Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-05-12

OF IlinOis upon the altar ot Liberty go
| my murder Of President Lincoln, the
last of the Illinois martyrs, the reign OF
the shareholders has been ilIustrioas in
deeds OF violence, anarchy and sassas-
sinatlon. The assault. upon Charles
Sumner, while sitting at bis seat in the
Senate, was an act dictated and indorsed
by the slave power. So vas mine.
Brooks and Obtained our inspiration
from g The sum of all villanies ~ We
are the hero children and the MARTYR
champions and henceforth vii n be The
canonized saints Of the peculiar in
stitution. had aii 90 aA 4aB rHdi msA
h Second sosree-Thea shareholders e.
bellion. Slavery is itself q rebellion,
and the STAKEHOLDER must therefore be
necessarily rebel, and also an assassin
Assassination IS simply the taking Of life
from fellow-beiHg without giving him
a chance to be heard, or to do anything
IN his own detence, Slayerysis the tak-l
ing OF liberty from a., fsllow-being
without giving him chance to be heard
or to do anything in his own defense.
Therefore slavery is to liberty what as
sissination is to life-a rebellion against
tlesame. And therefore the slaveholds
er is to his fellows liberty what the as,
sAssin is to his fellows life-a rebel;
that is a man acting on the assumption
that might makes right, that the weaker
must sserve the stronger, and that the
end lustiGes the means.1a So that n q
slaveholdeT wants to make money, he
has only to, breed slaves, personally or
by proxy, thus being an assassin of hn.
man virtue as well as an assassin of hu.
man rights. And IL an assassin wants
10 serve his cause, he has onlyto murder
his enemy thus, being an assassin of a
fellow s liberty life and aiE--------~
The slayeholders' sfebellion is, there
fore, on . large scale, what each slave.
holder has always been on small scale
--an assassin, nothing more, nothing
less-an assassin Of the life, liberty and
pursuit Of happiness Of the nation, : as
we'll as OF the individual The slave
holders being Individually rebels against
individual rights, and the assassins Of
Individual liberty and life, il was but a
step 10 their becoming collectively -Eehels
against national rights. and the assas-
sins of the national life / am but one
of the assassipaFy agents ofiau crgan-
lied assassination. If am guilty OF
the overt act, 4 am certainly no more
culpable than theisgstem, and athA sup
porteEsot the system, (which ia itself one
uninterrupted overt act of assassination.
lf sm q hbertiue q conspiratcr trail
tor, . murderer aud an assassin, j am
but the slegitimate ltud inevitable fruit
that grows OF o system which is itself an
organized and iega1ized ncentiou sness,
conspiracy, treason, murder and assas-
sination, and but one Of many who are
uuavoidably and necessarily iibertines,
conspirators, traitors, murderers and as
sassins My chivalry and magnanimity
aud lofty sense of honor, are of the sort
that distinguishes the slavehoidsr, whose
chivalry Is consistent swlth bartering in
female virtues whose magnanimity con
sists in Hogging q man within an inch of
his life for preterribg liberty tobondage,
and whose lofty sense Of honor approves
the separation, under the hammer. of
the husband from the wife, and Of the
mother from her children Yoa will not
be surprised then. If, under this inspira.
tion, 1 regard my killing Of Mr.. Lincoln
as an oct of noble and heroic daring,
and esteem myself q martyr 10 my conn
try, Rhen, for thatFaet, ! myself, shall
suffer death.
Third sosGrce-CopperheadismL While
have bad this deed long ip my thoughts,
and been long o partner in the councils
which planned and devised it, 1 do not
believe i could have been induced to un-
dertake it, but for the ardent and wide
spread sympathy it received in the
North. Throughout the war. indeed, /
have not been among our friends who
we're openly in arms, bnt constantly 10
conference with their allies, who oerved
them by means Of the mob, the conceal
ed stiletto, the seditious tongue and the
midnight ss6rebrand. The vi Southern
Shareholders gave me the principles upon
which l acted, the Northern copperheads
gave me the stimulation and the impetus
which enabled me to act upon them.
With the former only, / must have fail
ed-with the latter, failure was impossi-
bic. Wherever / went in the North, ]
found kindred spirits, with whom eoun-
seled; heard public orators who fred
my zeal, andread public Journals, whose
appeals made aae impatient 10 achieve
the end they and so -fervently desired.
| received every encouragement in pri-
vate, our friends everywhere declaring
their sympathy with my secret purpose;
but it was not until | heard, the copper
head orators and read the copperhead
press that 1could make up my mind to
put my purpose into execution. That /
myself no less, and others no more than
Justice, / will here insert, in this confes-
sion, some public uttersnces, without
which, in all human probability, there
would have been no occasion for this
confession:
The Hon. 5. S, Cox told me. in
public speech:
"For less offenses than Mr.. LINCOLN
had been guilty of, the English people
had chopped Of the head of the 6rst
Charles. In his opinion, LiReots and
Darss olgh e be breggAs 20 she saBse
block together. -
OF course, I understood Mr.. Cox to
mean that a ballet -RORld snik him land
me) quite as well as 50 az preferred
the bullet SHed~ho ID eha4ienged has
the tehoice Of weapons. rrT-T rg---
4 Mr. Benjamin Allen, of New York,
told me, THE people viii soon rise, and
If they csIsRot pas LiHesla cut of poseer
6y the ballot they srill By ths bsIllet, -
These instructions obeyed 10 the let.
Ter r.ssa ats 7.a - a1a4i saaslsa
Mr. Stambnrgh, of Ohio, told me,
. They might search hell All overs aad
they conld mot and worse President
than AbF&ham Lincoln. So thought
and so I acted Mr.. Baker, of Miehi-
| gan, told me 70 hurl that usurper from
power and did Mr. G chaaneey
Burr, OF New York, told me-" IL was "a
wonder that men could be found 70 ohay