Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1867-07-11
The Surratt Trial.


The evidence in this case on the
part of the prosecution. closed on
Friday. The testimony is very
strong against the prisoner. The
defense had some twelve or fifteen
witnesses, and base their defense
wholly on their ability to prove an
abb.
"Mack," the intelligent cores
pondent of the Gin. Com, writing
from Washington, under date of the
ID inst, speaks of the trial and pris-
oner as follows:
The trial ef John II. Surratt in
creases in interest as it progresses,
and draws every day immense
crowds of spectators, notwithstand-
ing the intense and almost suffocat-
ing heat of the court room. l OBJ
tanned pass yesterday and gratifed
my curiosity by taking look at The
individual who figures so conspicu-
ously in one of the greatest crimes
of history. Surratt was seated at a
bench some distance behind the
front and entirely within the space
reserved for privileged visitors
He was surrounded on either side by
ladies and gentlemen, and seemed to
me quite as free from surveillance as
any one else in the courtroom,
though presume there was deputy
marshal near by with close eye up
on him. His counsel were near him
and every now and then he would
lean over to consult with or prompt
them. He is young man whom I
should judge to be twenty-five or
twenty six years old. quite intelligent
looking, and without the slightest
trace in his ceuntenance of that vii
lainy which his trial proves exist In
his heart. He was well dressed.
cleanly shaved and sat there tanning
himself in apparent indifference to
the convincing proofs of his guilt
which were then being adduced from
the witness stand. His eyes are
keen, sharp, and intelligent, his fore
head broad and deep, his nose prom
inent and finely shaped, and his
mouth and chin those of man of no
low order Of intellect. 1t is very
hard to reconcile his appearance
with his history, or to prove HIM an
assassin from any assistance to be
derived from his physiognomy.-
John A. Bingham has been in Wash
ington since the trial commenced
| called on him at his rooms yester-
day, and, finding the tables and
chairs covered and heaped with
criminal law books, Iasked him if
he was not helping the prosecution
of Surratt. He replied that he was
doing so in a quiet way to vindicate
himself from Buffers assault and the
accusation of having hung "an inno-
cent woman" that he had already
cleared up the Booth diary mystery,
and he wsuld clear up every thing
| else UeiUIc Inc LIldl was ONeT. MI.
Bingham does not ge to the Court
room at all, but he evidently furnish
es all the brains for the prosecution,
and maps out its conduct in every
particular. He has already proved
enough against Surratt to warrant a
verdict of death from any honest
jury in the land. The testimony OF
the Surgeon of the steamship Peru
vian dispels all doubts as to the guilt
of the wretch, and shows him to be
unfit to live. If he is not convicted
and hung, then Congress or some
Brigadier General ought to repeal
the hanging laws altogether.
The feature Of the Surratt trial
Monday, was the presence in the
court room of large crowd of rebel
sympathizers, many of them women.
The witnesses called by the defense
to break the testimony of Sergeant
Dye did not prove to be very strong,
nor succeed in making untenable the
theory of the prosecution in'regard
to events at the theater, previous to
the assassination.