THE GOVERNMENT WITNESSES AGAINST DAVIS AND HIS ASSOCIATES IN THIS CRIME.
Inasmuch as the testimony given above so completely sustains the charge
and specifications made by the government against Jefferson Davis,
George N. Sanders, Jacob Thompson, Beverly Tucker, Clement C. Clay,
William C. Cleary, _et al_, that had they been before the Commission
their successful defense could only have been made by impeachment of
the witnesses against them, I will now show that this could not have
been done. The principal witnesses in this department of the trial, in
which the Commission was only used as a medium through which to present
to the world, before whom the charges were made, the evidence on which
they rested, were Richard Montgomery, Sanford Conover, and Dr. James
B. Merritt. Richard Montgomery was originally a citizen of the city of
New York, and was in the employ of the government in its department
of secret service. He was sent to Canada, in the summer of 1864, to
acquire information of the plans and purposes of the rebels assembled
in Canada.
He acted faithfully toward the government in this service, imparting to
it all the information he obtained from time to time that was of any
importance.
He was a man of intelligence, good character, and was trusted by the
government. There was no attempt made before the Commission to impeach
his character for credibility. Of course the purpose of his mission to
Canada required him to gain the confidence of the men whose movements
he had been sent to watch, and a knowledge of whose plans and purposes
it was his duty to obtain. To do this it was necessary not only that
he should conceal from them his real character and mission, but that
he should be known to them as a man holding the same opinions and
actuated by the same purposes as themselves. To gain fully their
confidence was necessary to the success and usefulness of his mission.
This he could only do by making them believe that his sentiments
and purposes were in unison with their own. Of course this involved
duplicity and falsehood, yet it is held to be allowable in war, because
it may be made to contribute to success. A great deal of the strategy
in war consists in deceiving the enemy; and if it is ever allowable
by falsehood to deceive, it was certainly allowable by falsehood to
deceive those who were playing false to their government to accomplish
its overthrow. They were secretly concocting their schemes for the
accomplishment of this purpose; and to be forearmed against them, it
was necessary to be forewarned of them. This could only be done by this
kind of deception, which is the same in its nature as that practiced
by every spy. But spies are used by both parties to the conflict in
every war. War is in its very nature atrociously wicked; and so, its
ethics cannot be made to conform to the accepted morality that ought
to govern peaceful life. But whilst war is wicked and ought never to
be provoked, it is yet justifiable when it becomes necessary to the
preservation of the life of a nation. Upon the aggressor in this case
the responsibility belongs. On him the guilt falls. A defensive war is
always justifiable; and so, according to the code of military ethics,
everything that is necessary to its successful prosecution is also
justifiable. This secret service department has always been considered
one of these indispensable necessities; and it has never been regarded
as a just ground of impeachment of a man's character for truthfulness
and honesty that he has been found engaged in this kind of service.
Indeed the very nature of the duties of this service call for a man of
sterling integrity, in order that the information obtained through him
may have the quality of reliability.
That Richard Montgomery succeeded fully in gaining the confidence of
these Canada rebels is shown by the fact that they made him a medium
of communication between themselves and the Richmond government. His
character is further shown by the fact that when they paid him one
hundred and fifty dollars for carrying despatches to Richmond he
credited the government with it on his expense account. And that he
acted faithfully in the discharge of his duties to his government is
shown by the fact that he always submitted the despatches sent by
him to the authorities at Washington, where copies of them were kept
when they were allowed to pass. This is sufficient evidence that he
was in a position to learn the facts to which he testified, and also
presumptive evidence of the credibility of his statements. The force of
his evidence could only have been broken by undoubted proof that he was
a man that could not be believed under oath.
Dr. James B. Merritt was a native of Canada by accident, having been
born there whilst his parents were there on a visit, but had been all
his life a citizen of the State of New York. He went to Canada in the
spring of 1864, and practiced his profession at Windsor and Dumfries.
He passed amongst the rebels in Canada as a sympathizer of the Southern
cause, and was accepted by them as a good rebel, and was fully taken
into their confidences. They talked freely to him, and revealed their
plans to him without hesitation or reserve. His testimony, as we
have seen, is very specific, and relates to facts of the greatest
importance. He testified that his sympathies had always been with his
government, and that his object in dissembling in his intercourse with
the Canada rebels was to be able to impart information to the United
States government when he deemed it of sufficient importance to justify
or require its communication.
