Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-19

Executive for his action. In whose nos
session it remained during the intervening
days we are not informed; but two wears
and half atterward we are told with sur
prising minuteness Of detail, the precise Or
der in which the leaves were fastened
when the record was taken by Judge Holt
to the President, and when II wcs returned
nom the War Department after promulga-
ton OF the sentence. 1t is certainly a en-
rlous circumstance that Mr.. Wright only
remembers the little "details that tend to
strengthen the assertion of Judge Holt that
he exhibited to me the petition; and sus-
plclon is more strongly aroused when.
in concluding his letter, he deems it neces-
sary to state the appearance of the papers
even as late as the 9Th of August, 1861, as
follows:
''On the 9Th of August, 1861, Mr.. Stanton then
Secretary of War, sent for me, and in presence
OF Gen. Grant, asked me who was in charge of
the Bureau in your absence. informed him
Col. winthrop. He requested should send him
over to him, which did. The Colonel returned
and asked me for the findings and sentence of
the conspiracy trial, telling me he had to take
IL III person to the President. On taking the
portion of the record referred to from the bum
die, found, from the frequent handling of it,
several of the last leaves had torn loose from
the ribbon fastening, and to secure them nut
Tue eyeieU III one corner OF IT.
Having heard that the petition had been
attached to the record, | sent for the pa
pers on the 9Th day of August, 1867, with
view Of examining, for the first time, the
recommendation in the case of Mrs. Suratt,
to which such frequent allusion had al
ready been made. A careful scrutiny con-
WINGED me that it was not with the record
when submitted for my approval, and that
L had neither before seen nor read it.
Shortly thereafter like belief was ex-.
pressed in the columns of public print,
which, in confirmation of its opinion, stated
that the petition had been perforated by a
different and larger eyelet punch than the
leaves to which it was attached, and that
the papers presented indications of having
been otherwise manipulated. A newspa-
per controversy OF some interest followed;
and for the special purpose of meeting this
criticism Judge Holt has again had recourse
to the convenient memory of his chief
clerk, who, however, in explanation of the
circumstance, is compelled to admit that
"SeUerdt Of the leaUeS had torn loose from
the ribbon fasteTiRg." 1t should be re-
membered that among these last leaves is
the pc -. If, having been separated, it
was az. so readily secured, could it not
have been as readily separated from the pa
pers when they were submitted for the
Presidents approval, and replaced before
they were returned through the Adiutant
Generals office to the custody of the Bu
reau of Military Justice? With all the in
genuity displayed in the arrangement of
this letter, there is still one omission,
namely: to show that the papers were not
manipulated after they left the Bureau and
before they reached the executive man
sion.
In his letter Of inquiry to Judge Bing-
ham the Judge Advocate General, knowing
that an intelligent public would not believe
that the charge made against him was a
mere fabrication, designed solely to strike
blow at his reputation, attributes it to the
Presidents friends, who, "'under well-un-
derstOod INSPIRATION thus sought to shield
the Executive from responsibility in the
case. As this assumption substantially in
wolves an accusation against myself, | en-
brace this occasion TO state that l have
never attempted, through friends or other
wise, to shrink from any responsibility in
connection with the execution of President
Lincoln'S assassins, or from the faithful
discharge Of any other duty imposed by the
Constitution and laws of the country. How
justly such a charge might lie against Judge
Holt can be determined when the follow
ing plain statement is cOntrasted with the
tone Of his letter, and with the seeming
depreciation Of the prompt execution of the
sentence of the court, exhibited in his note
appended to the letter of the Rev. Mr..
Butler:
The record of the court was submitted
to me by Judge Holt in the afternoon of
the 9Th day Of July. 1865. Instead of en-
tering the Executive Mansion by the usual
way, he gained admission by the private or
family entrance to the Executive office.
The examination of the papers took place
in the library, and he and | alone were
present. The sentences Of the court in the
cases Of HerOld, Atzerott, and Payne were
considered in the order named, and then
the sentence in the case of Mrs. Surratt.
In acting upon her case no recommendation
for q Communication of her punishment was
mentioned or submitted to me; but the
question of her sex, which had already
been adverted to and discussed in neWSpa-
per columns, presented itself, and was COM
mented upon both by Judge Holt and my
self. With peculiar force and solemnity
he urged that the fact that the criminal was
a woman was in itself no palliation; that
when woman "unseXed herself" and ell
tered the arena of crime, it was rather an
aggravation than a mitigation of the Ofiense;
that the law was not made to punish men
only, but all, without regard to sex, who
violated its provisions; that to discriminate
in favor Of Mrs. Surratt and against He
rold, Atzerott and Payne, who were SELF
fenced by the same court and at the same
time to suffer the penalty Of death, would
be to offer premium to the female sex TO
engage i'll crime and become the principal
actors in its commission; that since the re-
belli0n began, in some portions of the
country, females had been prominent in
aiding and abetting traitors, and he thought
the time had come when it was absolutely
necessary, in a case Sc elearly and conclu-
sively established TO set an example which
would have salutary influence. He was
not only in favor of the approval of the
sentence, but of its execution at the earliest
practicable day.
Upon determination of our consultation
Judge Holt wrote the order approving the
sentences Of the court. / affixed my name
to it, and, rolling up the papers, he took his
leave, carrying the record with him, and de-
parting, IS he had come, through the family
or private entrance.
From the above statement it will be noted
that the papers were not submitted in the
usual way by the Secretary of War, but were
brought to the President by the Judge Ad-
vocate General, under, of course, the instlrc-
tions of Mr.. Stanton. This, doubtless, was
done tOsave time and hastenthe execution,
and evinces the spirit which animated Judge
Holt during the entire proceedings. Who
can doubt that if his name and that of Judge
Bingham had been attached to the petition
signed by five members of the court, and
the prayer had been brought to the atten-
ton of the President, such an application
would have been duly weighed by the
Executive before final action in the premi-
SEES?
To show the determined purpose which
actuated the President in Mrs. Surratt's
case, Judge Holt appends the following
note to the letter of the Rev. Mr.. Butler: