Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Jeremiah S. Black speaking of the murder of Mrs. Surratt says: 

“In 1865, months after the peace, at the political capital of the nation in full sight of the Executive mansion, the Capitol and the city hall, where the courts were in session, a perfectly innocent and most respectable woman was lawlessly dragged from family and brutally put to death, without judge or jury, upon the mere order of certain military officers convoked for that purpose. 

It was, take it all in all, as foul a murder as ever blackened the face of God’s sky. But it was done in the strict accordance with Higher Law, and the Law Department of the United States approved it.”