shows the contemporary foreign
view: "The cruel murder of Mr. Lincoln excited so violent a rage against
the defeated South, whose chiefs and leaders were stupidily accused by
the War Secretary, Mr. Stanton, of having abetted and instigated it
. . . that he (Mr. Johnson) . . . without the slightest warrant accused
seven high-minded gentlemen, as innocent of murder as himself, of
xjomplicity in the foulest crime of the age."
NOTE IL (p. 104)
All the principal New York journals state that Mrs. Surratt waa
ironed about the ankles. The New York Times of the 15th of May,
1865, describing the scene at the opening of the court, on the Saturday
before, states as to Mrs. Surratt: "An iron bar ten inches long passes
from one ankle to another and ia attached to an iron band that encircles
each leg."
Poore, in his introduction to "The Conspiracy Trial," says: "All
the prisoners, including Mrs. Surratt, wore anklets connected by short
chains, which hamper their walk." General Hunter, as he waited to
say until November, 1873, reading in a morning paper the day after the
opening of the trial a report that Mrs. Surratt was heavily ironed, "im
mediately addressed" a note "to the officer in charge to learn if the
report was true" and "was assured it was false." But the news
paper statements, although virtually unanimous, called forth no public
denial until the fall of 1873. Then, after Holt attacked Andrew John
son concerning the rumor of the suppression of the petition in favor of
Mrs. Surratt, and was himself assailed for "keeping that feeble,
wretched woman heavily manacled during her trial," he appealed to
General Hartranft — then governor of Pennsylvania — ^who came for
ward to his rescue.
Hartranft 's denial, having been delayed so long, might not have
been conclusive, had not the editor of the Washington Chronicle ad
dressed a note to Frederick A. Aiken, one of the counsel of Mrs. Surratt,
who settled the question by the averment that she was at no time man
acled while in the presence of the court.

APPENDIX 281
See Holt's letter to the N. Y. Tribune dated September 9, 1873,
published in Daily Morning Chronicle of September 12, 1873, containing
Hartranft 's; Hunter's in Chronicle of November 9, 1873; Aiken's in
Chronicle of September 19. NOTE III. (p. 110)
General Harris (in 1892) published a book on the assassination of
Lincoln [Boston American Citizen Company] of 419 pages, in which he
plumes himself upon this attack ; representing the counsel, when he found
that the court ' ' could not be bluffed, ' ' as coming ' ' down from his high
horse." The general, at so late a day, is still thoroughly convinced of
the guilt of every one of the accused, Jefferson Davis included, of the
great conspiracy, not only but of aU "the atrocities not embraced in
the charge"; still clinging to Sanford Conover in the face of the con
fession of that criminal, his conviction and imprisonment in the Albany
penitentiary, nay, despite his denunciation by Judge Holt.
NOTE IV. (p. 115)
The case was reopened to introduce an advertisement from an
Alabama newspaper of December 1, 1864, offering for one million dol
lars to cause the lives of Lincoln, Seward and Johnson to be taken be
fore the first of March; the author of which was an old lawyer, without
a cent to his name, who got up the card as a joke in a moment of intox
ication. He was indicted but pardoned by President Johnson on the
petition of the Union officers and soldiers in the vicinity of his home,
the Free Masons of his district, and the governor and members of the
legislature of the reconstructed state. (Imp. Inv., 565-570.)
NOTE V. (p. 120)
The special detective, who first had Lloyd in charge, not being called
by the judge advocate, the counsel for Mrs. Surratt sought him out and
asked him whether the prisoner implicated Mrs. Surratt in his confes
sion. The officer told him she had not, and repeated his negation in the
court room just before he was called to the stand. What was the coun
sel's astonishment when he testified to the direct contrary! Being
called to account for his deception he justified it as follows: "It is a
part of my business — I am a detective officer — to gain my object I ob-

282 APPENDIX
tained the confession from Lloyd through strategy. . . . Undoubtedly
I told you a lie there, for I thought you had no business to ask me. . . .
I told you you might cdll me into court; and I state here that I did lie
to you; but when put on my oath I told the truth." (Testimony of
Cottingham, Poore, II, 215.) NOTE VI. (p. 123)
Wiechmann left this visitor unidentified on this trial; but, about a
month after, he had become convinced he was Booth (see his affidavit
in the Appendix to Pitman), and so testified on the Surratt Trial, on
which occasion a colored servant put Surratt in the dining room. (See
Chap. Vni on Surratt Trial.) NOTE VIL (p. 127)
Bingham's recapitulation of the incidents in front of the theatre
immediately preceding the tragedy inside, it is well to give, in view of
the phase they assumed on the Surratt Trial:
"Booth passes to the street in front of the theatre where on the
pavement with other conspirators yet unknown, among them one
described as a low-browed villain, he awaits the appointed moment.
Booth himself impatient enters the vestibule . . . and asks the time.
He is referred to the clock and returns. Presently, as the hour of ten
approached, one of his guilty associates called the time; again as the
appointed hour draws nigh, he calls the time; and finally when the
fatal moment arrives he repeats in a louder tone, 'Ten minutes past'
ten o'clock.' 'Ten minutes past ten o'clock.' "
This one-sided harangue appears to have been considered by the
Bureau as a model of forensic eloquence. The judge advocate appended
it to the "Brief Eeview" of the testimony submitted to the President
"because of the full and exhaustive examination of the questions of
law and fact to be found therein"; it was circulated by order of the
Secretary of War throughout every congressional district in the country
that the legal profession might be furnished with information necessary
to vindicate the action of the government; it was the subject of the
ecstatic eulogy of General Harris, who printed it in full in an appendix
to his work.

