Chapter 9
The Trials of the Assassins
by Documentary Evidence
ARGUMENT OF JOHN A. BINGHAM, Special Judge Advocate.
IN REPLY TO THE SEVERAL ARGUMENTS IN DEFENSE OF MARY E. SURRATT AND
OTHERS, CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY AND THE MURDER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, LATE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC.
"May it please the Court: The conspiracy here charged and specified and
the acts alleged to have been committed in pursuance thereof, and with
the intent laid, constitute a crime, the atrocity of which has sent a
shudder through the civilized world. All that was agreed upon and
attempted by the alleged inciters and instigators of this crime
constitutes a combination of atrocities with scarcely a parallel in the
annals of the human race. Whether the prisoners at your bar are guilty
of the conspiracy and the acts alleged to have been done . . . as set
forth in the charge and specification, is a question, the determination
of which rests solely with this honorable court, and in passing upon
which, this court are the sole judges of the law and the fact.
"In presenting my views upon the questions of law raised by the several
counsel for the defense, and also on the testimony adduced for and
against the accused, I desire to be just to them, just to you, just to
my country, and just to my own convictions. The issue joined involves
the highest interests of the accused, and, in my judgment, the highest
interests of the whole people of the United States . . . . A wrongful
and illegal conviction, or a wrongful and illegal acquittal upon this
dread issue, would
impair somewhat the security of every man's life,
and shake the stability of the Republic.
"The crime charged and specified upon your record is not simply the
crime of murdering a human being, but it is a crime of killing and
murdering on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1865, within the Military
Department of Washington and the entrenched lines thereof, Abraham
Lincoln, then President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy there; and then and there assaulting with intent to
kill and murder, Wm. H. Seward, then Secretary of State of the United
States; and then and there lying in wait to kill and murder Andrew
Johnson, the Vice President of the United States, and Ulysses S. Grant,
then Lieutenant General and in Command of the Army of the United
States, in pursuance of a treasonable conspiracy entered into by the
accused with one John Wilkes Booth, and John H. Surratt, upon the
instigation of Jefferson Davis, Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, George
N. Sanders and others, with intent thereby to aid the existing
Rebellion and subvert the Constitution and laws of the United States.
"The Government in preferring this charge, does not indict the whole
people of any State or section, but only the alleged parties to this
unnatural and atrocious crime. The President of the United States in
the discharge of his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and by
virtue of the power invested in him by the Constitution and laws of the
United States, has constituted you a military court, to hear and
determine the issue joined against the accused, and has constituted you
a court for no other purpose whatever. To this charge and specification
the defendants have pleaded first, that this court has no jurisdiction
in the premises; and, secondly, not guilty."
After a careful covering of every point raised by the defense,
embellished with numerous citations of legal authorities and court
decisions as to both of the points raised by the defense, the Judge
Advocate continues:
"It only remains for me to sum up the evidence and present my views of
the law arising upon the facts in the case on trial. The questions of
fact involved in the issue are:
"First, did the accused, or any two of them, confederate and conspire together as charged?—and
"Second, did the accused, or any of them, in pursuance of such
conspiracy, and with the intent alleged, commit either or all of the
several acts specified?
"If the conspiracy be established, as laid, it results that whatever
was said or done by either of the parties in the furtherance or
execution of the common design in the declaration or act of all the
other parties of the conspiracy; and this whether the other parties, at
the time such words were uttered, or such acts done by their
confederates, were present or absent—here, within the entrenched lines
of your Capitol, or crouching behind the entrenched lines of Richmond,
or awaiting the results of their murderous plot against their country,
in Canada . . . . The same rule obtains in cases of treason. A
conspiracy is rarely if ever proved by positive testimony. When a crime
of high magnitude is about to be perpetrated by a combination of
individuals, they do not act openly, but covertly and secretly. The
purpose formed is known only to those who enter into it . . . . Unless
one of the original conspirators betray his companions and give
evidence against them, their guilt can be proved only by circumstantial
evidence."
