CHAPTER II.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE PLOT.

The evidence which will be hereafter referred to shows that John Wilkes Booth and John H. Surratt had, as early as the latter part of October, or early in November, 1864, entered into a contract with Davis's Canada Cabinet to accomplish the assassinations they had planned, and that they immediately entered upon their work of preparation. It would seem from the evidence, that at that time the purpose was to execute their designs at a much earlier date than they did; and that this delay was occasioned by the Canada conspirators.

Surratt and Booth, however, were busied from that time on in making their preparations. The first step was to enlist in the conspiracy a sufficient number of competent and reliable assistants, to each one of whom was assigned the part he was to take in it, and to train, equip, and prepare him for the part assigned him. The assassination of President Lincoln had fallen to Payne by lot; and to him was entrusted the task of making all needed preparations. Payne had visited Canada during the fall of 1864, and probably there made the acquaintance of Booth. To a man of Booth's sagacity, a mere glance at Payne would be sufficient to impress him with the idea that he was one of the helpers he wanted; and as we find him as early as February, 1865, transplanted to Washington City by Booth and Surratt, and from that time on associating with them very intimately but very secretly, and without employment, or visible means, passing back and forth between Washington and Baltimore, and finally provided with quarters in Washington by Surratt, there can be no doubt that he was early enlisted in the conspiracy, and supported by the Canada Cabinet through their agents in Washington--Booth and Surratt. The author is led to conclude from studying the evidence that Booth and Surratt were acting under a considerable latitude of provisional instructions, and that to them was entrusted the selection of the time and place for the accomplishment of their purpose. There were a number of persons in Canada, members of the conspiracy, who were expected to take an active part in its execution; and it is altogether probable that the original plan contemplated the accomplishment of these assassinations as opportunities could be found or made, and that for each one a man had been assigned.

John Wilkes Booth and John Harrison Surratt were the leaders of the conspiracy in Washington, they having proposed to their co-conspirators in Canada to accomplish for them the assassinations they had planned.

They were stimulated by their intense hostility to the administration of President Lincoln and desire for the establishment of the Southern Confederacy, and also by the delusive idea of winning enduring fame and the lasting gratitude of their countrymen of the South for being thus the instruments of retrieving the fortunes of their dying cause. But in addition to these considerations, they had large promises of pecuniary reward. They were, in fact, the hired assassins of Jefferson Davis and his Canada Cabinet.

These two men had been engaged for months in making their preparations for the assassination of the President, Vice-President, Secretary Seward, and General Grant. They visited and conferred with the Canada conspirators from time to time during the summer and fall of 1864, and early winter of 1865. They traversed the counties of Prince George, Charles, and St. Mary's, Maryland, lying along the north side of the Potomac below Washington, to prepare the way for escape by securing confederates along the contemplated route who would assist in facilitating their flight by aiding them in their progress, or by concealing them if necessary. Booth had spent some time in this work during the fall and early winter, making himself familiar with the geography of the country, roads, etc., under the pretence that he desired to purchase lands in Maryland. He found in Charles County Dr. S. A. Mudd, who sympathized with his plans, and entered into them at least so far as to pledge him any assistance he could give him in making his escape. Mudd also visited Booth two or three times in Washington during the winter, introducing him on the occasion of his first visit to John H. Surratt; and in the course of these visits he was always found in company with Booth and others of the conspirators who were to take an active part in its accomplishment, and was no doubt kept well informed of the progress of their preparations, and of the time when it would be attempted after that had been determined upon. Surratt also spent much time during the winter in this part of Maryland, in preparation for the work. Being at home there, he could render Booth valuable assistance by procuring friends who would aid him in his flight, and in getting him across the Potomac at the selected point. As this was on the line of a regular underground mail route between Washington and Richmond, with which Surratt was familiar, he, of course, had no difficulty in making satisfactory arrangements, the great mass of the population in all of these counties being intensely disloyal.

They had selected and arranged with Payne, Atzerodt, O'Laughlin, Arnold, Herold, Spangler, and numerous other parties who were never made known, to take an active part in the work of assassination, or to aid them in their escape. Booth and Surratt had provided horses for the occasion, and, with Atzerodt and Herold, were known to a number of liverymen of whom they were liberal and frequent patrons.

