THE CASE OF MRS. SURRATT.
So earnest and persistent have been the efforts of rebel priests,
politicians and editors to pervert public opinion in regard to the
case of Mrs. Surratt that it becomes necessary to devote some special
consideration to it even at the expense of some repetition. Immediately
after her execution a wild howl was set up by these people for the
purpose of making political capital out of the sympathy and tender
feeling which we all have for her sex. Her innocence was boldly
asserted, and the government was denounced for her execution. They
suppressed or set at naught all the evidence against her, and made
many false statements to subserve the purpose they had in view.
These efforts were only made by those who had been the enemies of
the government during the war--who had either asserted the right of
secession, or denied the right of the government to coerce (to use
their own expression) a State into submission to its authority.
[Illustration: MRS. MARY E. SURRATT.]
Because President Lincoln felt that the obligations of his official
oath required him to maintain the authority of the government and to
preserve the Union they had all through the terrible struggle in which
he was engaged been his bitter enemies. They were actuated by a spirit
of malignant hatred of the Union cause, and stood ready to oppose and
denounce every measure that the President had found necessary to the
success of his purpose and work. Their hostility to the government
was only rendered more intense by its success in putting down the
rebellion, and so they were ready to seize on this occasion, that they
might, out of it, make political capital. This effort has never been
abandoned, and the case of Mrs. Surratt continues to be worked for all
that it is worth by that portion of the Northern press that inherits
the old copperhead animus.
To fully understand the case of Mrs. Surratt we must make her
acquaintance as early as 1863. We find her at that time living at
Surrattsville, in Prince George County, Md., ten miles below Washington
City. The villa called Surrattsville consisted simply of a country
tavern owned and occupied by Mrs. Surratt. She was a widow with three
children, two sons and a daughter. The elder son had gone to Texas and
had volunteered in the rebel service. The younger son, John H. Surratt,
a young man of nineteen, had left St. Charles College in the summer
of 1861, not to volunteer as a soldier, but to engage in the secret
service of the Confederacy. There was a United States post-office at
Surrattsville; and this young man, in addition to his duties as a
Confederate spy and carrier of despatches for the rebel government,
handled Uncle Sam's mail and delivered it to his neighbors. From all
this we can readily gather the attitude of Mrs. Surratt toward the
government. On the trial of John H. Surratt, John F. Tibbetts testified
that in 1863 he was carrying the mail from Washington to Charlotte
Hall, and that he stopped at Surrattsville to deliver the mail at that
office. On one occasion, whilst waiting for the mail there, he heard
Mrs. Surratt say that she would give one thousand dollars to any one
that would kill Lincoln. He also testified that when there was a Union
victory he heard her son say in her presence that, "The d--d Northern
army and the leader thereof ought to be sent to hell."
Here we see the deep and traitorous hostility to the government of
these people who were in its service under the obligations of an
official oath. In the fall of 1864 Mrs. Surratt removed to Washington,
taking the house 541 on H Street. She rented her Surrattsville property
to a man by the name of Lloyd. What prompted this change is not known
to the writer. Her son had so won the confidence of Jefferson Davis and
Judah P. Benjamin that he had for a considerable time been entrusted
by them, not only with important despatches, but also with large sums
of money sent to their agents in Canada.[7] Indeed, this seems to have
been the only employment in which he was then engaged; and at this
time the assassination plot, as we have seen, was engaging the serious
attention both of Davis and his agents in Canada, and that both Surratt
and Booth were in the confidence of these men, though they were as yet
not personally acquainted with each other.
Booth arranged with Dr. S. A. Mudd to come to Washington to introduce
him to Surratt, which he did on the 23d day of December, 1864. Their
acquaintanceship ripened into the closest intimacy with a rapidity that
was due to a common sympathy and a common purpose. They were from that
time much together, and Booth at once became a frequent and constant
visitor at the house of Mrs. Surratt.[8] From this time on the evidence
begins to accumulate, showing her to be informed of the work in which
they were engaged, and to have fully entered into their scheme as a
helper.[9] There were a number of boarders in her house. These merely
received the ordinary civilities of personal intercourse from Booth;
but with John and his mother his intercourse was always of a private
and confidential character.
