The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-10
1oo,n,- TTeuey-Where Did it Come
From?


Trba assassin of President Lincoln was,
du-inp the las. SIX or eight months of his
career. profusely supplied with money.
Formerly an idler and vAgAbOnd in his
profession, living from hand TO mouth,
without any other means Of subsistence
than the proverbiaIy uncertain revenue
from semi-oceasiOnal engagements win
provincial theatres, Booth suddenly became
a man Of ample means and, quitting
the stage, began to live life OF luxurious
esse.. He endesvored 70 account tor ms
.nddan accession of wealth BY the state
,,ont sbst he had been successful in specu-
latiug ia oil stocks. But aside from the
fact that there is no proof, except the
hare assertion of 8 murderer, that Booth
ever owned s cent Of oil stocks or foot OF
oil territory, the whole statement Is over
turned by that mysterious and significant
lstter to him from j. B. Booth, advising
him not to continue in the ''oil business"
,,o.O that Richmond had fallen Take
these words in their ordinary significance,
and they are meaningless jsrgon; suppose
tho phrase aoil business" to be the sssassln's
tarn 10 refer to the contemplated murder,
and you have the key to all the nefarious
pIot. It will be remembered, too, thst
Booth began to be lavish in the use of
money in August last, immedistely sitter
his visit to Canada, and the very time the
assassination conspiracy was first incubsted.
Is it likely that 8 murderer, hstching
in his dark mind the mightiest crime
of the sge, would have time or disposition
to mingle with the busy thrOngs on Sugar
Creek and in Titusville, and engage in
mad whirl of speculation Is it not much
more probable that Booths money wss
mart of the rebel secret service fund, and
was paid him in Canada by byThompson, Clay,
Sanders or some other Confederate agent,
and that the talk about oil business was
msre blind, caught from the most prOmi-
nent and absobing speculation of the dsy,
70 cover the hired murderer's sudden scces-
sion of wealth
These facts were probably the first that
suggested themselves to the shrewd agents
of the Government IS 8 clue, which,
unrsvelled, would lead to the detec-
tion of the real instigators Of the
crime. In themselves they would sp-
pesr conclusive, but TO the shrewd de-
tectives in charge of the matter they were
only preliminaries for the elimination Of
much moro important secrets. It soon be-
csme demonstrsble, from evidence not yet
given to the public, that the murderers
aoil speculation and his acceptance OF the
hire and recompense Of an assassin were
not only simultaneous but identical. Inc
thread thus obtained has been followed up
TO the discovery of Booths financial opera
tions on the Bank of Montresl-the bank
be it remembered, where the st. Albsns
money was deposited, while Booth was IN
Montreal, and from which that money was
Afterwards paid over, after business hours,
10 the TODD6Eh huu bAclA AAAo1Ao @@e---S~-S
aud Coursol. 1t has been followed up still
further until there is no link lacking to
the chain of evidence which connects JEFF
ferson Davis with this awful crime as its
instigstor and chief promoter.
In this connection the sudden disappear
snce from Canada of the sccomplices in
murder for whose arrest the President
offers 8 reward is most significant. Clay
and Thompson had left before that prOclA-
nation was issued; Tucker, Sanders and
Cleary, Immediately sfter its publication,
take the first opportunity to run away
only pausing to Illuminate manifesto, the
unblushing impudence Of which is only
psransled by its unblushing fslsity. The
chief conspirator of all, meanwhile, Is run
ming away from our pursuing cavalry as
fast IS ever he can, and is 30 hotly pressed
thst he has no time to write clustering
cards denying his guilt. Let US hope that
every one of these engaged in this murder,
from DAVIS down to Harold, may pay the
penalty of their crime.