As John H. Surratt and his mother were bound up in the same bundle by all the testimony in the case, and his mother had been found guilty upon this testimony by the court before which she was tried, his counsel seemed to feel the necessity of getting rid of the effect of this fact, in its bearing on their case. That I may not be accused of doing them injustice in presenting their mode of doing this, I will let them speak for themselves. In the examination of jurors on their _voire dire_, Mr. Pierrepont asked the question: "Have you formed any opinion in regard to the guilt or innocence of the other conspirators?" The question was objected to by the counsel for the defense, and Mr. Merrick, to sustain his objection, said, among other things: "I presume there is scarcely a gentleman in the United States who has not formed and expressed the opinion that Booth shot Lincoln. I apprehend there are very few who have not formed and expressed an opinion that the mother of the prisoner at the bar suffered death without competent testimony to convict her, and so we might go through in an inquiry in relation to all the others." In replying, Mr. Pierrepont said: "The reason urged by my learned friend against it is, that he believes, I do not know but that he asserts, that there are very few in the United States who do not believe that Mrs. Surratt was illegally executed. Therefore we could not get a jury competent to try the prisoner at the bar if this question is allowed to be put." _Mr. Merrick_ [interrupting]. "My brother will allow me to say that he did not state my entire proposition. I said there were few intelligent persons in the United States who had not formed an opinion upon the question of Booth's participation in the killing of Lincoln; and there were also, I presumed, but few persons who had not formed an opinion that Mrs. Surratt had been executed upon insufficient evidence." _Mr. Pierrepont._ "Precisely; that is the very statement, except that my friend has made it a little stronger than I did. "I did not intend to overstate it, as there is nothing gained by overstatement, but it seems I did not come up to the mark."...