Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-08-16
Conspiracy OF THE IMPEACHERS
AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.
ATTEMPT TO SUBORN WITNESSES To
CONVICT THE PRESIDENT OF
COMPLETELY WITH BOOTH TO
ASSASSINATE LINCOLN.
The Disclosures Of the Parties Whom
il was attempted to Suborn.
Report of the Acting Attorney
General.
ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE,
5th August, 1867.

Mr. PRESIDENT The application CT
Charles A. Durham having been referred
to this office, in the customary order of Elk
ecUt.ve business, for the examination and
advisory action Of the Attorney General, it
has become my duty, during the indisposi-
ton and absence of the distinguished in
cumbent of the Law Department, carefully
to consider the case. In respectfully de
Ginning as do, to offer at present any re-
commentator in the premises, beg to
submit for your consideration the reasons
which constrain me to reserve advice and
suspend Judgment until ] shall have been
further instructed by your Excellency.
Durham, the person applying Tor par
don, is the same who has become notorious
under the name Of Sanford COnover. He
was recently convicted of perjury in the
District of Columbia, and is, [ am inform
ed now incarcerated in accordance with
the sentence of the court His application
seems to be predicated, in part, upon a
supposed technical irregularity III the con-
stitution of the jury, and is supported main
" by the services ~hich he is alleged to
hare rendered the :ause of justice IN aid
ing The prosecuting counsel in the collec-
ton OF evidence, and otherwise, upon the
trial Of John IL. Surratt, for murder.
The papers upon which his application is
grounded, and by which it is sustained,
consist OF four, IN parcel, which, by en-
dorsement, appears to have reached the
Executive Office on Saturday, the 9th of
July, 1867 The first is dated the 22d July
and is written upon the ordinary note pa
per used by members Of the House of Rep
resentatives, with an engraved vignette
caution. The following is copy.
FoRTIETH CONGRESS-,
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,,
WASHINGTON, d. g., July ~ 1857.
GENTLEMEN: 1 suggest that a petition, some
thing like the enclosed, be prepared ana signed
by v0u for the pardon of Mr.. Durham. think
nc is clearly entitled to it, and hope you Will aid
him all You can.
Respectfully, j. M. ASHLEY.
Hon j. HoLT, Hon. A. G. RIDDLE.
It would seem, from an expression used
in this note, that q draught Of petition
was enclosed. It does not appear what pc
tition was thus designated.
The next paper is the following, from u
late Representative in Congress from Ohio,
row Il member of the Washington bar:
WASHINGTON, July %, 1867.
10 the President Of tie Uhaed States:
SIR: l was, early in April last retained to aid
the Government in the prosecution OF John T.
Surratt, and took the general management OF the
PREPARATION of the case.
The LAT or and difficulties of the case were great
and the Government is under great obligations to
Charles A Durham for much valuable infOrma-
ing the Witnesses called for the defence. Al
though in jail. he managed to keep informed Of
the progress of the case and from time to time
communicated important facts and suggestions,
and seemingly for the sole purpose Of a fair in
vestIgatiOn of he case, whether it would work
for his benefit or not. 1t seems to me that for
his services in this behalf the Government should
mark its appreciation of them in a way not to she
Respectfully A. G. RIDDLE.
Nothing is among the papers from the
office of the District Attorney, or from any
of the counsel in the Surratt trial. except
ing Mr.. Riddle.
The next recommendation is from the
Bureau of Military Justice
WASHINGTON, July "a, 1867.
1 concur with the Hon. A. G. Riddle in his
innate of the value and Importance of the ser
vices rendered by Charles A. Durham, set forth
in the foregoing letter to the President. A prln-
ciple of public policy leads governments to en-
courage, by all honorable means, those charged
with crime to make disclosures which may. and
often do, result iii unmasking even greater Of
tenders than those who make them ; and hence
when they are found to have acted voluntarily.
and in good faith the highest public considera-
tons require that their conduct shall be gener
Ously appreciated. The services of Dunham. with
the details of which Mr.. Riddle must be entirely
familiar as one of the counsel in the case, seem
to have been performed without solicitation, and
in the interests of truth and justice, in cOnnec-
ton with of the most important criminal trials
which has occurred III the history of the country;
and, although his disclosures we're not directly
connected with the crlmInalIty OF which he him.
sefhas been convicted, yet it is believed that they
do not the less bring his case within the spirit
and reason of the rule of policy referred to- and
hence it is for the Executive to determine how
far they shall be accepted at once as proof OF
his repentance, and as an atOnement to the law,
for whose violation he stands condemned.
J. HoLT.
It may be proper to remark that the re-
commentator of the Judge Advocate Gen
eral is written upon one leaf of the same
sheet with that of Mr.. Riddle, and not upon
official paper.
1t will be observed that, notwithstanding
this man stood condemned for perjury Mr..
Riddle, by actual experience, and Judge
Holt, upon satisfactory grounds of belief,
have fully realized his usefulness in pro-
noting, by his cooperation with public
agents of Justice, the cause of truth on the
occasion of an Investigation of national i'm
portance, and also that the latter intin.ates
his opinion that he had fairly atoned to
the offended law, and had satisfactorily de-
monstrated ms repentance. It is remark
able that Durham himself, in his petition,
(which purports t. be in his own handwri-
tins,) mentions nc such grounds, but trusts
mainly to a technic>.hty. His petition is
as follows
WASHINGTON, July 26, 1867.
To lis Encel'ency AsldreaC Johnson, President Of
tie United States
The petition of Charles a, Durham respectfully
shows that in the month Of January last he was
tried, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiarv
for perjury. alleged to have been committed be-
fore the Judiciary Committee of the House of Rep
resentatives during the investigation by said COM
mittee of charges against Jefferson Davis of COM
phclty IN the conspiracy to assasslnate President
Lincoln.
That the perjury assigned in the Indictment
against your petitioner in having falsely tes-
titled that he had reason to doubt, and did not
doubt, the truthfulness of certain dispositions
made by two persons, called Campbell and Snevel,
at the time said dispositions given by them
in the Bureau of Military Justice and in testifying
that he had first seen said Campbell in Canada in
June, 1865, and said Snevel III Wilmington, North
Carolina, in August, 1865.
That on the trial of your petitioner said Campb-
ell and Snevel declared that their real names were
Hoare and Roberts, and that the dispositions they
had made and sworn to in the Bureau of Military
Justice, were absolutely false from beginning to
end, and We're known to be so by your petitioner
and that they were not at-said Campbell in Canada
III June, 1865, or said Snevel in Wilmington in
August 1865-the places at which your petitioner
claimed to have first seen them.
That it was entirely upon this testimony of said
self-confessed perlurers that your petitioner was
convicted and that without the said testimony
of said persons the jury before whom your peti-
toner was tried could not possibly have found G