Mr. Bradley. "Who says so?"
The District Attorney. "I will prove it. When I was examining that witness, and proposed to ask him certain questions in reference to Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, he said, 'Mr. Carrington,' for he knew me personally, 'I don't wish to speak about Mrs. Surratt, for she is not on trial.' I said 'Go on, Mr. Lloyd.' He declined. I applied to the Court, and the Court said that it was his duty to answer. He saw her continually. He lived in her house; he drank her liquor. Why, this evidence shows that John H. Surratt, Herold, and John M. Lloyd played cards and drank together.... But says the friend and companion of the prisoner at the bar,—the confiding and confidential agent of his mother, unwilling to testify against her when put on the solemn sanction of an oath, but when required to do so he speaks out,—he says certain arms were furnished him by the prisoner at the bar; that he concealed them, the prisoner showing him where they could be safely concealed, he protesting at the time against it, protesting that it might get him into some personal difficulty. The mother knew of the transaction, for on the 11th of April we have Lloyd's own testimony; she asked him where those shooting-irons were, and said they might soon be needed, or words to that effect. But I am going too fast, for I do not desire to speak to confuse you. I say, first, that her house is the rendezvous; and that, secondly, she furnishes arms, or knows of their being furnished. On the night of the 14th of April, Booth and Herold returned, and are leaving the city of Washington in flight for their lives. At Surrattsville they called for whiskey from the agent and friend of the prisoner and his mother. She gives them a home, gives them arms, gives them whiskey, not to nerve them but to refresh them after the commission of their horrid crime.
"But Booth, in making his escape, needs something more than whiskey and arms.
"It is necessary that he should secrete himself as he traveled through the country, and that he should see persons approaching him from an immense distance, he needs a field-glass, and has it delivered to him by his friend and agent, Mrs. Surratt." With the defense no witness told the truth whose testimony went to convict their client, whilst the stories of the most infamous men, self-confessed scoundrels and accomplices after the fact, if not before, such as Father Boucher, and Reverend Cameron, must be taken as gospel truth.[30] In the face of all this testimony the counsel for the defense again bring their false accusations against the government. Mr. Merrick in the course of his argument, said: "Does the Attorney General feel that public justice demands that he should employ assistant counsel in this case, or is there somebody else behind?"... "Are there any other officers of the federal government that have purposes to accomplish in this case? Says the learned attorney on the other side (Mr. Pierrepont) in a speech delivered I think before you were impaneled:—
"'It has likewise been circulated through all the public journals that after the former convictions, when an effort was made to go to the President for pardon, men, active here at the seat of government, prevented any attempt being made, or the President even being reached for the purpose of seeing whether he would not exercise clemency; whereas the truth, and the truth of record, which will be presented in this court is, that all this matter was brought before the President, and presented to a full cabinet meeting, where it was thoroughly discussed, and, after such discussion, condemnation, and execution received not only the sanction of the President, but that of every member of his cabinet. This and a thousand others of these false stories will be all set at rest forever in the progress of this trail; and the gentlemen may feel assured that not only are we ready, but that we are desirous of proceeding at once with the case.' Now if this declaration of my learned brother on the other side is correct, this trial was not entered upon for the purpose alone of inquiring into the guilt or innocence of the prisoner at the bar. It was not entered upon because public justice demanded his arraignment, before you, gentlemen, but in order that a thousand false stories about men high in office might be settled at his expense.
"Then, although my learned brother is here under appointment by the Attorney General of the United States, yet it is an appointment which probably had its origin in the stimulus of some private feeling lying behind. He comes here, not to try this case alone, but he comes here to set at rest certain false stories. Has he done it?"... "Where is your record? Why didn't you bring it in? Did you find at the end of the record a recommendation to mercy in the case of Mrs. Surratt that the President never saw? You had the record here in court."
Mr. Bradley. "And offered it once and withdrew it."
Mr. Merrick. "Yes, sir, offered it and then withdrew it. Did you find anything at the close of it that you did not like? Why didn't you put that record in evidence, and let us have it here? We were not going to quarrel about it; we would like to know all we can about the dark secrets of those chambers whose doors are closed, but from which light enough creeps to make us anxious to look within. We only know enough to make us curious; but that is enough to make us feel. You were going to show, too, that nobody prevented access to the President on the part of those who waited to get a pardon. Why didn't you do it? Gentlemen of the jury, I should have been glad to have heard that proof. They have brought these charges into the case and I must meet them as part of the case. I should have been glad to have heard that proof. Who of you who was in the city of Washington, will ever forget that fatal day when the tolling of the bells reminded you of the sad fact that the hour had come when those people were to be hung? Your honor (referring to Justice Wylie, who was at the time sitting beside Judge Fisher on the bench), in your praise be it said, raised your judicial hand to prevent that murder, but it was too weak. The storm beat against your arm, and it fell powerless in the tempest. You remember that day, gentlemen. Twenty-four hours for preparation. The echoes of the announcement of impending death, scarcely dying away before the tramp of the approaching guard was heard leading to the gallows. Priest, friend, philanthropist, and clergyman went to the Executive Mansion to get access to the President, to implore for that poor woman three days respite to prepare her soul to meet her God, but got no access. The heart-broken child—the poor daughter—went there crazed, and, stretched upon the steps that lead to the Executive chamber, she raised her hands in agony and prayed to every one that came, 'O God! let me have access, that I may ask for but one day for my poor mother—just one day.' Did she get there? No. And yet, says the counsel, there was no one to prevent access being had. Why don't you prove it? O, God! if such a thing could have been proved, how would I not have rejoiced in that fact; for when reflecting upon that sad, unfortunate, wretched hour in the history of my country—an hour when I feel she was so much degraded, I could weep until the paper be worn away with the continual dropping of my tears. Who stood between her and the seat of mercy? Has conscience lashed the chief of the Bureau of Military Justice? [Gen. Joseph Holt.] Does memory haunt the Secretary of War? Or is it true that one who stood between her and Executive clemency now sleeps in the dark waters of the Hudson, while another died by his own violent hand in Kansas?
"The learned gentleman is right. He did come here to put these things at rest, or to endeavor to put them at rest; but he could not do it. What else is there in this case to show a feeling behind, besides public justice impelling to conviction? Gentlemen of the jury, as the counsel has stated in his speech, public rumors had gone abroad, and certain grave charges had been made. You know that political accusations had been brought against Judge Holt, Mr. Bingham, and the Secretary of War, in the House of Representatives, and that it had become a political matter." (Mr. Merrick here referred to an effort that had been made by rebel sympathizers in Congress to make political capital out of this transaction.) "There were parts of those accusations that the learned counsel was going to put at rest. Where is the proof? The proof is in this; follow me for a moment.
"I said I would show there was a conspiracy on conspiracy. What has the chief of the Bureau of Military Justice got to do with this case? Does not your honor hold an independent court? Is not the judicial tribunal of the land separate from the executive? Is it not a fundamental principle of American constitutional law that the executive and judicial departments shall be distinct and separate? The Bureau of Military Justice is a part of the executive department. What has he to do with this case? Nothing, says the counsel. Is he counsel? we ask. No, say they. Why, then, is he manipulating their witnesses in this case? Smoot, one of their witnesses, tells you that he is called up before Judge Holt, with ten others, examined, and his examination was taken down in writing. The day after giving his testimony he comes back and says that it was not Judge Holt that examined him, but was somebody else.