Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-27
NJ ARTYRED MRS. SURRATT.
The Crime of her Murder Avenged on
her ExecutiOners-The Brand or Cain
on her Murderers.
They Die Violent and Miserable Deaths
The Martyr Of the White House and
the Martyr of the Arsenal.
WASHINGTON, June %, 1873.
tn the Editor of the washington Star;

of Baltimore; Richardson, of Boston; and
Ben PItman, the court reporter at the con-
spiracy trials, and now OF Cincinnati: has
each published his version of 1t. AS was
hero at the time of the trial and judicial
murder, send you my views on the subject.
Thirteen years have come and gone since the
bullet of John Wilkes Booth was sped forth
on its horrible mission of ASSASSINATION.
Thirteen years have come and gone since
Mary Z. Surratt died on the gallows In atone
ment for the great crime with which IL Is
now known she had neither lot nor part
TWO MARTYRS TO THE DEED OF THE SATAN
ICYOUTH!
The one was the beloved chief magistrate
of the triumphant republic, innocent, unsus-
pecting, and hurled headlong into eternity;
the other a plous christian widow, equally In
nocent, and dragged forth hooded, and
masked, and ironed, to the gallows, where
they strangled her to death. For some time
ate, lar execution the demon of wrath
stalked abroad through the iauu, end the
multitude said, Amen to her death. But the
evidence of her innocence could not be COW
cred up for long. Now and then we heard
two or three remorseful revelations uttered
through the lips of congressman, showing
that somebody was not at peace within, that
the blood of a woman had left its stains on
the conscience of one or more of the actors
in the conspiracy trials. Presently
BUTLER ARRAIGNs BINGHAM,
and tells him he will have to account to God
for the life of Mrs. Surratt, and Bingham,
agitated at the malediction. started like a
guilty thing afrghted. Presently Senator
Jim Lane, who, with Secretary Stanton,
Judge Holt and Senator King, had taken an
active part In preventing the daughter of
Mrs. Surratt from seeing President johnson
and telling that infatuated and, perhaps,
misled executioner TO stay his hand, and not
to do murder on innocence, presently, we
say, poor Lane blew out his brains In st.
LOUIS, and then it was said Mr.. Lane had
never been happy since the taking off of Mrs.
Surratt. After a while Senator King went
into store, and buying several pounds of
shot, started for the river. He jumped in
and was drowned. At a later day it Is ob-
served that an unwonted melancholy sits on
Mr.. Stanton. For years he had dreamed OF
and sighed for a bencher's seat in the su-
preme court of the United States. The Pres
Ident's appointment and the senate's con-
frmation crown the dream with fulfllent.
But the melancholy still rides him like a
witch. He has been more or less an Invalid
for some weeks when the news of the Judge
ship is conveyed to him. The surgeon
general advises him to take the air, to ride
forth among cheerful scenes, and to shake off
what he deems the dependency of sick
room. The attendant is sent for to shave
Mr.. Stanton, and they prevail on him to ride
down as far as the capitol. The barber I'm
ishes the toilet and the dressing-case is
closed and returned to the bureau drawer.
For a short time the ex-secretary is left
alone. When some members of the house.
hold re-enter the room Edwin M. Stanton is
discovered stretched on the floor with
HORRIBLE CASH IN HIS THROAT
and razor by his side. Surgeon General
Barnes is flashed for by telegraph, but it is
too late. Stanton is past surgery; the life
blood spurts over the walls and floor. The
arch-chief of Mrs Surratt's executioners
has executed murder on himself, and the
spirit of the martyred woman, with hood
and manacles, such as glazed the eyes of the
beholders at the arsenal, seems to fit across
the chamber of the suicide. As if conscious
that another link had been forged In the
chain which appeared to drag down to I'M
timely death all who had figured in the ex.
ecution of Mary Surratt, the friends Of Mr..