APPENDIX 283
NOTES TO CHAPTER V
NOTE I. (p. 132)
Gardiner in his History of England (Vol. I, 314) narrates a some
what similar incident occurring in the year 1606 in Scotland. King
James, through his commissioner and the lords of the council, forced a
conviction of treason against six ministers of the kirk from a jury al
ready packed for the purpose but which, under the spell of the address
of two of the accused in person, "inclined to brave all threats and to
acquit the prisoners."
"They not only tried what could be done by threatening the jury,
but they" (the lords of the council) "sent some of their number in"
(to the jury room) "to assure them that they would do no harm by con
victing them, as the King had no intention of pushing matters to
extremes, but only to have the credit of a verdict on his side in order
to bring about a pacification." NOTE II. (pp. 134, 137)
In the year 1894, while writing a little book on the execution of Mrs.
Surratt (now out of print) I went to the judge advocate general's
office in Washington and was permitted to make a copy of the record
of the findings and the sentences, which I did upon legal-cap paper of
the kind used by the draughtsman of the commission, paragraph by
paragraph, and sheet by sheet, making it as near as I could with pen
and ink a facsimile.
The following is a reproduction of the last half -sheet of the record
proper, containing the proceedings of the second day and showing the
awkward change made by Holt, in the mode of writing thitherto fol
lowed, when superscribing the death warrant:

284

APPENDIX
[This is first page of half -sheet]

[In Holt's
Hand]

CoTTET-EooM, Washington, D. C.
June 30th, 1865, 10 o'clock a.m.
The Commission met, with closed doors,
pursuant to adjournment.
All the members present; also the
Judge Advocate and the Assistant Judge
Advocates. The Commission do, therefore, sen
tence the said Samuel A. Mudd to be
imprisoned at hard labor for life, at
such place as the President shall direct.
The Commission thereupon adjourned
sine die.
J. Holt D. Hunter
Executive Mansion,
July 5, 1865.
The foregoing sentences in the cases
of David E. Herold, G. A. Atzerodt,
Lewis Payne, Michael O'Laughlin, Ed
ward Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Mary E.
Surratt and Samuel A. Mudd, are hereby
approved, and it is ordered that the sen
tences of said David E. Herold, G. A.
Atzerodt, Lewis Payne, Mary E. Surratt
be carried into execution by the proper
Military Authority, under the direction
of the Secretary of War, on the 7th

APPENDIX

285

[This is back page of half -sheet]

day of July 1865, between the hours of
10 o'clock A. M. and 2 o'clock P. M. of
that day.
It is further ordered, that the prison
ers Samuel Arnold, Samuel A. Mudd,
Edward Spangler and Michael O'Laugh
lin be confined at hard labor in the
Penitentiary at Albany, New York, dur
ing the period designated in their respec
tive sentences. Andrew Johnson, President.

[In Holt's
Hand]

[In Johnson's
Hand]

[On a separate half -sheet follows the petition as given in the text]

286 APPENDIX
NOTE III. (pp. 136-7, 249)
In a paper read to Loyal Legion, April, 1889 (printed in appendix
to Harris' Assa^ination) , General Burnett says:
' ' Judge Holt came directly to Mr. Stanton 's office in the War Depart
ment. I happened to be with Mr. Stanton as Judge Holt came iu.
After greetings, the latter remarked, 'I have just come from a confer
ence with the President over the proceedings of the military commission. '
'Well,' said Mr. Stanton, 'what has he done?' 'He has approved the
findings and sentence of the court,' replied Judge Holt. 'What did he
say about the recommendation of mercy of Mrs. Surratt ? ' next inquired
Mr. Stanton. 'He said,' answered Judge Holt, 'that she must be pun
ished with the rest; that no reasons were given for his interposition by
those asking for clemency, in her case, except age and sex. He said her
sex furnished no good ground for his interfering; that women and
men should learn that if women committed crimes they would be pun
ished; that if they entered into conspiracies to assassinate they must
suffer the penalty; that were this not so, hereafter conspirators and
assassins would use women as their instruments; it would be mercy to
womankind to let Mrs. Surratt suffer the penalty of her crime.' After
making known to Mr. Stanton that the President had fixed Friday the
7th as the day of execution, Judge Holt left."
Burnett adds that he does not give the exact words but the substance,
which of course is all he could do after the lapse of twenty-four years.
Ekin recalls that Holt told him the President, said in substance (see
his letter to Holt in Refutation) :
' ' There was no class in the South more violent in the expression and
practice of treasonable sentiments than the rebel women; that he, by
hia residence in that section of the country, had been enabled better to
judge of and appreciate and . . . was better informed as to the dis
loyalty of such women than the members of the commission could be,
and that he . . . considered that the interests of the country demanded
that an example should be made," etc.
(Compare versions given by Harlan and by A. J. himself of what
was said on this subject.) NOTE rV. (p. 139)
See Harlan's letter iu Holt's Vindication. Harlan does not specify
which of the "two eminent statesmen" — Seward or Stanton — ^was the

