Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy / Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt

by T. M. Harris

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.