That he did thus voluntarily, and without compensation, furnish
valuable information to the government was shown. He had thus
communicated to the Provost Marshal at Detroit the plot to burn New
York City. It was also shown that he had made an effort to communicate
the knowledge he had obtained, after the meeting of the 6th of April,
at which John H. Surratt delivered to Thompson the despatches he had
brought from Richmond, as to the parties starting from Canada to
Washington to assist in the work of assassination. There was sufficient
evidence of his loyalty and usefulness to the government, and his
credibility was not assailed. He was a self-constituted secret service
man, working without compensation, and so entitled to all the more
honor.
Sanford Conover, known to the conspirators as James Watson Wallace,
was born and educated in New York City. He had been living in the
South for five or six years when the rebellion broke out, and was
conscripted into the rebel service from near Columbia, S.C., early
in 1863, but was detailed and served as a clerk in the rebel war
department at Richmond for six months. His sympathies being on the side
of the Union, he embraced the first good opportunity he could find
to desert, and ran the blockade from Richmond, walking most of the
way. He rode on the cars as far as Hanover Junction, and then walked
up through Snickersville to Charlestown, and from there to Harper's
Ferry, and so on to Washington, reaching there in the latter part of
December, 1863. Whilst in Washington he became a correspondent of the
New York _Tribune_, and went to Canada in that capacity in October,
1864. He testified that he received compensation from the _Tribune_ for
his services as correspondent, but had never received anything from
either the United States or the Confederate government, and that his
sympathies had always been with the Union cause. The fact that he was
not willing to remain in the safe and easy position of a clerk in the
rebel war department, but chose rather to take the hazard of deserting,
fully confirms his sworn statements as to his political sympathies. He
also was a self-constituted secret service agent of the United States,
serving without pay. He seems to have been peculiarly successful in
working himself into the confidence of Davis's agents in Canada, who
admitted him to their conferences and revealed fully and freely to him
all of their plans. His testimony is specific and conclusive as to
their guilt. After he had testified before the Commission he was sent
back to Canada by the Judge Advocate General to get the official report
of the St. Albans trial, to be used in evidence. Arriving in Montreal,
he was received in the most friendly manner by the conspirators,
who had not the least idea that he had been a witness before the
Commission, and so they went on with their confidences as to what they
would yet do, declaring they were not done yet, etc. But after he
had been there a day or two, his testimony, which had hitherto been
withheld, was published in the New York papers, and this revealed to
them the fact that Sanford Conover was their James Watson Wallace.
Of course they were like demons in their rage when they saw that he had
revealed all of their doings. He was at once virtually made a prisoner
by twelve or fifteen men armed to the teeth, who confronted him with
his testimony before the Commission. Conover found himself suddenly
and unexpectedly placed in a situation of great difficulty and danger,
escape being impossible, and so he denied that he had been before the
Commission as a witness.
They then required him to make a denial under oath, and set a lawyer
at work to put this disavowal in the most imposing shape, whilst they
sent for an officer to administer the oath, informing Conover that he
must appear to the officer not only to be willing, but anxious to swear
to this disclaimer, in which they make him say he had been personated
before the Commission by some infamous scoundrel, who had sworn to a
tissue of falsehoods, and telling him that if he manifested the least
hesitation or unwillingness his life would pay the forfeit. He at
first, in order to get away from them, proposed that he would go to the
hotel and prepare the paper that they required. O'Donnell told him that
would not do, and that he would shoot him down like a dog if he did
not do as they required. Conover still declining, Sanders said to him,
"Wallace, you see what kind of hands you are in; I hope you will not be
so foolish as to refuse." Seeing there was no other way of escape from
them, Conover finally did what they required. They then had a lawyer,
by the name of Kerr, to write out and sign and be qualified to a very
formal affidavit covering the whole case, to the effect that he was
present and saw Conover swear to the disavowal referred to, and that
he did it willingly, and appeared anxious to do so, in justice to his
own character. These affidavits they at once published to the world
through the Canada papers, and with them also published the following
advertisement, as if from Conover:--
Five hundred dollars reward will be given for the arrest, so
that I can bring to punishment, in Canada, of the infamous and
perjured scoundrel who recently personated me under the name of
Sanford Conover, and deposed to a tissue of falsehoods before
the Military Commission at Washington.