APPENDIX 287
author of this memorable utterance; and Burnett in his paper referred
to above infers from the language that it was Seward. But in all
probability, notwithstanding Harlan's recollection, Seward was not
present and it is certain that if present he would have shrunk from tak
ing so prominent a part. At this date the victim of Payne had not
recovered from his wounds, and according to Speed (Imp. Inv.,
806) he was sick in July. His wife died on the twenty-first of June
and his son Frederick was still in a dangerous condition. He himself
subsequently testified: "Having been a sufferer in that business, the
subject would be a delicate one for me to pursue without seeming to be
overzealous or demonstrative." (Imp. Inv., 380.) Besides, such a
deliverance was altogether alien to the easy-going disposition of Seward,
while it was eminently characteristic of Stanton and moreover in direct
furtherance of his purpose.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VI
NOTE I. (p. 143)
A judge in Baltimore during the progress of the trial charged the
grand jury that "persons exercising such unlawful jurisdiction are
liable to indictment"; and so eminent a jurist sis the late Eufus W.
Peckham told a grand jury in New York City that "grave doubts, to
say the least, exist in the minds of intelligent men, as to the constitu
tional right of the Military Commission at Washington to sit in judg
ment upon the prisoners now on trial. . . . Thoughtful men feel ag
grieved that such a commission should be established in this free coun
try, when the war is over, and when the common law courts are open
and accessible." (Argument of Eeverdy Johnson, Pitman, 262.)
NOTE IL (p. 160)
Chase was appointed chief justice December, 1864, and took his seat
on the thirteenth. (2 Wall. U. S. Mem. ad finem.) Yet he refused to
hold court in the late capital of the Confederacy until every vestige of
martial law was cleared from the soil of Virginia; thereby laying down
the true distinction between the case of a loyal district and the case of
a subjugated state. (See his testimony in Imp. Inv,, 544.)

288 APPENDIX
NOTE TO CHAPTER VII
NOTE L (p. 173)
Holt's report to the Secretary of War on the case of Clay still relies
on this character of testimony; quoting with approbation Montgomery's
sworn statement that he had seen Payne in Toronto in the winter of
1865-6 talking with Clay (Pitman, 24), a statement absurdly false.
(See Belle of the Fifties by Mrs. Clay, 320-1.)
Holt had due notice beforehand of Conover 's character. See Belle
of the Fifties for letter of Eev. Stuart Eobinson of June, 1865.
Thaddeus Stevens related how Holt ' ' showed him the evidence upon
which the President's proclamation was issued." Whereupon "he re
fused to give the thing any support" and told that gentleman "the
evidence was insufficient in itself and incredible"; adding, "these are
no friends of mine. . . . But I know these men, sir. They are gentle
men and incapable of being assassins." (See note to Ehodes' Hist., V,
158.)
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII
NOTE I. (p. 199)
The footsteps he heard overhead while in the dining room after his
return from Surrattsville on Friday, were shown to have been the foot
steps of a caller on Anna Surratt who herself answered the bell; and
the ladies of the household noticed nothing unusual in the demeanor of
Mrs. Surratt on that evening and failed to hear her invoke the prayers
of her pious boarder. And the appointment for that evening that the
affidavit makes her so anxious to meet must have been forgotten, for
she started to go to churc^h with one of her lady boarders and had she
not been turned back by the inclemency of the weather she would not
have been in the parlor that night at all. (See S. T., 689.)
NOTE II. (p. 200)
For example, the scene in the parlor on the fatal Friday night when,
in his affidavit, he describes Mrs. Surratt, at the same hour that Booth
was about his bloody work, as "nervous and agitated," he now further
embellishes by adding that with prayer beads in her hand she kept
walking to and fro, and asking him ' ' to pray for her intentions. ' '
It was upon this trial that he let fall a small bit of testimony that
evidently he had not thought of at the Conspiracy Trial or when con-

APPENDIX 289
coeting his afSdavit, but which doubtless he foresaw would be a tempt
ing morsel to the reporters as it has been ever since to writers »n the
Bubject. He testified that in Booth's absence he "heard her call him 'Pet.' "
"I am positive she used the word 'Pet.' " (S. T., 400.) That word, in
all the mass of testimony taken on both trials (except his own on thia
trial) occurs but once; and that is in Conover 's testimony, taken in secret
in the Conspiracy Trial and not given to the public until after Wiech
mann had testified in that trial and after he made his affidavit.
Conover testified that in Canada "Booth went by the nickname of
'Pet'. I so heard him called by Mr. Thompson, I think; by Cleaiy I
am sure, and by others." (Pitman, 31.)
NOTE in. (p. 207)
The witness Dye, for the first time on this trial, testified that, going
to Camp Barry along H Street from the theatre after the assassination,
a lady opened a window and asked what was wrong downtown. He
replied that the President was shot; and, she asking who did it, he
told her it was Booth. Since the Conspiracy Trial he learned where
Mrs. Surratt lived and it then occurred to him that she resembled the
lady, whereupon he went and identified the house.
The defence produced a Mrs. Lambert, residing at 587 H Street, who
testified that she was the lady who had the colloquy with the soldier;
and she was corroborated by her husband. (S. T., 659-667.)
NOTE TV. (p. 210)
The register was filled up with names to the end of the year, the
name the prisoner went by being in its proper place in his ovra hand
writing. The prisoner had been in hiding in Canada from just after
the date of the entry until he went to Europe in September. These two
circumstances are sufficient to establish his presence at the time of the
entry for the purposes of the historian, notwithstanding the register
may not have been competent evidence under the rules of law. Be this
as it may, the cash book of the same date wherein "John Harrison"
was credited with the money he paid as a guest, had it been produced,
could not have been excluded and its admission would have ended the
case. The proprietor of the hotel who brought the register to Washington
did not bring the cash book, being imable to flnd it; but, on his return

