Des Arc weekly citizen., 1867-10-05
The Fearless Advocate.

We have read with intense pleasure,
 says the Memphis Appeal, the splendid
 argument to the jury in the case of
 John II. Surratt, of Mir. Merrick, one
 of the prisoners counsel. The trial
 had continued more than fifty days,
 and is most memorable for many things
 for the contrast it presents with that
 hideous mockery of justice, ending in
 murder, the trial of Mrs. Surratt be- fore Military Commission; for the
 frightful amout of perjury on the part of the witnesses for the Government for the complete exposure of that per- jury for the eager anxiety to convict, by any means whatever; for the lean ing of the court against the prisoner for the extraordinary propositions of law of the prosecuting council; and for the fidelity and courage of the counsel for the defence. The great length of Mir. Merrick's speech pre- cludes it's publication by us; but we cannot resist the temptation to make the following extract, the words of which must have scorched like molten lead the consciences of some who heard them, and others who will have read them
 During our civil war, when this land swarncd with petty emissaries of political and private malice, every pet ty scoundrel in every district had his spy at every table. have learned to contemn them. If had the power l would take every informer in the Uni tod States, unite them as one man, and swing them as high as Haman. Spies and detectives! The habits ofimperial and kingly government have come to be the common daily food of American society. Seriously, gentlemen, not one of you during the last three years of the war could move without it being reported to some official and they yet swarm in the land t,.ey suck the blood of the government; they have depleted it's treasury. Even to-day, now in the time of peace, these political emissaries are fed at the public board; while honest industry blcods and grows thin that they may grow fat and rich. The system is infamous; the tools arc more infamous than the system.
 
 Feeling themselves grow weak in testimony they fall back-upon whom gentlemen of the jury? Upon Mir (iieaynr- ' n,usf cnnf.as was uarv much surprised when l saw Cleaver come upon the stand and reeollected the denunciations heard thundered against him by the district attorney, md recollected the fact, which came put in evidence, that only few weeks since, for a crime without name, Il verdict was brought in against that man and he was sentenced. A new trial was granted on technical grounds and he stands for trial in this court now. say crime without name. 1t is a ,rime not without name in law; it is , crime that cannot be named in this presence. Murder; not only murder but murder most foul and unnatural. And the spirit of the ungrown girl stands before the eternal throne as the accusing spirit of that accursed man. Why, gentlemen, has the United States government bowed itself to the low humiliation of using such an in as that? But that is not all of Mir. Cleaver. do not talk of him 10 you to get you to disbelicve him, for believe your indignation arose as you saw him on the stand. I talk of him IS part of that blessed chain. Not Cleaver alone, but Cleaver manipulated by Conover, and not Conover alone, but manipulated by Ashley, incarcera- ted in your jail with that most notori- ous felon Conovcr, whose name has passed into history, upon whose body yesterday grated the doors of the AL bany penitentiary, incarcerated with this man Conover the schooner, the de- wiser of all the perjury of the military passing through the seine of the office of the chief of the military bureau, Conover, the tutor of the man who sits there beside the counsel Richard Montgomery that Richard Montgomery who helped to give part of that infamous testimony that stains with dishonor the records of my na- tive country. Conover. the vile, the tool of Ashly, scarcely better. This man, manipulated by Conover. brought out by Ashly, dug up from the purlieus of the jai's infamous depths, is put on that stand to ask you to take his oath against the life of that poor boy. Oh ! gentlemen, gentlemen, thank God, all though counsel may forget sometimes which is due to a jury, jury such as this cannot forget what is due to theni- selves as men. Spurn it, gentlemen, indignantly; not only disbelieve, but spurn it.
 Who of you is there that was in the city of Washington, who will ever for get that fatal day when the tolling of the bells reminded you of the sad fact that the hour had come when those people were to be hung? Your honor referring to Justice Wylic who was at the time sitting by the side of Jud>So Fisher on the benchl and in your praise be it said, raised your judicial hand to prevent that murder, but it was too weak. The storm beat against your arm. and it fell powerless in the tempest. You remember that day, Twcnfv-fnur hnnrs fnr