JAMES W. WALLACE.
They also wrote and published over his name, as if from him, the
following letter:--
_To the Editor of the Evening Telegraph:--_
Sir:--Please publish my affidavit now handed you, and the
subjoined advertisement. I will obtain and furnish others for
publication hereafter. I will add that if President Johnson
will send me a safe conduct to go to Washington and return
here, I will proceed thither and go before the military court
and make _profert_ of myself, in order that they may see
whether or not I am the Sanford Conover who swore as stated.
MONTREAL, June 8th, 1865.
JAMES W. WALLACE.
Conover not returning to Washington at the time he was expected, it was
realized that he had been put in jeopardy by the premature publication
of his testimony, and so it became the duty of the United States to
follow him with its protecting arm, and he was rescued through the
intervention of General Dix.
Being thus rescued, he came again before the Commission and testified
circumstantially to all of the above facts, and thus exposed the
effort of the conspirators to break the force of his testimony by an
affidavit extorted by violence whilst he was virtually a prisoner, and
supported by that of Kerr, who may not have known that he testified to
a falsehood, as the coercion was used before he was sent for, and still
held over the head of Conover by the threat that if he manifested the
least hesitation or unwillingness before Kerr his life would pay the
forfeit. The testimony of Conover as to the circumstances under which
this affidavit was extorted from him, was substantiated, as also his
character, by Nathan Auser, who testified as follows:--
"I reside in New York, and am acquainted with Sanford Conover, who has
just testified. I have known him eight or ten years; his character
for integrity and usefulness is good as far as I know. I recently
accompanied him to Montreal, in Canada, and was present at an interview
which he had with Beverly Tucker, George N. Sanders, and that clique of
rebel conspirators.
"After we went into O'Donnell's room, at Montreal, Mr. Cameron gave
each of us a paper containing the evidence Mr. Conover gave here in
Washington before the Commission, when he denied it. They told him he
must sign a written paper to that effect, and if he did not he would
not leave the room alive. O'Donnell said that he would shoot him like
a dog if he did not. Mr. Conover was first going to his hotel to write
the paper; at first they agreed to this, but when they got as far as
St. Lawrence Hall they made up their minds they would not let him do
this himself, and when they went upstairs at St. Lawrence Hall they
would not let me go up. There were, I think, twelve or fifteen of the
conspirators together; among them Sanders, Tucker, O'Donnell, General
Carroll, Pallen, and Cameron. They all accompanied him for the purpose
of preventing his escape and obliging him to do what they required."
Thus was their attempt to break the force of Conover's testimony by
fraud and violence exposed, and they were left in a more pitiable
condition than if they had not made the effort. Conover stands in a
better light as a witness than he did before it was made.
The question will naturally suggest itself to the intelligent reader,
why, if these men knew of the purpose and preparations referred to as
the result of the reception of the despatches from Richmond at the
hands of Surratt, did they not inform the authorities at Washington?
Accepting the fact that they had all the knowledge on this subject
which is implied in their testimony, and that they were loyal to the
government, as they declared themselves to be under oath, this would
seem plainly to have been their duty.
The counsel for the defense were not slow to perceive this fact, and
sought to weaken their standing before the Commission by asking them
this very question. The answers elicited, however, only served to
strengthen their testimony. In answer, Dr. Merritt stated as follows:
"On Saturday the 8th of April I was at Galt, five miles from which
place Harper's mother lives, and I ascertained there that Harper and
Caldwell had stopped there and had started for the States. When I found
they had left for Washington, probably for the purpose of assassinating
the President, I went to Squire Davidson, a justice of the peace, to
give information and have them stopped.
"He said that the thing was too ridiculously or supremely absurd
to take any notice of; it would only appear foolish to give such
information and cause arrests to be made on such grounds; it was so
inconsistent that no person would believe it; and he declined to issue
any process. I then called upon the judge of the court of assizes,
made my statement to him, and he said I should have to go to the grand
jury."