During the course of Judge Advocate Bingham's address the influence of
the Jesuit theology showed up in his reference to Jacob Thompson, one
of the conspirators referred to, who was a leader in the group of
Confederates of Montreal. when he said:
"In speaking of this assassination of the President and others, Jacob
Thompson said that it was only removing them from office, that the
killing of a tyrant was no murder."
Emanuel Sa, a Jesuit authority, said, "The tyrant is illegitimate; and any man whatever of the people has a right to kill him. (Uniquis-que de populo potest ocoidere.)" But note this bit of evidence referred to by the distinguished lawyer:
"Dr. Merritt testified further that after this meeting in Montreal he
had a conversation with Clement Clay in Toronto about the letter from
Jefferson Davis which Sanders had exhibited and in which conversation
Clay gave the witness to understand that he knew the nature of the
letter perfectly and remarked that he thought, 'The end would justify
the means.' The witness also testified to the presence of Booth with
Sanders in Montreal last fall and of Surratt in Toronto in February
last."
The above is certainly proof positive of Jesuit influence. Continuing below record shows:
"John Wilkes Booth having entered into this conspiracy in Canada, as
has been shown, as early as October, he is next found in the City of
New York on the 11th day, as I claim of November, in disguise, in
conversation with another, the conversation disclosing to the witness,
Mrs. Hudspeth, that they had some matter of personal interest between
them; that up on one of them the lot had fallen to go to Washington . .
. upon the other to go to Newbern. This witness upon being shown the
photograph of Booth swears that "the face is the same" that of one of
the men, who, she says, was a young man of education and culture, as
appeared by his conversation, and who had a scar like a bite near the
jawbone. It is a fact proved here by the Surgeon General that Booth had
such a scar on the side of his neck."
It was this witness that found the letter on the floor of the car which
Booth dropped and which was transmitted from her to the War Department
on November 17th, 1864. The letter was delivered to President Lincoln,
who after having read it wrote the word Assassination
across it, and filed it in his office where it was found after his
death and was placed in evidence as a court exhibit. The letter reads
as follows:
"Dear Louis:
The time has come at last that we have all so wished for, and upon you
everything depends. As it was decided, before you left, we were to cast
lots, we accordingly did so, and you are to be the Charlotte Corday of
the Nineteenth Century. When you remember the fearful solemn vow that
was taken by us, you will feel there is no drawback. Abe must die, and
now. You can choose your weapons, the cup, the knife, the bullet. The
cup failed us once and might again. Johnson who will give this has been
like an enraged demon since the meeting, because it has not fallen to
him to rid the world of a monster . . . . You know where to find your
friends. Your disguises are so perfect and complete that without one
knew your face no police telegraphic dispatch would catch you. The
English gentleman, Harcourt, must not act hastily. Remember, he has ten
days. Strike for your home: strike for your country; bide your time,
but strike sure. Get introduced; congratulate him; listen to his
stories (not many more will the brute tell to earthly friends;) do
anything but fail, and meet us at the appointed place within the
fortnight. You will probably hear from me in Washington. Sanders is
doing us no good in Canada.
Chas. Selby."
And we quote again from Judge Bingham:
"Although this letter would imply that the assassination spoken of was
to take place speedily, yet the party was to bide his time . . . . This
letter declares that Abraham Lincoln must die and now, meaning as soon
as the agents can be employed and the work done. 'To that end you will
bide your time.'
"Even Booth's co-conspirator, Payne, now on his trial . . . says Booth
had just been to Canada. 'Was filled with a mighty scheme and was lying
in wait for agents.' Booth asked the co-operation of the prisoner and
said, 'I will give you as much money as you want; but you must swear to
stick to me. It is in the oil business.' This you are told by the
accused was early in March last . . . . In the latter part of November,
1864, Booth visits Charles county, Maryland, and is in company with one
of the prisoners, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, with whom he lodged over night,
and through whom he procures of Gardner one of the several horses which
were at his disposal and used by him and his co-conspirator in
Washington on the night of the assassination.
