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Does Mary Surratt's Ghost Haunt the Senate Chambers Seeking Justice?

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"There is no grievance that is a fit object for redress by mob law.” Abraham
Lincoln


Along with fellow conspirators Lewis Powell, David Herold and George Atzerodt, Mary Elizabeth Surratt was sentenced on June 30, 1865 to be “hanged by the neck ‘til she be dead.” Mary Elizabeth Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the United States Government. The Civil War produced great national distress, conflicting loyalties, and changing values in America. The fact that a military tribunal had tried and convicted
Mary Surratt and she was hanged over protests against executing a woman makes
her execution  still controversial a century and a half later in a time of modern wars and military tribunals.


Mary Surratt’s Ghost is Said to Haunt the Senate Chamber, Seeking Justice

Outside of Shakespeare’s ghosts that both Edwin and John Wilkes both portrayed, the ghost of Mary Surratt is probably one of history’s most restless spirits. One of her ghost stories in the Brooklyn Eagle states that she is said to haunt the Senate of the United States still seeking justice. She swore to her dying gasp that she had been unjustly convicted for treason, conspiracy and plotting the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Reverdy Johnson Defends Mary Surrat

Like John Wilkes Booth, Mary Surratt suffered a life of dramatic downward spirals. There is a large cast of characters in Mary Surratt’s eternal drama. Her lawyer Reverdy Johnson defended her before the military tribunal on May 8, 1865 in a courtroom on the third
floor of the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington D.C.  One end of the Senate chamber resounds with Reverdy Johnson’s indignation. He is castigating at Judge Joseph Holt, who
supposedly withheld the Tribunal’s recommendation for mercy for Mary Surratt
until after she had been hanged.


On the other end of the chamber, Mary Surratt confronts John Armour Bingham, the Republican congressman from Ohio and the judge advocate in the trial with complicity in her murder. The Ohio lawyer sits back, pale and trembling at the accusation. The shadowy Senators sit silently watching.

 Did Secretary of War Edwin Stanton Rush to Judgment?

Mary Surratt glides through the Senator chamber to the little back office of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. She stands in the doorway, staring at him accusingly, until he looks up at her. Then he takes his pen in hand, documenting the fact that the trial of the Lincoln conspirators began on May 10, 1865, a little less than a month after the president’s assassination on April 14, 1865. The scratching of the pen on paper is the only sound in the
office. There is no breathing.


Mary Surratt’s ghost next confronts President Andrew Johnson during a recess of his Senate impeachment trial and he takes up his pen to explain why he hadn’t granted her mercy.  He doesn’t deny his statement that her boarding house was the “nest where the egg was hatched.”

Facts as Cold as a Haunted Cemetery At Midnight

Some of the stone cold reality issues around Mary Surratt’s conviction include the fact that military tribunals had less strict rules of evidence than civilian trial courts, and it was very
unusual for a military tribunal to try a civilian. The military tribunal trial began on May 10, 1865, and the three judges spent almost two months in court waiting for a jury verdict.


Judges Bingham and Holt tried to cover up the fact that there were two plots existed. One called for kidnapping president Lincoln and holding him hostage in exchange for Confederate prisoners. The second plot called for assassinating President Lincoln, Vice
President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward to throw the
government into electoral chaos. The prosecution hid the fact that a diary found on Booth’s body clearly showed that the assassination plan dated from April 14, 1865. The defense didn’t call for Booth’s diary to be brought to court.


The chaos that swirled in Washington D.C. and across the United States in the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination created rumors, mob rule, and uncertainty that has tinged the history record for centuries. The question of Mary Surratt’s guilt or innocence is one of the
biggest uncertainties.


The Killing of Mary Surratt, and The Conspirators- the Movies

A twenty five minute movie by Chris King called The Killing of Mary Surratt, tells her story and rephrases the question of her guilt or innocence. According to Chris King, Mary Surratt was at the epicenter of the passions stirred by a brutal, divisive four year war
and an equally brutal assassination. He feels that mob rule and political expediency played a large part in her execution. He said,” Talk about wham-bam. Within 24 hours of official final sentencing, President Johnson had the prison build a scaffold overnight to hang them. Unbelievable.”


The Killing of Mary Surratt won the Best Drama award at the Cape Fear Independent Film Festival held between April 29 and May 2, 2010, in North Carolina. The Killing of Mary Surratt was shown at the Alexandria, Virginia, film Festival on Saturday, November 6, 2010. It won the third place trophy at the Short Film Drama category of the Indie
Gathering International film in Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a finalist in
the Fifty Second Rochester International Film Festival in New York.


The Surratt House Museum contracted Chris King to make the movie and the museum sells a DVD version of the movie.. He is making a documentary of the Killing of Mary
Surratt for television


On April 15, 2011, Robert Redford premiered his film, The Conspirators, at Ford’s Theater
in Washington D.C. The Conspirators tells the story of the Lincoln assassination and the capture, trial, and conviction of the Lincoln conspirators, including Mary Surratt. In an NPR interview, Robert Redford said that he worked to present a balanced view of
Mary Surratt. He said that he didn’t intend for the film to be a commentary on
current military tribunals and trials in the War on Terror, but that he just wanted to
show both sides of the story


The Surratt House Museum

The Surratt House Museum in Clinton, Maryland, is offering a free museum tour with a movie ticket stub from The Conspirator through the end of November 2011.  The Surratt
House
 Museum staff said that they were pleasantly surprised by the movie and
recommended it to illustrate the conditions in America after the Civil War and the aspects of military justice.


The Judicial Murder of Mary Surratt?