In his answer it is made to appear that Dr. Merritt made an earnest
effort to have this information imparted to the government, and did all
that we can reasonably think that he ought to have done.
His testimony is corroborated by that of Squire Davidson, who made a
statement to the government after the assassination, of this interview
that Merritt had sought with him and of the purpose of it; and it
was upon this information that Dr. Merritt was brought before the
Commission as a witness.
In answer to this question, Conover testified as follows: "I
communicated to the New York _Tribune_ the contemplated assassination
of the President, and the intended raid on Ogdensburg. The
assassination plot they declined to publish because they had been
accused of publishing sensational stories. The assassination plot I
communicated in March last, and also in February, I think,--certainly
before the 4th of March. My reasons for communicating the intended
assassinations to the _Tribune_, and not directly to the government,
was that I supposed that the relations between the editor and
proprietor of the _Tribune_ and the government were such that they
would lose no time in giving information on the subject. In regard
to the conspiracy, as well as to some other secrets of the rebels in
Canada, I requested Mr. Gay, of the _Tribune_, to give information to
the government, and I believe he has formerly done so."
Here again we find that the witness Conover fulfilled his duty, which,
under the circumstances in which his testimony places him in regard
to the matter, any reasonable man could have required of him. And his
position was also strengthened before the Commission by the answer
elicited.
Lewis F. Bates, who testified as to Jefferson Davis's remarks to his
auditors on reading to them the telegram from General Breckinridge,
informing him of the assassination of the President, etc., and of
his remarks to General Breckinridge on the following day at the
dinner table, was a resident of Charlotte, N.C., where he had been
for a little over four years. He was superintendent of the Southern
Express Company for the State of North Carolina. He was a native of
Massachusetts. The responsible position in which we find him vouches
for his standing as a reliable man amongst those who knew him. His
character was further established before the Commission by the
testimony of a witness who was acquainted with him, James E. Russell,
as follows: "I reside in Springfield, Mass. I have known Lewis F. Bates
for about twenty-five years. For the last five years I have not known
anything of his whereabouts, until I learned from him that he had been
living in Charlotte, N.C. He was in business as a baggage-master on the
Western Railroad, Massachusetts, while I was conductor, and I never
heard anything against his reputation for truth."
Burton N. Harrison, private secretary to Jefferson Davis, in an article
entitled, "An Extract from a Narrative, written not for publication,
but for the entertainment of my children only," published in the
_Century Magazine_, New Series, Vol. V., pp. 136 and 137, says: "In
pursuance of the scheme of Stanton and Holt to fasten upon Mr. Davis
charges of a guilty foreknowledge of, and participation in, the murder
of Mr. Lincoln, Bates was afterwards carried to Washington and made to
testify (before the military tribunal, I believe, where the murderers
were on trial) to something about that speech [referring to Davis's
speech at Charlotte, N.C.]. As I recollect the reports of the testimony
published at the time, they made the witness say that Mr. Davis had
approved of the assassination, either explicitly or by necessary
implication; and that he added, 'If it was to be done it is well it was
done quickly,' or words to that effect. If any such testimony was given
it is false and without foundation; no comment upon or reference to the
assassination was made in that speech. I have been told the witness has
always stoutly insisted he never testified to anything of the kind, but
that what he said was altogether perverted in the publication made by
the rascals in Washington. Col. William Preston Johnston tells me he
has seen another version of the story, and thinks Bates is understood
to have fathered it in a publication made in some newspaper after his
visit to Washington; it represents Bates as saying that the words above
mentioned as imputed to Mr. Davis were used by him, not, indeed, in
the speech I have described, but in a conversation with Johnston at
Bates's house. Johnston assures me that, in that shape, too, the story
is false; that Mr. Davis never used such words in his presence, or
any words at all like them. He adds that Mr. Davis remarked to him at
Bates's house, with reference to the assassination, that Mr. Lincoln
would have been much more useful to the Southern States than Andrew
Johnson, the successor, was likely to be; and I myself heard Mr. Davis
express the same opinion at that period." On p. 145, same article, he
says: "It was at that cavalry camp we first heard of the proclamation
offering one hundred thousand dollars for the capture of Mr. Davis upon
the charge, invented by Stanton and Holt, of participation in the plot
to murder Mr. Lincoln. Colonel Pritchard had himself just received it,
and considerately handed a printed copy of the proclamation to Mr.
