The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes BoothTownsend, George Alfred
History
The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
Townsend, George Alfred
Assassins -- United States -- Biography; Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination
Mrs. Surratt's daughter was with her at an early hour. One of her male
friends also had an interview with her, and received directions
concerning the disposition of her property. During the night and morning
she received the ministrations of Revs. J. A. Walter and B. F. Wigett,
and conversed freely with them, expressing, while protesting her
innocence, her willingness to meet her God. Her counsel, Messrs. Aiken &
Clampitt, took leave of her during the morning.
A singular feature of this execution was the arrest of General Hancock
this morning, who appeared in court, to answer a writ of _habeas
corpus_, with a full staff. It is well to notice that this execution by
military order has not, therefore, passed without civil protest.
President Johnson extended to General Hancock the right conferred upon
the President by Congress of setting aside the _habeas corpus_.
As usual in such executions as this, there were many stirring outside
episodes, and much shrewd mixture of tragedy and business. A
photographer took note of the scene in all its phases, from a window of
a portion of the jail. Six artists were present, and thirty seven
special correspondents, who came to Washington only for this occasion.
The passes to the execution were written not printed, and, excepting the
bungling mechanism of the scaffold, the sorrowful event went off with
more than usual good order. Every body feels relieved to night, because
half of the crime is buried.
On Monday, Mudd, Arnold, O'Laughlin, and Spangler, will go northward to
prison. The three former for life, the last for six years.
Applications for pardon were made yesterday and to-day to President
Johnson, by Mrs. Samuel Mudd, who is quite woe-begone and disappointed,
in behalf of her husband, by the sisters of Harold, and by Miss Ann
Surratt. Harold's sisters, dressed in full mourning and heavily veiled,
made their appearance at the White House, for the purpose of interceding
with the President in behalf of their brother. Failing to see the
President, they addressed a note to Mrs. Johnson, and expressed a hope
that she would not turn a deaf ear to their pleadings. Mrs. Johnson
being quite sick, it was deemed expedient by the ushers not to deliver
the note, when, as a last expedient, the ladies asked permission to
forward a note to Mrs. Patterson, the President's daughter, which
privilege was not granted, as Mrs. Patterson is also quite indisposed
to-day. The poor girls went away with their last hope shattered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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