he murder of the President, it would do something toward
establishing the inference of criminal intent. On the other hand,
just the reverse is shown. The remarks here of the learned and
honorable judge advocate are peculiarly appropriate to this branch
of the discussion, and, with his authority, we waive all others.

"If the court please, I will make a single remark. I think the
testimony in this case has proved, what I believe history
sufficiently attests, how kindred to each other are the crimes of
treason against a nation and the assassination of its chief
magistrate. As I think of those crimes, the one seems to be, if not
the necessary consequence, certainly a logical sequence from the
other. The murder of the President of the United States, as alleged
and shown, was preeminently a political assassination. Disloyalty to
the government was its sole, its only inspiration. When, therefore,
we shall show, on the part of the accused, acts of intense
disloyalty, bearing arms in the field against that government, we
show, with him, the presence of an animus toward the government
which relieves this accusation of much, if not all, of its
improbability. And this course of proof is constantly resorted to in
criminal courts. I do not regard it as in the slightest degree a
departure from the usages of the profession in the administration of
public justice. The purpose is to show that the prisoner, in his
mind and course of life, was prepared for the commission of this
crime: that the tendencies of his life, as evidenced by open and
overt acts, lead and point to this crime, if not as a necessary,
certainly as a most probable, result, and it is with that view, and
that only, that the testimony is offered."

Is there anything in Mrs. Surratt's mind and course of life to show
that she was prepared for the commission of this crime? The
business transaction by Mrs. Surratt at Surrattsville, on the
fourteenth, clearly discloses her only purpose in making this visit.
Calvert's letters, the package of papers relating to the estate, the
business with Nothe, would be sufficiently clear to most minds, when
added to the fact that the other unknown package had been handed to
Mrs, Offutt; that, while at Surrattsville, she made an inquiry for,
or an allusion to, Mr. Lloyd, and was ready to return to Washington
when Lloyd drove up to the house. Does not this open wide the door
for the admission of the plea of "reasonable doubt"?