made out the writ in accordance with the order of Judge Wylie, and at four o'clock in the morning we placed it in the hands of the United States Marshal, with the request that it be served immediately upon General Hancock, the commandant of the military district in which the body of Mrs. Surratt was confined.

The judicial act of Judge Wylie, performed in the face of reckless passion which in that sanguinary hour would have swept away all forms of law, remains fadeless in its luster, and, touched with the mellow hues of time, stands brightly forth, crowning with garlands the closing years of that brave man who, in the face of bayonets, "dared to perform his duty as he knew it."

Ah! well would it have been for the judicial history of this country had that "writ of writs" been obeyed, and the sacred majesty of the law maintained!

The United States Marshal served the writ upon General Hancock. The President and his ill advisers, believing, however, that General Hancock would, undoubtedly, obey the writ, assumed the illegal authority of suspending it. General Hancock appeared in obedience to that summons, before Judge Wylie, accompanied by the Attorney-General of the United States, who, as the representative of the President, presented to the Court the following return, which was an Executive order suspending the writ of habeas corpus, to wit:

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, July 7, 1865, 10 A. M.

To Major-General W. S. HANCOCK, commanding, etc.

I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby declare that the writ of habeas corpus has been heretofore suspended in such cases as this, and I do hereby especially suspend this writ, and direct that you proceed to execute the order heretofore given upon the judgment of the Military Commission, and you will give this order in return to this writ.

(Signed)

ANDREW JOHNSON, President.

General Hancock has been charged with disobeying the writ. Nothing could be further from the truth. He obeyed the writ, so far as he was permitted to do so by the Court itself, and so prompt was the performance of his duty, in the estimation of the Court, that Judge Wylie complimented him on his ready obedience to the civil authority, and discharged him from the process because of his own inability to enforce the order of the Court. General Hancock's appearance before the Judge showed his respect for the civil process of the Court, and it became his duty to present to the Judge the order of the President suspending the writ, and to know whether he

would submit to or reject the suspension. Judge Wylie acquiesced in the suspension of the writ, stating that "the posse comitatus of his court was not able to overcome the armies of the United States under the command of the President." There was not the slightest show of any disposition on the part of General Hancock to resist the civil process of the Court; and, had the Judge deemed it best to make an issue with the President, and refused to recognize the validity of the suspension of the writ, and had ordered General Hancock to have produced before him the body of Mrs. Surratt notwithstanding the order of the President, doubtless General Hancock would have attempted to comply with that order of the Court, and he, together with the Judge, have been arrested and thrown into prison. The order of the Court, however, did not extend any further, but the Judge, complimenting the General for his respect for the civil authority, dismissed him from the process. The charge, therefore, that he refused to obey the writ is without the slightest foundation in fact.

On

With the suspension of the writ, and the refusal of the President to grant a respite, all hope faded, and we proceeded to the Arsenal to take a last farewell of the doomed and innocent woman. our way we noticed cavalrymen stationed at points along the line from the White House to the Arsenal. These were couriers stationed by order of General Hancock to speed the tidings, should the President at the last moment relent, and grant a pardon or reprieve.

On arrival at the Arsenal, we went immediately to the cell where Mrs. Surratt was confined, and there found her in company with her spiritual advisers, Fathers Walter and Wiget. Taking my last farewell of the poor woman, I proceeded to the eastern extremity of the building, and there met General Hancock, who had just arrived, and who had come, as he stated, for the purpose of being at that point should a reprieve arrive from the President, as undoubtedly it would be directed to him as the commandant of the military post. The final moment came, however, without pardon or reprieve from the President. My pen is too dumb to describe the heart-rending scene at the parting of mother and daughter.

General Hancock took no part in the execution, as General Hartranft had been specially designated by the President, in Executive order of May 1, 1865, originating the Military Commission, as special Provost-Marshal-General to "execute the mandates of said Commission." The order of execution was at length given by General Hartranft, and the solemn march of death began.

First was the boy Herold, a half-witted youth of nineteen, who had been the frequent companion and guide of Booth on his hunting expeditions in the counties of Maryland bordering upon the Potomac, and, fascinated by his courtly bearing, had in a measure become his slave, and so followed willingly his tortuous ways as a conspirator. Next came Atzerodt, to whom had been assigned the assassination of the Vice-President, and who essayed to speak upon the scaffold, but lost his voice in fear. Following him was the man Payne, who marched forward like a soldier going to battle, who had said that he accepted death as the result of his attempt to murder the Secretary of State; that he had knowingly taken his life in his hands when he endeavored to commit that fearful crime, and now had no fault to find with the Government for hanging him. And last in that solemn march to an ignominious death was the victim, Mary E. Surratt, upborne by two soldiers, as, weak and prostrate from disease contracted within her damp cell, she was unable to walk, preceded by Father Walter bearing a crucifix, upon whose image she steadfastly gazed.

