r
the courts-martial; the end sought for being the truth, these rules
laid down for the attainment of that end must be intrinsically the
same in both cases. These rules constitute the law of evidence, and
involve the quality, admissibility, and effect of evidence and its
application to the purposes of truth." (Benet, pp. 226, 327.)

Therefore, all the facts that tend against the accused, and all
those that mate for her, are to be weighed and are to operate upon
her conviction or acquittal precisely as they would in a court of
law. If they present a case such as would there convict her she may
be found guilty here; and if, on the other hand, the rules of law
upon these facts would raise any presumption or create any doubt, or
force any conclusions that would acquit her in a court of law, then
she must be discharged, upon the same principles by the commission.
This is a point which, in our judgment, we cannot too strongly
impress upon the minds of her judges. The extraordinary character
of the crime--the assassination that removed from us the President
of the United States--makes it most desirable that the findings of
this tribunal shall be so well founded in reason as to satisfy and
secure public confidence, and approval; for many of the most
material objects of the prosecution, and some of the most important
ends of justice, will be defeated and frustrated if convictions and
acquittals, and more especially the former, shall be adjudged upon
the grounds that are notoriously insufficient.

Such a course of action would have a tendency to draw sympathy and
support to the parties thus adjudged guilty, and would rob the
result of this investigation of the wholesome support of
professional and public opinion. The jurisdiction of the
commission, for example, is a matter that has already provoked
considerable criticism and much warm disapproval; but in the case of
persons clearly found to be guilty, the public mind would easily
overlook any doubts that might exist as to the regularity of the
court in the just sentence that would overtake acknowledged
criminals. Thus, if Booth himself and a party of men clearly
proved, by ocular evidence or confession, to have aided him, were
here tried and condemned, and, as a consequence, executed, not much
stress, we think, would be laid by many upon the irregularity of the
mode by which they should reach that just death which all good
citizens would affirm to be their deserts. But