testimony, where evidence bearing upon the guilt of Mrs. Surratt alone was
admitted at all times as evidence against her son. It appeared in the
argument of the District Attorney, when he compares the mother of the
prisoner to Herodias and Lucrezia Borgia, and "traces her connection with
the crime" and "leaves it to the jury to say whether she was guilty;"
where he pleads, like Antony, in behalf of the members of the Military
Commission that they were "all honorable men," and were not to be blamed
for obeying the orders of the President. It appeared in the arguments of
the counsel for the prisoner, when Mr. Merrick taunted the Government that
they were pressing for a verdict to "vindicate the fearful action they
had committed;" when he appealed to the jury to "deal fairly by this young
man," "even if the reputation of Joseph Holt should not have the
vindication of innocent blood;" when he invoked the spirit of Mrs. Surratt
as a witness for her son, and rebuked the prosecution for objecting to the
admission of her dying declaration when they were putting her again on
trial though dead; when Mr. Bradley charged that for four weeks and more
they had been trying Mrs. Surratt and not her son, and denounced Weichman
and Lloyd, avowing that "the proof against her was not sufficient to have
hung a dog" and was "rotten to the core." It appeared in the speech of
Judge Pierrepont, when he flourished the record of the Military Commission
before the jury, and asserted that the recommendation of Mrs. Surratt to
mercy was attached to it; in his avowal of his belief in her guilt; in his
extolling the jury as a tribunal far more fit for the trial of such crimes
than any military court; and in his covert threat that the people would
punish the City of Washington by the removal of the Capitol, if the jury,
by their verdict, did not come up to the high standard erected for them.
And, lastly, it appeared in the charge of the Judge, which is a model of
what a one-sided charge ought to be. It opens with the words of the Old
Testament: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
Then follows a sneer at the "sentimental philosophers," who were opposed
to capital punishment. Then the Court inveighs against some imaginary
advocates, who argued that to kill a king was a greater crime than to kill
a president; and then casts an imputation upon the integrity of the
decision in the Milligan Case, as "predicated upon a misapprehension of
historic truth," and that therefore "we could not perhaps have looked for
a more rightful deduction," "all loyal hearts" being "unprepared for such
an announcement." The Judge, then, holds that the Court will take judicial
cognizance that the crime charged was the murder of the President of the
United States, and a more heinous offense than the murder of a simple
individual. He, then, complacently sets aside the rule of Sir Matthew
Hale, implicitly followed since, as he himself admits, by "writers and