The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-07-17
The Daily News.
BOMBAY MORNING JULY 16, 1866.
Singular Disclosures in WnshinBton-Tho
Assn ssin at Ion OF Prosidcnt Lincoln-Su-
bornin w illnesses 10 Prove the ComHlict-
tIcT Ilnvfa.


York Rera,d the 11th, letter from Washing
aon deyelopinp VIII we'll chara acter2es as "one
o fthe most villainous conspiraccs ever concoctea
inthe civilized wor Id ia bloody and coWardiy
and cruol conspiracy to murder, through the
forms OF law, cx-Presdent DAVIS and others Of
she def,,nct Uonfederacy." Tho writer says:
This revelation will no doubt astound tho pub
Lie, and we'll it may; but to none who have o6sery-
paIs in Congress and other high places will it
seem Incredible: Tho Judiciary Committee. anx-
ious as most of it's members are to suppress the
evidence it has educed and screen the conspira-
tors from tho opprobrum they justly merit, will
not venture to deny my avorments.
TO Investigate the charges against Messrs. Davis,
CLAY, and others. entered zealously upon their du-
ties and sent for such persons and papers as they
had been led to believe would furnish crimiusting
evidence. The principal persons sent for had al
ready been examined er parte In tho Bureau of
Military Justice and the papers sent for consisted
mainly of tho depositions of these persons and
so1ae letters of doubtful import, written by sup
posed rebels before the assassination ali of which
wore under the care OF tho Judge Advocate Gen.
Drd. To rocite from memory the papers Uer6atinl
would be impossible, and it would be no less so to
give ~ e1enSo the examination Of the persons be-
fore the committee; but enough will be given to
show tho most devilish and damnabe conspiracy
the most disgusting and dastardly perfdy, and
She coolest and cheapest perjury you were ever
Ga4led upon to chronicle.
Immediately after the execution OF Mrs. Surratt
and her fellow culprits the Judge Advocate-Gene
To lso to work in dead earnest to procure evil
denee for the conviction of Davis Clay and others,
as co-consprators. Several detectives were en-
ployed to hunt up and hunt down every person
nupposed to have had any correspondence or COM
with the parties OF any
moot them with the conspiracy.
But, after weeks OF Industrious labor and re-
Besrch, the detectives failed to discover anything
pf the slightest consequence bearing upon the
aubiect. Inis result was communicated to the
Radicals in the Cabinet, and by them con6ded to
The leading Radlcals-then about to assemble in
Cc1gress, and probably to many, certainly to
few, celebrities OF their faction not in any Office.
Thene parties, as will be readily surmised, were
disappointed and sorely grieved; They had al
futile and impolitic to try Davis and other rebel
leaders for treason and their thirst for blood and
vengeance, and desire to increase the humility
and ignominy Of the Southern people, by hanging
like dog their late chief, was aggravated by the
unexpected report that nothing had been found to
Gnphcate him in the assassination. But the
blood-thirety are neither easily discouraged nor
Dyer scrupulous rs to what means they employ
for obtaining their ends. Another agent of great
SaRersnce and V was engsged to per
eomphsh. he was charge to find the necessary
witnesses at all hazards; to proceed la Forney,
or in any way he deemed best calculated to insure
success but on no account to fail With q zeal
worthy Of better cause, he entered upon his
duties, and in a few weeks produced nearly
dozen witnesses, who deposcd under oath, in the
Bureau OF Military Justice, to matters and facs
enough 10 hang both Davis and Clay higher than
Haman.
One OF these witnesses, calling himself William
Campbell, deposed that he a native of New
Orleans, and had been Confederate soldier; that
in the latter part of March 1st of April, 1865 he
was called on at Richmond by John h Surratt,
Who bore letter OF introduction from William O.
Oleary then in Canada; that said letter requested
him to introduce Surratt to Judah p. Benjamin,
Becretary of State, with whom he (deponent) was
intimately acquainted, and assured him that Sur
ratt would unfold grand scheme in which he
@eponent) was earnestly solicited to participate;
disclose
him the plot to assassnate the President and
Tfsn asfaS ,haafdRap Nsss5 elsarXys a1 X.s
delivered to the Secretary a package Of letters
OAnrsELL then pretends to relate, with much
rdroumstsntiality, and with ingenious vraisem-
blance, the particulars of two interviews he held
with Mr. DAVIS, in company with suRRATr, and
third party named SNEvEL, in which interviews
Ur. DAVIS expressed his warm approval of the
plot, fully justified it as q legitimate measure OF
war, and promised them protection in the event
Dftheir being captured. All this very minute and
curious statement was regularly and solemnly
sworn to by CAMPBELL and sNEvEL, and their de.
positions we're filed in the Bureau of Military JUS
Goe Joe HOLT, chiefly
The writer proceeds:
And here We come to the most astounding part
o fmy disclosure. This man. .'William Camp6eil'
Or rather aiins, ! do not remember, on being
Brought before the Judiciary Committee for ex,
animation, acknowledged that the above names
did not belong to them but were fictitious; that
3hey had never been in the rebel service nor in
Richmond; that they had never seen Davis or
Benjamin or Surratt in their lves that they never
heard Of any plot to destroy Lincoln until after
his death; that there WAS not word Of truth in
the dispositions they made for the Bureau Of Mill
fary Justice but that they made such dispositions
Tor pecuniary reward, being first furnished with
the statement they were desired to swear to- and
committing it to memory for the purpose: and
fhat the other paIties, some seven OF eight in
number, who made depositious for the bureau re-
ferred to- every one Of them deposed under false
names to false statements for pecuniary conside-
rations.
The depositioDs Of the other "witnesses, under
The assumed names Of Wright, Williams, Patten,
Douglass Meredith, Knapp &C., accused Davis of
completely in the assassination just as positively
Bnd were as ingeuiously concocted as those ~
Campbell and Snevel. Having ACCOMPLISHED 40
much in the way OF procuring evidence, the Radi-
Gal conspiratOrs urged President Johnson with all
eher force to appoint acommisson for the trial of
the distinguished culprt. Campbell and other
Nwitnesses" we're taken bef re His Excelency and
She Cabinet in order that their frank demeanor and
honorable appearance could be observed, and
were asked q few questions by the President and
examined Mt considerable length by Mr. Seward,
to the apparent satisfaction OF all that they were
telling the truth, and nothing but the truth The
President, as is known, dld not at once appoint
3he commission, but he was prevailed on TO call
Tor the opinion of the AttOrney-0 eneral as to the
legality and propriety Of trying him by military
DOurt parties implicated In the assassination and