This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/29/2026
George P. Fisher autograph letter signed, composed on his personal stationery from Washington, DC on 15 August 1867, just five days after the mistrial of John Surratt, one of the Lincoln conspirators who escaped capture for two years and whose mother, Mary Surratt, was executed for the crime of conspiracy to assassinate the President. Fisher acted as the presiding judge on the case and here writes to a Judge, sharply criticizing Surratt's defense attorney Joseph Bradley and also the Chief Justice. Interesting letter reads in part,
''...Mr. [Joseph] Bradley has only received what he has long [?]. His friends called a meeting hoping to make a demonstration...[but] they would be completely borne down by the large majority of the bar here who side with me, a baker's dozen met before the house and adjourned some ten minutes before 11 having merely pressed a resolution of inquiry. / I cannot tell you how I was mortified at the conduct of the Ch. Jus. He promised to be with me on the bench when I should disbar Bradley but slipped off to the Patent Office and left me to tread the wine press alone. But I did it with a snot[?] staring me maliciously in the face...I had scarcely left him before...[he qualified] it with the condition that there should be no denunciation of the bench or any member of it. His conduct throughout the whole case has not been at all satisfactory to me...Geo. P. Fisher''.
Three page letter on bifolium stationery measures 5'' x 8''. Folds and partial split along center fold, overall very good condition.