Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-11-14

Those engaged in the assassination trials
at Washington placed In the hands ofGen-
eral Buffers committee, memoranda giving
untraced clues to other accOmplices In the
assassination scheme. The scheme for the
abduction of President Lincoln seems ia
have included still larger number of con-
spiratOrs, but few of whom engaged in the
conspiracy to murder. Positive assertions
and predictions that Mr.. Lincoln would be
killed, made by persons in different parts
of the country, do not necessarily imply
any knowledge of the conspiracy; they
were natural expressions of the political
animosity of the times; but there are other
facts that can not be thus explained, of
which these are the most conspicuous:
Traces of three distinct persons, other
than those arrested, appear in the evidence
given at the military trial. Sergeant Dye.
10 his testimony, described party ofthree
cOnversing together in low tones in front
of FOrd's Theatcr on the night of the muir
der, one of whom was supposed to be
Booth, another Surratt, and the third ruff
fianly looking fellow who has never been
identified Little was known regarding
the man who. after midnight, between two
and three o'clock, appeared al the Penn
IL,
and left, going toward the Baltimore depot
about five O'Clock the next morning. He
gave his name as Samuel Thomas. The
opinion from later developments is that his
name was Young; that he was one of the
principals in the plot: that prominent reb-
els in Baltimore were aware of his move
ments, and that he was first secreted by
them in Baltimore the day after the muir
der, and subsequently was aided to escape.
A third unknown party appears in the evi-
dencc upon the Surratt trial. This man
was on the avenue opposite Willard's with
Harold, about five o'clock in the after
noon preceding the murder.
A surgeon, well known and Of high
standing. who was connected with the en-
rOllment i'm New England, wrote as follows
to Genera. Butler after the appointment Of
the special committee on assassination:
"We received a telegram about eight
O'Clock on the morning after the President
was murdered, stating the fact. Our Office
was closed Immediately. and | went to my
home, where l found the death of the
President had been currently reported
since noon the day previous, some ten
hours before it actually occurred. traced
the report to and then reported the
facts to the Assistant Provost Marshal
General lie Immediately sent one OF his
deputies. and large number of affidavits
were taken, showing that parties here were
so sure that the President would be shot
that the report became public some four
teen hours in advance Of the sad catastro-
phe."
The strange obstacles thrown in the way
Of obtaining evidence concerning Surra;t's
connection with the murder, have raised
some questions which may yet aid in un-
raveling the mystery. For instance, the
register at one of the hotels in Elmira, du-
ring the time Surratt was supposed to have
been there is gone. The re yister of anoth-
er, al time he is known to have been
there, has been muiiated by cutting out
the record of those days. Before that
time and after it is complete. The cash
book and check book of a Canandalgua
hotel. which has the record of the trains,
rooms assigned TO guests and money paid
by them, is deficient by the very leaf which
would have shown Surratt's presence, and
that is the only leaf gone. The trouble in
discovering how Surratt got from Elmira
to Baltimore, at a time when the regular
trains were stopped by breaks in the road,
will be remembered BY those who followed
the trail. 1t was long time before any
trace of special train could be heard OF
among the official of the road. They even
denied that any extra trains had run. At
length, however, il was discovered that one
of the supcrintendcuts had erased from the
regular report of the trains the entire col
umn In which was entered the movements
of that special train. When this erasure
was discovered, the original report Of the
conductor of the train was speedily produ
ced. The officials had even gone further,
and in addition to destroying the record Of
the special train. had also altered the re-
port ofa train by which Surratt could haye
reached Baltimore in time to take FORE
no on train for Washington.