Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-02-09
Scenes and Incidents in Connection with the
Shooting and Death of First Martyred President,
Described by Col. A. K. Mcclure.


and never saw him play but once
and that was at Ford's Theater In
Washington, only a few months be
fore he committed his awful crime in
the same forum. He appeared as Pes.
cara in the play of "rhe Apostate,
and | was greatly disappointed to find
one bearing the name of Booth, with
nearly a decade of experience on the
stage, exhibit so little of histrioniC
ability. He was a man of strikingly
handsome presence, flashing dark
eyes, and rather pale complexion, with
admirable grace of manner, but in the
play he seemed to be wildly tragic
whenever opportunity offered, and
possessed none of the inspiring and
impressive attributes of his father or
of his brother. Edwin. On the stage
he showed his true character as fanat.
ical in everything he attempted. lie
was wild enthusiast, a creature of
unbridled impulse, delighting in way
wardness, and evidently without any
adequate moral balance. He was one
of the three sons Of Junius Brutus
Booth, who is remembered as one of
the most accomplished tragedians OF
his day, and whose life was replete
with strange vicissitudes alike in its
domestic, professional and individual
features, and at times disturbed by
mental disorder.
]. Wilkes Booth was a blatant sc.
cessionist before and during the war.
He was a volunteer in aiding the cap.
ture of John Brown. He had staked
everything on the success of the
Confederacy, and expected to be lion
lied as its great tragedian after It
had been established. In the latter
part of 1864 and the early part of
1865 he saw that the military power
of the Confederacy was broken, and
his distempered and unbalanced mind
was absorbed in schemes to halt the
adverse tide against the lost cause.
He first planned the abduction of Lin.
coin, and gathered around him a little
circle consisting of Lewis Powell,
alias Payne, an eX-Confederate soldier
from Florida George Atzerodt, who
had been playing spy and Potomac
blockade runner; Samuel Harold and
Michael o'Laughlin, Confederate sol.
diers from Maryland, and John H..
Surratt son of Mrs. Mary Il. Surratt,
at whose house in Washington the
conspirators met. Booths plan was to
abduct Lincoln and conduct him TO
Richmond thereby making himself
the hero Of the Confederacy and at
tain peace; but disaster followed dis
aster to the Confederate cause, and
finally the surrender of Lee so inflam.
ed Booth that he resolved upon the
murder of Lincoln, Seward and John.
son: and when the announcement was
made that Lincoln would attend the
theater on the evening of the l4th of
April he suddenly decided that the
murderous work must be completed
that night. He assumed to become
the murderer of Lincoln, Payne was
assigned to murder Seward and Alter
odt was given the task OF numbering
johnson. He executed his part and
gratihed himself by posing as a most
heroic murderer; Payne attempted
but failed in the murder Of Seward,
and Atzerodt was too cowardly to at.
tempt the performance OF the fiendish
task assigned to him.
Booth was hunted with tireless en-
ergy, and when his monstrous crime
was made known to his friends in
Maryland and Virginia. from whom he
sought shelter they taught him the
deepest measure of despair by refusing
TO be in any way connected with him,
although many of them gave him food
and shelter outside of their homes.
He was finally overtaken in a barn
where he had taken refuge the torch
was applied, and when the fury OF the
flames lighted up his hiding place
Boston Corbett fired upon him and in.
hicted a mortal wound, and after
three hours lingering in excruciating
pain he died at I O'Clock on the morn.
ing of the 25th of April, 1865.