Booth's habit was to come into that house, and after the common-place
civilities to tap John on the shoulder and ask him to spare him a
moment of his time, when they would retire to an upstairs room and
remain in conference sometimes for two or three hours. In John's
absence (and he was frequently away) Booth would ask Mrs. Surratt to
grant him a private interview, which she always did. What business
could this man, who had been so recently introduced to the family,
have had that required so much and such strict privacy? Whatever it
was, Mrs. Surratt was trusted by him equally with her son. We have
now presented the state of things in that house between these parties
as shown by undisputed testimony, and will proceed to show from the
further evidence in the case what the business was that they had on
hand.
Shortly after John H. Surratt made the acquaintance of Booth, Atzerodt
became a frequent visitor at Mrs. Surratt's.[10] The first time he
came he inquired for "John H. Surratt or Mrs. Surratt." How did he know
of Mrs. Surratt in such a way that he could make her the alternative
of John? In the early part of March Payne called at the Surratt house,
and inquired for John H. Surratt, but when told that he was not at home
he asked to see Mrs. Surratt.[11] He was an entire stranger, but knew
enough, not only about John but also about his mother, to make her the
alternative in the absence of her son. He passed under the _alias_ of
Wood on this visit. Mrs. Surratt took him in for the night, and got
her boarder, Wiechmann, to take him to his room, where she had his
supper served to him. Would she thus have acted toward a stranger of
whom she knew nothing? It is not to be believed. Payne carried the key
to her hospitality in some secret sign that had been adopted by these
conspirators. Toward the last of March Payne called again, giving the
name of Payne and claiming to be a Baptist preacher. He remained in the
house this time for three days, and on one of these days was surprised
by Wiechmann coming into his room, where he found John H. Surratt and
Payne fencing with bowie-knives, and with revolvers lying on the bed;
there were also four sets of new spurs. Wiechmann spoke about what he
had seen to Mrs. Surratt, saying "that he did not like the look of
things," when she said, "Oh, you need not be disturbed about it; John
rides a good deal in the country, and has to carry these things to
protect himself."[12]
It was during this visit that Booth, Surratt, Payne, Atzerodt, Herold,
and one or two others, started out on an expedition from which they
returned under circumstances of disappointment and rage, as heretofore
recounted, and, of the import of which Mrs. Surratt was seen to have
been fully informed, as she was weeping, and declined going to her
dinner. Upon the failure of this expedition Booth went to New York and
Payne to Baltimore. The plot, however, was not abandoned; and for its
future prosecution it seemed desirable to Booth and Surratt to transfer
Payne to Washington, and that in the most secret manner, and there to
keep him hidden away until he was wanted. They procured a room for him
at the Herndon House, representing him to be a delicate gentleman, and
stipulating that his meals should be served to him in his room.[13] It
came to the knowledge of Wiechmann that Booth and Surratt had placed
some one in that house, and he was naturally curious to know whom it
was. Atzerodt let the secret out, and when Wiechmann spoke of its being
Payne who was quartered in the Herndon House, Mrs. Surratt asked him
how he knew. When he gave Atzerodt as the source of his information she
manifested some displeasure. But we are not left to infer from this
that she had been informed of the disposition that had been made of
Payne, for a night or two after that, when returning from an evening
service at St. Patrick's Church, in company with Wiechmann and three
or four young ladies, she stopped when they came to the Herndon House,
and asked the party to wait on her a few minutes whilst she should go
in and see Payne.[14] They waited on this interview for about twenty
minutes. Thus we see that she was notified of every move that was made
in preparation for the assassination.
Not only were Booth, Atzerodt, and Payne visitors at Mrs. Surratt's,
but also the notorious rebel spy and blockade runner, Mrs. Slater,
_alias_ Brown, was one of her visitors. This woman stayed all night
with her toward the latter part of March, 1865, and was accompanied by
Mrs. Surratt and her son John when she left on the next morning, Mrs.
Surratt going as far as Surrattsville, whilst her son accompanied her
to Richmond in place of a Mr. Howell whom she had expected to have
for her escort, but who had been arrested, and so Surratt took his
place.[15]
On one occasion Mrs. Surratt sent Mr. Wiechmann to Booth with a
message that she wanted to see him on private business, to which Booth
responded.
On the Tuesday before the assassination Mrs. Surratt asked Wiechmann
to drive her down to Surrattsville, and upon his consenting to do so
she sent him to Booth to request the use of his horse and buggy for the
trip. Booth told Wiechmann that he had sold his horse and buggy, but
he gave him ten dollars with which to procure one.[16] As they were
on their way down they met Mrs. Surratt's tenant, Lloyd, on the road,
when Mrs. Surratt requested Wiechmann to stop. Lloyd, recognizing her,
got out of his buggy and came to the side of Mrs. Surratt's buggy, on
which she was sitting, when she leaned her head out toward him and
conversed with him in so low a tone that Wiechmann did not hear what
was said;[17] but Lloyd testified that she told him to "have those
shooting-irons handy, as they would be called for before long." The
shooting-irons to which she referred were the two Spencer carbines
that had been carried to Surrattsville some time previous by J. H.
