The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1904-10-28
The Assassination of President Lincoln.
Christian Observer.)

= uesplcaOle crime can again spriuf
from that source"
Such paragraphs as the above. which
j. is taken from the Religious ielescope
! OF Dayton, Ohio, have repeatedly ap
o peared in Northern religious papers
= They do Southern people great inius.
4 tice. No citizen Of the Southern Con.
] federacy had anything to do with the
? assassination of Mr.. Lincoln: nor wa,
slavery in any way responsible for H.
3 except in so far as slavery was an oc-
, casion OF the Civil War. These writer.
have evidently forgotten the actual
facts which led to the commission of
this crime, facts which are not stated
in many histories.
John Wilkes Booth, who assasinated
Dir. Lincoln, was citizen Of the Unit
ed States-nOt Of the Confederate
States. He was at no time resident
OF any OF the seeded States. His
southern sympathies did not lead him
to come to the South and make com.
mon cause with the South. II was
not an ardent love Of the South. or of
The Southern cause, that prompted
Mr. Booths crime; but rather a spirit
OF revenge for the personal wrong that
Mr.. Lincoln had done in having Cant
John Young Beall, one Of Booth.
friends, executed unjustly.
The editor Of the Christian Obe,,.,,,,
WAS acquainted with Captain Bean
lie was native Of Virginia, member
OF good family, college graduate. /
brave young man OF attractive per |
sodality. In Richmond, Va. we
boarded at the same house, ate at the
same table, and we learned to appreci-
ate his sterling worth. He possessed
traits similar to those which during the
Spanish-American war made Rich
mond Pearson Hobson the idol Of the
American people. And when. i'm the
fall OF 1854, man was wanted 10 lead
hazardous enterprise and make di-
version on Lake Erie, he promptly re-
sponded to the call Of his Government
With handful Of brave seamen. he
seized steamboat on Lake Erie. made !
It's crew prisoners, converted il into a ,
war vessel, captured or sank one or ,
more other boats, terrorized the com
merce OF the great lakes, produced a
panic in Buffalo and the cities ON the &
lakes, and thoroughly alarmed the I
northern people. In due time he was +
captured. He was tried by a court. !;
martial and sentenced to death ~
pirate. q
John Wilkes Booth interested him. O
eif In his behalf, obtained from the
confederate Governmental Richmond
"a, the evidence that he was a com.
officer of the Confederate a
Navy; he obtained also evidence that {
Ils acts were only those of legitimate
warfare, and that he was acting under
peciflc instructions from the Confed.
rate Government. Booth went 10
Washington armed with these docu-
rents and secured from President -
lincoln the promise that Captaip
call should not be put to death. but
Mould be treated as a prisoner Of war
bis promise Of Mr. Lincoln gave Of
nee to Secretary Seward, who per
sded him, in the face IF IT, 10 sane.
ID BealPs execution. And Captain
call was hanged at Governors Island
ew York, on February "A 1865.
John Wilkes Booth was not a we'll
danced man at his best. Doubtless
Inherited a streak Of insanity which
father, though great actor. wa. 4
IN time to time afflicted BE that as
mSy' be was feariully wrought uu J
the death Of his friend, in such cir. Z
instances. lie denounced the killing I
cold blood If prisoner Of VA. after 4
had surrendered, a. murder and
doing it after the President had
EN- his word that it should not f..
le as "falsehood" and "treacherv.
vowed vengeance against the
hors Of this wrong
Il once he organized a conspiracy for
assassination Of Pre- -idept Lincoln
Secretary Seward; and ON the
MT OF the l4ih Of April, 1865. only
sn weeks after Capt. Beal was
ged, the plot was executed. Rootb
Mr.. Lincoln at Ford's Theatre
shlngton, exclaiming ".Sc semD,r
mus, and on the same night. Paine
Of his fellow-conspira'ors, inflicted
Jus, but not mortal wound, on VIM
'eward, Secretary ofS;ate. 9
10 United States was fearfullv
sed by the assassination of the
ldent. AT first it was suspected
the crime had been instigated by
ederates. Many prominent cit.
OF the Confederacy were arrested
most thorough and searching ex.
alton was made. And il was con. ssff
ve|y proved that no representative - -,
Confederate government, and no Il.
the Southern Confederacy had
'art In 1t. 1t was as sincerely re-
"a and as severely condemned
Oh the South as in the North. Mr. -,
In was killed, not by citizen Of cooc
States, but by a citizen
United States-a partially de- safc.
man, to avenge the wrong he cold
I'd had been suffered by his friend i hnfS
Lincoln's hands. S 9 so1a
ing the nineteenth century slave n T Ee,s
abolished by Great Britain.
IN, France, Holland, Brazil '' "