Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1890-01-06
Wilkes Booths Letter.

Wilkes Booths Letter.
The Richmond Dispatch published yester.
day what purports to be letter written by
]. Wilkes Booth on the day be shot Presi-
dent Lincoln. 1hs letter, the Dispatch
says, was obtained from q gentleman
in Fredericksburg, Va. This is how it
reads:
"Right or wrong, God judge me, not man.
For be 10y motive good or bad, OF one thing
am sure-the lasting condemnation ct the
North. love peace more than Iife-hase
| loved the Union beyond expression. For
four years l have waited, hoped and prayed
for tbs DARK CloUe 10 break, and for resto'
ration of cur fUrper sunshine. TO wait
! longer would be e crime; nll hope for peace
! i5 dad Ely prayers have proved as idle as
nay hopes Gods will he done 90 to see
and share the bitter end. I have
ever held the South was right. The
very nomination of Abraham Lincoln tour
years ago spoke plainly war-wsr upon
| southern rights and Institutions. His cleo
| tiou proved It,
Await an over, act" Yes. till you are
! bound sad plundered. What folly TIE
south was wise. Who thinks of arguments
of patience when the 6ugers of an enemy
press the trigger? Ic foreign war l. TOO,
could say, Country, right Or wrong. but
in struggle such as ours, where the
brother tries tc piegce the brothers. heart
for Gods sake choose the right. When
country like this spurns Justice from her
! side sha forfei;s the allegiance of every boz
est freeman, and should isavs him untran-
meled By any fealty soever tc act as his c n
science may approve, and Justice, people
of the No.th-;o love Liberty, TO haze
! tyranny 10 strike ut wrong and op
pression-was the teaching of our fore
fathers. The study of cur early history will
not let me forgei, and may it never. This
country was fjrmed Tor tho white man, not
! for the black, and looking upon African
slavery from the same standpoint held by
The noble framers of our constitution, l, for
one, have ever considered it one Of the
greatest blessings, both for themselves and
US, Goo ever bestowed favored nation.
| Witness heretofore our wealth and power
witness their devotion and their enlighten
ment above their race elsewhere. l have
| bsen among it most of my life, and have
! seen less harsh treatment from master to
| man than have beheld at the North from
father TO son. Yet Heaven kuoSs no one
would ho willing 10 Go more for the negro
race than +, could ! but see way 10 still
better their condition but Mr.. Lipcoln's
| policy is oDly preparing the way fer their
total anGihlation. The South are not now
nor have they ever been fighting for the
| continuation of slavery. The frat battle
Boil Run did away with that idea.
Their causes since then for war have been
as noble, and greater far than those that
urged our fathers on.
Ever should we allow they were wrong
at the beginning Of the contest cruelty end
| Injustice have made the wrong become the
| right, and they stand now before the wonder
and admiration OF the world as a noble band
| OF patriotic Eeroes, Hereafter reading of
their deeds Thermopy'a will be forgotten.
| When aided in the capture CT JUhn Brown,
who was murderer on our western border,
aud who was fairly tried and convicted ef
treason before an impartial judge and jury, /
was proud of my little share in the trans
ncion-deenedI was doing my duty in help
ing our country to perform 80 oct of Justice.
| But what was a crime in poor John Brown is
now considered by themselves es the great.
est and only virtue of the whole republican
party. Strange transmigratiou Vice to be.
| come virtue simply because more INDUCED
in. thought then as now, that the abolition
lists 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 account ofthe means
they have ever endeavored to use to effect
that abolition. IfBrown 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 ia
to return and retain g single right guaran.
teed to them by every tie which We oDcere.
versd as sacred
The South can make no choice. Its eith.
| of Crc cou fnrt hpr
worse than death to draw from. know my
choice.
have studied hard to discover upon what
grounds the right OF a State to secede has
been denied, when our very name, United
States,n and the "Declaration of Independ-
ence" both provide for secession.
But this is no time for words. l write in
| haste.
have never been upon battlefield, but,
oh my countrymeu, if you could all see the
effects of this horrld war as have seen them
In every State save Virginia, I know you
would think like me, and would pray the
Almighty to create in the northern mind q
sense OF justice and right even should 1t
possess no eeasonipg of mercy and that He
would dry up this sea of blood between NJ,
which is daily growing wider.
Alas poor country. is she to meet her
| threatened doom? -Four years? l would
give thousand lives to see her remain as /
had always known her-powerful and un.
broken-apd even now would hold my life
as naught to sac her az she was.
Oh! my friends, if the fearful scenes of the
past four years had never been enacted, or
| il what has been was but fearful dresm
from which we could now awake, with what
oyerfowing hearts could we bless our God
g., Is fop
How have loved the old flag can never
now be known. A few years ago the entire
world could boast of none 80 pure and spot
less, but have of late been seeing and hear
ing of the bloody deeds of which she has
been made the emblem. and would shudder
to think how changed she has grown. Oh,
how haua lonpea To hreak from The midah