Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1867-08-21
The Surratt Trial.

The jury in this case have been dis
charged by the court. they having been
unable to agree. The prisoner was
indicted for the murder of Abraham
Lincoln. He was not indicted for a
conspiracy to murder. His presence
IN Washington at the time of the muir
der was therefore essential to bis con
vIctlon. The prosecution and the de-
fence agree that a certain number of
days before the murder Surratt was
in Canada. The prosecution then
sought to e,tablish his departure from
Montreal, his transit to, and arrival
at, " ashington, and his presence at
his mothers house and AZ the theatre
OH the night of the murder Upon
this point there was mass of tcsti-
mony by both parties 1t being the
vital point in the case there was
constant effort on the one hand to
establish that fact. and on the other
to repel it. The Government offered
witnesses who testified point blank to
the fact OF Surratts presence at the
theatre that night, but, not content
with that, they followed testimony by
the evidence to the same point Of wit.
nesses whose character was certainly
of the most questionable kind No
jury would have convicted a man up
on the evidence of these disreputable
witnesses alone, and the only effect
produced by Introducing it was to
place all the testimony upon that
point under a cloud Many of the
witnesses for the defence were equally
unworthy of respect, and the jury had.
as general thing, to credit and dis
credit the direct evidence as it was
supported or not supported by col
lateral facts and circumstances. The
result Is not a surprising one. The
jury could not agree upon the point
that Surratt was or was not in Wash
lngton that night, and we do not
think it is an excess of charity to say
that the disagreement Is consistent
with desire to Go Justice The law
required that the fact of his presence
there should be proved. Upon that
point the evidence was conflicting
Many of the witnesses on both sides
were men of impeached characters.
and a majority Of the jury refused to
convict the prisoner on that evidence.
At the same time. we do not suppose
there is the slightest doubt that Sur
raft was from the beginning to the
end party to the conspiracy, and.
therefore. if not legally, is morally
as guilty of murder as if present and
firing the pistol. The country has 40
longer any doubt upon that point,
nor as to the guilty knowledge Of The
conspiracy by his mother. Whether
John Surratt be acquitted or convict
ed of murder. the world Will have but
one opinion Of him nd that W be
that he was a traitor. who TO treason
added a willing cooperation in a cow
ardly and brutal conspiracy to murder
the President and other officers of the
Government and that his natural
cowardIce preventing his striking a
blow himself, he urged others to do
the act, leaving them and his own
mother to perish on the gallows
while he sought safety in flight If|
this man have any of the feelings of a
man left, we do not know but his pun
ishment would be greater to live in
the world with the world scorn upon
him, than to take his life by judicial
proceeding. Such a man must, while
life lasts, be an object of universal ex-
ecration no solitude viii be found too
profound for the accusing voice of his
murdered victim; no excitement so
violent that the corpse Of the mother
the abandoned Will rise before him to
chill his blood, and make him curse his
existence. If set free, he must go
forth with the mark of Cain upon
him, an object to be Stunned by his
fellow men throughout the world
Chicago Tribune.