Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-06-20


and Arnold was in a suffers store
at Fortress Monroe. They knew
the abduction conspiracy had been
abandoned, but Payne, Alzerodt
and Herold were in Washington.
These latter he got together and
eonspired 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 conspira-
tors and the hour he appeared again
at the theater, a lengthy statement
for publication, excusing his in.
tended crime by Roman precedent.
When dying he referred to it for
his justification. He gave on the
evening Of the 14th a package to
an actor, directing its delivery the
next day to the National Intelli-
gencer. 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 declara-
ton that until noon that day its
writer had not premeditated mur.
der, but feeling deeply the humilia.
ton of the South, to the people Of
which he bore all the love that
Brutus ever felt for Rome,
he would strike down that
night the leading men of the
victorious hosts who were then
shouting their peans Of triumph.
When dying-with his face lit up
with the blaze of the burning barn
upon the Garret 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, a message for his mother,
"Tell her | did as | thought for the
best" and then he said, "Tell
Others that the communication
wrote, addressed to the National
lntelligencer, will explain why
did what | did" During the con.
spiracy trial at the arsenal, the
Hon. Joseph Holt, the Judge ad.
vOcate, called John F. Coyle, then
the publisher of the National In.
telligencer, and asked if that com
munication had ever been received
His reply was No." 1t was, con
tinued Mr.. Ford, burnt in tht
CRATE of a chamber of a boarding
house, and a Catholic priest now
living in Washington had the fac
confessed to him soon afterward
| bad the occurrence revealed tC
me-with the added information o
the confession-by the party whit
was the custodian Of the package
This fully sustains my theory tina
John Wilkes Booth had not con
templated the assassination O
President Lincoln when he met Mrs
Surratt, at midday, and he never
met her again.
In order to demonstrate that hi
brain was turned by the poetic ant
dramatic glamour which transmit
ted the story Of the Roman assassi
nation, said Mr.. Ford, it is but jus
to describe him at this time. Ii
person, he was remarkably hand
some, with a face of singular mani
beauty, in perfect health, less thai
twenty-si1 years of age, and almOs
idolized by his friends. As an ac
tor he could earn at least $1,000
per annum He was so popular il
Boston that during an engagement
at the museum hundreds OF ladies
have waited to see him leave The
stage to go to his hotel. The fact
and opinions will, | think, show thl
great danger of glorifying assassin
alton under any circumstances
Julius Caesar was to Rome "th
union of the scholar, soldier ant
the gentleman" "Mighty Caesar
All Rome did love him. once no
without cause" Yet Oassius dix
say:
-.,..s How many ages hence
| Shall this our lofty scene be acted over