The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-06-21
some new light On the great tragedy, and
will doubtless be found of general interest
Mr.. Ford says:

some new light On the great tragedy, and
will doubtless be found of general interest
Mr.. Ford says:
John Wilkes Booth was trained from
earliest infancy to consider the almost
deified assassin Brutus, just as Shakespeare
immortalized him. His father was named
"Junius Brutus;" his brother is now the
bearer of that surname. The great Booth
frequently appeared in the play of julius
Caesar, and not later than 1854 three of his
sons acted the three leading characters of
the play to an audience that applauded the
sentiments Of Brutus to the echo. Now
trace the assassination Of Lincoln. On the
morning Of April IA, 1865, Booth, who had
conspired for six months previous to
abduct President Lincoln and convey him
prisoner to the South, was the last guest
at breakfast at the National hotel in
Washington. The surrender at Apo
mattoX had ended all chance for
him to carry out his original con-
spiracy. He left the hotel after II o'clock
that morning and walked up Sixth street to
II, 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 inform.
ed of her intended visit, requested her to
get some articles belonging to him that he
had left at the country tavern; and then,
bidding her adieu, he walked up II street
to Tenth, and down Tenth to the theatre.
When he reached there it was about or
little later than IL o'clock noon. There he
heard for the first time that both
President Lincoln and Gen. Grant were to
visit the theatre that night The private
box was in process of decoration. The white
house messenger had been there an hour be-
fore to secure its use. I believe-and all
reliable written or oral testimony con-
firms that belief-thatthen and there the ter
rible thought of assassination first suggest
ed itself. 1t came like this: III I failed to
serve the South in my conspiracy to abduct,
can now be her Brutus.n
This thought fastened on his brain-led
him to go from the theatre toward the
the Kirkwood house to have
conference with some of his old
couspirators. John Surratt was away,
OLoughlin was in Baltimore and Arnold
was in suffers store at Fortress Monroe.
They knew the abduction conspiracy had
been abandoned, but Payne, Ancrodt and
Herold were in Washington. These latter
he got together and conspired 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 co-conspirators and the hour he
again appeared at the theater 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 l4th a pack.
age to an actor, detecting its delivery the
next day to the National Intelligencer.
The actor confesses that he, frightened at
the risk he ran, broke the seal,
read the enclosed matter and at mid
night burnt it. If that package had been
preserved it would have revealed the
declaration that until noon that day its
writer had not premeditated murder, but
feeling deeply the humiliation 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 shout
ing their pGans of triumph. When dying
with his face lit up with the blaze Of the
burning barn upon the Garrett 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 last
ebbing breath. First, a message for his
mother, Tell her did it as | thought for
the best" and then he said, "Tell others
that the communication I wrote addressed
to the National Intelligencer will explain
why | did what l did, During
the conspiracy trial at the arsenal,
the Hon. Joseph Holt, the judge
advocate, called John +. Coyle, then the
publisher of the National Intcligencer and
asked if that communication had ever been
II