290 APPENDIX
home (if Surratt is to be believed), he succeeded in unearthing it and
sent it to Mr. Bradley; an incident which may explain the reluctance of
the prosecution to face another trial.
(See testimony of William Failing, S. T., 761 et seq., and Surratt 's
KockviUe lecture, ut sup.) NOTE V. (p. 215)
The testimony on behalf of the United States closed on the flfth day
of July — having occupied sixteen working days; over eighty witnesses
being sworn, of whom but half were sworn on the Conspiracy Trial.
The testimony for the defence, opening on the eighth day of July,
closed on the twenty -second, having occupied twenty-nine working days;
over ninety witnesses being sworn.
Testimony in rebuttal closed on the twenty-fourth, sixty-four wit
nesses being sworn, the large majority on the character of witnesses
impeached by the defence and thirty more from day to day until the
close; the defence on surrebuttal swearing twenty-four and the testi
mony finally closing on the twenty-sixth.
NOTE VL (p. 216)
ON THE DISBARMENT OF BRADLET SENIOR
On the twenty-sixth of June the judge asking if there were any
other witnesses ready on the part of the United States, Bradley point
ing to the witness room said: "There are half a dozen out there in the
penitentiary," whereupon Merrick added: "Not in the penitentiary
now but they wiU be." The court said such side-bar remarks were not
proper. On the first of July, McMiUian being examined in chief, a
question by Merrick provoked the witness to refer to the counsel's
recent remark about the government witnesses as ' ' the act of a coward
and a sneak." The court reminded the witness that such language waa
unbecoming, and the counsel that he ought not "to worry witnesses into
a bad temper." The next morning Bradley, calling the attention of
the court to the language of the witness, insisted that it was due to its
dignity to take some adequate notice of the matter. The judge again
admonished the witness but coupled his rebuke with an intimation that
Merrick's remark included such respectable persons as General Grant
and Frederick Seward who were in the witness room; a construction
which Merrick disclaimed as unfair. There the affair rested for the
balance of the trial.

APPENDIX 291
Immediately after the jury was discharged. Judge Fisher directed
the entry of an order striking Bradley from the roU of attorneys prac
tising in his court; reciting that after the passage of words on the sec
ond of July, as the judge was descending from the bench, Bradley,
after charging him with a series of insults from the commencement of
the trial, threatened the judge with personal chastisement.
The case subsequently came up before the supreme court of the
district which made another order for his disbarment; and Bradley
obtained from the Supreme Court of the United States a mandamus
annulling the latter order on the ground that the court that made it had
no jurisdiction to punish for contempt committed in another court.
Bradley brought an action for damages against Fisher alleging that
his order was a malicious act founded on a fabricated statement of
facts; but he was nonsuited on the ground that judges were not liable
in damages for acts done in the discharge of their duties, provided the
court had jurisdiction.
(7 Wall. (U. S. Eep.) 364; 13 WaU. 335).
NOTES TO CHAPTER IX
NOTE L (p. 223)
The counsel added:
"You were going to show, too, that nobody prevented access to the
President on the part of those who wanted to get a pardon. Why
didn't you do it? . . . You remember that day, gentlemen. Twenty-
four hours for preparation. Priest, friend, philanthropist and clergymen
went to the Executive Mansion ... to implore for that poor woman
three days' respite to prepare to meet her God, but got no access. The
heart-broken child . . . stretched upon the steps that lead to the
Executive Chamber . . . raised her hands and prayed to any one that
came . . . 'Let me have access, that I may ask for but one day for my
poor mother — just one day!' Did she get there? No. And yet says
the counsel there was no one to prevent access being had. Why don't
you prove it? . . . How would I not have rejoiced in the fact. . . . Who
stood between her and the seat of mercy? Has conscience lashed the
chief of the Bureau of Military Justice? Does memory haunt the
Secretary of War? Or is it true that one who stood between her and
Executive clemency now sleeps in the dark waters of the Hudson, while
another died by his own violent hand in Kansas?"

292 APPENDIX
[Preston King committed suicide on November 12, 1865, by jumping
off' a ferryboat into the Hudson, with a bag of shot in each overcoat
pocket. "Jim" Lane cut his throat July 11, 1866; — these were the
keepers of the door to the executive office.]
NOTE IL (p. 234)
During the greater portion of the eight years since the hanging of
Mrs. Surratt, Bingham and Holt were living in the capital, standing
shoulder to shoulder during the contest over reconstruction and the
impeachment and trial of the President, and must have been cognizant
of the scene on the Surratt Trial when the record with the petition was
exposed to public view.
Bingham, who had drafted the paper in question, even before the
execution had taken pains to put himself in possession of the facts of
the case, and yet through all the vicissitudes of these eventful years,
he never so much as whispered them into the ears of the officer whom
they most concerned. As Holt says: "Every time this slanderous
rumor reached him . . . — which was doubtless often — his awakened
memory must have reminded him that he held in his keeping proof that
the rumor was false." That Bingham was gfuilty of such deliberate
cruelty and after so many years' insensibility to his friend's sufferings
should rush so eagerly to his relief, is hardly credible even on his own
confession. But the explanation he gives passes the bounds of belief.
Why should a statesman— occupying so independent a position — to the
condign injury of his professional brother "scrupulously observe" the
advice of Stanton which, as Holt exclaims, was "a sad, sad mockery"?
And why, if the death of that adviser did not release him from his bond
of silence, did the death of Seward, who gave no advice, loosen his
tongue? If (to employ the heated rhetoric of the judge-advocate),
"after the Secretary of War had, amid the world's funeral pomp, gone
down into his sepulchre, the truth came up out of the grave to which he
had consigned it," why was the resurrection delayed until the Secre
tary of State had joined his colleague in the underworld?
Furthermore, who can credit that Stanton uttered advice so fatuous
in itself and so injurious to his faithful subordinate? As Holt
pathetically remarks: "Committing my reputation to the arbitrament
of a tribunal from which the proofs of my innocence were to be carefully
excluded." "A deliberate and merciless sacrifice," indeed, as Holt
calls it. But what drove the master thus to nail his servant to the
cross? The servant lays it to "fear of Andrew Johnson's resentment

