Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/347

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by that vile wretch, Judge Advocate General Holt. A committee of the then Republican Congress says of these:

''Several of these witnesses, when brought before the committee, retracted entirely the statements which they had made in their affidavits, and declared that their testimony as originally given was false in every particular."

Utterly failing in the attempt to connect Mr. Davis with this crime, they then tried to involve him in the alleged cruelty to prisoners at Andersonville, and a reprieve was offered to the com- mandant of the prison, Wirz, the night before he was hung, if he would implicate Mr. Davis, which offer the brave Captain indig- nantly refused.

It was only after every attempt to connect Mr. Davis with other crimes had failed, that the authorities at Washington dared to have him indicted for the alleged crime of treason. Three several indictments for this offence were then set on foot. The first was found in the District of Columbia, but no process seems ever to have been issued on that. The second was found May 8th, 1866, at Nor- folk, Va., in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, then presided over by the infamous Judge Un- derwood; and as Underwood himself tells us, this indictment was found after consultation with, and by the direction of Andrew John- son, the then President of the United States. Almost immediately on the finding of this indictment, Mr. William B. Reed, a distin- guished lawyer from Philadelphia, appeared for Mr. Davis, and asked : ' ' What is to be done with this indictment ? Is it to be tried ? ' '

my colleagues and for myself and for my absent client, I say with emphasis, and I say with earnestness, we come here prepared in- stantly to try that case, and we shall ask no delay at your honor's hands further than is necessary to bring the prisoner to face the Court, and enable him under the statute in such case made and provided, to examine the bill of indictment against him."
 * * " If it is to be tried, may it please your honor, speaking for

At the instance of the Government, the case was then continued until October, 1866. Although efforts were made by Mr. Davis' s counsel to have him admitted to bail, or removed to some more com- fortable quarters, neither of these could be accomplished until May 1 3th, 1867, when he was admitted to bail, after a cruel imprisonment of two years, Horace Greeley, Gerfitt Smith and other distinguished Northerners then becoming his sureties.