Davis, who read it with a composure unruffled by any feeling other than
scorn. The money was several years afterwards paid to the captors.
Stanton and Holt, lawyers both, very well knew that Mr. Davis could
never be convicted upon an indictment for treason, but were determined
to hang him anyhow, and were in search of a pretext for doing so."
And again in conclusion he says, "To have been a prisoner in the
hands of the government of the United States, and not to have been
brought to trial upon any of the charges against him, is sufficient
refutation of them all. It indicates that the people in Washington
knew the accusations could not be sustained." Had Mr. Harrison adhered
to his original purpose of simply entertaining his children with this
article it would have been much to his credit. It seems, however, that
upon reading and re-reading it he came to regard it as too clever a
production, and of too much public importance, to be restricted to so
narrow a sphere, and so he publishes this lengthy extract from it in
the _Century_. The article, as it appears in the _Century_, is mostly
devoted to an account of the flight of Mr. Davis and his family from
Richmond, and their progress southward until captured.
We have simply extracted from this article that part which from the
nature of the subject claims our attention, as it relates to the
testimony of Lewis F. Bates before the Commission. Let us first notice
Mr. Harrison's assumption that Secretary Stanton and General Holt had
concocted a scheme to fasten on Jefferson Davis a guilty complicity in
the murder of Mr. Lincoln. This charge Mr. Harrison makes with brazen
effrontery, but does not bring a scintilla of evidence to sustain it.
Here are two high officers of the government,--the Secretary of War,
and the head of the Department of Military Justice,--men of unsullied
personal and official reputation, charged with concocting a scheme to
take the life of Jefferson Davis on a trumped-up charge, and sustained
by false testimony. The Secretary of War, as was his duty, employed
every agency in his power to ferret out the conspirators, and in the
progress of his investigations turned over to the Judge Advocate
General all the facts that came to his knowledge, together with the
names of the persons by whom they could be proven. These persons were
brought before the Judge Advocate and carefully examined as to what
they knew, and so became witnesses before the Commission, when they
were found to have knowledge of facts bearing on the great crime that
had been committed.
That any witness was in any manner coerced, or required to render
testimony that had been prepared for him by these officers as charged,
will only be believed by those who are ignorant of the personal
and official character of these noble, patriotic, men, or those
who, like Mr. Harrison, are willing to thus calumniate on their own
responsibility. That Mr. Bates was testifying under any manner of
duress will not be believed by any member of the Commission who is yet
living, and who can recall the appearance and manner of the witness
in giving his testimony. He was evidently telling just what he had
seen and heard, and did it willingly. The charge of Mr. Harrison, that
Bates was carried to Washington and made to testify, rests simply on
the authority of Mr. Burton N. Harrison, whilom private secretary to
Jefferson Davis, unsustained by any evidence.
The evidence given by Bates was taken down, as delivered, by a
stenographer, and read to him before he was discharged, and its
correctness admitted by him, as witnessed by his signature. This
testimony was published in the newspapers, and also in the official
record of the trial. What excuse, then, can Mr. Harrison give for
quoting it as he recollected it, and so failing to give anything like a
correct version of his testimony?
The testimony of Bates was that Mr. Davis, whilst addressing the people
from the steps of Bates's house, received a telegram from General
Breckinridge informing him of the assassination of President Lincoln,
and that an attempt had been made on the life of William H. Seward,
and that he was repeatedly stabbed and probably mortally wounded,
and that in concluding his speech he read the telegram aloud, and
made this remark, "If it were to be done it were better it were well
done." The witness added, "I am quite sure that these are the words he
used." And again, "A day or two afterward Jefferson Davis and John C.
Breckinridge were present at my house, when the assassination of the
President was the subject of conversation. In speaking of it, John C.