Surratt, Atzerodt, and Herold, and which John H. Surratt and Lloyd
had hidden away, as related heretofore. Thus we see that Mrs. Surratt
was kept posted in regard to every move that was made; that she knew
that these arms had been deposited there, the purpose for which they
had been left there, and that they would be called for soon. We can
now understand Booth's generosity in furnishing her ten dollars to
pay for a conveyance--she carried his message to Lloyd. On the day
of the assassination she again got Wiechmann to drive her down to
Surrattsville, no doubt at Booth's request, and perhaps at his expense.
She gave to Wiechmann ten dollars with which to procure a conveyance,
and as he passed out of her house on this errand he met Booth at the
front door, in the act, as it were, of ringing the door bell.[18]
When Wiechmann returned, in passing to his room, he saw Booth in the
parlor conversing with Mrs. Surratt. Booth sent by her to Lloyd, on
this occasion, a field-glass and a message to have the two carbines
ready, together with this glass and two bottles of whiskey, as they
would be called for that night. Lloyd was absent from home when they
arrived at Surrattsville, and did not return until late in the evening.
Mrs. Surratt dilly-dallied until he returned, and then snatched an
opportunity for a private interview with Lloyd in his back yard, where
he had driven. She then delivered to him the field-glass and Booth's
message to have the shooting-irons, etc., ready as they would be called
for that night, as they were, by Booth and Herold, about midnight.
Lloyd swore that this was the message which she delivered to him during
that interview in the back yard.[19]
Can any one doubt now that Mrs. Surratt was fully posted in every
particular of the assassination plot, that she was fully trusted by
Booth and her son, and was in sympathy with their purpose and willing
to do all she could in aiding its accomplishment,--that she was, in
fact, a co-conspirator?
On the night of the assassination, about three o'clock in the morning,
a party of detectives called at Mrs. Surratt's house for the purpose
of searching it to see whom they could find there, and demanded
admittance. When informed of their visit and the purpose of it by
Wiechmann, she said, "For God's sake let them in. I have been expecting
the house to be searched."[20] How many people in Washington were
expecting detectives to come that night to search their houses? Not
one who was innocent of crime. Two nights later the inmates of this
house--Mrs. Surratt, her daughter, and Miss Fitzpatrick--were put
under arrest by the military police; and whilst they were waiting for
a conveyance at near the hour of midnight the assassin Payne rang the
door bell, and was taken in and placed under arrest by the officer
in charge. When Mrs. Surratt was confronted by Payne she held up her
hand and solemnly said, "Before God I do not know him, and never saw
him."[21] It will be remembered that he had within the last three weeks
to that time stayed in her house for three days and nights, and he was
a man of such marked personality that he could not have been so easily
forgotten. The defense, in her case, attempted to account for this by
an alleged infirmity of sight, but they were unable to establish by
testimony any infirmity of sight beyond what is common to her age of
about forty-five.[22] It will be remembered that Payne had been hiding
and skulking for three days and nights, and of all the houses in
Washington her's was the only one to which he felt that he could go and
entrust the secret of his presence.
He could, under the circumstances in which he was placed, only have
given this confidence to a co-conspirator. Having now given a brief
synopsis of the testimony on which Mrs. Surratt was found guilty by
the Commission, it will be in order for my readers to form their own
conclusions as to her guilt or innocence. The writer only desires
to say that additional testimony going to show the justice of the
finding of the Commission in her case came out incidentally on the
trial of John H. Surratt, and will also be found in the affidavit of
L. J. Wiechmann, made after the military trial, in which he recounts
a number of circumstances that had escaped his memory when on the
witness stand, and which recurred to him in his subsequent reflections
on the case. The testimony of Sergeants Dye and Cooper, given on the
trial of Surratt, was that in passing Mrs. Surratt's house about ten
minutes after the murder, a lady which Dye (having seen Mrs. Surratt
at the military trial) believed to have been her, raised a window, and
thrusting her head out, asked them what was wrong down town.[23]
Here we have her sitting in her parlor at about twenty-five minutes
after ten o'clock waiting anxiously to hear some news. There was as yet
no excitement on the street to awaken curiosity. These two soldiers
believed they were the first persons to pass that house after the
assassination; the street was entirely quiet; as they passed along
they met two policemen shortly after passing the house 541, where Mrs.
