The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-10-29
T Extract from tue London T Telegraph, Sept
TE4Sl SUBRATT CASE.

The whole history Of this Surratt case
IS remarkable. The United States Cow
ernment made herculean efforts to hunt
him down but when-af,er tracking him
from one country TO another, and from the
barracks OF the Papal Zouaves at Rome to
a lodging at Naples-the agents Of that
Government got fast hold of HIM, and
conveyed hIm 70 America, the resolute
determination Of the people to deal on;
stern justice to all who bad any hand in
Mr.. LincUin's death, dr!fJed into a waver-
ing and half hearted policy. Many thous-
ands of dollars must have been expended
to bring about tie capture OF John Surratt;
but, having obtained his body, the author
lties seemed totally at a loss TO know what
they should do with him. The hostile
evidence was weak, and much Of ii vas
tainted with manifest perjury There
WAS, perhaps, an easy feeling in the Off
CiaI mind that the mans mother had been
hanged on testimony certainly not stronger
than that which was found inadequate 10
convict her son. Altogether, perhaps,
the wisest thing to do was to let John
Surralt 90. The Americans are the least.
yindictive people 10 the world. Their
wrath, when II is excited, may be terrible;
but ii is soon over. and they bear no NAL
ice. When Mr. Lincoln was murdered,
they would have hanged fifty Surratt's
had there been fifty to hang but Mr.
Lincvlu has been dead 4 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 polite course was to
let him have the benefit of the doubt.
BY this time the vast majority Of the
Americans have arrived at a conclusion
which political men ventured only to
whisper with bated breath, so long as the
Northern States were cOuvulsed from end
to end by horror and anger at the slaugh-
ter of their President. The conclusion is
duplex. Il amounts simply to this, that
Algs- Surratt ought never to have been
hanged and that John Wilkes Booth was
mad. The Evidence against Mrs Surratt
was of the himsiest description. That
che knew the assassin more or less inti-
mately was proved bat there was abso-
lutely nothing 10 show that she was ac-
cessory to Mir. Lincoln's murder, either
before or after the fact. All efforts, how
ever, made to save the life of The unhappy
woman were in vain. Even had Mr..
J johnson been desirous of pardouing her,
or of committing her sentence to lifelong
imprisonment, ii is doubtful whether, in
the excited condition of the public mind,
he would have venturcd to exercise the
| prerogalive of mercy. A numerous sec
ton of society was enraged that through
the affray in which he lost his life, Booth
himself should have escaped an ignomin>
ious death on public scatfold and in
most unwise and uugenerous proclamation
Sir. Stanton openly accused Mr. Jefferson
| Davis, Just then a prisoner in Federal
! hands, of completely In the assassination
| plot The cry OF ''blood for blood" was
universal; and had MIR. Davis been tried
! by court martial at Washington in the
summer of 1865, there can be but little
! doubt that he would have been sentenced
! to death Now, that the American pub
! lie have had time to reflect on the circum-
stances of the murder of Mr.. Lincoln,
and now that the real history OF the affair
! is known, none but the most fanatical
anti-Southerners would dream of insinua-
| ting that Jefferson Davis was in any way
concerned-in any way even cognizant of
the murderous plot which succeeded so
wofully at Ford's theatre, and miscarried
so strangely at Mr.. Stewards house.
With regard to Booth himself, it is fully
time TO acknowledge tho fact that the
murderer was mad. Those who had seen
him in Canada during the autumn of 1864
must have Seen convinced of the mans
insanity. which was partially hereditary,
and to some extent aggravated by immod>
crate indulgence in stimulants. Booth
was not in the remotest manner ASSOCIATED j
or connected with any of the Confederate
leaders lie was a murderer "on his ewn