And here permit me to make a statement of fact which should for ever set at rest the question of the guilt or innocence of this poor woman.

When the order came from the Provost-Marshal for her to ascend the scaffold, and after the sacrament of extreme unction had been granted by her priest, and he had shrived her for eternity, she said to him, "Holy father, can I not tell these people before I die that I am innocent of the crime for which I have been condemned to death?" Father Walter replied: "No, my child; the world and all that in it is has now receded for ever. It would do no good, and it might disturb the serenity of your last moments!" To this she bowed in submission, and passed to the platform of the gallows. There General Hartranft read the findings of the Commission and the President's order of approval, and, at a signal from him, the body of the murdered woman was swung from the scaffold, and her immortal spirit entered the celestial city with "alabaster domes and silver spires."

Before closing, I desire to mention two other interesting facts: the first, the recommendation to mercy signed by a majority of the Commission; the second, Payne's confession.

It was at first proposed (and I have it from most credible authority) to acquit Mrs. Surratt, or at least to spare her life. To this the Judge-Advocate-General objected, and in its stead proposed that

the Commission render the same judgment as in the cases of Payne, Atzerodt, and Herold, with a recommendation to the President for mercy in her case. This course was finally adopted, the judgment rendered, and the recommendation drawn up and signed by a majority of the Commission.

Andrew Johnson averred upon his honor that he never saw that recommendation until two years after the execution, when, sending for the papers in the case, he found it among them, in a detached form. It is doubtless true that the recommendation for mercy was not placed before the President with the findings of the Commission at the time they were presented for his approval, but was retained by those in authority, who sought the blood of this innocent

woman.

The second fact is the declaration of Payne, made on the morning of the execution to General Hartranft, the special Provost-Marshal, and sent to the President by his order. The statement, as taken down by him, is as follows:

"The prisoner Payne has just told me that Mrs. Surratt is entirely innocent of the assassination of President Lincoln, or of any knowledge thereof. He also states that she had no knowledge whatever of the abduction plot, that nothing was ever said to her about it, and that her name was never mentioned by the parties connected therewith."

At the close of the letter General Hartranft wrote these significant words: "I believe that Payne has told the truth in this matter." General Hartranft hastily sent this dying declaration of Payne to the President. It was, however, of no avail. Her death had been determined on.

Fifteen years have passed away since the "high noon" that witnessed the execution of Mrs. Surratt. Empires have risen and fallen, great battles have been fought, kings dethroned, and boundarylines of nations swept from the world, since that hour of national disgrace, and yet that scene remains in all its vividness, to haunt the memory and stain the pages of our judicial history.

JOHN W. CLAMPITT.

THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.

I. THE OUTLOOK.

IN the idea of God, man defines for himself his theory of the origin and destiny of the world. The whence and the whither of nature and of man are involved in this idea, and through it, therefore, are determined his theoretical views and his practical activities. If he believes that this supreme principle is blind fate, unconscious force, or something devoid of intelligence and will, this belief will constantly modify all his thoughts and deeds, and ultimately shape them into harmony with his faith. If, on the other hand, he regards this supreme principle as a conscious personality, as absolute intelligence and will, this view will likewise shape his thoughts and deeds, but with a radically different result from that of the other just stated. The former theory is unfriendly to the persistence and triumph of human beings, or of any rational beings whatever, either as a principle of explanation or as a ground of hope. It will not account for the origin of conscious beings, showing how conscious reason is involved in unconscious being, as one among its potentialities; still less can it permit the persistent existence of conscious individualities, for that would admit consciousness to be the higher principle, and not a mere phase or potentiality of unconscious being. Even if conscious individuals could emanate from an unconscious first principle, they would be finite and transitory phases, mere bubbles rising to the surface and breaking into nothing. The activity of the first principle-and all conceptions of the first principle must regard it as active-must be in accordance with its own nature, must tend to shape all things so as to correspond to that nature. For activity is expression; that which acts utters itself on that upon which it acts. It gives rise to new modifications, and these are its own expression; it again modifies, through its continued