Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-11-17
The surratt Case-Fanaticai vengeance-A
Murdered Mother and Mad Actor.

Murdered Mother and Mad Actor.
From the London Telegraph
The whole history of this Surratt case
is remarkable. The United States Gov
ernment made herculesn efforts to hunt
him down; but when-after tracking him
from one country to another, and from
the barracks Of the Papal Zouaves at
Rome to lodging at Naples--the agents
of that Government got fast hold Of him,
and conveyed him to America, the reso-
lutte determination of the people to deal
out stern Justice to all who had any hand
in Mr.. Lincoln's death drifted into a
wavering and half-hearted policy Many
thousands of dollars must have been ex-
pended to bring about the capture OF
John Surratt; but, having obtained his
body, the authorities seemed totally at a
loss to know what they should do with
him. The hostile evidence was weak,
and much of it was tainted with manifest
perjuey. There was, perhaps, an easy
feeling in the official mind that the mans
mother had been hanged on testimony
certainly not stronger than that which
was found inadequate to convict her son.
Altogether, perhaps, the wisest thing to
do was to let John, Surratt go. The
Americans are the least vindictive people
in the world. Their wrath, when 1t is
excited, may be terrible; but it is soon
over, and they bear no malice. When
Mr.. Lincoln was murdered, they would
have hanged fifty Surratts, had there
been fifty to hang; but Mr.. Lincoln has
been dead long time, justice was done
on his actual assassin, the Americans
have grown Modified, and since it was
far from certain that John Surratt was
guilty, the most generous and polite
course was to let him have the benefit OF
the doubt.
By this time the vast majority OF
Americans have arrived at conclusion
which political men ventured only TO
whisper with bated breath, so long as the
Norther States were convulsed from end
to end by horror and anger at the
slaughter of their President The con-
clusion is duplex. Itamounts simply to
this: that Mrs. Surratt ought never to
have been hanged, and that John Wilkes
Booth was mad. The evidence against
Mrs. Surratt was of the himsiest descrip-
ton. That she knew the assassin more
or less intimately was proved; but that
was absolutely nothing to show that she
was an accessory to Mr.. Lincoln's mur.
der, either before or after the fact All
efforts. however, made to save the life OF
the unhappy woman were in vain. Even
had Mr.. johnson been deslrous OF par
doning her, of committing her sentence
to lifelong imprisonment, it is doubtful
whether, in the excited condition OF the
public mind, be would have ventured to
exercise the prerogative of mercy. A
numerous section of society was enraged
that through the affray in which he lost
his life. Booth himself should have
escaped an ignominious death upon
public scaffold and, in most unwlse
and ungenerous proclamation, Mr.. Stan
ton openly accused Mr.. Jefferson Davis,
lust then prisoner in Federal hands,
of completely in the assassi nation plot.
The cry of "blood for blood " was UNI
versal; and had Mr.. Davis been tried by
court-martial at Washington in the sum
mer of 1865, there can be but little
doubt that he would have been
sentenced to death. Now that the
American public have had time
to reflect on the circumstances OF
the murder of Mr. Lincoln, and now that
the real history of the affair is known,
none but the most fanatical anti-South-
erners would dream of insinuating that
Jefferson Davis was in any way con.
cerned-in any way even cognlzant Oh
the murderous plot which succeeded. so
wofully at Ford's Theater and miscarried
so strangely at Mr.. Stewards house.
With regard to Booth himself it is tally
time to acknowledge the fact that the
murderer was mad. Those who had
seen him in Canada during the autumn
of 1864, must have been convinced OF
this man insanity, which was partially
hereditary in and to some extent aggra-
waited by the immoderate indulgence IN
stimulants.
Booth was not in the remotest manner
associated or connected with any OF the
Confederate leaders. He was muir
derer of his own accord. He had ac'
completes, it is true; but, excluding Dr.
Mudd and Mrs. Surratt from the cate
CORY, they were mere hired bravos, prob
ably paid by Booth to do his bidding,
and in themselves the most ahjeet and
soualid refuse of humanity. The wild
scheme of destroying at one blow the
President and bis Cabine; had, IN al!
likelihood, been hatched solely IN the
distempered brain of John Wilkes Booth,
and was impaired only at the last mo-
ment TO the abandoned wretches whom
he had employed to assist him. With
the liberation Of John Surrstt, the cur
tain falls on the last scene in one OF the
saddest dramas ever played on the stage