Surratt provided quarters for Payne at the Herndon House, representing him to be a delicate gentleman, and stipulating that his meals should be served to him in his room. Atzerodt, who was to have assassinated the Vice-President, had taken a room at the Pennsylvania House. Booth, being an actor, and familiar with the routine of the play and the work of the assistants on the stage, having selected Ford's Theatre as the place for the accomplishment of his purpose, proceeded to make himself at home amongst the _habitues_ of that establishment. He was a very handsome man, stylish in his dress, dissolute in his habits, a constant and free drinker, generous in the expenditure of his money on his vices of smoking and drinking, and of great personal magnetism. He soon ingratiated himself with the employees of the theatre, and became a general favorite.

It was necessary that he should have a co-conspirator at the theatre to assist him in making his escape. He had labored hard with an actor in New York by the name of Chester, with whom he was acquainted, to engage him in the conspiracy, that he might station him at the door of his exit, to see that his way should be clear and the door open at the critical moment, for which service he offered to pay him three thousand dollars; but Chester, after several interviews and much importunity, absolutely declined, and begged Booth never to mention the matter to him again. Failing to secure Chester, he turned his attention to Edward Spangler, an employee at the theatre. Spangler was a man of dissipated habits, low moral tone, and little intellectual culture, and being politically in sympathy with Booth, he was easily led by him into the conspiracy. Booth had had a shed fitted up as a stable in an alley back of the theatre, and had kept his horse in it occasionally for some time previous, that he might have it convenient when the supreme moment should have arrived, without exciting suspicion. To reach the private box fitted up on the occasion for the occupancy of the President and General Grant, with their wives, it was necessary to pass through two doors. The first led into a passage behind the box, the second from this passage into the box. To prevent any one from following him into the passage and hindering the accomplishment of his purpose, Booth had cut, himself, or more likely had had Spangler, who was a kind of rough carpenter, cut a mortise in the plastering of the passage wall, in such a position with reference to the door that the end of a wooden bar, three and a half feet long, which had been prepared for that purpose, could be inserted in the mortise, and the other end placed against the panel of the door so that it could not be opened from the outside.

That ingress to this passage might not be prevented by the bolting of the door by the President and his party after entering, the screws of the fastenings had been drawn, so that it could be easily pushed open. A hole had been bored through the door to the box, opposite where the President's chair was placed, with a small bit, and reamed out with a knife, so that Booth could, after gaining the passage and barring the door behind him, peep through this hole and assure himself of the exact position of his intended victim. The manner in which all of these arrangements had been made, the mortise in the plastered wall, the bar of wood fitted to the mortise, and in length having been exactly prepared to fit against the panel of the door and act as a brace, show that all these preparations had been made with the greatest forethought and care.

About three weeks previous to the assassination, John H. Surratt, Herold, and Atzerodt brought to the tavern at Surrattsville, in Maryland, about ten miles below Washington City, owned by Mrs. Surratt, and at the time occupied by a man by the name of Lloyd, two carbines, with ammunition, a monkey-wrench, and a piece of rope. Surratt asked Lloyd to take charge of these things and keep them secreted, saying they would be called for before a great while, at the same time showing him a suitable place about the house in which to hide them. The Surratt family had lived in this house and kept a country tavern until within a few months previous, when they had removed to Washington, renting their tavern to Lloyd, so that Surratt was much more familiar with the house than Lloyd. These things, as we shall see, were placed there for the use of Booth and his companion in their flight after the assassination. As a precautionary measure, Booth, on the Tuesday before the assassination, sought an interview with Mrs. Surratt, who shortly after that interview discovered that she had some private business at Surrattsville that had to be attended to that day, and so she asked Mr. Wiechmann, a young man who had been a boarder at her house for several months, to drive her down, saying that she wanted to go and see a Mr. Nothey who owed her some money. She then sent Wiechmann to Booth, to get his horse and buggy for the drive. Booth told Wiechmann that he had sold his horse and buggy, but gave him ten dollars with which to procure one. Meeting Lloyd on the way down, driving up to Washington, they stopped; Lloyd got out of his buggy and went to the side of Mrs. Surratt's buggy, on which she was sitting, when Mrs. Surratt told Lloyd, as he afterwards testified, in a low voice, so that Wiechmann did not hear what she said, to have those shooting irons ready, or handy, as they would be called for before long. On the day of the assassination Booth again had a private interview with Mrs. Surratt, after which she again asked Wiechmann to drive her down to Surrattsville, claiming the same errand as before. On this occasion she sought an opportunity for a private interview with Lloyd, when she told him to have the carbines handy, as they would be called for that night, at the same time handing him a field-glass, which Booth had given to her, and telling him to have two bottles of whiskey ready.

