The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-28
MRS. SURRATT.
sME WAS AN INNOCENT WOMAN,
And Ehe victim Of Republican Blood
W0unds-stautOn as a DespOt.
New York Herald.l


New York Heradl
CINCINNATI, o., June1S, 1S78s-Benn Pitman
The well-known photographer OF this city,
was interviewed to-day as TO his personal
knowledge concerning the trial and execution
Of Mrs Surratt tor the assassination Of Abra-
ham Lincoln. His attention was first called
10 the statement Of Mr.. John T. Ford, the
theatrical manager relative to the innocence
of Mrs Surratt and, in answer to the Herald
correspondents question, Mr.. Pitman COM
munieated the following information: He
said that he was the official reporter for the
United States government In the assassina-
tion trial, the Sons of Liberty investigation.
and the Congressional inquiries into the New
Orleans and Memphis riots, and subsequently
OF the ku-klux trials, all Of which gave him
peculiar insight into the yet unwritten his
tory OF those momentous events. 81 have no
doubt, said Mr.. Pitman, 'Of the correctness
Of MIR. F0rd's statement Of Mrs. Surratt's in
nOeence, The grave plumbers which grew out
OF the assassination trial were due TO the the
DRY Mr.. Stanton entertained that Booth was
the active instrument in great conspiracy,
tine dictatOry power Of which was the Rebel
government. Mrs. Surratt hung for completely
u the assassination plot Of which she was
entirely ignorant, and poor Spangler was
sent TO the Dry Tortugus because long rope
was found In his carpet-sack, with which it
WIS supposed Mr.. Lincoln was to be bound,
when in fact no other use was to be made OF
1t than the catching of crabs. Spangler had
simply borrowed the rope from Ford's Thea
Ire for that purpose.
1T was not until after my return from
Washington, with all the testimony Of the
four hundred and fifty witnesses at the trial
and my compilation In narrative form of the
facts testified TO by those witnesses that /
came TO the conviction that Mrs. Surratt,
though aware of previous plots to abduct the
President and take him to Richmond, was en-
tirely uniformed Of the sudden resolve Of
Booth to kill him. The only direct testimony
that seemed TO tmplicate her was that of the
drunken unreliable witness, Lloyd who kept
the tavern at Surrattsville, Her previous life
and history, the testimony of those who knew
her well, and Catholic priests Of known pro-
bity and honor all went to show her utter in
capacity to engage in 50 dtabolical plot.
The testimony went to show that the as
aassinatiOn of IincOn was sudden resolution
Of Booth on finding that the President was to
visit the theatre that night, and the hasty
conspiracy Matched up with Payne, Atzerodt
and HeTold, was confined exclusively to their
knowledge and participation. The fact Is
that Mr. Stanton, Judge Advocate Holt, Bling
ham and Burnett and other officers of the
government engaged In the prosecution were
somewhat unbalanced by the imagined great
ness OF a conspiracy which did not exist
Nothing but such belief would justify the
treatment TO which the prisoners were sub
ieetgd
s'The trial for the first two weeks was con-
Quoted In secret, and the prisoners-Herold,
Payne, Atzerodt and. | think, two others
white cap, which just left q breathing hole
Tor the mouth and nostrils. They were, be-
sides, manacled at the wrists and ankles, and
to the latter were attached @ heavy ball and
chain. Mrs. Surratt was not thus masked,
but she was manacled at the feet through
the trial. The masks were removed when
the trial became public, after the expiration
Of two weeks, when admission was obtained
to the court only by the personal sanction of
efen. Hunter by card"
Correspondent DO you think the govern
ment sanctioned this severity toward the
prisoners
Mr.. Pitman-Mr. Stanton was the govern
ment ut that time. He was a man for whom
| still entertain profound admiration; q
man of the Cromwell type strong but unfeel-
ing, and who to obtain desired end would in
~ an emergency play despot--strangely out
81 place under o. republican form of govern
ment. For instance, what should be more sa-
efeu than the private correspondence Of q cit
zen committed to the public maths, yet by
MI Stanton's orders = assisted to open hun
sireds Of letters hl,s;:t passed through the gen.
isral postQtIse5 at Washington, just after the
ASSASSIN .tion, when every letter addressed to
lanD1a was thus stopped. Mr.. Stantons
qualification was that the agents of Jefferson
Davis, who We're then in Canada, were the in
&tigatorS OF the assassination plot. The let
tiers opened to detect these supposed machin-
atoms led to very curious results in revealing
other matters not directly sought for, and
many brilliant career of army officer and
pQuLlclan was StultiIled by UneSe revelations,
which they little suspected would ever be
seen by the powerful War Minister.
The recommendation to mercy for Mrs
Surratt, signed by members of the court in
secret session, Andrew Johnson affirmed he
never saw, and the efforts of Miss Annie E.
Surratt to see President johnson in behalf of
her unfortunate mother were somehow cruelty
frustrated. An innocent matron was hanged,
and history is dumb as TO who Is responsible
for the irreparable wrong. Frantic efforts
were made to connect John Surratt with the
assassination plot, but, fortunately for him,
they were unsuccessful.