The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1869-02-24
The Murder Of Hrs. surratt.

Dom Piatt writes concerning the
military assassination of Mrs. Snrratt,
as follows:
1t was melancholy business at best
but L was inexpressibly shocked on
reading the evidence touching the
case OF Mrs. Surrat5. No mind of a
legal turn can study that evidence,
and not be shocked and disgusted.
L aroused no little Indignation
against myself some time subsequent
~, by asserting, on the stump, that
the poor woman had been convicted
of keeping boarding house In Wash
ington, and hanged by Andrew John
son within twenty four hours after
conviction. Then came the row be-
tween Butler and Bingham, in which
the last named was charged with pro-
curing the death of an Innocent Won-
an. And then followed ageneral &C.
ceptance of the fact, so that the order
for her remains and immediate burial
create no other feeling than one of
commiseration.,
And why was Mrs. Surratt hung
without evidence? Because the Court
was composed of military men, igno-
rant of law, and rejecting the popu-
lar impulse. The popular impulse is
to hang some one on the heels of a
great crime. Were we to postpone
our murder trials a year after the
commission of the murder, few would
be hanged. Another reason exists
for this brutal murder of a helpless
woman. The military commission
was robbed of its Judge Advocate
Recognizing the fact that military
men as general thing are ignorant
of the rules governing the admission
of evidence, an officer is selected learn
ed in the law, called Judge AdVo-
cate, whose duty is not only to advise
the Court, but appear for the accused.
In the trial of the conspirators, no
such officer appeared. The source tD
which the Court had TO LOOK for rnI.
infis of law was in men who appeared
Rs prosecutors. A lively lot of prose-
cutOrs they were. Hoit was as hard
as iron. Burnett Jealous as any coun-
court prosecutor whose reputation and
reelection hung on conviction, ever
was, while Bingham was as fierce as
a wolf.
And so Mrs. Surratt was hanged
without judge or jury, and yesterday
she was buried. My pillow is not the
pleasantest one in the world, but |
would not care to change it with that
of any man having part in this sick
enlng tragedy. Least of all, with the
man who is now about retiring to the
shadows of private life, with the uuan-
imous consent of his feIloW-citizens,
Ann Surratt, the daughter, hurried to
the Executive Mansion when she
learned the horrible fact that her
mother was to be hanged. She was
accompanied by a Catholic priest
Arriving at the door, she was refused
admission. Pushing by the servants,
she reached the foot of the stairs be-
fore she could be arrested, Then her
entreaties, tears and supplication.
mingled with shrieks, were heart
rending enough 10 melt the heart of
it stone. She begged to see the Pres
dent but for moment, that she might
have her mothers life. She begged
to see any Que of the family, and Mrs.
Slower, drawn by the screams to the
spot, was appealed to. The poor Wo
man, 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 PEN
etrated to the room where the cow
ardly miscreant was hid, who, with
power of life and death in his hands,
east aside the recommendation for
mercy, signed by the court, lest popu-
lar wrath might implicate him in the
crime.