The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-08-28
Trial Of John II. Surratt


In the roundup of the many persons
accused of being implicated in the
murder of President Lincoln, the most
sought-after Of the men who had made
good their escape was John H. Sur
rat. A search was at once started
for his apprehension, but he made his
way to Canada. While his mother
was undergoing the torture of her
trial he lay concealed in the house
of friendly priest some forty miles
from Montreal.
Surrat remained IN hiding in Can
ada until he was able, under an as
sumed name, to sail for Liverpool from
Quebec. He travelled unhindered to
London. Paris and finally to Rome,
where in the early spring of the fol-
lowing year. under the name of Wat
son. he enlisted in the Papal Zouaves
and was sent on garrison duty to
post near the Neapolitan frontier.
There Surrat might have remained
unknown until the end of his service,
had he not accidentally met another
Zouave of the same company who was
an American and who had known him
In Maryland. He reported his dis
covery to the American Minister to
Italy, Rufus King. and ON November
?. 1866, "Zouave Watson" was meta
morphosed from a soldier into a pris-
iouer Of state. He was taken to the
military prison at Rome. From here
he made his escape and boarded a
steamer for Alexandria Egypt. which
port he reached on the 9th, and the
American Consul there being appraised
of his coming, he was finally inter-
cepted and held to await the arrival
of United States vessel to carry him
to his country.
The United States corvette "Swa-
tara" touched at Alexandria on Deem
Der 81, and when it departed it carried
Surratt to the United States to stand
trial. On February 81 the vessel cast
anchor abreast of the Washington
Navy Yard. There in sight of the
prison in which his mother was tried
and condemned and under which she
lay buried, Surratt, by order of the
Secretary of State, was delivered into
the hands of the civil authorities.
The District Attorney at once began
to prepare for his trial The trial
opened on the 10th of June 1867, and
lasted until August IL, sixty-two days.
During the trial there was a general
impression that Surratt would be able
to prove an alibi, so far as his being
In Washington at or near the time of
the assassination, but this was not the
case, for a number of men swore that
they had seen him in the city ON the
day of the murder.
During the trial over two hundred
witnesses were examined. This testi-
mony was concluded on July %, when
District Attorney E. c. Darlington ad-
dressed the jury. Richard T. Merrick,
the junior counsel of the defendant,
followed, creating profound sensa-
ton by his imprisoned vindication
of Mrs. Surratt, the mother.
On Saturday, August 3, Edwards
Pierrepont began the closing argument
for the United Sattes-a labored ef-
fort rendered intolerably tedious by
copious readings of the testimony, dec
Grated with lengthy quotations from
the Bible, and suffused throughout
with a pious JUNCTION.
On the 7tb of August the charge
was given to the jury. The jury re-
tired at noon on the same day and
remained in seclusion until l O'Clock
on Saturday, 10th, when the foreman
came in and announced that the jurors
STOOD precisely as when they first
balloted eight to four for the pris-
oner), and could not possibly make a
verdict"
The jury was thereupon discharged
against the protest of the prisoner,
who was remanded In the custody of
the Marshal. The idea of another trial,
1t Is prObable WAS naver sariousIv on