APPENDIX 293
added to a determination on his part to leave my reputation — then under
fire from his silence — ^to its fate." When the "advice" was given
Stanton could have had no grounds to "fear the resentment" of the
President for his uttering the truth; and, when afterwards he delib
erately challenged that resentment he acted as though it was the last
thing he feared; and it does not lie in the mouth of this most obsequi
ous of his minions to charge him with the cowardly baseness of betray
ing a follower whom he knew to be innocent to screen an enemy whom
he knew to be guilty. He probably thought that, if his own reputation
could stand the "silence," that of his co-worker in the dark might be
left to shift for itself. NOTE IIL (pp. 239, 252)
Speed's phenomenal reticence was fully exposed to the country x
year after his death.
In the July number of the North American Review for July, 1888, was
published a correspondence carried on between Holt and Speed in the
year 1883 — furnished to the magazine by Holt. Pursuant to promise.
Holt sent his friend his two pamphlets, the Vindication and the Refuta
tion of ten years before, with a request that Speed "carefully examine
the proofs arrayed" in their pages. In his letter Holt makes it clear
that the exaggerated estimate of the inviolability of cabinet proceed
ings exhibited by his correspondent to excuse his silence on the former
occasion, haa no application to a case like the one under discussion; and
puts to him squarely the alternative of at last doing justice to an officer
whom he knows to be innocent or of being an accomplice of an assassin
of character.
Speed, for six months, begs off on the pleas of the loss of his spec
tacles, of bereavement, of press of business, and then replies: "After
very matru-e and deliberate consideration, I have come to the conclusion
that I cannot say more than I have said."
Holt apparently was driven frantic by such treatment. "Tour for
bearance towards Andrew Johnson, of whose dishonorable conduct you
have been so well advised, is a great mystery to me. With the stench
of his baseness in your nostrils you have been all tenderness for him,
while for me, . . . you have been as implacable as fate."
It seems never to have occurred to the judge advocate that Speed in
fact had nothing to say in his favor, but, rather than confess ignorance

294 APPENDIX
on so critical a matter, took refuge in the irrelevant plea of cabinet
secrecy. Such a supposition would have dispelled the mystery he com
plains of.
Speed offered to write a letter "not to be used until after Holt's
death"; but Holt, vrith a perspicacity which he did not show in the
similar case of Bingham's information, replied "that a letter thus
strangely withheld from the public would not, when it appeared, be
credited. ' '
Speed states also that he offered to open his mouth if Johnson con
sented; but this Holt denies, pronouncing the statement an evidence of
his friend's failure of memory.
The "bait" that Speed would not take was clothed in the following
words: "I have learned that, although you gained the information while
a member of the Cabinet, it was not strictly in your capacity as such,
but that at the moment I laid before the President the record . . .
with the recommendation . . . , you chanced to be so situated as to be
assured by the evidence of your own senses that such petition or recom
mendation was by me presented to the President, and was the subject
of conversation between him and myself."
If this was true (and Speed does not deny it) why did not Speed
avail himself of the coincidence? And how was it that Holt did not
know it at the date of his first appeal to the ex-attorney general?
NOTE rV. (p. 253)
Colonel Burnett in his paper read before the Loyal Legion, April 3,
1889, says: "And now for the motive. . . . The presidential bee was
buzzing under the accidental presidential hat. . . . Somebody whispered
loud enough for Mr. Johnson to hear — perhaps the bee buzzed it — that
if the Southern States could be reconstructed previous to the presiden
tial convention of 1868 and he should be found friendly and faithful
to the South in that work, there were fifteen Southern States whose
electoral votes might be found solid for him as the Democratic nominee
and he would only need the votes of two or three Northern States in
addition to carry off the renomination. You know how the poison took
. . . how he fought the Congress with a bitterness and boldness unpar
alleled in history. . . . And now turning to Mrs. Surratt and her case.
Over her execution a great clamor was raised throughout the country
not only by those lately in rebellion, and those in the North who were

APPENDIX 295
in sympathy with that rebeUion, but almost universally by the Boman
Catholics. Mr. Johnson heard this clamor and 'his startled ambition
grew sore afraid' . . . His new friends and allies were calling upon
him with a loud voice to know why he had not heeded the appeal for
mercy. Here was a sufficient motive — the motive that changed the
whole nature of the man . . , spoiled the purpose of his life.

INDEX

A
Aiken, Frederick A., counsel for
Mrs. Surratt, she not in irons,
280 (app.).
Arnold, Samuel, in plot to capture,
12, 28, 33, 34, 35; letter of to
Booth, 36, 61, 94, 269 (app.);
letter of to author, 263 (app.) ;
arrested, 66; arraigned, 103;
charge against, 104-5; defence
of, 116; sentence of, 129; on
Dry Tortugas, 181; author of
"Lincoln Plot," 182; pardoned,
183 n. id.; death of, 264 (app.).
Ashley, rep. from Ohio, remark on
Pres. Johnson, 174-5.
Atlantic Monthly, The, anecdote
of the elder Booth in, 6.
Atzerodt, George A., in plot to
capture, 24, 28, 33, 35, 36 ; char
acter of, 25; part in assasina-
tion, 40-1, 44, 52-3, 59; arrested,
67; arraigned, 103; defence of,
116; confession of, 124; hung,
140. B
Baker, LaFayette C, appears, 73;
takes charge of pursuit of
Booth, 74; buries body, 87;
methods of, 98-9; characterized,
id.; in Canada for letters, 166;
barred from White House, goes
for letter of Johnson's, 169;
reward of, 276-7 (app.).
Baker, Luther Byron, Lieutenant
of expedition after Booth, 74
takes charge at Garrett's, 83
catches Booth as he falls, 84

