Joseph
Holt
was born in Kentucky in 1807. He practiced law in Kentucky and Mississippi
with great success. A member of the Democratic
Party Holt campaigned for James Buchanan
in 1856.
In 1859 James Buchanan appointed Holt
as his Postmaster General. Two years later he became Secretary of
War but lost office with the election of Abraham
Lincoln later that year.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
Holt became a strong supporter of the Union cause. He told fellow
members of the Democratic Party in
Kentucky that disunion would mean "national weakness, standing
armies and incessant wars and expensive frontier fortifications."
Lincoln was grateful fort Holt's support and in September, 1862, he
appointed him as the country's first Judge Advocate General of the
Army.
Holt was a strong opponent of the emancipation
of the slaves. He was highly critical of Major General John
C. Fremont, the commander of the Union Army in St.
Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri
were free. He supported Lincoln's decision to sack Fremont when he
refused to back down on this issue. Holt commented that African Americans
were "unprepared for freedom and whose presence could not fail
to prove a source of painful apprehension if not of terror to the
homes and families of all."
In 1863 Holt led the prosecution of Clement
Vallandigham, the leader of the Peace Democrats (Copperheads).
He was arrested in May, 1863 and accused of treason. Found guilty
by a military commission, he was sentenced to imprisonment. Soon afterwards
Lincoln intervened and commuted his sentence to banishment behind
the Confederate Army front lines.
In 1864 Holt was asked by Edwin M. Stanton
to investigate disloyalty in the North. In his report Holt suggested
that secret organizations such as the Order of American Knights and
the Sons of Liberty were aiding Confederate forces. He claimed that
Clement Vallandigham was the leader
of this movement.
When Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated in April, 1865,
Holt joined Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary
of War and James Speed, the Attorney
General, in calling for the conspirators to be tried by the military
commission. The new president, Andrew Johnson,
agreed and ordered the formation of a nine-man military commission.
The trial, with Holt, the government's chief prosecutor, began on
10th May, 1865. The military commission included leading generals
such as David Hunter, Robert
Foster, August Kautz,, Lewis
Wallace, Thomas Harris and Albion
Howe.
Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
all charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial Holt
attempted to persuade the military commission that Jefferson
Davis and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Holt attempted to obscure the fact that there were two plots: the
first to kidnap and the second to assassinate. It was important for
the prosecution not to reveal the existence of a diary taken from
the body of John Wilkes Booth. The diary
made it clear that the assassination plan dated from 14th April. The
defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's diary to be produced
in court.
On 29th June, 1865 Mary
Surratt, Lewis Paine, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Samuel
Mudd, Michael O'Laughlin, Edman
Spangler and Samuel Arnold were
found guilty of being involved in the conspiracy to murder Abraham
Lincoln. Surratt, Paine, Atzerodt and Herold were hanged at Washington
Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865. Surratt, who was expected to be reprieved,
was the first woman in American history to be executed.
The Military Commission had recommended that Mrs. Surratt be shown
mercy "due to her sex and age". President Andrew
Johnson was later to say he was never told this and he gave the
order to hang the woman who he pointed out "kept the nest that
hatched the egg". Holt later testified that he had drawn Johnson's
attention to the feelings of the commission and in his retirement
argued that he suspected that Mrs. Surratt had not been involved in
the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. Joseph
Holt died in 1894.
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