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Lauren Blasco
Mr. Phillips
US History Period 8
26 April 2015

The Lincoln Conspirators

In the wake of any tragedy, chaos rules the minds of the public for a period before order is
restored and facts are set straight. The greater the scale of the event, the longer this period of
misconstrued information, false witness statements, and general hype will prevail. The United States
has seen the same thing occur in recent years, from the assassination of President Kennedy, the
Oklahoma City bombings, September 11th, and, most recently, the Boston Marathon bombing. The
national chaos after these events mirrored that succeeding the Lincoln assassination. In all cases, both
the public and the government were eager to punish someone for the tragedy that had ensued.
However, it is imperative in such times that decisions be made objectively, rather than out of a position
of anger, revenge, or high-strung emotions. In 1864, the importance of objectivity was not, evidently, a
priority to many.
After the death of Abraham Lincoln shook the United States to its core, everyone, it seemed,
wanted revenge. The leader of the recently victorious Union had been murdered, and many sought
punishment against those who had committed the despicable act. The U.S. government was also intent
on bringing those responsible to justice, but they may have become overzealous. Looking back, the
Lincoln Conspirators were sentenced at the hands of a righteously indignant court system eager to send
anyone associated with the conspiracy to a life behind bars. The conspiracy, headed by John Wilkes

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Booth, consisted of members ranging from George Atzerodt, a German immigrant seemingly just along
for the fun, to Dr. Samuel Mudd, the man who mended Booth's broken leg after the post-assassination
escape from the capital. Most of the conspirators were sentenced to life in prison, and four were
sentenced to death by hanging; one of those killed was Mary Surratt, the first woman ever executed by
the United States government. Her death, for example, generated a large amount of controversy, but
many people were still fully supportive of the court's given punishments.
Surratt's proven involvement consisted only of owning the boarding house where the
conspirators held their meetings. It is not evident whether or not she was fully aware of Booth's plot;
however, the renter of the Surratt tavern, John Lloyd, testified that Mary Surratt's involvement and
knowledge extended much further than she and her defense claimed. Lloyd stated that Surratt told him
during a visit to have the shooting irons ready a reference to the two Spencer carbines Lloyd had
reluctantly allowed Booth to hide in the tavern (http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln26.html). Had Mary
Surratt's attorneys been more experienced, they may have suggested a plea bargain; instead, she
pleaded not guilty and claimed total innocence. Because Lloyd's testimony was believed to be entirely
true, Mary Surratt's claim fell apart. Though Lloyd's and Surratt's claims were contradictory he-said,
she-said the jury nevertheless sentenced Mary Surratt to death by hanging. They added, however, a
plea for mercy, stating that Surratt should serve the rest of her life in prison due to her sex and age

(http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln26.html).
The jurors were not the only people who asked for a lesser sentence for Mary Surratt. Her
daughter, Anna Surratt, attempted to meet with President Andrew Johnson to ask for a pardoning for
her mother. She was denied (SOURCE). As for the jurors' plea for mercy, Johnson claimed never to

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have seen it, though Judge Advocate Joseph Holt commented later that he had been with the President
while Johnson read the full document, which included the plea for mercy. Johnson allegedly stated that
Mary Surratt ...kept the nest that hatched the egg (http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln26.html). Lewis
Powell, the conspirator who brutally attacked Secretary of State William Seward, maintained until his
execution that Mary Surratt was innocent, and that he had not spoken to her at all the night of the
assassination (Chamlee). Even after Surratt's execution, her case garnered much more attention than
the others, including that of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd.
When Dr. Mudd helped the injured Booth, he was unaware of what the man had done. Later
that day, he learned what had transpired at Ford's Theater. Mudd later told investigators that two men
had indeed arrived at his residence, and that he had put a splint on one's leg. The doctor denied
knowing the identity of either of the fugitives (http://www.samuelmudd.com/booth.html). During the
conspirators' trial, Mudd was only brought in as a witness. Another witness, Louis Weichmann,
confirmed to interrogators that Dr. Mudd had met Booth prior to the assassin's arrival at Mudd's
residence. Because of Weichmann's testimony, the doctor was then tried as a conspirator, only because
he had withheld the identities of Booth and Herold. Investigators were well aware of the two men's
identities even without a confirmation from Mudd but the doctor was convicted and sentenced to
life in prison regardless (http://www.samuelmudd.com/trial.html). Unlike a civilian court, in which a
unanimous guilty verdict would have been required to convict Dr. Mudd, the military court only
required a simple majority vote from the jury. The final vote was a painfully close 5:4, with the five in
favor of the prosecution. Thus, had he been tried under civilian law, Dr. Mudd would have gone free.

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Many of the convicted conspirators were indeed guilty of joining Booth's kidnapping and
later, assassination plot, but the revenge-filled fervor of the courtroom may have clouded the minds
of both President Johnson (in the case of Ms. Surratt) and the jurors (in the case of Dr. Mudd). Years
later, Anna Surratt finally recovered her mother's remains and was permitted to have a proper burial
performed, and in 1869, President Johnson pardoned Dr. Samuel Mudd (SOURCE). Even today the
doctor's name lives in infamy, immortalized in the phrase, his name is Mudd [later, mud],
describing someone unpopular or completely out of favour [sic] due to some act (Albert 123).
Though both were involved in Booth's plot, the extent of their punishment was arguably much
more severe than reasonable. The same type of thing has happened in the past decade, though evidence
has only been released in recent months. After the attacks on September 11th, 2001, the CIA began
torturing prisoners merely suspected of terrorist acts, under the guise of enhanced interrogation
techniques (Committee on Intelligence, PDF page 9). Sadly, these are but two of many cases
throughout history in which the pain of losing a leader, important figure, or loved ones can cloud the
public's view. Even today, a jury decides the fate of a young man, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who did not
plan but was involved in the Boston Marathon bombings. Soon the jurors will decide whether
Tsarnaev will be killed by the state or spend the rest of his life in prison. Will they be able to keep
things in perspective, see the whole picture, and learn from history that revenge is not the best option?

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Additional Works Cited
Chamlee, Jr., Roy Z. Lincoln's Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and
Punishment. Jefferson, NC. McFarland & Co., 1989.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's
Interrogation and Detention Program. United States Senate, 2014.
Jack, Albert. Red Herrings and White Elephants: The Origins of Phrases We Use Every Day. New
York, NY. Harper Collins, 2004.