The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-12

Government and its famous Military Commits
SION The prisoner had not, therefore, the
ordinary chances OF a person on trial for his
life. His acquittal would have been a CON
demnation of the Government. If this pri-
soner could be convicted by an ordinary
court of justice, the impression meant TO be-
given to the country was that the Military
Commission, though perhaps Irregular had
not violated substantial justice, since the re-
suit was precisely similar to what took place
in an ordinary tribunal, in case almost iden-
tical, and resting ON much of the same evil
dence. The paramount object of this trial was
the eXculpatiOn of the Government; the life
of the prisoner was deemed necessary to the
attainment of that object. A weak individual
thus struggling for his life against
powerful Government bent on taking it as
a means of rescuing itself from odium and
iniamy, was placed at a disadvantage never
before encountered by a prisoner in this
country in court of justice. In the trial of
Burr the administration of Mr. Jefferson no
doubt wished his conviction, but the Judge
was the political and personal enemy Of the
President, and his rulings were in favor of the
prisoner. But Judge Fisher is a Republican,
appointed by Mr.. Lincoln. His rulings have
been, throughout, most garingly against the
prisoner. The leading counsel for the prose-
tion, selected for his ability, and brought on
from New York, is gentleman who has been
for years the closest and most intimate friend
of Secretary Stanton, the most deeply con-
cerned in the eXculpatiOn of the Military Com
mission. Such a selection may not have
been indecorous; but it at least disclosed the
great stake Mr.. Stanton felt he had in the
condemnation of the prisoner, and the cOnse-
quent vindication of his illegal Military Com
mission. Mr. Stanton has not forgotten the
arts of manipulating the telegraph which he
practised during the war. Before the trial
commenced it was announced from Washing
ton that Judge Pierrepont would not consent
to conduct the case for the Government until
he became convinced, by examination of the
evidence, that the prisoner was undoubtedly
guilty. This was trick for causing the testi-
mOny to be read with jaundiced eyes; trick
for procuring conviction in the public mind
in advance of the trial. There was much
similar trickery in the Court, calculated to i'm
press the public with the idea that if the pri-
soner were not promptly condemned, it would
be the fault of the jury. The resort to such
devices proved, if not the consciousness of a
weak cause, then most certainly an excessive
and nervous solicitude.
After all, the trial has failed to accomplish
its object Instead of proving that military
tribunal is as safe a tribunal for persons
accused as a jury, it proves the reverse. Here
was substantially the same case, most of the
same witnesses, subs antially the same evil
dence, at least equal energy and ability on
the part Ol Jue prosecution, ana III one case
the prisoners were promptly convicted, while
in the other the jury seems likely to dis
agree, and the prisoner to escape with his life.
1t is clear, therefore, that Mrs. Surratt and
the others had not the chances which the law
would have given them That being the case,
no matter whether they were innocent or
guilty, they were murdered, Any life taken
without warrant of law is murder. If Jerry
O'Blien had been strung up to a lamp-post by
the officer who first arrested him, he would
have met precisely the same fate that over
took him on Friday; but instead of an execu-
tion it would have been murder The
policeman would have been tried and hung
instead of the prisoner whom he had unlaw-
fully despatched.
A jury is better for the public safety than
summary executions by public officers, even
though a jury may sometimes acquit the guilty.
The reason is, that if officers are permitted to
kill those who they may think deserve it,
innocence has no safeguard 1t is less evil
for society to be endangered by the occasional
escape of a murderer than for suspected inno-
cence to be at the mercy of every officer of the
law. No great harm will result from the
escape of John Ii. Surratt, even if he is guilty;
but a precedent, like that of the Military
Commission, which enables the Government
to kill whomsoever it may choose to con-
slider guilty, puts the life of every person the
Government hates at the mercy of its arbi-
trary will.