The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-10-21
FUS-SURRATT.

the government and the people, in a
frenzy of excitement, provoked by
similar causes, abandoned the princi-
pies of justice and committed ma
tional crime.
Prof. Scott aptly alluded to the Sur
raft case during the discussion of the
Dreyfus case in a meeting of the Re-
search club last Friday.
Mrs. Surratt was executed as one of
the accessories to the assassination OF
President Lincoln. The verdict of his
tory will be, if it is not now, that she
was judicially murdered. She was tried
before a court-martial in a time of in
tense excitement, and with others was
convicted Of the crime. Two days
afterwards she was strangled on the
scaffOld. She was allowed no appeal
to a higher court, as Dreyfus was al
lowed. The Executive refused to obey
writ of habeas corpus issued in her
behalf, and snapped it's fingers at the
courts. Her witnesses were intimidat-
ed. The gates of the White House
any humane petitioners. Even her
4. daughter lying PROSTATE on the steps
of the Executive Mansion was re-
fused a hearing. A recommended
ton to mercy, signed by five mem
bers of the court-martial was taken
to the door of it by Judge Advo-
cate Holt, who acted for the govern
ment lin convicting her, but it is not
clearly known to this hour, whether or
not President Johnson saw it.
The evidence upon which Mrs Sur
raft was convicted was officially pub
4ished some months afterwards. Many
cool headed men who had read the
evidence published during the trial in
the journals, feared that the court-mar-
tial in convicting Mrs. Surratt was
only responding to the excitement
of the moment After there was
an opportunity to study the evil
dence in full, many, especially
lawyers and judges, felt that the evil
dence was insufficient to convict, and
that if the case had been reviewed by
the courts, or it had been tried be-
fore a jury, under the direction of the
court, no conviction would have been
possible. But the deed was done The
woman had been executed by the ma
tional authorities, and the public sell
dom revises and condemns it's own con-
duct.
At the same time among the think
ing classes there was a conviction that
wrong had been done. They saw that
the fact that Booth visited Mrs. Sur
rats house was not sufficient evidence
of guilt. Booths associates declared
that she took no part whatever in the
commission of the crime. Those who
were executed with Mrs. Surratt, stated
solemnly on the day of their execu-
tion that she was innocent. Those
who were sent to the Dry Tortugas
said also that she was innocent.
Judge Advocate Holt and John A.
Bingham, a member of the House, had
conducted the prosecution. Judge Holt
became restless at the slur cast upon
him that he had permitted her execu-
ton, by Withholding from President
Johnson the recommendation to mercy.
In 1883, eighteen years after the affair
he publicly addressed letter to James
Speed, Acknowledgement during John
sons presidency, pitifully, urgently
asking him to state publicly that the
President had received the recon-
mendation to mercy. This would have
cleared Holt from the charge of abet-
ting the execution. Speed refused tt
reveal Cabinet transactions, and Hol
publicly denounced him for not remov
ing this stain on his character. (Nortf
American Review July, 1889
John A. Bingham, who had assisted
il the prosecution, was member o
the House, and on making some re
marks on one occasion, Gen. Butler o
Massachusetts turned on him with con
tempt and tainted him with, ''Hangin!
an innocent woman"
Judge Bingham was afterwards ap
pointed Minister to Japan and made a
excellent record. The conviction an
execution of Mrs. Surratt weighed o
his mind. There were occasions whe
he failed to control himself and o
these not infreQuent occasions, he nc
only denounced President Johnson &c
failing to save the woman but indulge
in the strongest profanity towards h
action. He stated again and agai
that the President had said to him thu
he would not hang Mrs. Surratt, an
that he, the President had the recon
mendstion to mercy before him. tt
President denied this statement Pr
fessor Scott, who was his neignbor
Tokyo, frequently heard him use til
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