"Some time during December last it is in the testimony that the
prisoner Mudd introduced Booth to John H. Surratt and the witness
Weichmann; that Booth invited them to the National Hotel; that when
there in the room to which Booth took them, Mudd went out into the
passage, called Booth out and had a private conversation with him,
leaving the witness and Surratt in the room. Upon their return to the
room, Booth went out with Surratt and upon their coming in all
three—Booth, Surratt and Samuel A. Mudd went out together and had a
conversation in the passage, leaving Weichmann alone. Up to the time of
this interview it seems that neither the witness or Surratt had any
knowledge of Booth as they were then introduced to him by Dr. Mudd.
Whether Surratt had previously known Booth it is not important to
inquire. Mudd deemed it necessary, perhaps a wise precaution, to
introduce Surratt to Booth; he also deemed it necessary to have a
private conversation with Booth shortly afterwards. Had this
conversation, no part of which was heard by Weichmann, been perfectly
innocent, it is not to be presumed that Dr. Mudd, who was an entire
stranger to the witness, would have deemed it necessary to hold the
conversation secretly, nor to have volunteered to tell the witness, or
rather pretend to tell him what the conversation was . . . . And if it
was necessary to withdraw and talk by themselves secretly, about the
sale of a farm, why should they disclose the fact to the very man from
whom they had concealed it?"
As a matter of fact, the above conversation about the purchase of
Mudd's farm by Booth was merely a ruse to deceive Weichmann: The whole
conversation was talking over the shortest and safest route for flight
from the Capitol by which to reach their friends south of Washington.
A number of Dr. Mudd's slaves testified that he was absent from his home at this time which corroborated Weichmann's testimony.
We quote from the summing up of the evidence at the trials by Judge Advocate Bingham referring to O'Laughlin as follows:
"Michael O'Laughlin had come to Washington on the 13th of April, 1865,
the day preceding the assassination; had sought out his victim, General
Grant, at the house of the Secretary of War, that he might be able with
certainty to identify him, and that at the very hour when these
preparations were going on, was lying in wait at Rullman's on the
Avenue, keeping watch, and declaring as he did, at about ten o'clock
P.M. when told that that fatal blow had been struck by Booth. 'I don't
believe Booth did it.' During the day and night before he had been
visiting Booth, and doubtless encouraging him, and at the very hour was
in position, at a convenient distance to aid and protect him in his
flight, as well as to execute his own part of this conspiracy, by
inflicting death on General Grant who happily, was not at the theatre,
nor in the city, having left the city that day.
"Who doubts that Booth ascertained in the course of the day that
General Grant would not be present at the theatre. O'Laughlin who was
to murder General Grant, instead of entering the box with Booth, was
detailed to lie in wait, and watch and support him.
"His declarations of his reasons for his changing his lodgings here and
in Baltimore, so ably, and so ingeniously presented in the arguments of
his learned counsel (Mr. Cox), avail nothing before the blasting fact,
that he did change his lodgings and declared: 'He knew nothing of the
affair whatever.'
"O'Laughlin who said he was in the 'oil business' which Booth, Surratt,
Payne and Arnold, have all declared meant this conspiracy, says he
'knew nothing of the affair.' O'Laughlin, to whom Booth sent the
dispatches of the 13th and 27th of March,—O'Laughlin who is named in
Arnold's letter as one of the conspirators, and who searched for
General Grant on Thursday night, laid in wait for him on Friday, was
defeated by that Providence 'which shapes our ends,' and laid in wait
to aid Booth and Payne, declares, he 'knows nothing about the matter.'
Such a denial is as false and inexcusable as Peter's denial of our
Lord."
While these preparations were going on, Mudd was awaiting the execution
of the plot, ready to faithfully perform his part in securing the safe
escape of the murderers. Arnold was at his post at Fortress Monroe,
awaiting the meeting referred to in his letter of March 27th, wherein
he says they were not to 'Meet for a month or so,' which month had more
than expired on the day of the murder, for his letter and testimony
disclose that this month of suspensions began to run from about the
first week of March. He stood ready with the arms with which Booth had
furnished him, to aid the escape of the murderers by that route, and
secure their communication with their employers. He had given the
assurance in that letter to Booth that although the Government
"suspicioned" them, and the undertaking was becoming "complicated" yet
a time "more propitious would arrive," for the consummation of this
conspiracy in which he "was one" with Booth and when he "would be
better prepared to again be with him."
