By John Frederick Hartranft
ISBN-10: 0807133965
ISBN-13: 9780807133965
On may possibly 1, 1865, weeks after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, lately inaugurated president Andrew Johnson appointed John Frederick Hartranft to command the army criminal on the Washington Arsenal, the place the U.S. govt had simply incarcerated the seven males and one lady accused of complicity within the capturing. From that day during the execution of 4 of the accomplices, the Pennsylvania-born normal held accountability for the main infamous prisoners in American heritage. A strict adherent to protocol, Hartranft stored a meticulously special account of his reports within the type of a letterbook. within the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators, famous Lincoln students Edward Steers, Jr., and Harold Holzer, in partnership with the nationwide files, current this attention-grabbing ancient checklist for the 1st time with contextual fabrics and specialist annotations, supplying a awesome glimpse backstage of the assassination's aftermath. Hartranft oversaw each point of the prisoners' day-by-day lives, from ensuring they have been fed and saved fresh to making sure that nobody communicated with them other than at the written orders of Secretary of battle Edwin M. Stanton. In his Letterbook, Hartranft scrupulously recounts the coming of every prisoner and describes the felony routine--which integrated 3 uncomplicated food an afternoon, a twice-daily telephone inspection by means of Hartranft himself, and widespread actual examinations by means of a military health practitioner. The prisoners wore wrist and leg shackles and, controversially, such a lot of them wore detailed hoods designed to isolate them from their atmosphere. whilst the conspirators' trial begun, the state waited eagerly for information, and plenty of sought retribution opposed to these they held chargeable for the nation's grief. Hartranft resisted demands either vengeance and mercy and endured to regard his infamous fees as humanely as attainable, facilitating conferences with clergy and sending letters to and from relatives. but, as his indifferent, specific description of the execution of 4 of the conspirators indicates, he didn't enable emotion to hamper the functionality of his accountability. The felony and ethical concerns surrounding the conspirators' trial--the outstanding use of army instead of civil justice, the therapy of the accused whereas incarcerated, the fantastic line among fast and precipitous justice--remain unstable, unsettled concerns this present day. Hartranft's prepared observations, ably analyzed via historians Steers and Holzer, will upload a riveting new bankruptcy to the tale of Lincoln's assassination.
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Extra resources for The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, As Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft
Example text
At this point, the attorneys for the eight defendants informed the tribunal that their clients wished to withdraw their earlier pleas of “not guilty” in order to argue the legal jurisdiction of the tribunal. The tribunal agreed to hear Johnson and Thomas Ewing argue against the tribunal’s right to try the accused. Johnson, whose credentials as a constitutional lawyer were well known, led the attack. S. Constitution. The Constitution gave the president of the United States certain powers, but usurping the authority of the civil courts was not one of them.
Within twenty-four hours of their appointment, Comstock and Porter were relieved as commissioners and replaced by Brevet Brigadier General James A. Ekin and Brevet Colonel Charles H. Tomkins. Included among the commissioners were four graduates of West Point who remained professional soldiers, a former United States marshal, a medical practitioner, an author, and a schoolteacher. Astonishingly, only one of the commissioners was an attorney, Major General Lew Wallace. Booth’s original plan was to capture Lincoln and take him south to Richmond, where he would be exchanged for Confederate soldiers being held in Northern prison camps.
18, sec. 371. 7 General Thomas Harris, a member of the tribunal, challenged Johnson’s admission as an attorney before the tribunal, claiming Johnson did not recognize the moral obligation of the loyalty oath. S. Senate. After some discussion by members of the tribunal, Harris withdrew his objection and Johnson was approved to represent Mary Surratt. At this point, the attorneys for the eight defendants informed the tribunal that their clients wished to withdraw their earlier pleas of “not guilty” in order to argue the legal jurisdiction of the tribunal.