rson" should
be in possession of it, he locked it up in his own trunk. Weichmann
professes throughout his testimony the greatest regard and
friendship for Mrs. Surratt and her son. Why did he not go to
Mrs. Surratt and communicate his suspicions at once? She, an
innocent and guileless woman, not knowing what was occurring in her
own house; he, the friend, coming into possession of important
facts, and not making them known to her, the head of the household,
but claiming now, since this overwhelming misfortune has fallen upon
Mrs. Surratt, that, while reposing in the very bosom of the family
as a friend and confidant, he was a spy and an informer, and, that,
we believe, is the best excuse the prosecution is able to make for
him. His account and explanation of the mustache would be treated
with contemptuous ridicule in a civil court.

But this is not all. Concede Weichmann's account of the mustache to
be true, and if it was not enough to rouse his suspicions that all
was not right, he states that, on the same day, he went to Surratt's
room and found Payne seated on the bed with Surratt, playing with
bowie knives, and surrounded with revolvers and spurs. Miss Honora
Fitzpatrick testifies that Weichmann was treated by Mrs. Surratt
"more like a son than a friend." Poor return for motherly care!
Guilty knowledge and participation in crime or in wild schemes for
the capture of the President would be a good excuse for not making
all this known to Mrs. Surratt. In speaking of the spurs and
pistols, Weichmann knew that there were just eight spurs and two
long navy revolvers. Bear in mind, we ask you, gentlemen of the
commission, that there is no evidence before you showing that
Mrs. Surratt knew anything about these things. It seems farther on,
about the nineteenth of March, that Weichmann went to the Herndon
House with Surratt to engage a room. He says that he afterwards
learned from Atzerodt that it was for Payne, but contradicts himself
in the same breath by stating that he inquired of Atzerodt if he
were going to see Payne at the Herndon House. His intimate
knowledge of Surratt's movements between Richmond and Washington,
fixing the dates of the trips with great exactitude; of Surratt's
bringing gold back; of Surratt's leaving on the evening of the third
of April for Canada, spending his last moments here with Weichmann;
of Surratt's telling Weichmann about his interview with Davis and
Benjamin--in all this know