Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-12-21

asked me if I thought he could be
trusted. Said I, certainly he can;
Weichman is Southern man;
and I always believed it until [ had
good reason to believe otherwise, because
he had furnished information for the
Confederate government, besides al
lowing me access to the government
records after Office hours. 1 have very
little to say of Louis j. Weichman.
But [ do pronounce him base-borr
periurer, a murderer of the meanest
hue. Give me man who can strike
his victim dead, but save me from a
man who, through perjury, will cause
the death of an innocent person.
Double murderer! He'll possesses no
worse fend than character of that
kind. (Applause.) Away with such q
character. I leave him in the pit of in
fanny which he has dug for himself, a
prey to the lights of his guilty con-
science. (Applause.) I telegraphed
Booth thus:
J. W. B., in New York: If you are in
New York, telegraph me. John Harri-
son, Elmira, New York.
The operator, after looking over it,
said, t1s it j. w. B., to which I re-
piled eyes" He evidently wanted the
whole name, and had scarcely finished
telegraphing when door right near
the office, and opening on the street,
was pushed open, and [ heard some
one say, Eyes, there are three or four
brothers of them, John, Junius Brutus,
Edwin, and J. Wilkes Booth" The
whole truth flashed on me in an in
stant, and I said to myself, "My God,
what have done 2" The dispatch was
still lying before me, and [ reached
over and took it up, for the purpose of
destroying it, but the operator stretch
ed forth his hand, and said, eve must
file all kilograms. Ny first impulse
was to tear it up, but I pitched it back
and walked off. The town was in the
greatest uproar. Flags at half-mast
bells tolling, &c. Still I did not think
that was. in danger, and determined to
go Immediately to Baltimore to find out
the particulars of the tragedy.
Surratt then details the way the evi-
dence of the hotel registers with his
name on to prove an aEbi, were spirited
away and says that instead of going to
Baltimore he went to Canandaigua On
Monday, when was leaving Canandai-
qua, I bought some New York papers,
in looking over them my eye Lit on the
following paragraph which I have never
forgotten and don't think I ever will.
1t runs thus:
'tThe assassin of Secretary Seward is
said to be John 81. Srrratt, a notorious
secessionist of Southern Maryland
His name, with that of j. Wilkes Booth,
Will forever lead the infamous roll of
assassins"
[ could not believe my senses. I
gazed upon my name, the letters of
which seemed sometimes to grow as
large as mountains and then to dwindle
away to nothing So much for my
former connection with him, thought
After fully realizing the state of the
case, [ concluded to change my course
and go direct to Canada I left Cana
da on Monday, at 12 NJ, going to AL
bany, arriving there on Tuesday morn
ing in time for breakfast When I
stepped on the platform at the depot at
St. Albans I noticed that one
of the detectives scanned every
one, head and foot, myself as
we'll as the rest Before leaving
Montreal for Elmira [ provided myself
with an Oxford-cut jacket, and a round
top hat peculiar to Canada at that time
[ knew my trip to Elmira would be a
dangerous one, and I wished to pass
nvself off as a Canadian, and I sue
ceeded in so doing, as was proved by
witnesses in Elmira. believe that cos
tune guarded me safely through St.
Adams. [ went in with others and
moved around, with the detectives
standing there most of the time looking
at us. Of course I was obliged to
talk as loud as anybody about the trag
edy.
The remainder of his statements oc-
cupied with details of his efforts to help
this mother and of hs hidings in Can