In 1873, Judge Joseph Holt published a letter in which he claimed that he had presented President Andrew Johnson with a document signed by five of the Military Tribunal members recommending life in the penitentiary for Mary Surratt instead of
hanging. Andrew Johnson counterclaimed that Judge Holt had come to the White
House and he and Judge Holt discussed the matter and agreed that Mary Surratt‘s gender didn’t affect her crime or sentencing.


History hasn’t yet resolved the question and the ghost of Mary Surratt may still haunt the Senate Chambers until there is a resolution and justice for Mary Surratt.

References

Kundardt, Dorothy Meserve, Twenty Days, A Narrative in Text and Pictures of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Castle Books, 1994.

Larson, Kate Clifford, The Assassins’ Accomplice:  Mary Surratt, and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln, Basic Books, 2008

Swanson, James L. Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution. Harper Perennial,
2008


Swanson, James L. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. Harper Perennial,
2007.


Titone, Nora, My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy. Free Press, 2010

Trindal, Elizabeth. Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy. Pelican Publishing, 1996

 


Copyright Notice
All of the material on this website is copyrighted.  You are free to link to any of the articles and to download any of the PDF books to read and use as long as you credit me as the author.       kathywarnes@gmail.com
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  • Home
  • Women's Rooms
    • Womens Rooms-Anne
    • Womens Rooms-Abigail
    • The Dead Baby in a Blue Blanket: The
    • Rena Rides the Raindrops
  • Women at Work-Blog
  • E Books and Print Books for Sale
  • Women of Historical Complexion
  • Rachel and Elizabeth Knaggs
  • Elizabeth Stiles, President Lincoln's Spy
  • Loyalist Lucy Flucker Meets Patriot Henry Knox at a Boston Parade
  • Queen Maria Amelia, the Last Queen of Portugal, Stood Her Ground
  • The Lady and the Patriot: Theodosia Burr Alston's Fateful Voyage
  • Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett - More Character Than Riches
  • Florence Nightingale- Nurse, Feminist, Statistician, Author
  • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
  • Mrs. Santa Claus - A Strong and Supportive Woman for All Seasons
  • Elizabeth Turner McCormick, Woman Voyager
  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fought for Human Rights
  • Mary Fields, Stage Coach Mail Driver, Sharp Shooter, Faithful Friend
  • Lucy Parsons, "More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters"
  • Lydia Maria Francis Child Travels 'Over the River and Through the Wood'
  • Anti-Suffragists Believed Women Didn't Need the Right to Vote
  • Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights
  • From Frances Slocum to Little Bear Woman and Back Again
  • Madame Elisabeth Thible is the First Woman to Ride in a Free Floating Balloon
  • Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, But Made Milwaukee Her Home
  • Mary Humphreys Stamps, Undefeated Rebel with An Educational Cause
  • Sister Monica Is One of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Early Pioneers
  • A Love Story for St. Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Three Wisconsin Women of the Waves
  • Margaret Fox Kane and her Victorian Love Story
  • Francoise Marie Jacquelin, Lioness of La Tour, Lioness of Acadia, Woman in Her Own Right
  • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
  • Women Bicyclists Break Their Glass Cages and Ride into Liberation
  • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer Demonstrated Female Scientific Aptitude
  • Queen Alexandra of Great Britain-Queen Victoria's Daughter-in-Law, Bertie's Patient Wife, and Her Own Person!
  • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Isobel Lillian Steele Went to a Party and Ended Up in a Nazi Jail
  • Madam Sophie Blanchard - "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration"
  • Women of Their Time and Place
    • Nadine Turchin Fights Alongside Her Husband in the Civil War
    • War Stories Along Lake Erie: Ordinary Women Experience the War of 1812
    • Katie Walker Tends Robbins Reef Light Near the Statue of Liberty
    • Maria Gulovich Joined the Czech Resistance
    • Pirate Fanny Campbell Freed Her Fiance and Fought the British
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Sophie Kwiatkowski Served as a New Guinea Nurse in World War II
    • Clara Zetkin Spoke Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Female Fuhrer, Breathed Her Nazi Beliefs
    • Nancy Leo , the Only Woman Buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery
    • Dickey Chapelle, Journalist and War Correspondent
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Does Mary Surrat's Ghost Haunt the Senate Chambers Seeking Justice?
    • The Ghostly Cyclist in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
  • Women of Contemporary 20th and 21st Century Complexion
    • Clara Ward Chimay, Gilded Age Princess
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helps Her Survive the Titanic and Beyond
    • Mildred Beltmann , Wartime Wife
    • The Courage of their Cultural Convictions - Women Missionaries in China
    • Light and Radiance - Laurence Owen and Her Sabena Fellow Travelers
    • Edna St. Vincent Millay, Passionate Poet, Candle-Lit Feminist
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goose Down Divorce
    • Olive Higgins Prouty Juggles to Balance Home and Career
    • Mother and Daughter Journalists Agnes Meyer and Katharine Graham Shaped Journalism
    • Rose Friedman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    • Katharine Meyer Graham Leaves Her Mark on the Washington Post
    • Ida M. Tarbell, "Bachelor Soul," Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • Nurse Edith Cavell, the Courage to Die for Her Country
    • Sigrid Schultz Outsmarted Hermann Goering
    • Martha Dickie Sharp Saves Jewish Refugees from the Nazi Death Machine
    • Virginia Graham Pioneered in Early Television and Survived Cancer
    • Rose Conway, President Harry Truman's Secret Weapon
    • Nancy Green, Talented Entrepreneur, Transitional Symbol
    • "Surrender on Demand:" The Friendship of Mary Jayne Gold and Miriam Ebel
    • Julia K. Tibbitts - Closet Environmentalist
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry Reconquers the World and Reshapes Her Life
  • Christmas Cheer