conveys body to the monitor,
86; best witness, 278 (app.);
report of, 276.
Bingham, John A., special asst.
judge adv., 102, 93, 95; on
Eeverdy Johnson, 110; quoted,
112-3; argument of on C. T.,
125-7; drafts petition, 132-3;
argument of on jurisdiction,
146-150; encounter with Butler,
177; correspondence with Holt,
233-4. See note (app.), 292.
Black, Jeremiah S., argument of
in MUligan case, 157-9.
Booth, Edwin, 7, 9, 8, 14, 17.
Booth, John Wilkes, boyhood of,
6; on stage, 7; at scaffold of
John Brown, id.; in oil, 8; per
son and character, 10; devises
plot to capture, 11; prepara
tions, 12, 13, 15; meets Dr.
Mudd, 16; acts with brothers,
in New York, 17; deposits letter
with Clark, 18, 26; meets Sur
ratt, 19; meets Chester, 23; flrst
attempt, 26, 28; enlists Payne,
29-30; at theatre with P. and
S., 33-4; first meeting of band,
id. ; acts Pescara id. ; second at
tempt and failure, 35-6; with
Chester in N. Y., 39; hears
speech of Lincoln, 40; con
ceives design of assassination,
^; movements thereupon, 41,
42, 43, 44, 46; scene at the
theatre, 47; fires shot and flies,
48; at Navy Yard Bridge, 63;
at Surratt Tavern, 68; at Dr.
Mudd's, 69; in the short pines,

(297)

298

INDEX

76-7; writes diary, 78; crosses
Potomac, 79; writes note to Dr.
Stewart, 80; in barn at Gar
rett's, 81-3; last words and
death, 85-6; autopsy and burial,
87; did he shoot himself? 87-8,
275 (app.) n.
Booth, Jr., Junius Brutus, 7, 8, 14.
Booth, Sr., Junius Brutus, 1-6,
259 (app.).
Booth, Eichard, 2, 4.
Bradley, Joseph, counsel for Sur
ratt, 208; address to jury, 216;
disbarred, 215, 290 (app.).
Bureau of Military Justice, The,
preparations of for trial of
assassins, 92; blends the two
plots, 95 ; hand of in S. T., 213.
Burnett, Henry L., on Mil. Com.,
102; takes charge of record and
petition, 134; hears of Presi
dent's decision, 137; vouches for
report of trial, 223; paper of,
294 (app.).
Butler, Benjamin F., closes for
U. S., in MiUigan case, 159-161 ;
encounter with Bingham, 176-
180.
Butler, J. George, Eev., letter of
to Holt, 232.

Chase, Salmon P., C. J., minority
opinion of in MiUigan case,
164; refuses to hold court in
Va., 287 (app.).
Chester, Samuel K., 23, 28, 39.
Clampitt, John W., counsel for
Mrs. Surratt, 123, 141 n.
Clay, Jr., Clement C, 12, 101.
Conger, Everton J., heads expedi
tion to capture Booth, 75; ar
rests Jett, 83 ; sets fire to ware
house, 85; thinks Booth shot

himself, id.; takes articles from
Booth 's body to Wash., 86 ; state
ment on trial, 90; character as
witness, 275 et seq. (app.).
Conover, Sanford, chief expert
witness for Bureau, 93; case
reopened to hear, 124; testimony
of, 168; suborns witnesses, id.;
evidence proved false, 171; con
victed and sentenced, 173; testi
mony of against Pres. Johnson,
174; mem. of, 180-1.
Conspiracy Trial, The, theory of
prosecution, 93; opening of,
101-3 ; Charge and Specification,
104; animus of judges, 105;
character and class of testimony,
113; length of and number of
witnesses, 115.
Corbett, Boston, described, 88;
his story as given to Conger,
88; as given to Doherty, id.;
as given on C. T., 89; career,
id., 90; reviewed, 275 et seq.
(app.).
Cottingham,  , specimen wit
ness, 281-2 (app.).
Cox, Walter S., counsel for
O'Laughlin and Arnold, charac
terizes charge, 114; argument
of, 124. D
Davis, David, reads majority
opinion in Milligan case, 162-4.
Davis, Jefferson, 93, 101, 104, 115,
129, 165, 169, 170, 173, 174,
183 n.
Detectives, carnival of, 71-2.
Diary, Booth's, quoted, 78; cited
by Butler, 178.
Doherty, Edward P., commands
cavalry detachment, 74; takes
charge of Herold, 85; character

INDEX

299

as witness and article of in
Century, 275 (app.).
Dye, S. M., Sergeant, on C. T.,
and S. T., 202, 206.
E
Ewing, Jr., Thomas, Gen., counsel
for Spangler and Mudd, 105,
112-3; argument of against
jurisdiction, 123; argument of
for S. and M., 124.
Ekin, James A., Gen., 102, 111;
copies petition, 133; letter of
to Holt, 230.

FarweU, Leonard J., 53-4.
Field, David Dudley, argument of
for MiUigan, 155-6.
Fisher, George P., judge on S. T.,
192; ruling of, 210; charge of,
217-8.

Gardiner's Hist, of Eng., cited,
283 (app.).
Garfield, James A., argument of
for Milligan, 156-7.
Grant, U. S., Gen., order of stop
ping exchange of prisoners,
10-1; to go with President to
theatre, 41; on Penn. Ave., 43;
opinion of on Stanton, 56.

Harlan, James, 139; letter of to
Holt, 235, 239, 286 (app.).
Harris, T. M., Gen., on Mil. Com.,
102; attacks Eeverdy Johnson,
106-9; book of, 281 (app.).
Hartranft, J. F., Gen., 102;
denies that Mrs. S. was ironed,
280 (app.).
Hawk, Harry, 47, 49.

