The Nation: To Remove a Blot

In 1852 a man named John Surratt built a two-story clapboard house in the Maryland countryside about ten miles from Washington, D.C. Soon it served as a tavern, polling place, post of fice and home for the Surratt family, and the area became known as Surrattsville. After Surratt died in 1862, his widow Mary leased the building and moved to Washington, where she opened a boardinghouse. It was there, in 1865, that John Wilkes Booth plotted the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. One of Booth’s associates, John Lloyd, turned state’s evidence and implicated Mrs. Surratt in the conspiracy.

Though Lloyd had been drunk during the critical conversation with Mrs. Surratt, an overzealous military court accepted his testimony. The widow—whose last words to a priest were “Father, I am innocent”—was hanged in July 1865 along with three alleged members of Booth’s cabal. The U.S. Government, meanwhile, had changed the name of Surrattsville to Robeystown; today, it is known as Clinton, Md.

But the citizens of the area were sure that one of their own had been wronged.

They continued to give their schools the Surrattsville name, and they kept a close eye on the Surratt house. In 1965 its last private owner donated it to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. A group of local citizens raised money for its restoration, and last week it was formally dedicated as a historical monument. Boy Scouts directed traffic while an honor guard from nearby Andrews Air Force Base presented colors. Said Restoration Committee Chairman Thomas S. Gwynn Jr. to the 700 onlookers, including 30-odd Surratt descendants who attended the affair: “To remove this blot, this blemish, this cloud from the name of one of our local residents, is why we are here today.”