Stanton attempted 70 conceal the cause Of his
shocking end. But sooner or later the facts
here stated will be vouched for by those who
know them to be true. Surgeon General Barnes
has never denied them. He cannot do SO
From sudden and unprovided death, 0,
Lord deliver u.s." Such is the language of
the christian litany, the supreme appeal of
men for mercy. Did Andrew Johnson, who
was deaf to the agonizlng shrleks OF that poor
child of Mrs. Surratt, whom Stanton and
King, and Lane repulsed from the human
mercy-seat, ever appeal to heaven In the
beautiful words of the litany? Was he saved
from a sudden and unprovided death when il
came his own turn to die? Let it be hoped
that he was, for the sake of his eternal sal
walton. But it cannot be forgotten that the
Elk President, after having been hunted down
like wild beast by his own party, and that,
too, when he was trying to do his duty; after
having been betrayed and sold out by Gen
| eral Grant in a shameless manner; after hav-
ing been impeached and tried, and almost
| convicted; and finally after having trlumphed
| over all his foes, and been borne back to the
senate on the tidal-wave OF Democratic
ascendancy; it cannot, it must not be forgot.
| ten that
ANDREW JOHNSON FELL DOWN IN A PIT,
and died of apoplexy almost within the hou,
which had seen him well and full of lusty life
From a sudden and unprovided death,
| Lord, deliver u.s." What a terrible moral dc
not these pregnant examples teach! Out Of
| the world, hip and thigh, the sword of a
| higher vengeance than mans hath smitter
| the shedders of an innocent womans blood
| Is there Nemesis in pursuit? Does the
| blood of the innocent cry out from the ground
| or Is it all a mere distortion OF slckly brains
an idle array of imaginary condolences
| But truth is at last fairly afoot The great
| black lie which Weichmann told is painting
and staggering still in front, kept there ye
| by reason of the love justly felt for the mar
| tyred Lincoln, but not to be in the ascendant
| long. At last
| THE TRUTH CATCHES THE LIE.
| The cowardly John Surratt, who had stayed
in Washington long enough to be the occa
| sion of this great trouble, and who hadn =
| the ilial courage to return there and strive tx
avert it or perish with his mother is arrested
| brought back and tried. And then the trutl
| flies forward and takes the glorious lead
| Nobody talks of Mrs. Surratt as guilty per
son since the trial of her son.
| THE MARTYR OF THE WHITE HOUSE AM
THE MARTYR OF THE ARSENAL
had both fallen under the strokes OF blood,
| executioners. The evidence IN John Surratt'
trial proved to demonstration that abduction
was the plan and plot of the conspirators
and that it had fallen through, and had beef
abandoned long before the thought of muir
| der had entered the mind of Booth. Thu
abduction scheme having been exploded, it
plotters had separated, gone north and south
and to Canada, and the thing was at an end
The evidence further proved that Booth frs
thought of assassination only a few hour
before he went in such a cowardly name
and shot the President. When oatfled In hi
abduction plot by the fall of Richmond an,
the overthrow of the Southern Confederacy
he was inspired by the devil to shoot tn
President. Because this was made plain a
the trial, and because of this alone, Johl
Surratt escaped the gallows.
MRS. sURRATT's PREsENT1MENTs.
Both the martyrs seemed to have present.
ments of their sad end. Mrs Surratt wa
overwhelmed with anxiety of her WORTHLESS
son. Having observed during the white
preceding her death that John was associat
ing with persons OF rather doubtful charac
ter, she advised him against such company
and urged hun to leave Washington, 90 +
the country (she owned farm near the city,
and by all means to shun the men IN who's
company she had seen him. The scoundre
Weichmann, a boarder in her house, was on
of these, but owing to his sanctimonious by
pocrisy she excepted him from the others
This Infamous creature was privy to all tn
plans which the abduction plotters ha
Matched to carry the President to Richmond
Mrs. Surratt had treated the migrate more a
a son than stranger. He knew of her per
feet innocence, of her violent opposition t
John Surratt's associations, of her anxiety 70
him to leave Washington. of her upright
holy life and stern religious discipline. Yet
I L L