ALS, one lightly-lined page, 8 x 9.75, War Department, Washington City letterhead, June 29, 1865. A letter thanking a medical consultant, Dr. John P. Gray, for his work evaluating the mental competence of Lewis Paine (who real name was Powell) and the other Lincoln assassination conspirators. The letter reads, in part: “Your report on the cases of Payne [sic] and other prisoners now on trial before the Military Commission at Washington has been received, and is highly satisfactory…In relieving you from further duty it is proper to render to you the cordial thanks of this department for the industry and fidelity with which you have performed the important duties wherewith you were charged by me, and to express my personal thanks and gratification. I would also request you to return my thanks to your Board for enabling the government to avail itself of your important service. With sincere regard I am truly your friend.” In fine condition, with the upper portion of the letter affixed loosely to a card, minor show through in the right margin from light adhesive residue on the reverse, minor feathering to the last few letters of Stanton’s signature. Paine’s sanity was a central aspect of his trial. His grisly task in the conspiracy had been to cut the throat of Secretary of State Seward. He stabbed and beat five people in the Seward household the night of the attack, but fortunately failed to inflict any fatal wounds. His conduct after his arrest was so bizarre, his mind so obviously sluggish and simple, that his counsel tried to mount a defense of “moral insanity,” claiming that the simple-minded Payne had fallen so completely under the control of Booth that he no longer had a will of his own. None of it persuaded the Commission, which found Paine guilty and sentenced him to death. He was hanged, along with Mary Surrat, David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
