There is a lot of controversy over whether Mary Surratt should have been murdered, but I believe that Mary Surratt should have received a less harsh punishment and shouldn’t have been killed; there is a lot of huge points that prove that Mary Surratt was not guilty the whole time. The first colossal point is that Mary Surratt didn’t know that they were going to kill the president. For instance, in source 2, it states,” Mary knew of the kidnapping plot but not the plan to kill Lincoln.” This evidence shows that Mary Surratt had no clue about the kidnapping plot. This indicates that she had given them the guns with no idea on what their purpose was. Also, in the same source (Source 2), it mentions, “ When questioned if she knew of Booth’s plan, she replied, “Never in the world if it was the last word to utter.”” This indicates the first point that I mentioned about the guns use was true. …show more content…
In sources 1 & 2, Mary Surratt said, “Don’t let me fall.” to the attending soldier before she was terminated. This reveals that she had always tried to be innocent even before her doom. Another proof is that other people were saying that she was innocent (Source 2). This provides evidence that she is not guilty because she was supported by other people including Henry Kyd Douglas. Some people may think that since Mary Surratt supplied the guns that she is guilty. Nevertheless,she is still not at fault here because she didn’t know the gun’s purpose. For example, it states that Mary Surratt didn’t know about the assassination (Source 1 and 2). This brings me back to my first point about the gun’s usage. Also, in source 2, it states, “When questioned if she knew of Booth’s plan, she replied, “Never in the world if it was the last word to utter.”” This means that Mary Surratt had no clue about the massacre and kept her
This shows that she was hiding weapons for the assassination of President Lincoln. (Source 3). She delivered a package to Booth for the association. This shows that she was aiding the association by sending them packages.
After that, the book speaks to how John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices planned and executed the assassination of President Lincoln. The book then details John Wilkes Booth and his perils of getting away to a place where he can seek refuge from the manhunt. Next, Andrew Johnson is sworn in and takes the office ofhte presidency as the seventeenth president. Booth continues running for twelve days following the assassination of President Lincoln. It was on the twelfth day that Booth was apprehended in a tobacco warehouse on Garrett Farm. After setting the barn containing John Wilkes Booth ablaze, a firefight ensued. Though the soldiers were ordered not to kill John Wilkes Booth, a corpral named Boston Cobrett shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, claiming that God has instructed him to do it. With the head of the conspiracy dead, there were still other people that were somehow involved with the plot to assassinate Lincoln, Mary Surratt, David Herald, George Atzerodt, and Lewis Powell faced trial on July 6, 1865, and were all four hanged on July 7,
However, in source 3 it says, “Sometime that night, he said, he would stop at her tavern to pick up not only this package, but also the guns, ammunition, and other supplies needed that her son, John, had already hidden there for him. He asked Mary to tell the tavern keeper, John Lloyd, to get everything ready for actor’s visit this evening.” This indicates that Mary had weapons for the actor’s visit that evening. She was obviously planning on hurting somebody with the weapons. In source 2 it reads, “Weichmann testified that it was at that fateful meeting that Booth asked Mary to deliver a package to Lloyd.”
In Source 3 paragraph 4 it says” John Wilkes Booth has shot the president“. This shows that Mary Surratt did not kill Lincoln Booth did. The second reason is that Mary Surratt is innocent because there is physical proof that she is innocent. In Source 2 paragraph 10 it states “It is possible that Mary Surratt knew of the kidnapping plot but not the plot to
One reason Mary Surratt is guilty is because she was in contact with the conspirators a lot. A lady named Eliza Holahan noticed a man named John Wilkes Booth there many times. Booth is the one that came up with the plan to kill the president, Abraham Lincoln. She said, “ I have seen John Wilkes Booth at Mrs. Surratt’s three or four times”. A man named Louis Weichmann also noticed conspirators came to visit the boarding house often. He could tell that something was up.
Mary Surratt lied about knowing people . The reason I say this is because in source two it states ,” Before God sir , I do not know this man nor did I hire him to dig a ditch.” This shows that she lied about knowing people and hiring them. Hence proves that she had something to hide. Another reason that she should have been executed was in source two , it states ,”Mary Surratt lied about knowing Lewis Paine” . This shows and tells you that she lied to the federal government and police which means something is out of the normal.
