Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-12-09
WHY BOOTH KILLED LINCOLN
Not To Aid South. But To Avenqe A
Personal Wrong.

| LILLE. ID. VI. Oi1lloius VI " hioh, IL "
corresponding secretary of South Caro-
lima Division Daughters of the Con
federacy, writes as follows in the State
of Columbia, South Carolina.
Most historians have been content
to state the simple fact that j. Wilkes
Booth shot and killed President Lin
coin in Ford's Theatre, at Washington
on April IA. 1865.
| Barnes School History adds to this
statement that by this shooting OF
Lincoln. Booth ''insanely imagined
that he was riding his country. of a
tyrant," while recent Southern his
tOrian says: abraham Lincoln was
shot in theatre at Washington on the
night of April IA, by an actor, who,
sympathizing with the falling: Confed-
eracy, thought bis deed would avenge
the South.n
In the editorial columns of The
Christian Observer, Louisville. KY.
OF October II, the following statements
are made, to which, as Daughter of
the Confederacy deeply interested in
all that pertains to the truth of history
and the honor of the South, 1 desire
to call the attention of South Caro-.
linians: \ mo citizen of the
Southern Confederacy had anything
to do with the. assassination of Mr..
Lincoln.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinat-
ed Mr.. Lincoln, was a citizen of the
United States-not of the Confederate
States. He was at,no time resident
of the Confederate States. His South
ern sympathies did. not. lead him to
come to the South and make common
cause with the South. 1t was not an
ardent love of the South or of the
Southern cause that ssprompted Mr..
Booth crime, but rather.a spirit of
revenge for the personal wrong that
Mr.. Lincoln had done in having Capt.
John Young Beall, one of Booth s
friends, unjustly executed.
1.-THE editor of the Christian Observ.
er was acquainted with Captain Beall.
He was native of Virginia, member
of good family, college graduate,
brave young man of attractive per.
sonality. In Richmond, Va, we board
ed at the same house, ate at the same
table and We learned to appreciate his
sterling worth. He possessed traits
similar to those. (which. .during the
Spanish American war, made Richmond
Pearson Hobson the. idol of the Ameri
can people, and when in the fall of 1864
man was wanted to lead hazardous
enterprise and make a diversion on
Lake Erie, he promptly..respoDded to
the call of his Government. With
handful of brave seamen he seized a
boat on Lake Erie, made Its crew
prisoners, converted, it into a war
vessel, captured Or sank one or more
other boats, terrorized the commerce
of the Great. Lakes, produced panic
insBuffalo and the cities on the lakes,
and thoroughly alarmed the Northern
people. In due time be was captured.
He was tried by court-martial and
sentenced to death as a pirate.
John Wilkes Booth interested him
, self in his behalf; obtained from the
Confederate government at Richmond,
Va, the evidence. that he,was a com.
missioned officer of the Confederate
navy; he obtained also evidence that
his acts were only those of legitimate
warfare, and that. be was acting under
instructions from the Confederate gov
ernment. Booth went to Washington
armed withathese documents and Sc
cured from President Lincoln the
promise that Captain Beall should not
be put to death, but should be treated
as prisoner of war. This promise of
Mr.. Lincoln's gave offence to Secre-
tary Seward, who persuaded him, in
the face of it, to sanction Beall's ex-
ecution, and Caption Beall was hanged
at Governors Island, N. Y, on Febru-
ary "a. 1865.
John Wilkes Booth was not we'll
balanced man at his best. Doubtless
he Inherited a streak of the insanity
with which his father, though great
actor, was from time to time afflicted.
Be that as it may. heswas fearfully
| yUrOnOht hu ha Of hi ~
in such circumstances. He denounced
the killing in cold blood of a prisoner
of war after be had surrendered as
murder, and the doing. it after the
President had given his word that ii
should not be done as 'falsehoOd' and
'treachery,' and vowed vengeance
against the author of this wrong.
'At once he organized conspiracy
for the assassination of President Lin
coin and Secretary Seward, and on the
night of April IA, only seven weeks af
ter Captain BeaIl was hanged, the plot
was executed. Booth shot Mr.. Lin
coin at Ford's Theatre, Washington
exclaiming: Sic sempAr tyrannis' ant
on the same night Paine, one of hi
coconspirators, inflicted severe but no
mortal wounds on William H. Seward
: Secretary of State.
1.-The United States was fearful,
aroused by. thel assassination of th
President. At first it was suspects
that the crime had been instigated b
Confederates. Many prominent citi
zens of the COnfederacy were arrested
The most thorough and searching ez
animation was made, and it was con
clusively proved that no represents
tive of the Southern Confederacy ha
= any hand in it. 1t was sincerely r,
\ gretted and as severely condemne
through the south as in the Nortl
Mr.. Lincoln was killed not by citize