Judge Harlan adds that he made inquiry at the time, and "was told that the whole case had been carefully examined by the Attorney General and the Secretary of War; and that the only question raised was whether the punishment shall be reduced on account of the sex of the party condemned. I do not remember that any differences of opinion were expressed on that point."
This is indirect but very conclusive evidence that the petition was attached to the record submitted to the President and examined by the Attorney General and Secretary of War; and that the subject of the mitigation of Mrs. Surratt's sentence was considered by the President and these members of his Cabinet, because in no part of the record was there the slightest allusion to the question of clemency to Mrs. Surratt, or to any of the other convicted persons, except in the petition signed by the five members of the Court.
The next is a letter from the Rev. J. George Butler, pastor of St. Paul's Church, Washington. Under date of December 5, 1868, in describing an interview he had with President Johnson, he says: "The interview occurred during a social call upon the family of the President in the evening, a few hours after the execution.
"I had been summoned by the Government, I then being a hospital chaplain, to attend upon Atzerodt, and was present at the execution.
"Concerning Mrs. Surratt, the remarks of the President, by reason of their point and force, impressed themselves upon my memory. He said, in substance, that very strong appeals had been made for the exercise of executive clemency; that he had been importuned; that telegrams and threats had been used; but he could not be moved, for, in his own significant language, Mrs. Surratt 'kept the nest that hatched the eggs.'
"The President further stated that no plea had been urged in her behalf, save the fact that she was a woman, and his interposition upon that ground would license female crime."
This harmonizes entirely with the "thought" which Secretary Harlan heard uttered with so much force by a member of the Cabinet in Mr. Johnson's presence—either Mr. Stanton or Mr. Seward—and from his language, "this eminent statesman," I take it to have been Mr. Seward.
The Rev. Mr. Butler adds: "I feel it due to a Christian soldier and personal friend (General Eakin) to make this statement, showing clearly that at the time of the execution the President's judgment wholly accorded with the judgment of the military commission; and that no appeals could then change his purpose to make 'treason odious.'"
General R. D. Mussey, under date of August 19, 1873, writes to Judge Holt:—
"In a few days after the assassination I was detailed for duty with Mr. Johnson and acted as one of his secretaries, and was an inmate of his household until some time in the fall of 1865.