The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-10-02

summons when the President said: "Col.
Onel, ! have received o long telegram
this morning, which l wish you would
read; but there was no special hurry
about It" 1t was an appeal for
clemency In behalf Of the conSpirators,
and Gen. NJ. read the main points Of the
dispatch aloud. At one point the sender
Of the dispatch commended that the exGcu.
ton OF the parties would be uuconstitu-
tional because they were tried by militia.
ry instead OF a civil tribunal. At this
juncture the President interrupted the
reading 10 say,"O, that point has already
been settled" (reierring to the decision
Of the Attorney General that the prison
crs were liable to the Jurisdiction Of a
military commission, because the otfense
was committed against the Commander
in.Chief of the armies Of the United
States, and martial law prevailed in the
District OF Columbia) He then repeated
what he had said before about his desire
TO have any additional evidence submit.
ted to Judge Holt. As before stated Gen.
n. did send Rev. Father Walter, the
Herold sisters, Miss Surratt, Che thinks
and several others 10 Judge Holt, on
Thursday and Friday.
Gen. Hancock, then In command here,
who had general charge Of the execution
OF the conspirators, had sent General Mus.
scy ticket OF admission to the arsenal
grounds to witness the execution, and on
Friday morning Gen. Massey informed the
President OF the fact, saying that he pre-.
sumed Gen. Hancock sent the card be.
cause he supposed some one from the Ex.
ecutive Mansion should witness the exc
CutiOn OF the sentence. The President
said, "Well, Colonel, If you want to you
can 60" Gen. Mussey replied that he
had no desire 10 witness such a scene.
just before noon (the conspirators were to
be executed between the hours Of 70 N.
and 2 p. ny the President came into Gen.
Mussey's office and said, "COlonel, don't
go down to the arsenal until l sec you
again"
Acting under the impression that the
President had some thought Of reprieving
one or all Of the Conspirators, Gen. Mussey
had horse harnessed to the Presidents
coupe and driven in front Of the White
House, where 1t remained until after the
execution was over. He took these pre-
cautions, thinking that the President
might desire to send him down to the
arsenal in hurry, in which case he would
be able to start at moments notice.
At noon the Cabinet convened and Gen.
MussGy saw no more oil the President I'm.
til about 3 o'clock, at which time the
meeting broke up, when he came into
Gen. Mussey's office and said, "Well, now
you Can go, Colonel"
Gen. Mussey replied that even had he
desired to go 1t was then too late as the
execution was doubtless over.
The President then went on to say that
he didn't want the execution to- take
place without first reminding the mem.
bers Of his Cabinet that that was the day
fixed for carrying into effect the sentence
Of the COnspiratOrs. He had reminded
his Cabinet OF the fact, but no one made
any suggestion looking to delay. Had
they done 80 he should have felt bound TO
act upon their suggestion.
MIR. johnson some time ago took occa.
sion to say that when he approved the
findings and sentence against the conspi.
rators he was not aware that every mem.
Der of the court which tried them with
one exception had united In an earnest
recommendation for the pardon Of Mrs
Surratt, mot because they believed her
innocent OF the charges brought against
her, but because OF her sex.) Gen. Mus
sey is positive that he did see this recon-
mendation, which was prominent fea.
ture Of the court martial record, and says
that he (the PreSidenG argued at that time
if Mrs. Surratt was guilty. as the entire
court believed, he could see no reason
whatever for exercising executive elem.
ency in her case simply because she was
a woman. Andy seems to have quite
forgotten thatthe ever denied seeing this
recommendation for in his interview with
the Herald correspondent he says
"They (meaning the conspirators) had a
full and fair trial, and all four alke were
found guilty. How was / TO- know that
Mrs. Surratt was innocent? All l could
do would be to pardon her. Could l
pardon her without pardouing the rest,
where there was nothing but sympathy
for her sex to justify.ltpfss az .