The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-06-29
WILKES BOOTHS CRInE.

| Example Of Brutus-The Innocence Of
Mrs. Surfatt
From the Baltimore Gazette, June ISL
The announcement made of the COM
ing production of Shakespeare's great
Roman play of Julius Caesar recalls the
great tragedy in Washington in 1865,
when John Wilkes Booth assumed q
role somewhat similar to that of Brutus,
in the assassination of the President of
the United States. The actors great
crime startled the world, and although
thirteen years have elapsed the circum-
stances connected with the thrilling
tragedy are still fresh in the public mind /,
and will never cease to excite painful
! interest. Brutus, it will be remembered,
according to Shakespeare, struck down
''the noblest man that ever lived in the
tide of times" To those loyal then to
government Brutus was but tan migrate
and an assassin" but Plutarch and
Shakespeare made him the most perfect
model of ''a mild, contemplative and
philosophical yet heroic republican,
ssthe nOblest Roman of them all ="
The striking similarity between two Of
the greatest tragedies that history re-
cords prompted a representative of the
Gazette to revive the story of the Presi-
Dental assassination, and endeavor to
ascertain the real motive of Booth in
taking Mr.. Lincoln's life. The impress
sion has generally prevailed that Mr..
John T. Ford. who was manager of
Ford's Theater at the time the tragedy
occurred, was familiar with facts in con-
nection with the matter that had never
appeared in PRINT, and he was approach
ed by the writer yesterday and asked If
such was the case. Mr.. Ford remarked
that he had frequently been requested to
give expression to his views on the sub
ject, but had declined. A general con-
versation on the subject, however, en-
sued, the substance of which, with Mr.
Ford's permission, we print. 1t throws
some new light on the great tragedy and
will doubtless be found of general in
terest. Mr.. Ford said:
John Wilkes Booth was trained from
earliest infancy to consider the almost
deifed assassin Brutus just as Shake
speare immOrtalized him. His father
was named "Junius Brutus," his broth
er is now the bearer of that surname
The great Booth frequently appeared
in the play of Julius Caesar, and not
later than 1864 three of his sons acted
the three leading characters of the play
to an audience that applauded the SEN
timents of Brutus to the echo. Now
trace the assassination of Lincoln. On
the morning of April II, 1865, Booth,
who had cOnspired for six months pre-
vious to abduct President Lincoln and
| 10 <Lo 1.,,t
guest at breakfast at the National Hotel
in Washington. The surrenderer a,
Appomattox had ended all chance for
him to carry out his original conspira,
cy. He left the hotel after IL O'Clock
that morning and walked up Sixth
Street to H, and stopped at the Surratt
House, where he met the widow who
kept it, returning from the religious
services of Good Friday, and then in
the act of going to her former country
place the vehicle to convey her al
ready at the door, to collect some
money due her, SO as to pay what was
due by her to the Calvert estate. Booth,
when informed of her intended visit, re-
quested her to get some articles belong,
ing to him that he had left at the coun-
| tuNCkh 1lu IhCu, uCl tbulCu
he walked up II Street to Tenth, and
down Tenth to the theater. When he
reached there it was about or probably
little later than IL o'clock midday
There he heard for the first time that
both President Lincoln and General
Grant were to visit the theater that
night. The private box was in process
of decoration. The White House mes
senger had been there an hour before to
secure its use. believe-and all Ielia-
BILE written or oral testimony confirms
that belief-that then and there the ter
rible thought of assassination first sug-
gested itself. 1t came like this: elf
failed to serve the South in my conspir-
acy to abduct, l can now be her Bru-
tus."
This thought fastened on his brain
led him to 20 from the theater toward
ference with some of his old conspira-
tors. John Surratt was away, O'Laugh-
lin was in Baltimore, and Arnold was in
a suffers store at Fortress Monroe
They knew the abduction conspiracy
had been Abandoned, but Payne, Al
zerodt and Harold were in Washington
These latter he got together and con-
spired with them to kill the President,
the victorious General, and some of the
Cabinet. He must have written between
the time when he parted with his con-
spirators and the hour he appeared
again at the theater lengthy statement
for publication, excusing his intended
crime by Roman precedent. When
dying he referred to it for his justifica-
ton. He gave on the evening of the
18th package TO an actor, directing its
delivery the next day to the National
Iatelligenccr. The actor confesses that
he, frightened at the risk he ran, broke
the seal, read the inclosed matter, and at
midnight burnt it. If that package
had been preserved it would have
revealed the declaration that until noon
that day this writer had not premedi-
tated murder, but feeling deeply the
humiliation of the South, to the people
of which he bore all the love that Bru-
tus ever felt for Rome, he would strike
down that night the leading men of the
victorious hosts who were then shout
ing their peans of triumph. When dy-
ing-with his face lit up with the blaze
of the burning barn upon the Carrot
farm, just at the break of day on the
morning of April "a, he muttered some
words, soldier bent over him and
caught them from his fast ebbing
breath. First, message for his moth
er, " Tell her l did it as l thought for
the BEST" and then he said, "Tell
others that the communication wrote,
addressed to the National Int ligencer,