John H. Surratt left Washington for Richmond on the 25th of March and returned to Washington on the 3d of April, leaving for Montreal on the evening of the same day. He showed to Wiechmann--an old college friend and, at this time, a boarder in his mother's house--nine or eleven twenty-dollar gold pieces, and sixty dollars in greenbacks, on his return from Richmond. Surratt, in his Rockville lecture, admits that he received two hundred dollars in gold from Benjamin to pay expenses and remunerate for services. Surratt left Washington for Canada on the evening of the 3d of April, and we find him, by the evidence, in Montreal on the 6th, where he delivered to Thompson a cipher dispatch from Jefferson Davis, and a letter from Mr. Benjamin, of Davis's Richmond Cabinet. After reading these documents, Thompson, laying his hand on them, said, "This makes the thing all right." The sanction of the rebel president to his arrangements with the assassins had been obtained, and authority also for the expenditure of funds to fulfil the contract. The Canada conspirators who were to take a part prepared at once, and started for the States, boasting to their friends that they would hear of the death of Old Abe and others before ten days. This was on the 8th of April, and nothing now remained but to find, and use, an opportunity; and Booth selected the appearance of the President at the theatre as affording the opportunity he sought, and proceeded to make all his arrangements accordingly.

All things were now ready. Booth had selected the route for his escape and had provided to be furnished with a field-glass, two carbines, and two bottles of whiskey at Surrattsville, having sent a notice to Lloyd to have them ready, as they would be called for that night. He had provided horses from a livery-stable for himself and Herold, who was to accompany him. He had also provided a horse for Payne, whose part was to murder Secretary Seward. He had assembled his assistants in Washington, to one of whom, Michael O'Laughlin, he had assigned the task of the assassination of General Grant; and having made these preparations, he spent the day and afternoon of the 14th of April looking after the matter generally, and keeping up his courage, or rather recklessness, with frequent potations of whiskey. To Payne he had given a one-eyed bay horse, which he had purchased of a man by the name of Gardner, a neighbor of Dr. Samuel Mudd, in Charles County, Maryland. Mudd accompanied him, and introduced him to Gardner as a man who was desirous of purchasing land in that part of Maryland, and who wished a good driving horse that he could use for a short time. During the afternoon of the 14th, Booth, Herold, and Atzerodt hired horses from liverymen, and were to be seen riding here and there about the streets of Washington, frequently stopping at saloons to refresh themselves with that which obtunds all moral sensibility and makes men reckless in wickedness. Booth was acting the part of a general mustering his forces for the conflict, part of which he thus displayed openly, but keeping another part in concealment. He kept himself in active communication with all, and delivered his orders and instructions. Feeling the full force of the responsibility of his engagement, and earnestly intent on its complete and thorough accomplishment, he attended in person to every detail to make failure, if possible, an impossibility.

