The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-02-17
The Murder Of Mrs. surratt.

Don Piatt writes concerning the mill
tary assassination of Mrs. Surratt, as fol-
lows:
It was a melancholy business at best,
but l was inexpressibly shocked on
reading the evidence touching the case
of Mrs. Surratt. No mind of legal
turn can study that evidence, and not
be shocked and disguised.
aroused no little Indignation against
myself some time subsequently, by as
sorting, on the stump, that the poor wo-
man had been convicted of keeping
clearinghouse, in Washington, and
hanged by Andrew Johnson within
twenty-four hours after conviction.
Then came the row between Butler and
Bingham, in which the last named was
charged with procuring the death OF an
Innocent woman. And then followed
general acceptance of the fact, so that
the order for her remains and Immediate
burial created no other feeling than one
of commiseration.
And why was Mrs. Surratt hung with
out evidence2 Because the Court was
composed of military men, Ignorant of
law and rejecting the popular impulse.
The popular impulse is to hang some
one on the heels of great crime. Were
we to postpone our murder trials year
after the commission of the murder, few
would be hanged. Another reason ex-
lists for the brutal murder of this help
less woman. The military commission
was robbed of its Judge Advocate.
Recognizing the fact that military
men as a geaeral thing are Ignorant
of the rules governing the ad-
mission of evidence, an officer is select
ed learned in the law, called q Judge
Advocate, whose duty is not only to ad-
wise the Court, but appear for the ac-
cusea. In the trial of the cOnsplratOrs,
no such officer appeared. The source to
which the Court had to look for rulings
of law was in men who appeared as
prosecutors. A lively lot of prosecutors
they were. Holt was as hard as iron,
Burnett Jealous as any county court
prosecutor whose reputation and re-
election hung on conviction ever was.
while Bingham was fierce as wolf.
And so Mrs. Surratt was hanged with
out Judge or jury, and yesterday she
was buried. My pillow is not the pleas
ATTEST one in the world. but would not
care to change it with that of any man
having part in the tragedy. Least of
all, with the man who is now about re-
firing TO the shadows of private life,
with the unanimous consent of his fell
low-citizens. Ann Surratt, the daugh-
ter, hurried to the Executive Mansion
when she learned the horrible fact that
her mother was to be hanged. She was
accompanied by Catholic priest. Ar
irving at the door, she was refused ad
mission. Pushing by the servants, she
reached the foot of the stairs before she
could be arrested. Then her entreaties.
tears aud supplicatiOus, mingled
with shricks, were heart rending
enough to melt the heart OF a
stone. She begged to see the President
but for a moment, that she might save
her mothers life. She begged to see
any one of the family, and Mrs. Slower,
drawn by the screams to the spot, was
appealed to. The poor woman, pale as
death, wrung her hands, saying that
she had no right to violate the orders of
the President. Preston King came in,
and, picking the poor girl up from the
stairway, where she had fallen, bore her,
screaming in the most heart rending
manner, from the accursed house. Those
screams penetrated to the room where
the cowardly miscreant was hid, who,
with power of life AID death in his
hands, cast aside the recommendation
for mercy, signed by the Court, lest pop
ular wrath might implicate him in the
crime.