He dexterously evades the force of the argument that the civil courts of
the District were open when the crime was committed, by asserting that
"they were only open * * * and are only open at this hour by force of the
bayonet;" and he claims that the President acting by a military force had
as much right to try the co-conspirators of Booth, as to pursue, capture
and kill the chief criminal himself; which, if true, leads us into the
maintenance of the monstrous doctrine that the President by a summary
order might have strung up the culprits without the interposition of any
court. He then enters upon an argument to show that the Commission, from
the very nature of its organization, cannot decide that it is no Court,
and he ridicules the idea that these nine subordinate military officers
could question the authority of their Commander-in-Chief.
In this connection, he gently rebukes Mr. Ewing for his bold statement to
the Commission: "You, gentlemen, are no court under the Constitution!"
reminding him that "not many months since he was a general in the service
of the country and as such in his department in the West proclaimed and
enforced martial law;" and asks him whether he is "quite sure he will not
have to answer for more of these alleged violations of the rights of
citizens than any of the members of the Court?"
He professes his high regard for General Ewing as a military commander who
has made a "liberal exercise of this power," and facetiously wishes "to
know whether he proposes, by his proclamation of the personal
responsibility awaiting all such usurptions," that he himself shall be
"drawn and quartered."
After disposing of General Ewing in this gingerly manner, he compensates
himself for the slight restraint by pouring the vials of his unstinted
wrath upon Reverdy Johnson; representing him as "denouncing the murdered
President and his successor," as making "a political harangue, a partisan
speech against his government and country, thereby swelling the cry of the
armed legions of sedition and rebellion that but yesterday shook the
heavens." He characterizes one of the most temperate and dignified of
arguments as "a plea in behalf of an expiring and shattered rebellion,"
and "a fit subject for public condemnation."
He calls upon the people to note,