Surratt lived, who had not yet heard the news; yet here was a woman
expecting to hear some news; who hailed the first passers-by after the
fatal, and evidently appointed, hour to inquire what was wrong down
town. It was also proven by a servant of good character, Susan Ann
Jackson, that she had on that night served supper in the dining-room,
after the family and boarders had left, to a man whom Mrs. Surratt
called her son, and whom this witness identified as the prisoner at the
bar.[24] We can now see why she was anxiously awaiting the news.
On the trial of Surratt a good deal of the testimony introduced to show
the existence of a conspiracy to assassinate the President, and that
the prisoner was a member of this conspiracy, implicated his mother in
it equally with himself. Most of the witnesses that had been brought
before the Commission to prove the existence of such a conspiracy, and
that Mary E. Surratt was an active member of it, were again produced
on this trial. As the witnesses Lloyd and Wiechmann were the most
important of these, their testimony being completely conclusive of the
guilt both of the the prisoner and his mother, great efforts were made
to discredit, especially, the testimony of Wiechmann; but this could
not be done by any of the methods known to the law. He stood the test
of every effort and came out unscathed from a bitter and most hostile
cross-examination that occupied a day and a half. Every effort was made
to make him contradict himself as to his present testimony in chief, as
also to his testimony given two years before at the military trial, but
without avail. No false witness could possibly have come out of such a
fiery ordeal unscathed. Truth is always consistent with itself, and one
truth is always consistent with every other correlated truth, and for
this reason a witness that keeps the truth can never be entrapped.
He was contradicted, it is true, by negative testimony as to some
points in his evidence. Persons who were in the same room with him at
the time that certain declarations were made to which he testified
swore that they did not hear them. But such testimony is of no value.
If one person in company with many others in a room were to swear that
he heard the clock strike, his testimony as to that fact could not be
discredited by that of all the others swearing that they did not hear
it strike. Positive testimony cannot be overthrown, or even shaken,
by negative. Witnesses were also brought to prove that he had made
different statements, and some to prove that he had virtually admitted
that he had testified falsely as to Mrs. Surratt, and that he had been
held under duress by certain officers of the government and required to
state in his testimony what they dictated to him. These efforts also
proved failures, as a close, scrutinizing cross-examination made it
apparent that these witnessess had been suborned, and were delivering
a cooked-up testimony. After every effort had been made that could be
devised by the ingenuity of counsels, Wiechmann stood before the court,
the jury, and the country, as an honest, conscientious, truthful man.
He was also a man of superior talent, education, and intelligence. In
short, he established a character that must challenge the admiration of
every candid mind.
The attempt was also made to overthrow Lloyd's testimony, but without
success. His testimony was assailed principally on the ground that
he was drunk when he returned to his home on that evening, the 14th
of April, when Mrs. Surratt snatched an opportunity to get a private
interview with him, by going out to him in his back yard, as soon
as he drove up, and there delivering to him the message to which
he testified, and also gave him Booth's field-glass. Lloyd himself
admitted that he was pretty drunk on that occasion, but he was not so
drunk but that he could carry out Mrs. Surratt's instructions to the
very letter. He got the carbines and all the other things and placed
them where they would be handy when called for, so that they could be
delivered without detaining the parties long when they should be called
for.[25] He was also on hand at the time they called, and ready to get
these things for them. It is evident Lloyd knew the purpose of all
this. When called on by the soldiers and detectives who were in pursuit
of Booth and Herold the next morning, he denied that there had been
anybody there during that night. He knew nothing. But when he found a
chain of ascertained facts about to fasten upon him, in great fear and
trepidation he made a clean breast of it, and told all. He then gave as
a reason for his course in denying all knowledge of the matter, that
he knew he could not tell all that he knew without implicating Mrs.
Surratt, and that he did not want to do that.
_Note and Affidavit of L. J. Wiechmann._
Col. H. L. BURNETT, _Judge Advocate_, Cincinnati, Ohio:--
COLONEL:--I stated before the Commission at Washington
that I commenced to board with Mrs. Surratt in November, 1864.
