The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-12-29

days. At least that is what the cor
respondents were saying in 1870 when
the last movement was under way to
remove the capital to some other To-
cation. The most brilliant of these
writing gentlemen, Dom Piatt, of
Ohio, cried with joy over the fact
that President Lincoln walked unmo-
Tested about the streets of the Capital
while he had to go in disguise through
Pennsylvania and Maryland. And it
pleased him-a Northern abolitionist
that the city ne loved above all 9TH
ers, although a Southern community,
did not revolt and join the Confeder-
acy. No Washingtonian, he said, was
involved in the assassination of the
President. And that was literally
true.
But there was time, after the war,
when Washington herself did not
agree with the gay and festive Piatt,
when many Of her citizens believed
that a citizen of the community was
enmeshed in that awful crime-so
deeply, they felt, that even after his
acquittal he was not allowed to reside
there; nor was he allowed to speak
there at a time when all feeling grow
ing out of the crime was supposed to
have evaporated. This was John H.
Surratt, the son of the widow who
was hanged for the assassination,
though as innocent as lamb.
When Surratt was arrested in
Egypt, whence he had fled from the
Papal states, and brought to this
country, tried and found not guilty,
he went Immediately to Maryland, his
birthplace, and there engaged in bust
ness. For awhile he sold merchandise
and then entered the tobacco business
in Baltimore. Two years later he set
up in Rockville as a school teacher,
and, after a year at that occupation,
he wrote a lecture on his connection
with John Wilkes Booth, his partici-
patton in Booths plot to kidnap Mr..
Lincoln, his experiences as a Confed-
crate spy, his mission to Canada, his
mothers trial and his reasons for not
coming to Washington to save her
from the gallows.
It was an ill-advised adventure, as
he speedily learned; and his lecture
was not of a character to win him
sympathy. AS it turned out neither
the North nor the South would hear
him, but nowhere did he get such a
reception as in Washington. Here a
mob prevented his appearance and the
Mayor advised him, for the good of
the community, not to undertake it.
go
One thing, perhaps, deceived him,
and that was the ovation he received
from the people of Rockville. They
came out in force to his lecture, be-
ing drawn by rather bizarre adver-
tisement which read as follows:
Lecture by John H. Surratt-On
Tuesday evening, December 9Th, 1870,
John H. Surratt will deliver lecture
in the courthouse in Rockville on his
introduction to John Wilkes Booth
the plot for the abduction of President
Lincoln-Its failure and abandonment
His trip to Richmond and from
thence to Canada-Then by orders to
Elmora, and what was done there
His hearing of the assassination of
President Lincoln-His escape back
into Canada and concealment there
The efforts of the detectives to arrest
him and means used to battle them
His final departure for Europe-Doors
open at 61a o'clock and Lecture COM
1nences at Z. Admittance so cents;
children half-price."
Only one newspaper, the Washing
ton Star, it seems, had reporter
present. He rode twenty miles to the
theatre, took stenographic report of
it and his paper gave up the whole of
the front page to it the next after
noon. The "enterprising" correspon-
dents in the Press Gallery tore the
first page out of the Star that after
noon and either wired the lecture COM
plete to their papers or mailed the
sheet in, for it was published in full
in most of the city papers of the West
and North. This "beat" has hardly
been excelled since Washington was
Washington, except by the reporter
for the New York Herald, who, with
Mrs. Lincoln's conniving, procured
from the printer a copy of Mr.. Lin
coins first inaugural address and sent
it to his paper, which printed it be-
fore it was delivered. This enter
prising young man went to Jail
rather than betray the source of his
information; but Mrs Lincoln soon
got him out of prison. She seemed
to have some influence with Mr.. Lin
coin; if not with him, then with Mar
shall Lamon, the jailer, who was her
friend.
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