The Flimsy Case Against Mary Surratt

[mike86002000]

Laurie wrote:
Good point, Mike (and Mr. Franklin), but how do you maintain your liberty without being able to secure it from your enemies - both military and civilian (i.e. "enemy belligerents') in times of crisis and when the enemy lives next door?

I know you are particularly sympathetic to Dr. Mudd's case. Mrs. Surratt never had the opportunity to share her feelings about the "State of the New Union," but Dr. Mudd sure did, especially in his writings to his wife from Fort Jefferson.

Even before his case, he was quite vocal about what was happening to his country (much like Booth's writings). See his correspondence with a Catholic literary journal. Google "Letter from Mudd to Orville Brownson, January 13, 1862. Dr. Sam is a tad angry at his church hierarchy as well as the U.S. government.

Angry people often take their anger out on those that they perceive to be causing the problem. I believe that evidence before the court in 1865 pointed to his actions before and during the war and in relation to Booth bearing out this anger towards the Union and its leaders

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One more clarification in reference to the quotes from Bruce Fein of the Huffington Post and Carl Takei, mentioned above in regards to the internments of Japanese-Americans during WWII: Mr. Takei is also a journalist and works for the Los Angeles Times. He has a vested interest in the Korematsu case because his grandmother Betty Takei was one of those sent to the camps despite the fact that her husband (Carl's grandfather) was fighting with a U.S. Army artillery unit in Europe. While in hindsight a most appropriate description of the Korematsu case, perhaps, but not an objective, unbiased one.
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Politicians, charlatans really, who exploit fear and prejudice and bigotry, are also "enemies".
I have a copy of the collection of Dr. Mudd's letters from prison, put together by his daughter, the "Nettie Mudd book". It's been years since I read it. I don't remember that there was much about his political beliefs. His mail was censored. He wrote asking that well meaning people would stop telling him that they were sure he would be released soon. He had taken it literally, thinking they knew something, and it was heart breaking when his hopes were dashed - things like that.
The letter to the journal is all that survives of his personal papers from before the trial. The rest were confiscated and "lost". It's "telling" that the military commission apparently found nothing in his papers to use against him in his trial. I don't remember it as a Catholic journal. It had been recommended to him, as good reading, by a priest. Dr. Mudd objected to their editorial stance and cancelled his subscription. When he continued to receive copies, and presumably be charged for them, he was irate.
It's not just me, Fein, and Takei. Several critics of the Korematsu case are quoted in the Wikipedia article. We don't all have an ax to grind.
Mike