Mary Surratt had John Wilkes Booth stay at her boarding house before the assassination of Lincoln. She said that she only knew about the kidnapping of president, but prosecutors believed that Surratt was lying because she wanted
Mary Surratt was sentenced to death by hanging for aiding in the president's assassins. She helped John Wilkes Booth and his associates kill president Lincoln and attempt to kill vice president Seward. I think Mary Surratt was guilty of aiding the president's assassins and attempting to help kidnap the president and i will tell you why.
Her cell was sparse, yet she was able to maintain her catholic beliefs throughout her entire trial. Her Military trial began May, 9th and she was tried alongside, Harold, Paine, Adzerodt, Michael Olaughlen, Edman Spangler, Samuel Mudd, and Samurl Arnold. Frederick Aiken and Thomas Clampitt, Marys lawyers, were very inexperienced and both were affiliated with union ties. They were livid that she was being prosecuted under military commission. The war had ended five days earlier; therefore she should have been prosecuted in a civilian’s trial. There were two main witnesses for the prosecution whose testimony was what ultimately lead to Mary’s execution. The first, Lewis Weichmen, landlord to the Surratt family, said that three days before the assassination he accompanied Mary Surratt to tavern for business. Then on the day of the assassination, Wiechmann went with Mary to the tavern once more, where she gave a package to John Lloyd. After getting back to Washington that night, around nine o'clock Weichmann testified that Booth came to the boarding house and had another secret meeting Mary. He said that after the meeting her attitude changed and she became very nervous. The jury was very suspect when learning about Mary’s secrecy and it was starting to become much clearer that she had knowledge of the affairs to be taken place that night. Lloyd, the second
However, there is insufficient evidence that shows Booth may have been a rebel agent for the Confederates. Fellow conspirator George Atzerodt made a statement before his trial in 1865 that told of Booth's knowledge of a Confederate plot to blow up the White House. “The theory of Confederate complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is accepted by several of the current Lincoln assassination historians, scholars, researchers, and writers (Norton).” That may be so, but there is no evidence proving that the Confederates hired Booth, but several resources that show Booth plotted the assassination with co-conspirators, which illustrates the larger
This is believed to be the cause and motivation of Booth to murder. However, the real reason behind his plot to assassinate Lincoln is Booth believed that Lincoln was determined to overthrow the constitution and destroy the south. After the election of 1854, Booth came up with this plan to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond. However things didn’t go as planned when he didn’t show up at the place Booth expected the president to be.
Mary Surratt was the defendant among the executed that received a punishment far out weighing her role in the crime. Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. She was sentenced to death and became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. Mary Surratt was the mother of John Surratt who was a conspirator that helped John Wilkes Booth plan Lincoln’s kidnap and later, his assassination. With the help of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, “Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty,” and the movie The Conspirator, it can be proven that Mary Surratt’s punishment was unjust. Mary Surratt received a punishment far worse than what she deserved because she was innocent, blamed for her son’s actions, and she did
John Wilkes Booth slipped into the President’s private box. Booth drew his pistol and shot Lincoln in the back of head before leaping onto the stage, breaking his leg. The crowd thought this was part of the play, but Lincoln’s wife’s scream told otherwise. His assassination was unjustified because John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer, had great distaste for the abolishment of slavery, and believed that that Lincoln was overthrowing the Constitution.
Booth, along with his coconspirators began to plan the assassination of Lincoln (Ito 30) these conspirators included; George Azterodt, Mary Surratt, David Herold, Lewis Powell, Edward Spangler, Louis Paine, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen (Ito 30). Though many of these conspirators did not actually commit murder they were still however charged with the crime of assisting Booth in plotting the murder of both Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward (Ito 30).
Sadly, Lincoln was killed due to the belief of Booth that “Lincoln was going to over throw the constitution and destroy the south he loved.” (Booths reason for assassination) This was most likely caused by the fact that Booth was an open confederate sympathizer during the war. It was also thought that the guards were not doing their jobs at the theatre and that they allowed Booth to sneak by and shoot Lincoln in the head with a 44 caliber derringer pistol. Recently after Lincoln’s death it was found that co-conspirators were involved in Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s