The prosecution closed its direct testimony on May 25th, reserving the
right (of which we have seen they availed themselves from time to time)
thereafter to call further witnesses on the character of the Rebellion and
the complicity of its leaders in the assassination.
Out of about one hundred and fifty witnesses sixty-six gave testimony of
that kind. Of the remaining eighty-four about fifty testified to the
circumstances attending the assassination, the pursuit and capture of
Booth and Herold, and the terrific assault of Payne on William H. Seward
and his household. Of the remaining thirty-four there were nine whose
testimony was directed to the incrimination of Mrs. Surratt.
The important witnesses against her were three soldiers testifying under
the eye of their superior officers as to her non-recognition of Payne, and
two informers who had turned state's evidence to save their own necks, who
connected her with Booth.
The witnesses for the defense, for the most part, were treated by the
Special Judge-Advocate as virtual accomplices of the accused; and, as soon
as, by a searching cross-examination, he had extorted from them a
reluctant admission of the slightest sympathy with the South (as in almost
every case he was able to do), he swept them aside as impeached, and their
testimony as unworthy of a moment's consideration. A former slave, who
announced himself or herself as ready to give evidence against his or her
former master, was a delicious morsel for the Bureau of Military Justice;
and several such were sworn for the prosecution. While, on the other hand,
nothing so exasperated the loyal Bingham or so astonished the Court as the
apparition of an old slave-woman, summoned by the defense, eagerly
endeavoring to exculpate her former master.
Several priests testified as to the good character of Mrs. Surratt as a
lady and a christian, but the effect of their testimony was immediately
demolished in the eyes of the Court, when, on cross-examination, although
they refused to substantiate what the Judge-Advocate called "her notorious
intense disloyalty," they could not remember that they had ever heard her
"utter one loyal sentiment."
Chapter IV.
ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEFENSE.
The testimony for the several defenses of the eight accused closed on the
7th of June, and the testimony in rebuttal ended on the 14th, with the
evidence of the physicians on the sanity of Payne.
Thereupon, General Ewing endeavored to extract from the Judge-Advocate an
answer to the two following questions: First.--Whether his clients were on
trial for but one crime, viz.: Conspiracy, or four crimes, viz.:
Conspiracy, Murder, Attempt at murder, Lying in wait? and
Second.--By what statute or code of laws the crimes of "traitorously"
murdering, or "traitorously" assaulting with intent to kill, or
"traitorously" lying in wait, were defined, and what was the punishment
affixed?