The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-05
FHF IssGsSTEATION CONsPIRlOT.
The Plot Against the President-Lne
assassin and his AeeOfnpltces-Ah ne
Progress of the seheme-NeW ana
Interesting Facts.

asassim and his AeeoHnpAeeS
Progress of the seheme-NeW ana
Interesting Facts
The New York World of Wednesday
has a long and detailed history CT the con-
,piiscy 10 asssssinAte the President and
cabinet, purporting to give the origin and
progress Os the plot, the persons engaged
in it, SC, sc. We extract from it some
very interesting paragraphs. ofcourse we
do not vouch for their correctness, which
cannet be proven until the official state
ment Of the facts be given to the public.
THE FIRsT CONCEPTION or THE CRIME.
Booth shrank at first from murder, until |
another and less dangerous resolution failed. |
This was no less than the capture of the |
Presidents body, and its detention or trans
portstion to the South 1 do net rely on
this assertion upon his sealed letter, where
he avows it; there has been found upon
street within the CITY limits, 8 house be-
longing to one Mrs. Green, mined and fur
nished with underground apartments, fur
nished with msnseles and all the accessories
to private imprisonment. Here the Pres
-
conveyed away with him, were to be con-
cealed, in the event of failure to run them
into the coDfsderscy. Owing to his failure
to gloup around him as many men IS he
desired, Booth abandoned the project of
kidnapping; but the house wss discovered
last week, as represented, ready to be blown
up at moments notice.
CANADIAN FRONTIERS.
About this time certain gentlemen in
Canada began to be uneDvisbly known.
abstain from giving their names, because
unaware OF how lar they seconded this
crime, if at all But they seconded as in
famous things, such as cowardly raids from
neutral territory into the States, bank rob
bings, lake pirsting, city burning, counter
feiting, railway sundering, and the impor-
tation of yellow fever into peaceful and
unohsnding communities. 1 make no
charges against those whom do not know,
but simply say thst the Confederate agents
Jacob Thompson, Larry Mcdonald, Glenn
ent Clay, and some others, had slresdy sc-
complished enough villsiny to make Wilkes
Booth, on the first of the present yesr, be-
lieve that he had but to seek an interview
with them.
BOOTHS "cUE' FROM CANADA.
He visited the provinces once certainly,
and three times it is believed, stopping In
Montreal st St. Lawrence Hall, and bank
ing four hundred and fifty five dollars odd
| at the Ontario bank. This was his own
money. 1 have myself seen his bsnk-book
with the single entry of this amount It
was found in the room of Abzerodt, at
KirkwOod's Hotel.
BOOTH FURNISHED WITH A MURDERER IN
CANADA.
Some one or all of these agents furnished
| Booth with murderer-the fellow Wood
| or Payne, who stabbed Mr.. Seward and
was caught at Mr.. Surrslts house in Wash
| ington. He was one of three Kentucky
| brothers, all outlaws, and had himself, it
is believed, accompanied one Of the broth
ers, who is known to have been at st. AL
ban on the day of the bank delivery. This
Payne, being positively identified SIS the
assassin of the Stewards, bad no friends nor
haunts in Washington. He was simply q
! dispatched murderer and after the night
! Of the crime, struck northwsrd for the from
tier, instead of southwark in the company
of Booth. The proof of this will hollow in
the course of the article.
w ERE THE MURDER WAS CoNCocTED.
The county Immediately outside of the
! District of Columbia, to the south, is named
! Prince Georges, and the plesssntest vii
| lsge of this county is called Surrsttsville.
! This consists of few cabins at q Cross
road, surrounding fine old hotel, the mas
| ter whereof, giving the settlement his name,
/ left the property to his wife, who for long
| time carried it on with Indifferent success.
| Having son and several daughters, she
moved to Washington soon after the be-
| ginning of the war, and let the tavern to q
| trusty friend-one John Lloyd. Surratts-
vile has gained nothing in patronage or
business from the war, except that it be-
came at an early date a rebel postofiee.
The great secret mail from Matthias creek,
vile, and thence Headed of to the east of
Washington, going meanderingly north.
| Of this pOst-route Mrs. Surrstt was q man
sgeress; and John Lloyd, when he rented
her hotel, assumed the responsibility of
looking out for the mail, as well as the duty
Of making Mrs. Surratt st home when she
chose to visit him.
So Surrattsville, only ten miles from
Washington, has been throughout the war
a sect Of conspiracy. 1t Was like q suburb
of Richmond, reaching quite up 70 the
rival capital and though the few Union
lists on the peninsula knew its reputation
well enough, nothing OF the sort came out
until the murder.
Treason never found better agent than
Mrs. Surratt. She is large, masculine,
self possessed female, mistress of her house,
and rs 1.-the a rebel as Belle Boyd or Mrs.
Greenhough. She has not the f;ppantry
and menace of the first, nor the social
power Of the second but the rebellion has
found no filter agent.
At her country tavern and Washington
home Booth was made welcome and there
bsgan the muttered murder against the
nation and mankind.
HOW TO ESCAPE.
The acquaintance of Mrs. Surratt in
Lower Maryland undoubtedly suggested
to Booth the route of escape, and made
him known to his subsequent sccomplices.
Last fall he visited the entire region, as
far IS LeonsrdstowD, in st. Msry's county.
1t could not have but struck Booth that
this isolated part of Maryland, ignorant
and rebel to the brim, without telegraph
or railways, or direct stages routes, belted
with swsmps and broken by dense timber,
afforded extraordinary opportunities for
shelter and escape. Only the coast survey
had any adequate map of it; it was ultima
thule 70 all intents, and treason might sub
sist in welcome upon it for s thousand
years.
HEReLD.
When Booth cast around him for assist
ants, he naturally selected those men whom
he could control. The first that recon-
mended himself was one Herold, q youth
of insne and plastic character, carried
away by the example of an actor, and fuIl
of execrsble quotations, going to show that
he was sn imitstor of the Jusster spirit
both in text and admiration. This Herold
was gunner, and therefore versed in arms;
he had tIaversed the whole lower portion
of Maryland, and was therefore geoers-
pher as well as tool. His friends lived at
every farm house between Washington
and Leonsrdsville, and he was respectfully
enough connected, so IS to make his sssoci-
alton creditsbie as well as useful.
Herold, whose picture 1 have seen, is a |
dull-fsced, shallow boy, smooth haired, and |
provincial; he had no money or employ |
ment except that he clerked for s drug /