Twelve witnesses testified that they saw John H. Surratt in Washington on
the 14th of April, only one of whom had testified to that effect on the
other trial. It is curious now to discern how the memory of the
witnesses, it may be unconsciously, swerved under pressure toward the mark
of identification. The witnesses for the defense established that the
prisoner was in Elmira on the afternoon of the 13th, made it more than
probable he was there on the 14th, and almost certain he was there on the
15th. The prosecution, under the force of this proof, suddenly conceded
his presence in Elmira on the 13th, and then, by the accident of a special
train and the testimony of a ferryman whom the notorious Montgomery
unearthed in the very crisis of the emergency, contrived with much
straining to land him in Washington at 10 o'clock on the morning of the
fatal day. Any calm observer, reading the account of the trial now, can
see plainly that the truth is, the prisoner had not been in Washington
since the 3rd of April.
The production of Booth's diary by the prosecuting officers was forced
upon them by the popular indignation over its suppression before the
Military Commission; otherwise, it is clear they would not have been
guilty of such a mistake in tactics as its introduction as a part of the
case for the United States. Its opening sentences--"Until to-day nothing
was ever thought of sacrificing to our country's wrongs. For six months we
had worked to capture. But our cause being almost lost something decisive
and great must be done"--settled the question of a plot to kidnap suddenly
given up; and the testimony of Weichman indicated the hour of
abandonment.
That every conceivable effort to obtain the conviction of the prisoner was
made, and that a most formidable array of circumstances was marshalled
against him, compared to which the two disconnected pieces of evidence
which were so magnified against his mother seem weak indeed, will be
controverted by no sane person. From June 10th to August 7th--nearly two
months--the contest went on. On the last-mentioned day, which was
Wednesday, Judge Fisher delivered his remarkable charge, and a little
before noon the jury retired. At one o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday,
the 10th, after a session of three days and three nights, a communication
was received from the jury to the effect that they stood as at first,
nearly equally divided, that they could not possibly agree, and the health
of several of their numbers was becoming seriously impaired. The Court,
notwithstanding the protest of the prisoner, discharged the jury, and the
prisoner was remanded to jail.