Breckinridge remarked to Davis that he regretted it very much, that it
was very unfortunate for the people of the South at that time. Davis
replied, 'Well, General, I don't know; if it were to be done at all,
it were better that it were well done, and if the same had been done
to Andy Johnson, the beast, and to Secretary Stanton, the job would
then be complete.' No remark was made at all as to the criminality
of the act, and from the expression used by John C. Breckinridge I
drew the conclusion that he simply regarded it as unfortunate for
the people of the South at that time." Here is Bates's testimony as
it stands recorded, and was also published at the time.[6] Why did
not Mr. Harrison address himself to this testimony instead of giving
his version of it from memory, and confounding it with newspaper
reports as to what Bates claimed to have been his testimony, and thus
finding an opportunity to substitute Col. William P. Johnston for
General Breckinridge, thus contradicting it through Johnston? General
Breckinridge was the only man who could have contradicted Bates's
testimony. If he ever did do this it has not come to the knowledge
of the writer. Bates's testimony cannot be set aside in the manner
attempted by Mr. Harrison.
The charge made by the government on that trial against Jefferson Davis
of inciting and encouraging the assassins, implicating him thus far in
the murder of Mr. Lincoln, was only made upon the evidence before it,
and which we have already presented at length.
It was not a trumped-up charge for the purpose of gratifying malice, or
with a view to the taking of the life of Mr. Davis unjustly in revenge,
but a charge made in good faith, and sustained by evidence that has
never been overthrown.
The conclusion of Mr. Harrison, that the government conceded that its
charge against Mr. Davis was unfounded in that it did not prosecute it
when it had him in custody as a prisoner, is a _non sequitor_.
The rebellion was declared to be at an end shortly after the trial
of the assassins. The proclamation of martial law ceased with the
proclamation of peace. Civil law took the place of martial law with
the issuance of the proclamation that the rebellion was at an end.
The work of reconstruction belonged to the political department of
the government, and the benign policy of condoning the past, and only
securing guarantees for the future was wisely adopted; this security is
found in the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, and illustrates
the tempering of justice with mercy as had never been before done in
the history of the race. It can never be claimed that the government
abandoned its charge made against any of these parties because it did
not bring them to trial when it had it in its power to do so. The
charges as made have never been withdrawn. They stand in the records
of that trial, and the evidence on which the charges were based has
been presented to the world and the question of the guilt or innocence
of the parties has been referred to the decision of an enlightened and
impartial public sentiment and to the judgment of the world.
But we will now consider the credibility of this testimony from another
standpoint. Here we have three witnesses,--Conover, Montgomery, and
Merritt,--strangers to each other, testifying as to the facts known
to each one separately, and they completely corroborate each other.
There could have been no possible collusion, and yet their testimony
is the same. It is, as it were, the continued story of one man,
who is consistent with himself at every point. The purposes of the
conspirators and their plans through a period of several months are
the same, whether they come to us through Conover, Montgomery, or
Merritt. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The
assassination plot was that which engrossed their thoughts. They were
continually scheming for its accomplishment; it was the thing dear to
their hearts and was the constant theme of their tongues.
The witnesses corroborate each other in showing that this was the case.
In regard to the fact testified to by both Montgomery and Merritt,
that the conspirators stated they were destroying their papers, we
have the additional testimony of George B. Hutchinson, who testified
as follows: "On the 2d of June, and on the morning of the 3d, 1865, I
saw Dr. Merritt in conversation with Beverly Tucker, at St. Lawrence
Hall, in Montreal. I heard Beverly Tucker say in reply to a remark of
Dr. Merritt, that he had burned all the letters for fear that some
'Yankee son of a b--h' might steal them out of his room and use them in
testimony against him. They were at the time speaking about this trial,
and the charges against them. They were talking to Dr. Merritt as to
one to whom they gave their confidence."
Who, in the light of all the facts given in this testimony, which
fulfills all the conditions, on down to the crucial test of
credibility--that of the concurrence of three witnesses, who were
entire strangers to each other, in the statement of all the essential
facts--can doubt that all these men implicated in the charge and
specifications preferred by the government were equally guilty
with John H. Surratt and John Wilkes Booth of the assassination
accomplished, and that attempted; as, also, of the others planned. It
matters not that for good and sufficient reasons they were never called
to account by the government, when it had it in its power to do so;
they yet stand, and must forever stand, condemned by an intelligent and
candid world. If their guilt is not proven I do not see how it would be
possible to prove anything.