Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-05-16
0blo Statesman.
from The London Index.l IT,
letter from the Hon. u. M. Mason.


letter from the Hon. u. NJ. Mason.
To the Editor ofThe IndeG:
SIR-Time will develop the mystery as
vet attending the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln, late President of the United States,
and the attempted assassination of Mr..
Seward, his Secretary of State. desire
only to repel, at once, the calumniOus as
sertion of Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary
of War, in his letter to Mr. Adams, printed
in the London journals of this morning,
that these acts were "planned and set on
foot by rebels, under pretense of avenging
the South and aiding the rebel cause" and
of which he says there is 'evidence obtain
ed" Mr.. Stanton's letter is dated on the
18th April, and states that Mr.. Lincoln was
assassinated in the theater at halt-past 10
the previous night, and died attwenty min
utes past seven on the morning OF the day
that he wrote. l adduce this to show how
unlikely it is, in the hurried excitement,
and the necessary occupations attending
such events, that any but the widest theo-
ries would prevail in regard to the cause of
the event, or the objects of the per-
which he deemed would be the
most useful before the public ofhis country.
Should,the sevidence" to which he refers
to support his calumny ever see light, 1t
will be scanned with the experience derived
in regard to other evidence, unscrupulously
fabricated in the same quarter, during the
present war, for base political effect. 1t is
the crudest conception, too, that the murder
of Abraham Lincoln was planned and eX-
ecuted for the purpose of "aiding the rebel
cause;" but can well understand that it
may have material influence in aiding the
cause of that overpowering party in the
United States, of which Mr.. Stanton is the
type, and Andrew Johnson, who succeeds
as President, with Butler, of the notorious
prefix, are the eXponents and leaders-a
party in whose path the late President and
his Secretary were acknowledged obstacles
in their projected schemes of plumber and
rapine, to follow their dominion over all the
Southern States. For the rest, learn from
well informed source, in London, that
Wilkes Booth, who is accused of the deed.
is son of the celebrated English actor of
that name, was of his fathers profess
sion, which he pursued principally
in the Northern States, and was geneT-
ally understood as inheriting those
traits significant of his fathers name, Junius
Brutus Booth, by whom he was named
John Wilkes, after the great English Radi-
| cal--an origin and mental training little
likely to engender the slightest sympathy
with the great cause OF the Conservative
South. As to the crime which has been
committed, none will view itwith more alb
horrence than the people of the South, but
they will know, as will equally all we'll
balanced minds, that it is the necessary Off
spring of those scenes of bloOdshed and
murder In every form of unbridled license,
which have signalized the invasion of the
| South by NortherI armies, unrebuked,
certainly, and, therefore, instigated, by
their leaders and those over them.
Pardon the length of this note. desired
only instantly to repel the atrocious calum-
nies in the letter of Mr.. Stanton.
Very respectfully yours,
| j. NJ. MASON.
24Upper Seymour street, Portman square,
London, April q, 1865. I'LL