It was upon the above evidence for which O'Laughlin and Arnold were convicted and sentenced to the Dry Tortugas.
And now I will quote from the same document the summing up of the
evidence against Mary E. Surratt, for as a matter of facts tersely
stated nothing could surpass that of the Judge Advocate, John A.
Bingham.
"That Mary E. Surratt is as guilty as her son, as having thus conspired
and combined and confederated, to do this murder, in aid of this
rebellion, is clear. First, her house was the headquarters of Booth,
John Surratt, Atzerodt, Payne and Herold; she is inquired for by Payne,
and she is visited by Booth, and holds private conversations with him.
His picture together with the chief conspirator, Jefferson Davis, is
found in her house. She sends to Booth for a carriage to take her on
the 11th of April to Surrattville, for the purpose of perfecting the
arrangement deemed necessary to the successful execution of the
conspiracy, and especially to facilitate and protect the conspirators
in their escape from justice. On that occasion, Booth, having disposed
of his carriage, gives to the agent she employed (Weichmann) ten
dollars with which to hire a conveyance for that purpose. And yet the
pretense is made that Mrs. Surratt went on the 11th of April to
Surrattville on exclusively her own private and lawful business. Can
any one tell, if that be so, how it comes that she should apply to
Booth for a conveyance? And how it comes that he, of his own accord,
having no conveyance to furnish her, should send her ten dollars with
which to procure it?
"There is not the slightest indication that Booth was under the
slightest obligation to her, or that she had any claim upon him, either
for a conveyance, or for the means with which to procure one except
that he was bound to contribute, being the agent of the conspirators in
Canada and Richmond, whatever money might be necessary to the
consummation of this infernal plot. On that day, the 11th of April,
John H. Surratt had not returned from Canada with the funds furnished
him by Thompson.
"Upon that journey of the 11th, the accused. Mary E. Surratt, met with
the witness, John M. Lloyd, at Uniontown (her tenant at Surrattville).
She called him; he got out of his carriage and came to her; she
whispered to him in so low a tone that her attendant could not hear her
words, though Lloyd to whom they were spoken, did distinctly hear them,
and testifies that she told him he should have those 'shooting irons'
ready, meaning the carbines, which her son, and Herold and Atzerodt had
deposited with him, and added the reason, 'for they would soon be
called for.' On the day of the assassination, she again sent for Booth,
had an interview with him in her own house, and immediately again went
to Surrattville, and then, about six o'clock in the afternoon, she
delivered to Lloyd a field glass and told him to 'Have two bottles of
whiskey and the carbines ready, as they would be called for that
night.' Having thus perfected the arrangement, she returned to
Washington to her own house at about half past eight o'clock, to await
the final result. How could this woman anticipate on Friday afternoon
at six o'clock, that these arms would be called for, and would be
needed that night, unless she was in the conspiracy and knew the blow
was to be struck, and the flight of the assassins attempted and by that
route.
"Was not the private conversation with Booth held with her in her
parlor on the afternoon of the 14th of April, just before she left on
this business in relation to the orders she should give to have the
shooting arms ready?
"An endeavor is made to impeach Lloyd. But the Court will observe that
no witness has been called who contradicts Lloyd's statement in any
material matter; neither has his general character for truth been
assailed. How, then, is he impeached? Is it claimed that his testimony
shows that he was a party to the conspiracy? Then, it is conceded by
those who set up any such a pretense that there was a conspiracy. A
conspiracy between whom? There can be no conspiracy without the
co-operation, or agreement, between two or more persons. Who were the
other parties to it? Was it Mary E. Surratt? Was it John H. Surratt?
