The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-05-17


would have been slowed away along with
Booths diary, in the darkest archives Of
the Bureau OF Military Justice, perhaps
annotated by ''doar Liobcr.' We're we
at all disposed to levity on such sub
joct, We might atF,rd to smile at the spas
modc efforts of Mr.. Boutwell,, of Massa-
chusetts, TO discrcdit the rccreaut witness
es of the government by such questions as
he addressed to them and repeated seve-
raj times. Snevel is asked by Boutwell,
q. Are you acquainted with any per.
son in New York, resident or otherwise,
who sympathized with the rebellion Z?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you ever visit the New York
Hotel?
A. No, sir.
And to Campbell it is thus put: q"
Q. Are you acquainted at the New
York Hotel in New York City?
A. No, sir.
q. Have you visited at that Hotel du-
ring the progress Of the war at any time
A, No, sir; never was inside of it to
my recollection.
That Mr.. Craoston's generous hospital
it} has been more than once abused du-
ring the last five or six years we do not
at all doubt, but We question very much
whether persons so disroputablo az Hollis
witnesses ever, in any disguise, get foot.
ing under his roof Such folks would be
as little at houo in that refined and toer-
ant society as would Governor Boutwell,
himself
If the Republican judiciary Committee
doubted whether Sanford Conover COM
tlitted perjury, Republican court and
jury in the District Of Columbia did not,
: but without difficulty convicted him on
the corroboratei testimony of Cam pbell
and Snevcl-tbe only witness produced
for the defense being Joseph Holt, and
he being careful, in view Of all that
had happened, to say as little as posi-
bic. AS the prisoner Conover and the
witness Holt stood in each others pres
ence in that court Of justice, varied
thoughts and memories must have fUated
across the minds Of each. The memory
of the days, not very long past, when the
prisoner was pet--relied on for every
thing, employed everywhere-ondorsed
by Bingham, praised by Stanton, intro.
duced at the White House-sent travel
ling by tho War Department 81 visi.
ted" said Conover to the committee, "a
number of places last winter in the SER
vice of the Buroau-in Virginia, North
T Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and
Canada. To give them all would mako q
long list and | would hardly be able to do
it without my notes." His notes Per.
hops, like Booth, he kept diary. And
then he and bis employer, once SO init.
mate, though separated by wide gulf
now, may have thought Of the 25th of
November, 1868, and the affilavits impli-
eating Jefferson Davis, distant and
helpless prisouer-or their minds, by a
common instinct, may have gone further
back to scenes of epauletted justice, and
Couover in another witness stand ut the
Arsenal-or to the end of it all, the 7th
Of July, 1865, when, in the company of
brutal assassins and rufians, for such
were Payne and Azterot, woman was
hung to death, for whom daughter utter
coded 10 vain, at the threshold Of the
house where Campbell was afterwards u
visitor, and where, it is said, Preston King
was then on guard.
! 1t was on the trial Of Conover that a
curious accident occurred, coufrmatory of
the truthfulness Of the witness who fixed
the perjury on Conover, aud whom it was
the interest of the government, if p, ssible,
to dlsoredit. Campbell swore positively
that, when he made his affidavit at the
War Department, Holt not only wrote it
down, but accompanied the witness to ths
Justice to have the jurat affixed. Camp.
bell testified thus:
. Who reduced this to writing?
A. Judge Holt.
y, Were you sworn before you made
your statement?
A. No, sir.
Q What was done since you made
your statement?
A. We went to Notary Public on f.
street.
@. Who went with you?
A. Judge Holt.
Holt, when examined for his friend, the
prisoner, said {:
q. Did you accompany Campbell De.
fore The Justice or Notary Public
a. did not.
Q. Who went with him before the No
tary?
A. do not remember. My habit is
to send with witnesses the Chief Clerk of
the Bureau. Whether in this instance he
accompanied him or not, | do not know.
The deposition was brought back to me
certified, as you see.
Now here was positive and fatal con-