Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-10
No Profit to Defendants
in Mrs. Sutt0n'S Letters


Sutton's letters, Attorney II. e. Davis
made the following statement:
when the judge advocate on Friday
produced Mrs Sutton's letters, Mrs. SUIT
ton was as ignorant as anybody in the
room which of the many letters she had
written the Judge advocate had in his
possession. Both she and her counsel
knew that in the effort to remove the
stigma of suicide from her sons name
she had made appeals, some of them
almost frantic in their nature, In every
direction, to persons whom she believed
to be either in position or to have the
disposition to help her. but whether the
letters in the judge advocates possession
were some of those written by her to
officials of the Navy Department. men
in public life or private individuals, she
had not even a hint.
Counsel being, however. aware of the
general nature of the letters written by
Mrs. Sutton on the subject, and believing
that whatever the object in producing
them might be. the only possible result
of their reading would be to qualify the
sympathy which had been so freely eX
pressed for Mrs. Sutton, objected to the
introduction of the letters upon the
double ground that such could be their
only result, and that in no possible man
ner could they tend to enlighten the
question of the manner in which Lieut..
Sutton met his death.
Mrs. Sutton Set Forth Conclusions.
The fact is, as was known to both Mrs.
Sutton and her counsel that. having re-
ceived a copy Of the record of the inquest
and the testimony taken thereat. having
had both written and verbal communica-
tions and statements from various sources,
and having, in her eager. way sought to
pick up as best she might any information
tending to aid her in reaching the desired
object of a full and fair investigation,
Mrs. Sutton drew certain differences and
reached certain conclusions which she set
forth with the greatest freedom and en-
phaSiS to those whose interest or aid she
was endeavoring to enlist.
From what she had at hand, she be-
lieved-and frankly said So--that her son
had been done to death and that that fact
was being covered up, and she wrote in
the unusual way of not only stating her
differences and conclusions but also of
undertaking in measure to give her rea-
sons therefor. This gave her letters the
character appearing from their reading.
They were the letters of a freely speak
ing mother in the light of things, some
seemingly trivial and some important
which impressed her with the conviction
on the witness stand.
"ObviouSly her cross-eXamination could
go no further than to test the soundness
of her differences and conclusions and the
sufficiency Of the foundations upon which
they rested. More than this cross-eXam-
ination, under the circumstances, could
not possibly accomplish, because the in
quiry is not to be determined, and cannot
be determined. by Mrs. Sutton's reports
of what people had told her and her dec
larations of what she believed there
from; that matter must be determined,
and determined only, upon the testimony
produced before the court and bearing
upon the single fact in hand, namely:
How did Lieut.. Sutton come to his death?
Defense Has Gained Nothing.
For this reason. neither Mrs. Sutton's
counsel, nor, as far as has been learned,
any lstener-outside of those committed
in advance to a support of the finding at
the inquest-could see the least bearing
of either the letters themselves or cross
examination on them, upon the question
at issue. And If the general, and, indeed.
quite unanimous, expression of those who
heard both the letters read and the cross
examination of Mrs. Sutton may be ac-
cepted at its face, the reading of the let
tiers has only served to strengthen the
public conviction that Mrs. Sutton entered
upon the campaign for the reclamation
of her sons name with a loyalty to his
memory entirely justified by the firm
Judgment which, whether sound other
wise, she reached upon the material at
hand when she was making the appeals,
speaking through her letters. If the judge
advocate or the cause of those who would
see the result of the inquest upheld has
profited by the step of making the letters
public that fact has certainly not been
discovered by any one who thus far has