Was it George Atzerodt, David Herold? Those are the only persons so far
as his own testimony, or the testimony of any other witnesses
discloses, with whom he had any communication whatever on any subject
immediately or remotely touching this conspiracy before the
assassination. His receipt and concealment of the arms, are unexplained
evidence that he was in the conspiracy.
"The explanation is, that he depended on Mary E. Surratt; was her
tenant, and his declaration, given in evidence by the accused, himself,
is that: 'She had ruined him and brought this trouble upon him.' But
because he was weak enough, or wicked enough, to become the guilty
depository of these arms, and to deliver them on the order of Mary E.
Surratt, to the assassins, it does not follow, that he is not to be
believed on oath. It is said, that he concealed the fact that the arms
had been left and called for. He so testifies himself, but he gives the
reason, that he did it only from apprehension of danger to his life. If
he were in the conspiracy, his general credit being unchallenged, his
testimony being uncontradicted in any material matter, he is to be
believed, and cannot be disbelieved if his testimony is substantially
corroborated by other reliable witnesses.
"Is he not corroborated touching the deposit of arms by the fact that
the arms are produced in court, one of which was found upon the person
of Booth at the time he was overtaken and slain, and which is
identified as the same which had been left with Lloyd, by Herold,
Surratt and Atzerodt? Is he not corroborated in the fact of the first
interview with Mrs. Surratt by the joint testimony of Mrs. Offut (his
sister-in-law), and Louis J. Weichmann, each of whom testified, (and
they are contradicted by no one) that, on Tuesday, the 11th of April,
at Uniontown, Mrs. Surratt called Mr. Lloyd to come to her, which he
did, and she held a secret conversation with him? Is he not
corroborated as to the last conversation on the 14th of April by the
testimony of Mrs. Offut, who swears that upon the evening, April 14,
she saw the prisoner, Mary E. Surratt, at Lloyd's house approach and
hold conversation with him? Is he not corroborated in the fact, to
which he swears that Mrs. Surratt delivered to him at that time, the
field glass wrapped in paper, by the sworn statement of Weichmann, that
Mrs. Surratt took with her on that occasion two packages, both of which
were wrapped in paper, and one of which he describes as a small
package, about six inches in diameter? The attempt was made, by calling
Mrs. Offut, to prove that no such package was delivered, but it failed;
she merely states, that Mrs. Surratt delivered a package wrapped in
paper to her, after her arrival there, and before Lloyd came in, which
was laid down in the room. But whether it is the package about which
Lloyd testifies, or the other package, of the two about which Weichmann
testifies, as having been carried there that day by Mrs. Surratt, does
not appear. Neither does this witness pretend to say that Mrs. Surratt,
after she had delivered it to her, and the witness had laid it down in
the room, did not again take it up, if it were the same, and put it
into the hands of Lloyd. She only knows that she did not see that done;
but she did see Lloyd with a package like the one she received in the
room before Mrs. Surratt left. How it came in his possession she is not
able to state; nor that the package was that Mrs. Surratt first handed
her; nor which of the packages she afterwards saw in the hands of Lloyd.
"But there is one other fact in this case that puts forever at rest the
question of the guilty participation of the prisoner, Mrs. Surratt, in
this conspiracy and murder; and that is, that Payne who had lodged four
days in her house—who, during all of that time had sat at her table,
and who had often conversed with her—when the guilt of his great crime
was upon him, and he knew not where else he could go so safely, to find
a co-conspirator, and that he could trust none, that was not like
himself, guilty, with even the knowledge of his presence, under the
cover of darkness, after wandering for three days and nights, skulking
before the pursuing officers, at the hour of midnight found his way to
the door of Mrs. Surratt, rang the bell, was admitted, and upon being
asked, 'Whom do you want to see?' Replied, 'Mrs. Surratt.' He was then
asked by the officer Morgan, what he came at that time of night for, to
which he replied, 'To dig a gutter in the morning,' that Mrs. Surratt
had sent for him. Afterwards he said that Mrs. Surratt knew he was a
poor man and came to him. Being asked where he last worked, he replied:
'Sometimes on I street;' and where he boarded, he replied, that he had
no boarding house but was a poor man who got his living with the pick,
which he bore upon his shoulder, having stolen it from the
entrenchments of the Capital. Upon being pressed why he came there at
that time of night to go to work, he answered that he simply called to
see what time he should go to work in the morning. Upon being told by
the officer who fortunately had preceded him to this house, that he
would have to go to the Provost-Marshal's office, he moved and did not
answer, whereupon Mrs. Surratt was asked to step into the hall and
state whether she knew this man. Raising her right hand, she exclaimed:
'Before God, sir, I have not seen that man before; I have not hired
him: I do not know anything about him.' The hall was brilliantly
lighted.
