May 3 - The Conspirator

Today’s movie is a period courtroom drama with a scene that happens on May 3. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE CONSPIRATOR          

Frederick Aiken is wounded in the Civil War. Two years later he, his wife Sarah and friends William Hamilton and Nicholas Baker celebrate the end of the war at the Century Club. That night President Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Payne stabs Secretary of State Seward, but George Atzerodt doesn’t try to kill Vice-President Johnson. Mary Surratt and others are arrested. John Wilkes Booth is trapped and killed. Lincoln is mourned by the nation as a train carrying his body crosses the nation, finally arriving at his hometown of Springfield Illinois on May 3, 1865. [16:11 to 16:26] Senator Johnson has agreed to represent Mary Surratt and talks Aiken into assisting. The Senator is upset at civilians being tried in military courts. Aiken is ordered to defend her alone after the Senator(who’s from Maryland) quits the defense, telling Aiken that only with a northern lawyer like him will Mrs. Surratt have a chance.  The prosecution’s first witness is Lewis Weichmann, who lived in Mrs. Surratt’s boardinghouse.  His weak testimony is further attacked by Aiken who shows that he had visited Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. The Senator tells Aiken if he can prove Mrs. Surratt is guilty, he can quit. Mrs. Surratt admits her son John and Booth conspired to kidnap Lincoln, but swears on the Bible that she did not conspire to kill Lincoln. There is testimony that Mrs. Surratt denied knowing Lewis Payne, one of her boarders, but Aiken shows she has poor eyesight. Secretary of War Stanton tries to get Senator Johnson to give up on defending Mrs. Surratt, but he refuses. Senator  Johnson advises Aiken to implicate John Surratt if necessary to save Mrs. Surratt, as he thinks she has been arrested to try and ‘smoke out’ her son, who had escaped the roundup. The prosecutor Holt next calls John  Lloyd to the stand and he testifies that on the day of the assassination Mary Suratt brought him a set of binoculars and told him to have guns and whisky ready that night for two men, one of whom was Booth. Mrs. Surratt denounces this testimony as a lie and Aiken tries to show Lloyd is a drunk. An army officer lies to Aiken and then gives damaging testimony at the trial.  Aiken is tossed out of the Century Club and his wife leaves him. Aiken tries to get Stanton to do the right thing and free Mrs. Surratt, but he refuses. Aiken calls Anna Surratt to establish it was her brother John and not their mother who was involved in the conspiracy. Mrs. Surratt is convicted and sentenced to hang. Aiken gets Judge Wylie to issue a writ of habeus corpus so she can get a civilian trial, but the President suspends the writ. She is hung. 18 months later John Suratt is caught, but acquitted in a civilian court.    

A good courtroom procedural and historical drama with lessons for today. The Constitution was trampled on to get these defendants convicted. As Benjamin Franklin said “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” A lesson for today.

Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton (HarperCollins, New York, 2009) at page 251 gives the date Lincoln’s funeral train reached Springfield.

Producers - Robert Redford, Brian Falk, Bill Holderman, Greg Shapiro and Robert Stone

Director - Robert Redford

Screenplay - James D. Solomon

Released  - September 11, 2010

Runtime – 2 hours 3 minutes

Starring –

James McAvoy as Frederick Aiken

Robin Wright as Mary Surratt

Justin Long as Nicholas Baker

Evan Rachel Wood as Anna Surratt

Johnny Simmons as John Surratt

Toby Kebbell as John Wilkes Booth

Tom Wilkinson as Senator Reverdy Johnson

Norman Reedus as Lewis Payne

Alexis Bledel as Sarah Weston

Kevin Kline as Edwin Stanton

Danny Huston as Brig. Gen. Joseph Holt

Stephen Root as John M. Lloyd

Jonathan Groff as Louis Weichmann

John Cullum as Judge Wylie

Brent F.G. Feasel as Lord Dundreary

Kirk Sparks as Edmund Spangler

Colm Meaney as Maj. Gen. David Hunter

Shea Whigham as Capt. Cottingham

James Badge Dale as William Hamilton

Jim True-Frost as Brig. Gen. John F. Hartranft

Gerald Bestrom as Abraham Lincoln

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.