Frederick Aiken

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frederick Argyle Aiken or Frederick Augustus Aiken (born September 20, 1832 in Lowell , Massachusetts , † December 23, 1878 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer , officer and journalist . During the civil war he served in the Union Army . Aiken served as one of the defense counsel for Mary Surratt , a co-defendant in connection with the assassination attempt on President Abraham Lincoln .

Early Years & American Civil War

Aiken studied journalism at Middlebury College . He later became the editor of the Burlington Sentinel. On June 1, 1857, he married Sarah Olivia Weston (1837-1900). In 1859 Aiken was admitted to the bar. In 1860 he moved with his wife to Washington DC, where he served as Secretary of the Democratic National Committee and supported the running of John C. Breckinridge in the presidential election of 1860 .

Despite sympathy for the Confederate States, Aiken served in the Union Army during the Civil War. At the end of the war he held the rank of colonel .

Mary Surratt court case

President Lincoln died on April 14, 1865, from an assassination attempt by actor John Wilkes Booth . Booth died twelve days later in an exchange of fire with Northern soldiers. The alleged accomplices of Booth were arrested in April and brought before a military tribunal. The only female accused was Mary Surratt, the owner of the Washington DC inn where Booth and other conspirators are believed to have met. Surratt's official defense attorney was Reverdy Johnson , a former attorney general and then Senator from Maryland . Since Johnson's ability as a defense attorney was in doubt, he left much of the defense to Aiken and John Clampitt , who worked in a joint law firm in Washington DC.

The defense strategy was based on an attempt to refute the testimony of two main prosecutor's witnesses. Surratt was found guilty of the trial and was executed on July 7, 1865.

Aiken's involvement in the defense of Mary Surratt was featured in the 2010 film The Lincoln Conspiracy . He was played by the actor James McAvoy .

After the trial

Aiken and Clampitt dissolved their joint law firm in 1866. The New York Times reported that Aiken was arrested in June 1866 after cashing a bad check at a merchant. From 1868 Aiken worked as a journalist for the Washington Post.

Aiken died on December 23, 1878 in Washington, DC of complications from heart disease. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frederick Argyle Aiken in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ Sarah Olivia Weston Aiken in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  3. ^ A b This Week in the Civil War - Frederick A. Aiken Biography
  4. ↑ Aiken The Attorney - Historians Weigh In
  5. ↑ IMDb - The Lincoln Conspiracy
  6. ↑ a b The American Film Company ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theamericanfilmcompany.com
personal data
SURNAME Aiken, Frederick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aiken, Frederick Argyle (full name); Aiken, Frederick Augustus (alternative name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, officer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Lowell , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1878
Place of death Washington, DC