Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1865-07-12
Fate of the Assessing,

: ces OF the, Military Commission, which
the President approved on the 5th, David
f. Harold, Lewis Payne, Mrs. Surratt
and George A. -Atzerott were hung in the
/ yard Of the penitentiary at Washington
: on Friday last.
Gen. Hancock ~as ordered to take
charge Of the execution.
: hi Mrs, Surratt and Payne, appeared to
fully realize their terrible con.
dition. aud conducted themselves in a
manner beftting their position; Atzerot t
, seemed more susceptible and raved wild
! II, while Harold was stoically indiffer-
ent. All we're attended by clergy, and
: the cross was held to Mrs Surratt Just
; before the drop fell Payne was strangl-
ed, but the necks Of tie other three were
broken. As soon as the execution was
over the prison yard was cleared Of spec
tators, and the bodies of the criminals
were placed in coffins and buried in
graves dug near the scafold. The ex-
ecutioners were four soldiers and an off
Ger. ..-rt . -..
! DR.. Mudd, Arnold and O'LaugLlin are
to be imprisoned for life, and Spangler
for six years-all at hard labor in the
| 4 ltany peni!entiary.
L. loa,, IL ,,,,. -,
The case of these assassins, and we hope
the speedy justice meted out to them will
prevent repetition of such transactions
in the future, They have had a long
and fair trial, with the benefit of the
ablest counsel to be secured. They have
been fully convicted, and cannot complain
: Of the sentence Thus ends the fearful
tragedy, and the country will feel salts
fed. ..
The copperAead friends of Mrs Sur
ratt made desperate effort to have her
execution postponed by suing out vri;
of hsbeas corpus but the President
promptly suspended it. -.t..-
The ground upon which the govern
ment has acted ir this case is that the
certainty of justice is its most valuable
feature. These criminals deserved their
fate. They had been legally tried, con-
victed and sentenced, and in order to
show that such deeds could not be plotted
with impunity, it was essential that the
persons condemned; to death should be
promptly executed, as they have been
Had the execution been postponed
through any cause whatever, the effect
upon the public mind would have been
most unfortunate, for the evidence
against the accused was truly overwhel-
ming, and their guilt 50 clear ana un-
blushing, that their defences appeared
paltry and foolish. f.r... .... ..t
i In Mrs. Surratt's case her guilt must
be conceded to have been really far great
cr than that Of her associates, as she was
woman of mature years ard experience,
carefully educated, possessing property
aid respectable name, while Atzerott
and Payne were beggarly outcasts, and
Harold a mere youth. Her house was
the headquarters of the conspirators.. and
she was in all their arraugeme nts, and
was proven to have made in person some
of the lates. Of them She must be re-
garded as type Of large class Of south
ern women whose devilish malignity has
escaped punishment throughout tho war.
notwithstanding that they have done
more than most of the southern men to
| feed the flames of rebellion. She has
now gone to her final account, and We
may SO pass over her record, merely OBJ
serving that any effort to represent her
as martyr TO military injustice origin
ates solely in copperhead bigotIy.
! AS we never sympathized with the
howl raised against General Butler on ac
count of his efforts to repress the mallg
nifty and determined rebellion of the Sc
I. cesh women in New Orleans, so now We
entertain no mawkish sympathy for Mrs.
/ Surratt. and only regret that the justice
so s.ernly indicated in her case had not
been previously meted out to wretches
like the rebel spy Belle Boyd, and others
whom We might name. Treason in pet
ticoats hourished bravely during the
whole of the war, and impunity allowed
it caused large amount of our trouble
1t found an appropriate climax in the
rebel chiefs disguise in Georgia, which
all the rebel organs in the north are now
ibusily engaged In attempting to argue out
1 Of existence. If " a s1 81
John II. Surratt, wherever he may be,
! ..o,- b,,. 30 L. ho.o,,, IL,