"Mr. District Attorney, gird on your loins and answer me. Whose discretion is broken down? Whose prudence is betrayed? Is there anybody else's heart at which the vulture gnaws? Is there any high and great man who is forgetting the dignity of his office and the duties of a moral creature so far as to descend to the preparation of witnesses with which he has nothing to do to satiate his hunger with the blood of an innocent being?... But I am now speaking of the Bureau of Military Justice. He you know has furnished the evidence in this case." Mr. Merrick then went on to charge the government with preparing and presenting evidence against Surratt that it knew to be false, and then proceeded as follows: "No matter whether they knew the truth in this case or not, prudence has been betrayed; discretion has been broken down; courage has been conquered. Following on Judge Pierrepont's declaration, which I have read to you, and these circumstances, comes Mr. Carrington, breaking the cerements of the tomb, and demanding your verdict against Mrs. Surratt. In God's name isn't it enough to try the living? Will you play the gnome, and bring her from the cold, cold earth and hang her corpse? Bring her in; but there is no occasion for doing so; she is here already. We have felt our blood run cold as the rustling of the garments from the grave swept by us. Her spirit moves about, and the Judge Advocate General and all these men may understand that it is the eternal law of God, though, so far as men are concerned, fresh and innocent blood may apparently vindicate innocent blood previously shed, yet the spirit will still walk beside them. "He may shudder before her, because she is with him by day and by night; and he may say-- "'Avaunt and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee; Thy bones are marrowless; thy blood is cold.' But the cold blood and marrowless bones are still beside him, and her whisperings are presaging that great judgment day when all men shall stand equal before the throne of God, and when Mrs. Surratt is called to testify against Joseph Holt, what will he in vindication say?...