Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-04-26
A CRUEL WRONG!
GEN. SLOCUM TALKS SENsE--MlsS. SUR
RAT MURERED--'TwAs NOT THE
GOVERNMENT, but TIE MEN.
SuCH MEN WE DEspIsE /!

tSuCH MEN VIZ DEspIsE
Gen. w. II. Slocum, one Of the dis
tinguished Of our brigade. division
corps, and grand division commander !
Of tho war, recently delivered n lee
ture in Brooklyn on events Of the
great struggle, during tho course Of
which he expressed the opinion, al
ways held by the Union, that Mrs.
Surratt was q murdered woman. He
said
~ am going to speak to you one
word about the execution Of Mrs. Sur
raft ut the close Of the war, for | think
some good lessons can be learned
from the story Of her trial and death.
/ believe any people situated as we
were, ought to be cautioned against
placing implicit confidence in evidence
given at Il time of high excitement. !
could stand here tonight and rotate
to you fifty incidents that would serve
to caution everybody against taking
evidence against others when the pco-
ple were all in q state Of intense cx-
citcmcnt. There never was u day,
there never was al hour, that | did
| not believe that Mrs. Surratt was rs
! innocent Il woman ~ there is in this
hall. (Applanse.) She was the keeper
of u boarling-houa in Washington.
She boarded Wilkes Booth and half
dozen other rebel sympathizers, and
she had son, John II. Surratt.
Wilkes Booth was guilty Of shooting
Mr.. Lincoln, and this poor woman
was brought to trial in connection
with Wilkes Booth, and in the excite
ment of the times, her neck WAS
brought to the halter. Her daughter,
a young girl eighteen or nineteen
years of age, on the morning OF the
execution, went to the Presidents
room and begged permission to say a
few words in behalf of her mother,
and u United States Senator from our
own State, who acted door tender,
repulscd her, saying: $40, no; You
can not go in" Worse than that,
meaner than that, tho poor girl three
or four years afterwards, married Il
clerk in the Treasury Department
No charges were made against him,
but, because he married the daughter
of Mrs. Surratt, he was discharged
Let US learn to look at our faults
faisly and squarely in the face and
acknowledge them when We have
cause to.
s"Thc murder of Mrs. Surratt WA
: sthe most cruel and cowarlly act eve1
, committed in any civilized country
1t is curious and suggestive fac1
that all who are chiefly responsible
tor the execution of that innocent wO
man have folt the unseen hand Of TIN
great Avcnger. Stanton, Secretar.
of War, who was perhaps tho worst o
the number, committed suicide in
9 fit of rcmorse, although tho fact wa
sought to be concealed. Preston King
the Senator from New York, who re
pulsed Annie Surratt at the Prcsi
dents door, in q like manner, ende'
his own life by deliberately Jumping
n from a ferry-boat in the North hive
, at New York, and drowning himsel
i, Andrew Johnson, who signed tn
death warrant, and despotically sus
q pended the writ Of habeas corpus tina
had been granted by the court, wa
i stricken suddenly with death upo
his return to the Senate after he ha
left tho Presidency. Judge Advocat
J., Holt who conducted the prosecution
long ago disappeared from publ
syicw, and whether dead or alive M
a body knows and nobody cares. An
4 John A. Bingham, who assisted Hol
- was driven from Congress in disgrat
n as one of the Credit Mobilier brit
takers, and sought refuge in Japal
where we believe he now is."-Rocl
ester Union.