Herold, David E., character of,
24-5; drives out with carbines,
35; conceals weapons in Kirk
wood, 41; attends Payne, 46;
on fatal night, 52; identified,
59; at Navy Yard Bridge, 63;
at Surratt Tavern, 68; at
Mudd's, 69; in short pines, 77;
surrenders, 84; arraigned, 103;
no defence, 115; hung, 140.
Holahan, John, 61, 63, 207.
Holt, Joseph, 02, 93, 112; takes
record to President, 134; con
fidential interview, 134 et seq.
his "Brief Eeview," 135
writes out death warrant, 137
at White House, 138; on the
"Sons of Liberty," 153; after
letters of Davis, 166; on Con
over, 168, 172, 174; vouches
for report of C. T., 223; letter
of his chief clerk, 225, 231
brings record to court on S. T,
228; obtains letter from Gen.
Ekin, 230; from Eev. Butler,
232; correspondence with Bing
ham, 233; with Speed, Harlan
and Mussey, 235; "Vindica
tion" of, 236-9, 242; "Eefuta-
tion" of, 246, 251; after Speed
again, 251-2, 292 (app.) ; mo
tives of Johnson, 252; head
and front of offence of, 254.
Howe, Alvin P., Gen., 102; attack
of on witness, 110-1.
Hunter, David, Gen., 102; remark
of to Eeverdy Johnson, 109;
see 280 (app.).

Johnson, Andrew, on night of
assassination, 53-4; at death
bed of Lincoln, 54; ill at close
of MU. Com., 134; confidential

300

INDEX

interview with Holt, 134-7;
sends for record, 225; petition
not there, 230; answer to Holt,
240-5; returns to Senate, 251.
Johnson, Edward, Gen., witness
assailed by Howe, 110-1.
Johnson, Eeverdy, counsel for
Mrs. 8., 106; assailed by court,
106-110; argument of against
jurisdiction, 123, 143-4.
Jones, Thomas A., 76-9.

Keene, Laura, on stage, 45, 47, 49.
King, Preston, 134-5, 138.

Lane, James, 138.
Lee, Edwin G., Gen., sent Surratt
to Elmira, 184; on S. T., 208.
Letters — of Booth deposited with
Clark, quoted 18; in fuU, 265-8
(app.); of "Sam" to Booth,
94; in fuU, 269-70 (app.).
Lincoln, Abraham, leaves for the
front, 26; returns and makes
speech, 39-40; enters theatre,
46; last look of, 47; shot, 48;
carried out of theatre, 50; au
topsy, funeral, journey home, 62.
Lloyd, John M., tenant of Surratt
tavern, 20; denies knowledge
of Booth and Herold, 63-4; con
fesses under pressure, 68; vrit-
ness against Mrs. S., 118, 119,
120-1; on S. T., 198.
Loan, rep. from Missouri, 174.
M
Maddox, J. L., 47, 48.
Mason, Victor Louis, paper of in
Century (AprU 1896), 259
(app.).

Matthews, John, 27; takes letter
from Booth, 43; on stage, 47;
hears shot, 49; on S. T., 206.
McMillan, Lewis, betrays Surratt,
185, 186; on S. T., 205.
Merrick, Eichard T., counsel for
Surratt, 215; alludes to peti
tion, 223; address to jury of,
extract from, 291 (app.),
Merritt, James, 171.
Military Commission, The, ordered,
100; convened, 101; members
of, 102; secret session, 128;
record and petition, 129-133.
Milligan case, 153; argument of,
154-161; decision, 161-164.
Montgomery, Eichard, 213.
Mudd, Samuel T., introduced to
Booth, 16; mentioned, 17; in
troduces Booth to Surratt, 22;
sets Booth's leg, 69; arrested,
71; enters court room, 103; de
fence of, 116-7; at Dry Tortu
gas, 181-2; pardoned, 183 n.
Mussey, E. D., Gen., private see.
to Pres. Johnson, letter of to
Holt, 236. N
North American Eeview, The
(July 1888), correspondence of
Speed and Holt in, 293 (app.).

O'Laughlin, Michael, in plot to
capture, 12, 27, 28, 29, 33, 35,
36, 39, 61; on fatal night, 116;
enters court room, 103; defence
of, 116; sentence, 129; death,
18L
"Our American Cousin," point
in play of when shot fired, 47.

INDEX

301

Payne, Lewis, meets Booth, 29, 30 ;
meets Surratt, 31; examines
theatre box, 32; in plot to cap
ture, 33, 35, 36, 38; with Booth
before White House, 40; at
Herndon House, 44; assault on
Seward, 46-50; horse of found,
59; arrest of, 65; identifled, 66;
enters court room, 103; defence
of, 115; plea for, 124; himg de
claring Mrs. S. innocent, 140,
141.
Peckham, Eufus W., charge of
cited, 287 (app.).
Petition for Commutation given,
133; taken charge of by Bur
nett, 134; rumor of, 137-8; ap
pears on S. T., 223-4; lost
sight of, 229.
Pierrepont, Edwards, counsel for
U. S. on S. T., 192; remark
about B.'s diary, 193; change
of tactics, 210; how he brings
Surratt to Wash., 211-214;
sums up, 216; alludes to peti
tion, 223; produces it, 224; re
statement as to, 227.
Plot to capture, inception of, 10-
11; how treated by Confeder
ates, 13; progress of, 16-18, 26,
32-3, 33-6; identifled with plot
to kiH, 94-5; Macaulay and
Green cited, id. E
Rathbone, Major, 47-8-9.
Eecord of Mil. Com., described,
133-4; facsimile of part, 283-
4 (app.).
Rewards offered, for arrest of
Booth etc., 67; of Davis etc.,
100-1.

