National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1885-07-23
MRS. sURRATT.
EER Prosecutors AND DEIENDERs-THE
LIVING AND THE DEAD.

NM PROSECUTIONS AND DEfkNDEHs THE
LIVING AND THE DEAD.
see that sensation is crented relative
to Mrs Surratt at this late day by the
announcement that q monument will be
erected over her remains, and that Brick
Pomeroy, who believes that she was
murdered, is engineering the movement.
"Pomeroy points to the fact that oil the
members of the military commission
that condemned Mrs. Surratt to death
are dead except Holt, and that he, re-
siding in the suburbs of Washington, ia
almost crazed, and that the majority of
those who are dead committed suicide,
proof, he claims, that they saw the in.
justice of the sentence" The amiable
Pomeroy is entirely mistaken, and his
statements are not only wild but untrue.
Maj. Gen. David NJ Hunter was the pres
ideDt Of that commission; Gen. Lew
Wallace, our late minister to Turkey,
was another. SO was Gen. Augustus V.
Kautz, the noted cavalry leader. Gems.
James A. Ekin. of the quartermasters
department of the army Albion
p. Howe, Robert 8. Foster, and Thos NJ.
Harris and Col. Charles II. Tompkins,
and d. r. Clendenim were members.
These men composed the commission
that tried and condemned Mrs. Surratt
to death along with the other conspira-
tors. A majority of them are still in the
land of the living and are noted men.
Those who have passed over to the other
shore did not die by their own hands.
Ex-President johnson passed away
like one who wraps the drapery of his
couch about him AMI lies down to pleas
ant dreams" Judge Advocate General
Holt, who conducted the prosecution,
lives in Washington city, few doors
from the capitol building. He is hale
and hearty, vigorous in intellect, and
good for many years to come, though
should judge that he had passed his
three score years and ten. Hon. John
A. Bingham, assistant judge advocate
general, whom Ben Butler used to twit
so numerically on the floor Of the House
of Representatives for changing an inno-
cent woman" is on his return from
Japan, where he has been the American
minister for upward of ten years. I do
not know Of the whereabouts of the other
assistant, Col. II. L. Burnett, of Indi-
ana.
noted characters in that famous state
trial Of twenty years ago. Reverdy
johnson, of Maryland, ex-attorney gen.
eral and senator and afterward minister
to England, lent his eloquent voice in
behalf of Mrs. Surratt, assisted by Col.
Fred. A. Aiken and John L. Clampitt.
The latter is the only one living of that
famous trio. johnson died full of hon
ors. Aiken became noted journalist in
Washington. He died suddenly few
years ago, and was laid away in beauti-
full Oak Hill cemetery by his brethren of
the press on New Years day. Gen. Tom
Ewing, of Kansas and Ohio, the cousin of
James G. Blaine, was counsel for Arnold
and O'Laughlin, who were sent to the
Dry Tortugas. Walter s. Cox assisted
him. He is now judge on the bench
in the supreme court Of the District of
Columbia, and the grinning assassin of
another President was tried and con-
demned to death in his court. Fred.
Stone, of Maryland, bitter secessionist
lawyer, defended Harold and Mudd. He
saved the neck of the latter. Mudd re-
turned from the Dry Tortugas to his
home in southern Maryland, and be-
came, strange to say, Republican in
politics. He died a few years ago.
Doster, Philadelphia lawyer, tried to
keep the rope away from the necks Of
Payne and Atzerodt. Gen. Hancock was
master of ceremonies on that tragic oc-
casion. assisted by Gen. Hartranft. They
are still living, are not crazed, and, /
presume. lose no sleep in thinking of the
affair. Like good soldiers they obeyed
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