Porter & Comstock

[JosephARose]

On page 377 of William Marvel's scathing biography of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Autocrat, he concluded that "Comstock argued, perhaps for both of them, that the commission lacked jurisdiction, notwithstanding Speed's supportive opinion, which had been based on the presupposition that the defendants were guilty. Comstock complained as well about the secrecy of the trial, and of the manner in which all eight defendants were brought in hooded and shackled. Stanton replaced the uncooperative Comstock and Porter the following day." He cites: Sumner, Comstock Diary, 317; Pitman, the Assassination, 409.

In his diary, Comstock had written on May 8th: "Wish I could get off" the commission, and he objected to its being military, not civil, and secret. The next day, he described the "horrid sight" of the bound prisoners.

Porter, in Campaigning with Grant, page 510, wrote: "I was appointed a member of the court which was to try the prisoners. The defense, however, raised the objection that as I was a member of General Grant's military family, and as it was claimed that he was one of the high officials who was an intended victim of the assassins, I was disqualified from sitting in judgment upon them. The court very properly sustained the objection, and I was relieved, and another officer was substituted."

This might already have been posted, but it may be of interest.