say about the recommendation to mercy of Mrs. Surratt?' 'He said that she must be punished with the rest; that no reasons were given for his interposition by those asking for clemency in her case except age and sex.'" Now, is there a fair-minded person living who would require more or better proof that the recommendation for the commutation of the sentence of Mrs. Surratt to imprisonment for life was in President Johnson's office, and that the question was fully considered by him in conference with several, if not with all, of the members of his Cabinet before the day of execution? True, no one states that he actually saw it in the President's hands, though Judge Bingham says both Secretaries Stanton and Seward told him it was presented to him and duly considered before the death sentence was approved. But Attorney-General Speed, a direct eye-witness, could, had he chosen to speak, have made this fact certain beyond doubt or cavil. Mr. Ford professes amazement at General Holt's anxiety for more detailed testimony from Mr. Speed, as indicated by their correspondence on the subject in the North American Review for July, 1888. I am myself free to confess that I do not think any additional proof whatever is at all necessary for General Holt's complete vindication; but Mr. Speed had been a life-long friend of his, and knowing that he saw the aforesaid recommendation in the President's own hands, is it strange that he should insist that he should tell him so? He may be and is, I think, over-sensitive. In his preface to Pitman's book of the trial, Major Ben: Perley Poore, who unwittingly repeats the false newspaper manacle story, observes, "General Holt is an inflexibly upright administrator of justice, yet humanities have a large place in his heart;" and General Mussey, speaking of the call made by General Holt at the White House on the morning of the execution, when Miss Surratt was there and the President had refused to see her or any one in her mother's behalf,-overruling, also, at the same time, Judge Wylie's writ of habeas corpus,-says, "I shall never lose the impression made upon me of your [General Holt's] deep pity for her [Miss Surratt] and of the pain which her distress caused you." But will Mr. Ford or any other of General Holt's persistent calumniators be so kind as to state why General Holt should have been so anxious for Mr. Speed to tell the whole truth, had he not known, beyond the remotest question, that it would have been conclusive testimony in his favor? Would he have asked Mr. Speed to say more than he did say, if he had had the least doubt on that point? Surely not. It is not the purpose of this article to go into the evidence regarding Mrs. Surratt's guilt or innocence; but I cannot refrain from brief comment on the following quotation from Mr. Ford's article, wherein, referring to Mrs. Surratt, he says: "The very man of God who shrived her soul for eternity was said to be constrained to promise that she should not communicate with the world. As the poor martyr walked in her shroud to the scaffold, it is also said that she begged the priest by her side to let her tell the people 'she was innocent.' She was told that 'the Church was permitted only to prepare her soul for eternity; that already she was dead to all else.'” This looks strange, to say the least; and I am reminded by it that it was just this which the late John M. Brodhead, Second Comptroller of the Treasury, once told me was, in his view, conclusive proof of Mrs. Surratt's guilt. He believed that, had not the priest known from her confession that she was guilty, he would never have prohibited her from declaring her innocence, but would himself have insisted on it to the last moment. One thing is certain, there was no man living who more firmly believed in her guilty participation in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln than President Johnson, who, in commenting on the appeals made to him for clemency, said at the time to Rev. J. George Butler, of St. Paul's Church, Washington, that "he could not be moved; for, in his own significant language, 'Mrs. Surratt kept the nest that hatched the egg. " I have observed that General Holt at one time asked for a court of inquiry. It was in September, 1866. In his answer, November 14, 1866, Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, wrote to Brevet Major-General Holt, Judge-Advovate-General, as follows: "Your letter of the 11th of September applying for a court of inquiry upon certain imputations therein mentioned as made against you, of official misconduct in relation to the prosecution of Mrs. Surratt and others charged with the assassination of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and in the preparation of testimony against Jefferson Davis and others, charged with complicity in said crime, has been submitted to the President (Johnson), who deems it unnecessary for your vindication to order a court of inquiry. In communicating the President's decision, it is proper for me to express my own conviction that all charges and imputations against your official conduct are, in my judgment, groundless. So far as I have any knowledge or information, your official duties as Judge-Advocate-General in the cases referred to, and in all others, have been performed fairly, justly, and with distinguished ability, integrity, and patriotism, and in strict conformity with the requirements of your high office and the obligations of an officer and a gentleman." WASHINGTON, D. C. [NOTE. I called on General Joseph Holt to-day (October 17, 1892), and referring to the false charges made against him touching the trial and execution of Mrs. Surratt, he said, "That summary of yours (in the Century Magazine for April, 1890) is worth everything that has been published."] H. K. CHAPTER VII. 66 The Bursting of the Big Gun on the Princeton-Five Instantly Killed and Several Wounded. THE 28th of February, 1844, was a beautiful day. The United States steamer Princeton, Captain R. F. Stockton, United States navy, lay off Alexandria, then a part of the District of Columbia; and, proud of her splendid appearance, Captain Stockton had issued a large number of invitations for a grand gala day in an excursion down the river. Never, perhaps, was there a more brilliant and delighted company than the four or five hundred people who responded to this invitation. It embraced the very élite of the capital, of both sexes, including the President and his Cabinet, Senators and Representatives, foreign ministers, and other distinguished citizens and temporary residents. A grand collation was provided, and everything arranged for a day of unalloyed pleasure. One of the attractions of the occasion, and an important feature in the vessel's armament, was what was then considered an extraordinarily large gun, recently constructed, and carrying a ball of two hundred and twenty-five pounds. It was named "The Peacemaker." As soon as the company was well on board, orders were given for the ship to start, and in a few minutes all were sailing gayly and joyously toward Mount Vernon. On the passage down, this immense gun was discharged two or three times in the presence of the crowd of visitors who lined the deck. The trial and exhibition were entirely satisfactory, and it was near four in the afternoon before the order was given to return. The ladies had been served with ample refreshments of the choicest kind, and the gentlemen next found room at the table. The vessel was now opposite Fort Washington, when Captain Stockton ordered another discharge of "The Peacemaker," and many persons took positions near the gun, better to witness the operation of firing. Fortunately, the ladies were all between decks, and a large part of the gentlemen had not yet left the lunch table, otherwise many more doubtless might have been on the gun-deck. Instantly upon the discharge, and before the smoke had passed off, the most frightful shrieks and groans startled and almost paralyzed every living being on board. The gun had burst into many pieces, and the dead and wounded lay prostrate around it. Death had chosen shining marks for his fatal arrows, and those who were instantly killed were Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State; Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy (both from Virginia); Commodore Kennon, of the navy; Mr. Virgil Maxey, of Maryland, ex-minister to the Hague; and Mr. Gardner, a distinguished citizen of New York, whose daughter afterwards became the second wife of President Tyler, and presided gracefully at the White House. Among those who were stunned by the concussion were Senator Thomas H. Benton, Captain Stockton and Lieutenant Hunt, of the Princeton, and Mr. W. D. Robinson, of Georgetown. Seventeen seamen were wounded more or less seriously, and a colored servant of the President almost immediately died from his wounds. The wonder was that President Tyler escaped. Sorrowfully, and with her colors at half-mast, the Princeton slowly continued her way back toward Washington, and when the news of the terrible disaster reached the city, the greatest excitement prevailed. Never before had such a shock been felt at the capital. It was not until near evening when the vessel arrived off the navy-yard, and the bodies of the dead statesmen were retained on board overnight. |