The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-01-09
A STRANGE LETTER.
!. Wilkes Booths Justification for His
Killing of Lincoln.


Killing of Lincoln.
RICHMOND, VA, Jan. 6.-The fol-
lowing letter is given to the public
through the Richmond Dispatch. It
Is said it was hidden shortly after the
assassination of President Lincoln. It
vas written by j. Wilkes Booth
Few hours before lie took the Presi-
dents life. 1t wss printed at the time
but the papers containing it, it is said,
we're quickly suppressed by the gov
eminent.
Wright or wrong, God judge me,
not man.
For, be my motive good or bad, of
)ne thing | am sure-the lasting con-
lemnation of the North. love peace
more than life-have loved the Union
beyond expression For four years I
have waited, hoped and prayed for the
lark cloud to break and for restora-
.ion-of our former sunshine. To wait
longer would be crime; all hope for
peace is dead. My prayers have
proved as idle as my hopes. Gods
will be done! I 60 to see and share
he bitter end. I have ever held the
south was right. The very nomina-
ton of Abraham Lincoln four years
ago spoke plainly war-war upon
Southern rights and institutions. His
election proved it.
await an overt act" Yes, till yori
are bound and plundered. What fol-
y! The South was wise. Who
thinks of arguments of patience when
the fingers of an enemy press the trig-
ger? In foreign war I, too, could
say, Country right or wrong;' but
in struggle such as ours, where the
brother tries to pierce the brothers
heart-for Gods sake choose the right.
When country like this spurns JUS
tice from her side she forfeits the allie.
gience of every honest freeman, and
should leave him untrammeled by any
fealty soever, to act as his conscience
may approve, and justice, people of
the North,-to love liberty, to hate
tyranny, to strike at wrong and op-
pression-was the teaching of our fore
fathers. The study of our early histo-
ry will not let me forget, and may it
never.
This country was formed for the
white man, not the black, and looking
upon African slavery from the same
standpoint held by the noble trainers
Of our Constitution, for one have ev
er considered it one of the greatest
blessings, both for themselves and us,
God ever bestowed on favored ma
ton. Witness heretofore our wealth
and power; witness their devotion
and enlightenment above their race
elsewhere. I have lived among it
most Of my life and have seen less
harsh treatment from master to man
than I have beheld at the North Fl ON
father to son. Yet Heaven knows no
one would be willing to do more for
the negro race than l, could 1 but see
T. way to still better their condition ;
but Mr.. Lincoln's policy is only pre-
pairing the way for their total annihi-
lation. The South are not now, nor
Lave they ever been, fighting for the
continuation Of slavery. The first bat
tie Dull Rum did away with that
idea.
| Their causes since then for war
lave been as noble and greater far
than those that urged our fathers on.
| Even should we allow they were
wrong at the contest, cruelty and in
Justice have made the wrong become
| the right, and they stanG now before
tue wonder and admiration of the
world as noble band of patriotic he
! roes. Hereafter in reading of their
ceeds Thermopylae will be forgotten.
WheE I aided in the capture Of John
Brown, who was murderer on our
western border, and who was fairly
tried and convicted of treason before
an impartial judge and jury, I was
proud of my little share in the trans
action-deemed I was doing my duty
in helping our country to perform an
act IF justice. But what was crime
in poor John Brown is new consider
ed by themselves as the greatest and
only virtue Of the whole Republican
party. Strange TRANSPORTATION! Vice
became virtue simply because more
INDUCED in. I thought then, as now,
that the aboiitionists were the only
traitors in the land, and that the
whole party deserved the same fate as
poor John Brown; not because they
wish to abolish slavery, but on &C.
count of the means they have ever en-
deavored to use to effect that aboli-
ton. If Brown were living | doubt
whether he himself would set slavery
against the Union. Most or many in
the North do and openly curse the
Union if the South is to return and
retain a single right guaranteed to
them by every tie which we once re-
vered as sacred.
The South can make no choice. II
is either determination or slavery for
| themselves-wOrset than death to draw
from. / know my choice.
have studied hard to discover up
on what grounds the right Of State to
secede has been denied, when our very
name, Omitted States" and "Declara-
ton of Independence" both provide
| for secession.
But this is 20 time for words. ]
write in haste.
I know how foolish L shall be deem
ed for undertaking such step as this
where on the one side l have many
friends and everything to make me
happy, where my profession alone has
| gained me an income of more than
$4,000 a year, and where my great
ambition in my profession has such a
field for labor. On the other hand the
South has never bestowed on me one
L n L