The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-06
HIS MOTIVE PERSONAL
WHY HE AssAssINATED ABRAHAM
 LINCOLN.
John wilkes Booth Murdered Mir. Lin- cola Because the Latter. in His Opinion, Caused the Unjust Execution of Captain BeaIl.-Slavery Had
 Nothing to Do
 V1ya6R, Ve

Louisville, Ky, Christian Observer. . "In this country the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. one of the purest- the most generous. and the ablest rui- CTS that ever lived, was the result of American slavery. It was slaverys attempt, in It's death struggle, to deal a stunning blow to the head of the na- tion that was crushing out it's life-a blow dealt in a desperate revenge for its having been compelled to submit to the triumph of liberty. It was slav- cry, in its dying throes, administering to itself its own scorpion sting, there by rendering its own character doubly deSpcabIe, and its own death more cer- tain and everlasting. Hence, tho cause (slavery) of Lincoln's assassina- ton being forever annihilated no such despicable crime can again spring from that source."
 Such paragraphs as the above. which Is taken from The Religious Telescope of Dayton, O., have repeatedly ap- peared fin Northern religious papers. They do the Southern people great in- justice. No citizen of the Southern Confederacy had anything to do with the assassination of MT. Lincoln; nor was slavery in any way responsible for 1t, except in so far as slavery was an occasion of the civil war. These writers have evidently forgotten the actual facts which led to the commits sion of, this crime-facts which are not stated fin many histories.
 John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Mir. Lincoln, was a citizen of the Uni ted 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 4a AA nA mon cause with the South. It was not an ardent love of the South or of the Southern cause that prompted Mir. Booths crime. but rather a spirit of revenge for the personal wrong that Mir Lincoln had done in having Cap tain John Young Beali, one of Booths friends. executed unjustly.
 The Editor Knew Him.
 The editor of The Christian Observ- CT was acquainted with Captain Beall. He was a native of Virginia, a member of a good family. a college graduate g. brave young man of attractive person. ality. In Richmond. Va, we boarded at the same house, ate at the same ta- bIe, and we learned to appreciate liis 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 1884 A man was wanted to lead a haZ- ardous enterprise and make n diversion on Lake Erie he promptly responded to the call of the government. With g. handful of brave seamen. he seized a steamboat on Lake Erie. made its crew prisoners, converted it into war vessel. captured or sank one or more other boats. terrorized the commerce of the Great Lakes. produced panic in Buffalo and the cities on the Lakes. and thoroughly alarmed the Northern people. In due time he was captured. He was tried by a court martial and sentenced to death as pirate.
 John Wilkes Booth interested him self in his behalf, obtained by the Confederate government at Richmond. Va. the evidence that he was a com nissioned officer of the Confederate navy; he obtained also evidence that his acts were only those of legitimate warfare, and that he was acting under specihc instructions from the Confed- crate government. Booth went to Washington armed with these docu- ments and secured from President Lin coin the promise that Captain Beall should not be put to death. but should he treated as a prisoner of war. This promise of Mir. Lincoln gave offense to Secretary Seward, who persuaded him. in the face of 1t. to sanction Bealrs execution. And Captain BeaIl was hanged at Governors Island, New York. on February 24. 1885.
 John Wilkes Booth was not a we'll balanced rnan at his best Doubtless he inherited d. streak of the insanity with which his fass. though a great