The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt

David Miller De Witt

Description

First published in 1894, “The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt” looks at the case of Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or 1823– 1865), an American woman who was convicted of participating in a plot to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Despite maintaining her innocence and the fact that the case made against her was arguably weak, she became the first women to be executed by the US federal government. Her son John Surratt was also tried at a later date, but acquitted due to the statute of limitations. A detailed exploration of this famously controversial case that will appeal to those with an interest in American history. Contents include: “The Reign of Terror”, “The Bureau of Military (In)Justice”, “The Opening of the Court”, “The Judges”, “The Conduct of the Trial”, “Arguments for the Defense”, “Charge of Judge Bingham”, “The Verdict, Sentence and Petition”, “The Death Warrant and the Execution”, “Was it not Murder?”, etc. Read & Co. History is proudly republishing this classic work now in a brand new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 24 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528792196
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE JUDICIAL MURDER of MARY E. SURRATT
By
DAVID MILLER DE WITT

First published in 1894



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This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
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“Oceans of horse-hair, continents of parchment, and learned-sergeant eloquence, were it continued till the learned tongue wore itself small in the indefatigable learned mouth, cannot make the unjust just. The grand question still remains, Was the judgment just? If unjust, it will not and cannot get harbour for itself, or continue to have footing in this Universe, which was made by other than One Unjust. Enforce it by never such statuting, three readings, royal assents; blow it to the four winds with all manner of quilted trumpeters and pursuivants, in the rear of them never so many gibbets and hangmen, it will not stand, it cannot stand. From all souls of men, from all ends of Nature, from the Throne of God above, there are voices bidding it: Away! Away!”
Past and Present


Contents
Abr aham Lincoln
PRELIMINARY
CHAPTER I
THE REI GN OF TERROR
CHAPTER II
THE BUREAU OF MILITARY (IN)JUSTICE
PART I
THE MURDER
CHAPTER I
THE OPENING OF THE COURT
CHAPTER II
ANIMUS O F THE JUDGES
CHAPTER III
THE CONDUCT OF THE TRIAL
CHAPTER IV
ARGUMENTS FOR THE DEFENSE
CHAPTER V
CHARGE OF J UDGE BINGHAM
CHAPTER VI
THE VERDICT, SENTENCE AND PETITION
CHAPTER VII
THE DEATH WARRANT AND T HE EXECUTION
CHAPTER VIII
WAS IT NOT MURDER?
PART II
THE VINDICATION
CHAPTER I
SETTING ASIDE THE VERDICT
CHAPTER II
REVERSAL UPO N THE MERITS
CHAPTER III
THE RECOMMENDAT ION TO MERCY
CHAPTER IV
THE TRIAL OF JOSEPH HOLT
CHAPTER V
ANDREW JOHNSON SIGNS ANOTHER D EATH-WARRANT
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION



Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States: born in a rude farm cabin near Hodgensville, Ky., 12 Feb. 1809; died in Washington, D. C, 15 April 1865. The birthplace is marked by a memorial structure dedicated on his hundredth a nniversary.
He was the first son and second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, both born in Rockingham County, Va., of parents who were among the earliest emigrants to the new country beyond the mountains. They were married in Washington County, 12 June 1806, at the home of Richard Berry, guardian of the bride and husband of Lucy Shipley, her aunt. Thomas was not yet six when his father, Abraham, was killed by lurking Indians while he was at work on his farm. The estate, mostly of wild land, descended by the existing law to his eldest son. No account remains of the widow's subsequent life. Probably she did not long survive t he tragedy.
Thomas grew up utterly without education and apparently without a definite home. Principally occupied as a farm and forest laborer he acquired some knowledge of the tools and trade of a carpenter. For reasons not uncommon in the lives of families separated by distant migrations the President had little knowledge of his forbears beyond the paternal grandfather. Long after his death it transpired that the first American progenitor was Samuel Lincoln who came from England as a weaver's apprentice in 1637. Two elder brothers had previously settled at Hingham, Mass.; named after the English shire town of County Norwich, their ancestral home. Samuel joined them there after completing his apprenticeship at Salem. Neither of the brothers left issue, the name being perpetuated through Mordecai, son of the young weaver; Mordecai 2d, his grandson; John, a great-grandson who lived for a time in Berks County, Pa., removing to Virginia; Abraham, the Kentucky pioneer; and Thomas, fifth in the order of American birth. The pedigree has been further traced through four generations in England. In both the old home and the new the main and converging lines of heredity gave promise of family distinction should time and occasion propitiously meet. It was mistakenly believed for a time that Thomas and his wife were first cousins. She was the daughter of Joseph Hanks and Nancy Shipley (“Nanny” as named in the husband's will), who was a sister of Lucy Shipley, wife of Richard Berry before mentioned. Another sister, Mary by name, had married Abraham Lincoln the elder, and it was assumed that she was the mother of all his children. In fact, however, Mary Shipley died prior to the Kentucky migration and was succeeded by Bathsheba Herring, daughter of Leonard Herring, a Virginian of English parentage. Thomas was the son and only child of this second marriage and therefore unrelated by blood to Nancy his wife. It is worthy of passing mention that still another of the Shipley sisters was married to Thomas Sparrow and went with him to the Kentucky wilderness. Through the marriage of their daughter with one Charles Friend she became the grandmother of Dennis Friend who somehow came to be known as Dennis “Hanks”; and was no credit to either name. The irresponsible chatter of this waif did much to mislead the biographers both as to the story of Lincoln's youth and the Hanks genealogy. (Consult Lea and Hutchinson, The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln , Bo ston 1909).
The first home of Thomas and his wife was at Elizabethtown, Ky., where he pursued his trade as carpenter. Two adventures in farming ensued, the first on the Nolin Creek place where their famous son was born. A second son, also born there, lived but a few weeks. Upon neither farm apparently were payments made sufficient to create a salable interest. In 1817, several related families accompanying them, they moved to Indiana, settling on a wooded tract near Gentryville in Spencer County; so named after the keeper of a cross-roads store. A railroad junction point called Lincoln City occupies a part of the chosen homestead. In October of the following year a mysterious epidemic swept the district, Mrs. Lincoln being one of many victims. During the next 14 months, the daughter, but two years older than Abraham, kept house for the sorrowing family. On 2 Dec. 1819, Thomas took another wife from Kentucky, Sarah Johnston ( née Bush), a widow with three children residing at Elizabethtown. Her advent greatly improved the family circumstances, for besides household conveniences such as the children had never known she brought a kind and cheerful nature. Among other benefits conferred she encouraged the boy in studies, which his father regarded as a form of idleness. Less than a year of school attendance is all that fell to his lot, but with this meagre help he learned to read and write and to “cipher to the rule of three.” Luckily there were a few good books within reach, all of which he eagerly read. He remembered well, thought much and diligently exercised the knowledge gained. In other respects he was a boy among boys, loving fun and not enamored of manual toil. He was made to work at home or on the neighboring farms, clerked at odd times in Gentry's store and at the age of 19 accompanied the son of that worthy on a flat-boat trip to New Orleans, trading along the way and returning by river packet. On that memorable venture he first came into conscious contact with slavery, witnessing, it is said, an auction sale of negroes and vowing that if ever the opportunity came to “hit” that system he would “hi t it hard.”
In the spring of 1830 at the beginning of his majority the family moved to Illinois to settle (temporarily as it proved) near Decatur. After helping to fence and break up part of a prairie farm and to erect a cabin thereon for the family shelter the young man turned to face the world on his own account. Besides the clothing he wore, he had nothing but his well-muscled frame of six and one-third feet in height, a mind matching his great stature in native strength and manners, rude and quaint, to be sure, but springing from a brave and generous soul. After a few weeks of labor with axe and hoe he engaged with John Hanks, one of his mother's tribe, to conduct another flat-boat down the great river. Their employer, Dennis Offut, had failed to provide the boat as promised whereupon the two men proceeded to build one. The delay caused Hanks to abandon the voyage but Lincoln with other help completed it. Offut, a merchant, loosely planted at New Salem, on the Sangamon, near Springfield, formed a liking for the stalwart youth, with the result that Lincoln became a resident of the mushroom village and a helper in the varied and often disastrous enterprises of his new-made friend. Offut soon drifted away but Lincoln remained, serving the small community as a mill-hand, clerk in the village stores, post-master, deputy surveyor and the like, rapidly growing in public esteem. Indian disturbances (the Black Hawk War) called for the creation of a military force. Lincoln volunteered as a private and was elected captain. No fighting occurred in his vicinity and the “war” soon ended.
Returning to New Salem he became a candidate for the legislature, failing of election but receiving nearly the entire vote of his precinct. Settled in nothing save the desire for self-improvement, he ventured, with another as poor as himself and wholly on credit, to purchase a failing store. It continued to fai