The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-04-03

Gen. H. w. Slocum, one of the
most distinguished brigade, divi-
sion, corps, and grand division
commanders of the war, recently
delivered lecture in Brooklyn on
events of the great strsasIs aring
the course of which dressed
the opinion, always held Ass the Unl
ion, that Mrs. Surratt was a muir
dered woman. He said:
Il am going to speak to you one
word about the execution of Mrs.
Surratt at 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 a
time of high excitement. | could
stand here tonight and relate to
you fifty incidents that would serve
to caution everybody against tax
ing evidence against others when
the people were all in state of IN
tense excitement. There never was
day, there never was an hour, that
L did not believe that Mrs. Surratt
was as innocent a woman as there
is in this hall. Applause1. She
was the keeper of a boarding house
in Washington She boarded Wilkes.
Booth and half dozen other rebel
sympathizers, and she had q son,
John Ii. Surratt. Wilkes Booth
was guilty of shooting Mr.. Lincoln,
and this poor woman was brought
to trial in correction with Wilkes
Booth, and through the excitement
of the times her neck was brought
to the halter. Her daughter, q
young girl eighteen or nineteen
years of age, on the morning Of the
execution went to the Presidents
room and begged permission to say
mother, and a United States Sena
tor from our own State, who acted
as door tender, rePulsed her, say
ing, No, no; you cannot go iL."
Worse than that, meaner that that,
the poor girl three or four years af
terward married a clerk in the
Treasury Departm ent. No charges
were made against him, but because
this clerk had married the daughter
of Mrs. Surratt he was discharged.
Lei us brag of our achievements,
but at the same time let us learn to
look our faults and errors fairly
and squarely in the face and ac-
knowledge them when we have
cause to-"
The murder of Mrs. Surratt was
the most cruel and cowardly act
ever committed in any civilized
country. 1t is a curious and sug
gestive fact that all who were chief
ly responsible tor the execution of
that innocent woman have felt the
unseen hand of the Great Avenger.
Stanton, Secretary of War, who was
perhaps the worst of the mum ber,
committed suicide in a fit of re-
morse, although the fact was sought
to be concealed. Preston King, the
Senator from New York, who re-
pulsed Annie Surratt at the Presi
dents door, in like manner ended
his own life by deliberately jump
ing from ferryboat into the North
river at New York and drowning
himself. Andrew johnson, who
signed the death warrant and des-
politically suspended the writ of
ha6eas corpus that had been granted
by the court, was stricken suddenly
with death upOn his return to the
Senate after he had left the Presi
dency. Judge Advocate Holt, who
conducted the prosecution, long ago
disappeared from public view, and
whether dead or alive, nobody
knows and nobody cares. And
John A. Bingham, who assisted
Holt, was driven from Congress in
disgrace as one OF the Credit Mo-
bilier bribe- takers, and sought re-
fuge in Japan, where, we believe, he
now isl Rochester Union.