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

Thus we get a glimpse at the outside pressure that was brought to bear on this trial by a constant fusilade of falsehoods couched in cunningly-devised paragraphs that they might gain a general circulation through the press of the country for the purpose not only of influencing the jury in this case, but also of misleading and perverting public opinion.

The fact brought out in this paragraph is somewhat remarkable. It might have been a mere chance that sixteen out of the twenty-six drawn for the jury happened to be Catholics, but we cannot help feeling a suspicion that had the law been a little more closely followed it might have been otherwise.

To the insinuation of Mr. Bradley, the District Attorney replied as follows: "I do not rise for the purpose of arguing the motion before the court, but with the permission of your honor, and my learned friend, simply to say a word or two in regard to a certain statement in one of the newspapers of the day to which my attention has just been called. It is an item in the New York Herald, purporting to be telegraphed from this city.

The article is not very complimentary to myself, but as my friend is spoken of in very high terms, I am not disposed to quarrel with the writer, for, as a generous-hearted man, I am more anxious for the reputation of my friend than I am for my own. What is intimated in it, I would not think of sufficient importance to be called to the attention of the court, were it not that allusion has been made to it here by the learned counsel who last addressed your honor.

He stated that there was some reason not made known for this motion which we have submitted. I deem it due to myself to say—"

Mr. Bradley. "I beg your pardon if I have said anything wrong. I thought it was a fair retort on what was said by Judge Pierrepont."

The District Attorney. "Notwithstanding the disclaimer of the gentleman to impute any wrong motive to us in submitting the motion now before your honor, I think, inasmuch as public reference has been made to it here, it is due to my position before the country to say a word. I will here say, then, that there is no one who would more earnestly and sincerely deprecate any appeal to religious prejudices than myself. Politicians may speak, think, and act as they please, but for my part I would drive from the halls of justice the demon of party spirit and religious fanaticism. I trust in God the day will never come when a judge, or a jury, will be influenced in the discharge of the most solemn duty that can possibly be devolved upon human beings by political or religious considerations."

At the assembling of the court on the morning of the 13th, Judge Fisher delivered an exhaustive opinion on the motion before him. As it is somewhat lengthy I shall only give its concluding paragraph. "Believing, therefore, that the substantial requirements of the act of Congress in this case providing for the selection of a fair and impartial jury, have not been complied with, but entirely set at naught, and that there has been grave default on the part of the officers whom that act has substituted in the place of the marshal, for the purpose of having them exercise a united judgment in the selection of all the persons whose names are to go in the jury box, I am constrained to allow the motion of challenge in this case. I do not consider the fact that the present panel were improperly drawn by the clerk of Georgetown, who had no right to put his hand into the box, because the objection which I have allowed lies even deeper than that. It is, therefore, ordered by the Court that the present panel be set aside, and that the Marshal of the District of Columbia do now proceed to summon a jury of talesmen."

Judge Fisher subsequently said: "My order is that the Marshal summon twenty-six talesmen." The process of securing a jury from talesmen occupied the next four days, and about two hundred talesmen were summoned before a panel could be secured.

Many of those summoned by the marshal were excused on showing sufficient grounds; a very large number were found disqualified on their voire dire; and perhaps all of the challenges, or nearly so, to which the parties were entitled, were exhausted, and it was not until the evening session of the 16th of June, that the jury was impaneled to try the case.