S
Sanders, George N., 13, 101.
Selby letter, The, 198, 261 et seq.
(app.).
Seward, WiUiam H., thrown from
carriage, 44; assaulted, id.;
theory of as to trial of Davis,
173-4; death of, 233; see 286
(app.).
Spangler, Edward, scene shifter at
Ford's, 19, 46, 47, 66; enters
court room, 103; defence of,
116; sentence of, 130; on Dry
Tortugas, 181; pardoned, 181,
n. 183.
Stanton, Edwin M., 56, 57, 58, 59,
61, 67, 86, 87, 93, 94, 169, 188,
226, 232.
Speed, James, Atty. Gen., argu
ment of on jurisdiction of MU.
Com., 150-2; opens argument in
MUligan case, 154-5; goes to
Canada to buy Cleary, 169; let
ter of to Holt, 235, 238; cor
respondence with, 293 (app.).
Star (Evening) Wash., The, article
in, 265 (app.).
Ste. Marie, Henry, betrays Surratt,
187; statements of, 188; on
S. T., 205-6; reward paid,
id., n.
Stevens, Thaddeus, remark on
compUcity of Confederates, 288
(app.).
Stewart, Eichard, Dr., note to
from Booth, 80.
Sun, N. Y., The, Tanner's state
ment in, 271 (app.).
Surratt, Anna E., 19, 65, 66, 138-9,
216.
Surratt, Isaac, 19.
Surratt, Jr., John H., 19-21; first
meets Booth, 22; joins him, 24;
enlists Herold and Atzerodt, id.;

302

INDEX

goes to Port Tobacco in search
of boats, 26; in N. Y., 28; at
L. 's second inauguration, 31 ;
examines private box, 32; at
first meeting of band, 35; goes
with Atzerodt to overtake Her
old, 36; conceals carbines, id.;
leaves for Eichmond, id.; re
turns en route for Montreal, 96;
treatment of his case, 96-7; case
against him on C. T., 121-2; as
stated by Bingham, 122-3; at
Elmira on night of assassina
tion, 184; sends telegram to
Booth, thence to Canandaigua,
to Montreal, 185; crosses ocean,
in London, Paris and Eome,
186; enlists in Papal Zouaves,
betrayed and arrested, 187; es
capes, rearrested and brought
back, 189; opening of trial of,
193-6; witnesses to his presence
in Wash., 202-6; alibi of, 208-
210; at Brainard House, 184,
209; at Webster House, 209;
change of tactics of prosecu
tion, 210-5; disagreement of
jury, 218; discharged, 219; lec
tures at EockvUle, n. to p. 20.
Surratt, Sr., John H., 19.
Surratt, Mary E., 19; opens
boarding house at Wash., 20;
applies for leave of absence for
John, 26; with Wiechmann to
Surrattsville, 42; house of
searched, 61; arrested, 64; con
fronted with Payne, 65, 273-5
(app.); enters court room, 103;
not ironed, 280 (app.) ; defence
of, 117, 118-9, 120-1 ; her case in

secret session, 130-2; petition
for, 133; suppUants for pardon
of, 138; daughter of there, 139;
discussion of by Cabinet, id.;
execution of, 140-1; Butler on,
in House, 179; evidence against
her on S. T., 198-200; not the
lady at the window, 289 (app.),
n. 111.
Taft, Dr., Charles, letter of to
Oldroyd, 49.
Tanner, James, statement of in
N. Y. Sun, 271 (app.).
Thompson, Jacob, 12, 101.
Trial of Conspirators (official),
by Benn Pitman, contents of,
221-2 ; vouched for by Holt and
Burnett, id. W
WaUace, Lew, Gen., 102, 109, 112.
Webster House, register of, 209;
excluded, 210; cash-book of,
289 (app.).
Wiechmann, Louis J., at college
with Surratt, 20; teaches at
Wash., 21; gov't clerk, id.; vis
its Surratt, id.; boarder at Mrs.
S. 's, id.; meets Booth, 22; At
zerodt, 28; Payne, 31, 33; men
tioned, 35, 42, 63-4, 97, 98; tes
timony against Mrs. S. on C. T.,
118-9; on S. T., 198-9; his post
mortem affidavit, 199; see notes
I, II in (app.), 288; borrows
the word ' ' Pet, ' ' from Conover,
289 (app.).
Withers, William, orchestra-leader
at Ford's, 48.

The Impeachment and Trial of
Andrew Johnson
By DAVID MILLER DEWITT cio.h, svo $3jw net
' By mail, $3.20
"In addition to the official sources of information the author has had
the assistance of a series of scrap books compiled by Col. William Moore,
one of the private secretaries of President Johnson, from documents,
periodicals and newspapers of the day. But while these are not generally
accessible and contain information that isa decided aid in enlivening the
pages, the main facts are sufficiently set forth in the references to official
publications and accessible material whereby the history can be verified
at every critical point." — Baltimore Sun.
"Mr. DeWitt tells the story of the long fight between the legislature
and the executive, culminating in the impeachment, the trial, and the ac
quittal of the President, in a style that is forcible, and often dramatic. He
dwells with strong emphasis upon the entire disregard of legal rights and
constitutional limitations shown by the enemies of the President. The
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Andrew Johnson in the spring of 1868 is indeed a unique chapter in the
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is the most interesting, exciting, and important episode in the history of
the United States. Mr. David M. DeWitt's "Impeachment and Trial of
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to be published by The Macmillan Company, will illustrate many facts re
lating to this period that have never before been clear to a large number
of people. The introduction carefully and fully reviews the events of the
first two years of President Johnson's administration which have any
bearing upon the coming impeachment." — Chicago Tribune.
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