The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-09

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Last of the so-called Lincoln conspira
tors to be brousth to trial was John II
Surratt. son of the unhappy woman VIII
paid the penalty of acquaintance wit!
Booth by death upon the scaffoid.
When Mary f. Surratt- was hanse,
her son was in hiding in Canada. Tn
news of her trial was Kept from hin
by friends, and no filial motive to ali
! her therefore prompted him to return
1 and give himself up. Had he returned
there would have been one more figur
on the scaffold on which Mrs. Surrat
persisted on the 7th of July. 1865, for JOIN
; II. Surratt was held to he first aid o
Booth In the killing of Lincoln.
| Had John Surratt been tried in 1850. be
| fore the military tribunal that condemne,
his moher, the evidence that enabled hin
| to 60 free in 1867 would not have availet
him. The military commission that con
demned Mrs Surratt, Payne, Altered
and Herold to death and sent DR.. Mudd
Arnold, O'Loughlin and Spangler to tht
Dry Tortugas. the first three with life
sentences, the last for six years. was ,ap
pointed to convict.
In the passion of the time clear judg
ment could scarcely be expected. The
members Of the commission were officers
and not lawyers Many of the witnesses
who appeared before them were influ,
enced by the hope of large rewards
Others were in fear of government dis
pleasure or harbored hope Of gain In
place or influence
In the two years that elapsed before
John Surratt was brought to trial men Ia
brains had time to cool A military COM
mission could not sit in his case. for the
supreme court nau ruieo Una. "nhe .ne
lions ,such a body was not a competen,
tribunal for trying civilians Trial before
a court meant a freer introduction of
testimony for the accused. Before the
military commission the preponderance OF
testimony admitted had been that against
the accused.
A change had come over the govern
ment also in these two years. In the
first trial President Andrew johnson
with a declared purpose to make treason
odious," supported by Secretary Of War
Edwin NJ Stanton, had pressed the case
against the prisoners with little regard
as to the relative degree Of their guilt or
Innocence. He had charged jefferson
DAVIS with meaning the TREAT SOUSplTd-
Cyl to murder Lincoln.
The Great Conspiracy had not been
proven to exist President johnson had
soon turned from bitter hostility to the
South to a friendliness that gave his
political opponents a club with which
to belabor him. He feared John II. Sur
raft would prove a cause of fresh trouble
to him. If he. who was charged with
being Booths aid in the assassination
were acquitted the verdict would be ac-
cepted by sympathizers with his mother
that she had not had a fair trial.
~
"thesses hNceeo >""'
Surratt arrived home from Europe In
February-he had been taken while serv-
ing in the Papal Zouaves-and was not
brought into the criminal court of the
District of Columbia before Judge George
p. Fisher until June TO- This gave his
John II. Bradley ST.. John II.
Bradley. ir. and Richard T. Merrick, op-
to seek evidence for his de-
Tense The task was not extremely diff
ficult, for Surratt had not been in WASH
ington on April Il. the day that Lincoln
was assassinated. but in Elmira, ~ Y.
The prosecution of Surratt was in the
hands of the district attorney, f.. e. Car
rington. To assist him and conduct the
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Interest,".
Testimony .Impeached.
o,rv ono MAJ, had testified in the con-
riracy triaI to- seeing Srrratt in Wash