"If not one word had been said, the mere act of Payne in flying to her
house for shelter, would have borne witness against her, strong as
proofs from Holy Writ. But, when she denies, after hearing his
declarations that she had sent for him, or that she had never seen him,
and knew nothing of him, when, in point of fact, she had seen him four
consecutive days, in her own house (that same house) in the same
clothing which he wore, who can resist for a moment, the conclusion
that these parties, were alike, guilty?"
And this is the woman whom the Roman hierarchy in this country is
trying to make a martyr of. Contemplate this female Jesuit, this
Leopoldine, without being asked to swear to her denial, volunteered to
lift her hand and in the name of her God, perjure herself in the
presence of those witnesses! Do you doubt that she was a lay Jesuit?
Listen. Let me quote the "Doctrine of the Jesuits" upon this point:
Under Of Lying and False Swearing in JUDICIO TEOLOGICA, Basnedi, Jesuit authority, page 278, we find:
"If you believe in an inconvertible manner, that you are commanded to lie, then lie."
Again, we quote from the Jesuit Father Stoz in Of the Tribunal of the Penitent:
"When a crime is secret, the culpability of the crime may be denied; it being understood publicly."
Continuing, Judge Bingham said:
"Mrs. Surratt had arrived at home from the completion of her part in
the plot, about half past eight in the evening. A few minutes
afterwards she was called to the parlor, and there had a private
interview with someone unseen, but whose retreating footsteps were
heard by the witness, Weichmann. This was doubtless the secret, and
last visit of John H. Surratt to his mother, who had instigated and
encouraged him to strike this traitorous and murderous blow at his
country.
"Booth proceeded to the theatre about nine o'clock in the evening, at
the same time that Atzerodt and Payne and Herold were riding the
streets, while Surratt, having parted with his mother at the brief
interview in his parlor, from which his retreating steps were heard,
was walking the Avenue (Pennsylvania) booted and spurred, and doubtless
consulting with O'Laughlin. When Booth reached the rear of the theatre,
he called Spangler to him and received from Spangler his pledge to help
him all he could, when, with Booth, he entered the theatre by the stage
door, doubtless to see that the way was clear from the box to the rear
door of the theatre, and to look upon their victim, whose erect
position they could study from the stage. After this view Booth passes
to the street in front of the theatre, where on the pavement, with
other conspirators, yet unknown, among them one described as a
low-browed villain, he awaits the appointed moment . . . . Presently,
as the hour of ten o'clock approached, one of his guilty associates
calls the time; they wait; again, as the appointed time draws nigh, he
calls the time; and finally when the fatal moment arrives, he repeats
in a louder tone 'Ten minutes past ten o'clock, ten minutes past ten
o'clock' . . . . The hour has come when the red right hand of these
murderous conspirators should strike, and the dreadful deed of
assassination be done.
"Booth at the appointed moment entered the theatre, ascended to the
dress circle, passed to the right, paused a moment looking down,
doubtless to see if Spangler was at his post, and approached the outer
door of the closed passage leading to the box, occupied by the
President, pressed it open, passed in, and closed the passage door
behind him. Spangler's bar was in its place and was readily adjusted by
Booth in the mortise, and pressed against the inner side of the door,
so that he was secure from interruption from without. He passed on to
the next door, immediately behind the President, and stopping, looks
through the aperture in the door into the President's box, and
deliberately observes the precise position of his victim seated in the
chair, which had been prepared by the conspirators, as the altar for
the sacrifice, looking calmly and quietly down upon the glad and
grateful people, whom by his fidelity he had saved from the peril which
had threatened the destruction of their government, and all they held
dear, this side of the grave, and whom he had come, upon invitation, to
greet with his presence, with the words still lingering upon his lips,
which he had uttered with uncovered head and uplifted hand, before God,
and his country, when on the fourth of last March, he took again the
oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, declaring that
he entered upon the duties of his great office 'With malice toward none
and charity for all.'
