The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-01-21

The assassination of Abraham Lin
coin was q military crime. While
actually in command Of the national
forces, he was killed in q city which
was his headquarters, strongly TO tilted
and garrisoned, with q military COVER
nor, and a provost marshal whose pa
trolls were abroad night and day arrest
ing oil persons found violating the
"rules of war;" Not only was the MUIR
dered commander-in-chief, to use the
words of the Constitution, "in actual
service in time Of war," but it was a
time of public DANGER" in which the
assassins were constitutionally excluded
from any right to o trial in the civil
courts. Peace had not then been con-
quered; there was powerful enemy in
arms, to whom "aid and comfort" could
be given; the leader of the rebellion
was still at large; many loyal men
were becoming disheartened by the con-
scriptions and by the prolonged ex-
penditure of blood and treasure; and
there are good reasons for believing
that many enemies of the Union, hav-
ing traversed all the stages of crime,
confidently hoped by this assassination
to inaugurate anarchy Mt the North,
and thus to prepare the way for O die
tator.
Before the martyr-President had
ceased to live, Secretary Stanton di-
rected q search for the recognized as
sassin, and an investigation into the cir
cumstances connected with the perpe-
tration of the bloody deed. The next
day, in q letter to the Hon. Charles
Francis Adams, Mr.. Stanton said /:
"The murderer of the President has
been discovered and evidence OBJ
tanned that these horrible crimes
were committed in execution of con-
spiracy deliberately planned and set
on foot by rebels, under pretense of
avenging the South and aiding the
rebel cause" Subsequently the Sec
rotary of War announced, in an official
bulletin, that all persons who had
harbored or secreted Booth, AtZerodt,
or Herold, or who had aided or assisted
their escape, should be Subject to
trial before a military commission,
and the punishment is death" The
bulletin concluded by saying: "Let
the stain of innocent blood be removed
from the land by the arrest and pun
ishment of the murderers! All good
citizens are exhorted to aid public JUS
tice on this occasion. Every man
should consider his own innocence
charged with this solemn duty, and
rest neither night nor day till it is ac-
complished."
Secretary Stanton faithfully per-
formed his share of this work, and he
was ably seconded by the Provost Mar
shall of the War Department, Col. L..
G. Baker. The discovery by Fouche
of the celebrated French conspiracy,
headed by Pichegru, for the assassina-
ton of the first Emperor Napoleon,
has been regarded as the greatest tri-
umph of detective-police skill on rec
ord; but it is eclipsed by Col. Bakers
report of his operations. 1t was not
long after the commission of the great
crime before he was thoroughly con-
versant with the associations and hab-
its of the chief actors acquaintance
in Washington, Baltimore, Montreal,
and other cities. Some were promptly
arrested, careful espionage was es-
tablished over others, confidential
agents were sent out far and wide,
some of them in disguise, the magnetic
telegraph and the photographers
camera were called into the service for
the transmission of intelligence and for
the multiplication of portraits for iden-
LITIGATION, and it was not long before
the proofs of conspiracy were over
whelming.