It would seem that a previous attempt had been made to assassinate the President, which had resulted in a failure. It was known that President Lincoln was in the habit of riding out to the Soldiers' Home of evenings, passing through a lonely suburb of the city unguarded. Some time in March, John Wilkes Booth, John H. Surratt, Payne, Atzerodt, Herold, and two others, left the house of Mrs. Surratt about two o'clock in the afternoon, on horseback, armed with revolvers and bowie-knives, and returned about six o'clock under the greatest possible excitement of rage and disappointment. All the evidence went to show that this expedition was regarded by them as one of the greatest importance, involving the necessity of leaving the city, perhaps for good, as their return in the evening was as much of a surprise to their friends as it was an occasion of dissatisfaction to themselves. I think there can hardly be a doubt that they expected to intercept the President on his way to the Home, and were lying in wait for him with the purpose of there assassinating him, and then making their escape. The President, however, upon the earnest advice of his cabinet, had yielded the point of riding unprotected and alone, and had accepted the protection of an escort of cavalry on these rides. Booth and his party finding him thus guarded had been compelled to abandon the idea of thus finding an opportunity to assassinate him, and so had to prepare a new plan of operations. There was a rumor, which found its way into the papers about this time, that there was a plot to capture the President and carry him a prisoner to Richmond; but however much Booth's pride and vanity might have impelled him to achieve the notoriety that would have attended the accomplishment of such a feat, the difficulties and dangers attending its accomplishment must have been too obvious to a man of Booth's sagacity, and its success involved in too much uncertainty, to have justified him in making such an attempt.

In view of all the facts, I conclude that the real purpose of Booth and his party on the occasion referred to was to murder the President, and trust to flight for concealment and safety. But now Booth was fully possessed with the idea of the practicability of his present plan, and was determined to know no such word as fail; and that it was entirely possible that, but for a Providential interference, he might have made good his escape after murdering the President, we shall hereafter see.

President Lincoln had been convinced by the most undoubted proofs that a plan for his assassination at Baltimore whilst on his way to Washington, in 1861, to assume the responsibilities of the office to which he had been called by the choice of the people, had been arranged and prepared for by his enemies, and had only been prevented of its execution by the strategic movement planned by his friends, by which he passed through that city during the night previous to the morning on which he was expected.

"From the very beginning of his Presidency Mr. Lincoln had been constantly subject to the threats of his enemies and the warnings of his friends. The threats came in every form: his mail was infested with brutal and vulgar menace, mostly anonymous, the proper expression of vile and cowardly minds.

"The warnings were not less numerous; the vaporings of village bullies, the extravagancies of excited secessionist politicians, even the drolling of practical jokers, were faithfully reported to him by zealous or nervous friends. Most of these communications received no notice. In cases where there seemed a ground for inquiry it was made, as carefully as possible, by the President's private secretary and by the War Department, but always without substantial results.

"Warnings that appeared to be most definite, when they came to be examined proved too vague and confused for further attention. The President was too intelligent not to know he was in some danger. Madmen frequently made their way to the very door of the executive offices, and sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's presence.

"He had himself so sane a mind, and a heart so kindly even to his enemies, that it was hard for him to believe in a political hatred so deadly as to lead to murder. He would sometimes laughingly say, 'Our friends on the other side would make nothing by exchanging me for Hamlin,' the Vice-President having the reputation of more radical views than his chief. He knew, indeed, that incitements to murder him were not uncommon in the South. An advertisement had appeared in a paper of Selma, Alabama, in December, 1864, opening a subscription for funds to affect the assassination of Lincoln, Seward, and Johnson before the inauguration."[1]

In view of all this danger he would say "that he could not possibly guard against it unless he were to shut himself up in an iron box, in which condition he could scarcely perform the duties of a President. By the hand of a murderer he could only die once; to go continually in fear would be to die over and over."

To his faithful and devoted friend, Father Chiniquy, who on several occasions warned him of his danger, and of the ultimate source of its inspiration, he said, "I see no other way than to be always prepared to die. I know my danger; but man must not care how and where he dies, provided he dies at the post of honor and duty."

We have come to the point now where we find, on the part of his murderers, all things ready for his taking off; and their intended victim prepared in mind for his fate, and ready to "die at the post of honor and duty." What a fearful, and at the same time, sublime spectacle! The powers of light and the powers of darkness were contending, as ever, for the supremacy. Satan, the usurper, claims this world for his kingdom. He has seduced and enslaved the human race, and, by every false and cunning device, is always resisting every movement that looks to the disenthralment of mankind, and bringing the world back to its allegiance to God, its rightful sovereign. How sublime was the faith of President Lincoln in the ultimate triumph of the right! How sincerely and believingly could he have sung,

"Thy saints in all this glorious war, Shall conquer though they die; They see the triumph from afar, By faith they bring it nigh."