Assassination Trivia

[Eva Elisabeth]

Great, Mike (same with me when I was challenged with the task, two needed more research). Now whom did you find? (You don't need to come up with four names at once! Also you are always welcome to ask yes/no questions!)

Hint #1: All are well known on this forum.
Hint #2: None of the gentleman lived to the 20th century.

[RJNorton]

Winfield Hancock?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Well done, he was even considered twice, in 1868 and 1880.

[AussieMick]

Hi Eva,
I thought that I'd found two but now see that one of them was for VICE President. I found this one first ... James Speed. U.S. Attorney General James Speed issued a legal opinion stating that the conspirators not only could be, but must be, tried by a military commission. I see that in 1868, Speed ran for the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States.

I then found Brevet Major-General Hartranft. He was assigned to duty as Special Provost Marshal General and read the death warrant to the individuals who were executed.
At the Republican National Convention in June 1876, he was a contender for the presidential nomination, but Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio was eventually selected.

(BTW, mainly of interest only to me , I am constantly getting James Speed confused with his brother Joshua Speed .... I blame David Herbert Donald's book "Lincoln" where the indexing for them seems odd. It refers to Page 88 for James Speed when I'm sure it is Joshua. There again, it could just be me !)

[Eva Elisabeth]

Brilliant, Mike! (I got double-trapped by Speed the same way, thinking of his brother and missing he "just" would have been a Vice). Well done, Roger and Mike.
Now, two gentlemen are left. It is possible to find them on the web in the "primary encyclopedia", AKA Wiki.

[wpbinzel]

I will just add that it is a difficult but very fair question.

[Steve]

I didn't know Winfield Hancock could be counted since he was actually nominated at one of the conventions he was a candidate. So, I guess you can include Pres. Andrew Johnson since he was a candidate at the 1868 Democratic convention.

[AussieMick]

I had a feeling this might result in debate .
Steve, Eva said that none of the 4 became President.

[RJNorton]

I am having problems in attempting to research this. Kudos on such a challenging question. Can you say if any of the correct answers were witnesses in the trial?

[Eva Elisabeth]

I didn't know Winfield Hancock could be counted since he was actually nominated at one of the conventions he was a candidate. So, I guess you can include Pres. Andrew Johnson since he was a candidate at the 1868 Democratic convention.

Steve, as Mike said, none became President. But I didn't explicitly exclude they actually were candidates rather than just being considered - I didn't want to make it too easy (and this is something that could well be approached by yes/no questions...)

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I am having problems in attempting to research this. Kudos on such a challenging question. Can you say if any of the correct answers were witnesses in the trial?

Good question, Roger. No, none was a witness, but the remaining two played an active role on the legal side.

Hint #3: I suggest to ask more y/n questions to specify what legal side.
(Roger - I, too, found it a great and very welcome challenge in my Xmas break right because it is not a Google-one-click-thing but requires real research. Yet it should be possible for anyone as the names are well known here.)

[RJNorton]

I looked up all the members of the military commission. Except for Hancock, I could not find any that were candidates for nomination for President. Did I miss something?

[Eva Elisabeth]

You missed my latest hint...ok. One good question would have been: "Were the two missing gentlemen lawyers in the trial?" - "Yes".
Another previous hint was that none survived into the 20th century.
That should help...

[AussieMick]

I'll guess Reverdy Johnson (Mary Surratt's lawyer) I can see he was politically active but cannot find a statement about presidency.

Ok, Judge David Davis wasnt one of the lawyers but he was involved in deciding whether it was to be a military trial, and he was in line for succession for being President (due to vacancy of a Vice Pres when Garfield was killed)

[Steve]

David Davis was a candidate in the Liberal Republican party convention for President. The Republican party split into 2 parties during the 1872 Presidential election. The Democrats decided to endorse the eventual Liberal Republican party candidate, Horace Greely, in exchange for patronage jobs and didn't officially field a candidate for president during that election. Davis wasn't a candidate at the 1872 Democratic convention, which is why I missed him before.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I'm afraid it was neither Greely nor Davis but two of the lawyers in the trial.

Hint #4: Both were Democrats (when they were considered for nomination).
Hint #5: It was in 1868 respectively 1880.