The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-08-02

a -
visit to Richmond and indirectly through
; snrratt sti,e circumstance that he was in pos
session of the cipher used by benjamin ID
/ the office of Secretary of State leaves no room
! to doubt that he obtained 1t from pen ssiii,i
| or Davis, and that it was the means by winch
+ the secret correspondence pet"cen thy POI
| ties was carried on.
IT ia not unimportant in this connection
to quote the words used by Davis, when the
| desnatch of John c. Breckenridge, announc-
inc the assassination of President Lincoln,
was read by him. Lewis F. Bates testlhes
| that Davis remarked, ''Well, General, do
not know: if it were to be done at all 1t were
better that it were well done and if the same
had been done to Andy johnson, the beast,
and Secretary Stanton, the job would then
be complete"
These are not the words of man who was
either grieved or surprized,; but rather the
unprecedented declaration OF ono VINO
realizes that a crime which he anticipated
has been committed but in part only and at
moment too late to save cause already
rendered desperate by the conflicts and dis
asters of war.
The remark made by Davis upon the re-
ceipt of the intelligence that MIR. Lincoln had
been assasssnated. is in harmony with the
conversation Of his agents, Thomas, Tucker,
and Others in Canada, as given by Richard
montgomery in his testimony in the "assassl-
eomerv, in the year 1864 and the early part
of 1865, possessed the confidence of Thomp-
son and Others. and was frequently employed
in the secret service of the rebel Government
He has been examined by the committee and
thew have entire confidence in his statements.
He is now employed by the Government OF
the United States; and as far as the commit
tee have been able to ascertain. there is no
reason to question his integrity in all par
ticClars He saws in his testimony
In conversation had with Jacob Thomp-
son in the summer of 1864, he said he had
his friends (confederates) all over the North
ern States, who were ready and willing to
90 any lengths to serve the cause OF the
South. And he added, that he could, at any
time, have the tyrant Lincoln, and any other
of his advisers that he choose, put out OF his
way. He would have but to point out the
man that he considered in his way, and his
friends, as he termed them, would put him
out of it. and not let him know anything
about it if necessary, and that they would
not consider it a crime when done for the
cause of the Confederacy. Shortly after MIR.
Thompson told me what he was able to do.
l repeated the conversation to Mr.. Clay, who
said: That is so. We are all devoted to our
cause, and are ready to go any lengths-to
do anything under the sun to serve our
cause
Speaking Of events that occurred after the
assassination, Montgomery says:
Il have been in Canada since the assassi-
nation. A few days after I met Beverly
Tucker at Montreal, he said great deal
about the wrongs that the South had re-
ceived at the hands of Mr.. Lincoln, and that
he deserved his death, and that it was pity
he did not meet with it long ago He said
it was too bad that the boys had not been
allowed to act when they wanted to. The
boys was an expression applied to the Con-
federate soldiers, and others in their employ,
who were engaged in raids, and who were to
assasinate the President.
Il related conversation l had with Mr..
Thompson to Mr.. W. c. Cleary, who is sort
of confidential secretary to Mr.. Thompson,
and he told me that Booth was one of the
parties to whom Thompson had reference;
and he said in reference to the assassination
that it was too bad that the whole work had
not been done, by which l understand him
to mean that they intended to assassinate
greater number than they succeeded in kill
ling. Cleary remarked, when speaking of
his regret that the whole work not being
done, They had better look out. We have
not done yet and he added that they would
never be conquered and would never give
up. Cleary said that Booth had been there
visiting Thompson twice in the winter;
he thought the last time was in December.
He had also been there in the summer" In
his testimony before the committee Mont
gomery says: I" In almost every part of Can
ada, ranging from Montreal to Niagara Falls,
including both points, and almost daily
while was there, heard Thompson, Tuck
er, and Clay certainly use threats in general
terms against officers of the Government and
especially Mr.. Lincoln, in a manner like this:
" They had better look out for themselves as
our people are getting eXasperated. They
will get themselves into trouble they little
dream of"
Thus it is seen that there is substantial
harmony between the evidence furnished by
the official documents found in the hands of
the rebel authorities and the testimony of
Montgomery as to the participation of Davis,
Thompson, Clay, Cleary, and Others in the
scheme Of the assassination of the President.
When the committee entered upon this
investigation in April last the evidence in
the War Department, it accepted true,
was conclusive as to the guilt of Jefferson
Davis. The Judge Advocate General had
taken the affidavits of several persons who
professed to have been in the service of the
rebel government, and who had been present
at an interview between Surratt, Davis and
Benjamin.
Those affidavits were taken by the Judge
Advocate General in good faith, and in the
full belief that the affiants were stating that
only which was true.
L lie statements mace by IneSe witnesses
harmonizes in every important particular
with facts derived from documents and other
trustw worthy sources.
The committee, however, thought it wise
to see and examine some of the persons
whose affidavits had been taken by Judge
Holt. Several of the witnesses when
brought before the committee retracted en-
tirely the statements which they had made
in their affidavits, and declared that their
testimony given originally was false in
every particular. They failed however, to
state te the committee any lnducement or
consideration which seemed to the commit
tee reasonable explanation for the course
they had pursued.
And the committee are not at this time
able to say, as the result of the investiga-
lions they have made, whether the original
statements of these witnesses are true or
false but the retraction made by some of
them deprives them of all claim to credit,
and their statements SO far impeach or
throwd out upon the evidence given by
other witnesses whose affidavits were taken
by Judge Holt, that the committee, in the
Investigations they have made in the report,