"In a moment more, strengthened by the knowledge that his conspirators
were all at their posts, seven at least of them present in the city,
two of them, Mudd and Arnold, at their appointed places, watching for
his coming, this hired assassin moves stealthily through the door, the
fastening of which had been removed to facilitate his entrance, fires
upon his victim, and the martyred spirit of Abraham Lincoln ascends to
God."
"Treason has done his worst; nor steel nor poison;
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further."
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further."
Now, I will let Judge Bingham pick up the thread of evidence by which Booth and Herold were left at the home of Dr Mudd:
". . . . They arrived early in the morning before day, and no man knows
at what hour they left. Herold rode towards Bryantown with Mudd, about
three o'clock that afternoon, in the vicinity of which place he parted
with him, remaining in the swamp, and was afterwards seen returning the
same afternoon in the direction of Mudd's house, a little before
sundown, about which time Mudd returned from Bryantown towards his
home. This village, at the time Mudd was in it, was thronged with
soldiers in pursuit of the murderers of the President, and although
great care had been taken by the defense to deny that anyone said in
the presence of Dr. Mudd, either there or elsewhere on that day, who
had committed this crime, yet it is in evidence by two witnesses, whose
truthfulness no man questions, that upon Mudd's return to his own house
that afternoon, he stated that Booth was the murderer of the president,
and Boyle, the murderer of Secretary Seward, but took care to make the
further remark that Booth had brothers, and that he did not know which
one of them had done the act.
"When did Dr. Mudd learn that Booth had brothers? And what is still
more pertinent to this inquiry, from whom did he learn that either,
John Wilkes or any of his brothers, had murdered the President?
"It is clear that Booth remained in Mudd's house until some time in the
afternoon of Saturday; that Herold left the house alone, as one of the
witnesses states, being seen to pass the window; that he alone of these
two assassins was in the company of Dr. Mudd on his way to Bryantown.
It does not appear that Herold returned to Mudd's house. It is a
confession of Dr. Mudd himself, proven by one of the witnesses that
Booth left his house on crutches and went in the direction of the
swamp. How long did he remain there, and what became of the horses that
Booth and Herold rode to his house and which were put in his stable,
are facts nowhere disclosed by the evidence. The owners testify that
they have never seen the horses since."
As a matter of fact, it afterward developed. Herold, while he and Booth
skulked in the timbers near the place of Thomas Jones, not a great way
from the road on which they could see the soldiers and searchers riding
up and down feared the horses might, by neighing, attract the attention
of the riders and be betrayed, so he led the horses a safe distance
away and shot them.
The late Brig. General T. M. Harris, a member of the military
commission which convicted the conspirators, in his great book on the
Conspiracy Trials, page 80, describes Dr. Mudd as follows:
"Mudd's expression of countenance was that of hypocrite. He had the
bump of secretiveness largely developed, and it would have taken months
of favorable acquaintanceship to have removed the unfavorable
impression made by the first scanning of the man. He had the appearance
of a natural born liar and deceiver. Mudd was a physician living on a
farm. He had a considerable number of slaves at the breaking out of the
Rebellion, most of whom had left him during the previous winter. His
father, also living in the neighborhood, was large land and slave
holder, and Mudd's disloyalty was, no doubt, of the rabid type. His
home was a place for returned Rebel soldiers and recruiting parties,
and he had a place of concealment in the pines near his house, where
they were sheltered and cared for, the doctor sending their food to
them by his slaves; and if at any time any of these parties ventured to
his house to take their meals, a slave was always placed on watch to
give notice of the approach of anyone."
