Holt

this convenient tribunal to convict Jefferson
Davis and his cabinet of treason were checked
only by a series of unexpected developments
which undermined the confidence of many erst-
while supporters of the tribunal In December
1866 the United States Supreme Court pro-
nounced against the jurisdiction of the military
commission in the Milligan case. In 1864, "tak-
ing its opinion bodily from the argument of
Judge-Advocate General Holt" (Randall, post,
p. 179) the Court had refused to review the pro-
ceedings of the military commission in the Val-
landigham case (Ex parte Vallandigham, I Wal-
lace, 243), but the decision in the case of Ex
parte Milligan (4 Wallace, 2) was reached when
the war was at an end and the necessity for the
policy of military trial of civilians had termi-
nated. Resentment toward the policy which had
been steadily growing in Conservative circles as
recent passions declined was unexpectedly fanned
by the disclosure of gross perjury on the part of
the government's witnesses in the trial of the
Lincoln conspirators and of a regrettable credu-
lousness on the part of the prosecution, which
was the inevitable result of the method of trial.
Holt was accused of suppressing important evi-
dence, notably Booth's diary, and of withholding
from President Johnson the military commis-
sion's recommendation of clemency toward Mrs.
Surratt. Confronted by these charges, which
failed to discriminate between the intent and the
error of judgment, he rose to the defense of his
personal integrity. He published in the columns
of the Washington Daily Morning Chronicle
(Sept. 3, 1866) a justification, later issued as a
pamphlet: Vindication of Judge Advocate Gen-
eral Holt from the Foul Slanders of Traitors,
Confessed Perjurers and Suborners, Acting in
the Interest of Jefferson Dams (1866). This
method of meeting opposition threw him more
irrevocably into the Radical camp. When Presi-
dent Johnson joined the Conservative party,
Holt's personal quarrel with him over the re-
sponsibility for the execution of Mrs. Surratt be-
came a part of a larger political antagonism.
Holt maintained thereafter his attempts to dis-
prove a charge which had ceased to carry public
significance with the change of political issues;
thirteen years after his resignation (in 1875) as
judge-advocate general, he published an article
in the North American Review (July 1888), in
a vain effort to revive interest in a subject still
of vital moment to himself. His health became
feebler and he lost his eyesight. Shortly after
the advent of this last affliction he died in his
solitary home at New Jersey Avenue and C
Street, South East, Washington,

Holt

[Sources for Holt's life and career include: Holt
Papers, J. 0. Harrison Papers, Stanton Papers, in the
Lib. of Cong.; letter sent the writer by a relative of
Joseph Holt; official correspondence in the Judge-Ad-
vocate General's Office, War Dept, many excerpts
from which appear in War of the Rebellion; Official Rec-
ords (Army) and in Digest of the Opinion of the
Judge Advocate General (1868); House Report No.
104, 39 Cong., i Sess., and Holt's many controversial
pamphlets; Mary B. Allen, "Joseph Holt, Judge Advo-
cate General, 1862-65" (MS.), doctor's thesis, Univ.
of Chicago (1927); W. M. Dunn, A Sketch of the
Hist, and Duties of the Judge Advocate General's Dept.
(1876); H. S. Foote, Bench and Bar of the South and
Southwest (1876) ; J. G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abra-
ham Lincoln (1890), vols. II, III, VIII, IX, X; J. G.
Randall, Constitutional Problems under Lincoln (1926);
Courier-Journal (Louisville), Aug. 8, 1894; Evening
Star (Washington), Aug. i, 1894. For references on
the trial of the Lincoln "assassins" see sketch of John
Wilkes Booth.] M.B A

HOLT, LUTHER EMMETT (Mar. 4,1855-
Jan. 14,1924),pediatrician, was born of New Eng-
land Puritan stock in Webster, N. Y.,the youngest
of three children. His father, Horace Holt, de-
scended from Nicholas and Elizabeth Holt who
came to Boston in 1635, was a farmer of limited
means; his mother, Sabrah Amelia Curtice, was
a remarkable woman who exhibited the traits of
mind and character later exemplified in her son.
Holt's boyhood was uneventful. At the age of
sixteen he entered the University of Rochester,
graduating in 1875, seventh in his class. Aftei*
teaching for a year he began medical study at
the University of Buffalo. At the end of the first
year, however, he went to New York City to be-
come interne in the service of Dr. V. P. Gibney
at the Hospital of the Society for the Relief of
the Ruptured and Crippled and to continue his
medical studies at the College of Physicians and
Surgeons. This step marked the beginning of
his career, for it established him in New York
City, brought him in contact with Dr. Gibney,
the mentor of his early years and his lifelong
friend, and started him in orthopedics, which
proved a natural gateway to pediatrics. Holt
received his doctor's degree from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in 1880. After com-
pleting an interneship in surgery at Bellevue
Hospital in 1881, he opened an office in New
York City for the practice of medicine. Though
he accepted at this time an assistantship in ortho-
pedics tinder Dr. Gibney at the newly created
New York Polyclinic, his interest and activities
turned more and more toward the medical ail-
ments of children. He received posts in the next'
few years at the Northwestern Dispensary, the
New York Infant Asylum—now the Nursery
and Child's Hospital—and the New York Found-
ling Hospital, Holt considered that the experi-
ence in pathology which he gained at the New
York Infant Asylum was the foundation for his

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