As a general thing I remained at home during the evenings, and
consequently I heard many things which were then intended to
blind me, but which now are as clear as daylight. The following
facts, which have come to my recollection since the renditon of
my testimony, may be of interest:--
AFFIDAVIT OF LOUIS J. WIECHMANN.
I once asked Mrs. Surratt what her son John had to do with
Dr. Mudd's farm; why he made himself an agent for Booth? (She
herself had told me that Booth desired to purchase Mudd's
farm.) Her reply was, that Dr. Mudd and the people of Charles
County had got tired of Booth, and that they had pushed him on
John. Before the 4th of March she was in the habit of remarking
that _something_ was going to happen to "Old Abe" which would
prevent him from taking his seat; that General Lee was going to
execute a movement which would startle the _whole world_. What
that movement was she never said. A few days after I asked her
why John brought such men as Herold and Atzerodt to the house,
and why he associated with them? "Oh, John wishes to make use
of them for his _dirty work_," was her reply. On my desiring to
know what the dirty work was, she answered that "John wanted
them to clean his horses." He had two at that time. And once,
when she sent me to Brooks, the stable keeper, to inquire about
her son, she laughed, and remarked that "Brooks considered John
H. Surratt and Booth and Herold and Atzerodt a party of young
gamblers and sports, and that she wanted him to think so."
Brooks has told me since the trial that such was actually the
case, and that at one time he saw John H. Surratt with three
one-hundred-dollar notes in his possession.
When Richmond fell and Lee's army surrendered, when Washington
was illuminated, Mrs. Surratt closed her house and wept. Her
house was gloomy and cheerless. To use her own expression,
it was "indicative of her feelings." On Good Friday I drove
her into the country, ignorant of her purpose and intentions.
We started at about half-past two o'clock in the afternoon.
Before leaving, she had an interview with John Wilkes Booth in
the parlor. On the way down she was very lively and cheerful,
taking the reins into her own hands several times and urging
on the steed. We halted once, and that was about three miles
from Washington, when, observing that there were pickets along
the road, she hailed an old farmer and wanted to know if they
would remain there all the night. On being told that they were
withdrawn about eight o'clock in the evening, she said "she was
glad to know it." On the return I chanced to make some remark
about Booth, stating that he appeared to be without employment,
and asking her when he was going to act again. "Booth is done
acting," she said, "and is going to New York very soon, never
to return." Then turning round, she remarked: "Yes, and Booth
is crazy on one subject, and I am going to give him a good
scolding the next time I see him." What that "one subject"
was Mrs. Surratt never mentioned to me. She was very anxious
to be at home at nine o'clock, saying that she had made an
appointment with some gentleman who was to meet her at that
hour. I asked her if it was Booth. She answered neither yes
nor no. When about a mile from the city, and having from the
top of a hill caught a view of Washington swimming in a flood
of light, raising her hands, she said: "I am afraid all this
rejoicing will be turned into mourning, and all this glory into
sadness." I asked her what she meant. She replied that after
sunshine there was always a storm, and that the people were
too proud and licentious, and that God would punish them. The
gentleman whom she expected at nine o'clock, on her return,
called. It was, as I afterwards ascertained, Booth's last visit
to Mrs. Surratt, and the third one that day. She was alone with
him for a few minutes in the parlor. I was in the dining-room
at the time, and as soon as I had taken tea I repaired thither.
Mrs. Surratt's former cheerfulness had left her. She was now
very nervous, agitated, and restless. On my asking her what
was the matter, she replied that she was very nervous and did
not feel well. Then looking at me, she wanted to know which
way the torch-light procession was going that we had seen on
the avenue. I remarked that it was a procession of the arsenal
employees, who were going to serenade the President. She said
that she would like to know, as she was very much interested
in it. Her nervousness finally increased so much that she
chased myself and the young ladies, who were making a great
deal of noise and laughter, to our respective rooms. When the
detectives came, at three o'clock the next morning, I rapped at
her door for permission to let them in. "For God's sake, let
them come in! I expected the house to be searched," she said.
When the detectives had gone, and her daughter, almost frantic,
cried out: "Oh, ma! Just think of that man (John Wilkes Booth)
having been here an hour before the assassination! I am afraid
it will bring suspicion on us."
"Anna, come what will," she replied, "I am resigned. I think
that John Wilkes Booth was only an instrument in the hands of
the Almighty to punish this proud and licentious people."
(Signed)
LOUIS J. WIECHMANN.
Sworn and subscribed before me this 11th day of August, 1865.
(Signed)
CHAS. E. PANCOAST,
_Alderman_.