Mudd not only entertained Booth a week-end in November, but he was
known to have made several trips to Washington that winter, and each
time was in conference with both Booth and Surratt. There is no doubt
that Booth's Knight of the Golden Circle signals and signs did not give
him entre to the Romanists in the community south of Washington, in
which St. Mary's Catholic Church was the center, and to which he and
Herold fled after the deed committed in Ford's Theatre.
The next damaging evidence against Dr. Mudd was when the officers
visited his house on the trail of the two fugitives and he emphatically
denied that he had any strange visitors. It was not until the third
visit, when the officers, fortified by definite facts informed him that
they would have to search the house, that he admitted the presence of
the two men, one wounded, who had been there the Saturday after the
assassination. Mrs. Mudd disappeared and in a few minutes came in
bringing the bootleg which Mudd had cut from Booth's boot when he
bandaged his leg. On the bootleg were the initials "J.W.B." written in
India ink inside. Even then neither Mudd nor his wife told an accurate
story. Both denied that they had any idea it was Booth, notwithstanding
the fact that they were well acquainted with him, and notwithstanding
that his was a personality with voice and manner that once known could
never be forgotten.
When Mudd was being taken to the Dry Tortugas after his conviction, he
admitted to the officers, who had him in charge, that he recognized
Booth and Herold the morning after the murder when he came to have his
leg dressed.
Mudd only served three years' imprisonment and was liberated with
Spangler, as was Arnold. O'Laughlin died of the Yellow Fever in an
epidemic in the prison, and Dr. Mudd rendered his professional services
so efficiently, that it was on this ground he received his discharge
from President Johnson, who had promised he would do so before retiring
from office. The liberation of these assassins of President Lincoln by
his successor, caused much sharp comment and criticism from Lincoln's
friends. It seems almost unbelievable that any sort of leniency should
have been shown to these criminals who were guilty not only of the
murder of the most distinguished American, but of high treason to their
government!
It may be interesting to the reader to know that in the book written by
Dr. Mudd's daughter, she proudly boasts of the fact that her mother is
a graduate of the Visitation Convent at Georgetown and that on
graduation her diploma was presented to her class by "Cardinal Bodini,
who was the first papal Legate to the United States."
The lady does not state, perhaps she did not know, that Cardinal
Bodini, prior to his elevation as papal Legate was known all over Italy
as the BUTCHER of Bologna,
because of the many Italian patriots he ordered put to death and that
he gave the order that the Revolutionary priest, Ugo Bassi, who was the
devoted follower of Garibaldi, should be tortured three hours before
his execution.
She neglects also to state that this was the same Cardinal Bodini, who was made to leave this country between suns by the KNOW NOTHINGS—God bless them, and all their kind!
Spangler, broken in health, returned with Dr. Mudd and made his home
with him until his death in 1875. He is buried in the cemetery, two
miles from the Mudd residence, near St. Peter's church. Dr. Mudd lies
buried in the little country graveyard connected with St. Mary's church
where he first met Booth on that bright November morning in 1864.
The body of John Wilkes Booth was given to his brother, Edwin, who had
it removed from the old penitentiary in the Arsenal grounds, where it
had been since the burial of the other four of his fellow conspirators,
by a Baltimore undertaker, assisted by a local Washington undertaking
firm, Harvey & Marr, to Baltimore, and buried in the Booth family
lot at beautiful Greenmount cemetery.
The army box labeled with Booth's name at the time of the burial was
somewhat decayed but the body was identified by the dentist who had
filled several teeth, and who had no difficulty in identifying it as
that of Booth. The skull had become detached but the jet black hair
hung in long black ringlets. Edwin Booth did not view the body but
remained close by until notified of the complete identification. He
ordered the body placed in a casket which had been provided by him and
shipped to Baltimore.
The mother of Michael O'Laughlin was given the body of her son, which
was shipped from the prison burial ground and placed in the Catholic
cemetery in Baltimore.
Next: Chapter 10 |
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