American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment

6. The Trial of the Century

t 89 6 the trial of the century Who will dare to say that in time of civil war “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law?” This is a provision of your Constitution than which there is none more just or sacred in it; it is, however, only the law of peace, not of war. In peace, that wise provision of the Constitution must be, and is, enforced by the civil courts; in war, it must be, and is, to a great extent, inoperative and disregarded. John A. Bingham, 1865 On March 4, 1865, John Bingham stood among the crowd at the Capitol to hear thepresident’sSecondInauguralAddress.“Withmalicetoward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,” Lincoln said, “let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a justandlastingpeaceamongourselvesandwithallnations.”1 Binghamwas movedbythepresident’ssoothingwords,recalling,“[I]tseemedtomethat there was a strange emotion about him at that time that I never observed before.”2 Another man in the crowd that day was not so impressed—John Wilkes Booth.3 Five weeks later, Lincoln was dead, and Secretary of War Stanton asked his old friend to join the prosecution team that would bring justice to Booth’s alleged accomplices.4 Bingham promptly plunged into one of the most notorious trials in our nation’s history. Conspiracy The plot that ended at Ford’s Theatre began as a plan to kidnap the president and send him to Richmond as a hostage.5 In August 1864, 90 s the trial of the century Booth met in Baltimore with an old classmate from military school, Samuel Arnold, and with Mike O’Laughlen, a friend who had served in Arnold’s Confederate regiment.6 Booth had no combat experience, but he convinced Arnold and O’Laughlen that they could capture Lincoln’s carriage during one of his pleasure rides in the country.7 The commander in chief could then be exchanged for thousands of prisoners or used as a bargaining chip to demand a Union cease-fire. For months the plan was dormant, but by March 1865, Booth had recruited four others to his gang.8 David Herold worked at a pharmacy ; John Surratt was a Confederate who helped spies move in and out of Washington; Lewis Powell (who also went by Lewis Paine) was an ex-Confederate soldier from Florida; and George Atzerodt was a coach painter.9 On March 17, these seven men laid in wait for the president along a lonely road, but Lincoln did not take the route that they expected.10 After that failure, the group fell apart. John Surratt left Washington and was not captured until 1866.11 Arnold declined to play any further role in the plot, although he did not tell the authorities about Booth’s activities.12 O’Laughlen’s subsequent conduct was murky, but he also probably did not participate in the conspiracy again. The catalyst for the assassination was a speech that Lincoln gave at the White House on April 11 to mark Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant. Booth and Herold were there when the president suggested that African American soldiers should get the right to vote.13 “That means nigger citizenship,” Booth told Herold. “[T]hat is the last speech he will ever make.”14 The inner core of Booth’s group met three days later, on Good Friday. They agreed that Booth would kill the president that night, Atzerodt would take out Vice President Johnson at his hotel, Powell would slay Secretary of State William Seward at his home, and Herold would assist Powell and Atzerodt.15 Atzerodt did go to Johnson’s hotel armed with a pistol and a knife, but after drinking at the bar he lost his nerve and left.16 Powell, on the other hand, entered Seward’s home pretending to be a messenger and stabbed Seward, though not to death.17 Booth, of course, succeeded in his bloody mission and fled into Virginia with Herold, but twelve days later Union troops overtook them, killing Booth and capturing Herold.18 Powell, Atzerodt, Arnold, and O’Laughlen were quickly arrested. the trial of the century t...