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
The misery of the pretty and heart-broken daughter of Mrs. Surratt is
the talk of the city. This girl appears to have loved her mother with
all the petulant passion of a child. She visited her constantly, and
to-day made so stirring an effort to obtain her life that her devotion
takes half the disgrace from the mother. She got the priests to speak in
her behalf. Early to-day she knelt in the cell at her mother's feet, and
sobbed, with now and then a pitiful scream till the gloomy corridors
rang. She endeavored to win from Payne a statement that her mother was
not accessory, and, as a last resort, flung herself upon the steps of
the White-House, and made that portal memorable by her filial tears.
About half-past 8 o'clock this morning, Miss Surratt, accompanied by a
female friend, again visited the White-House, for the purpose of
obtaining an interview with the President. The latter having given
orders that he would receive no one to-day, the door-keeper stopped Miss
Surratt at the foot of the steps leading up to the President's office,
and would not permit her to proceed further. She then asked permission
to see General Muzzy, the president's military secretary, who promptly
answered the summons, and came down stairs where Miss Surratt was
standing. As soon as the general made his appearance, Miss Surratt threw
herself upon her knees before him, and catching him by the coat, with
loud sobs and streaming eyes, implored him to assist her in obtaining a
hearing with the President. General Muzzy, in as tender a manner as
possible, informed Miss Surratt that he could not comply with her
request, as President Johnson's orders were imperative, and he would
receive no one. Upon General Muzzy returning to his office, Miss Surratt
threw herself upon the stair steps, where she remained a considerable
length of time, sobbing aloud in the greatest anguish, protesting her
mother's innocence, and imploring every one who came near her to
intercede in her mother's behalf.
While thus weeping she declared her mother was too good and kind to be
guilty of the enormous crime of which she was convicted, and asserted
that if her mother was put to death she wished to die also. She was
finally allowed to sit in the east room, where she lay in wait for all
who entered, hoping to make them efficacious in her behalf, all the
while uttering her weary heart in a woman's touching cries: but at last,
certain of disappointment, she drove again to the jail and lay in her
mother's cell, with the heavy face of one who brings ill-news. The
parting will consecrate those gloomy walls. The daughter saw the mother
pinioned and kissed her wet face as she went shuddering to the scaffold.
The last words of Mrs. Surratt, as she went out of the jail, were
addressed to a gentleman whom she had known.
"Good-bye, take care of Annie."
To-night there is crape on the door of the Surratt's, and a lonely lamp
shines at a single window, where the sad orphan is thinking of her
bereavement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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