The President had fallen forward. Major Rathburn had received a fearful wound in his arm.

The President was borne to a small house across the street. Mrs. Lincoln, dazed and wild with grief, followed, tenderly cared for by Miss Harris. Physicians and the members of the Cabinet were summoned.

All Washington was in commotion thronging the streets, learning not only that the President had been shot, but that another assassin had gained entrance to the house of Mr. Seward as a messenger with medicine from his physician. The assassin had snapped a pistol at Mr. Frederick Seward, and beaten him senseless with the weapon; had inflicted several wounds upon Mr. Seward with a knife, and also wounded two attendants.

Through the night the members of the Cabinet, physicians, and the weeping family watched the ebbing tide of life. (')

A little past seven o'clock in the morning Abraham Lincoln died, with inexpressible peace upon his face.

"Now he belongs to the ages," said Secretary Stanton, breaking the silence.

Who was John Wilkes Booth? What motive impelled him to commit the crime?

The Confederate Government, in its desperation during the last months of the war, had used pitiable and despicable means to postpone approaching doom. The Confederate agents in Canada had employed William L. McDonald to manufacture an explosive compound to be placed in hotels and steamships for their destruction. On the evening

>

of November 5, 1864, while the people of New York were rejoicing over the re-election of President Lincoln, incendiary fires were kindled in thirteen places, which, however, were quickly extinguished. Steam

boats had been burned on the western rivers.

John Y. Beall, educated in the University of Virginia, owner of 100 slaves, captain in the Confederate Army, an accredited agent of the Confederacy, had been employed to wreck railroad trains. When arrested and brought to trial he took a commission from his pocket, signed by Jefferson Davis, to show that he was an officer in the Confederate service, and ought not to be held accountable as a private individual for throwing a railroad train from its track and endangering the lives of innocent passengers. He manifested no sorrow for what he had done.

While President Lincoln was having the interview with the Confederate commissioners at Fortress Monroe, Professor McCullough was presenting to Senator Oldham, of Texas, a scheme which the Senator in turn laid before Jefferson Davis. It was a proposition to burn all the shipping of the Northern States. (2)

"We can burn," he wrote, "every transport that leaves the harbor of New York or other Northern port with supplies for the armies of the enemy, burn every transport and gunboat on the Mississippi River, as well as devastate the country, and fill the people with consternation.” Jefferson Davis did not thrust this letter into the fire, but wrote the following words:

"Hon. W. I. Oldham:

February 12, 1865.

"In relation to plans and means to burn the enemy's shipping, towns, etc., prepara. tions are in the hands of Professor McCullough, and are known only to one party. Ask the President to have an interview with General Harris, formerly of Missouri, on this subject. Secretary of War at his convenience please see General Harris, and learn what plan he has for overcoming difficulties heretofore experienced. J. D." (3)

Soon after the re-election of President Lincoln an advertisement appeared in a newspaper published in Selma, Ala., proposing to raise a fund for the assassination of the President and Vice-president of the United States.

A letter from Lieutenant Alston, proposing assassination, was turned over to Mr. Seddon by Jefferson Davis, bearing this indorsement: "For attention." ()

Among those who were ready to engage in desperate undertakings for the benefit of the Confederacy was John Wilkes Booth, a dramatic actor. I saw him frequently during the war. After John Brown seized Harper's Ferry, Booth had assisted at his capture. He visited

Richmond, making his way secretly through the lines. He was in communication with Confederate agents in Canada. He was twentysix years old; his form was manly, his bearing that of a gentleman. In parlor and drawing-room he was ever an attractive figure. He delighted in tragic and startling scenes. He had tasted the wine of popular applause upon the stage, and delighted to be before the public.

Booth did not imitate those who conspired against Cæsar, and select his associates in crime from those occupying high social position, but chose his accomplices from a gang of ruffians. Among them was Lewis Powell, often known as Lewis Payne. He had served the Confederates as a spy. George Atzeroth had frequently been in Richmond with an invoice of goods contraband of war. Daniel E. Harold had been a student of pharmacy. Spangler, Arnold, McLaughlin, and Dr. Mudd were lesser accomplices. Their rendezvous was in a boardinghouse kept by Mary E. Surratt, whose son John was also an accomplice. (*) Just when Booth made their acquaintance is not known. By his almost hypnotic power they became obedient to his imperious will.

During the four years of the war President Lincoln had been denounced as "usurper," "autocrat," "tyrant," "czar" in the newspapers of the Peace Democracy. This destroyer of the liberties of the Southern people, as Booth regarded President Lincoln, had turned loose 4,000,000 slaves, thus robbing the masters of their property. The Ides of March had brought humiliation to the Confederacy. Why should not the world be rid of such a despot? Booth had often exclaimed upon the stage:

"Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.

'Speak, strike, redress!'-Am I entreated

To speak and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,

If the redress will follow, thou receiv'st

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!"

Why should not John Wilkes Booth enact in life what he had performed upon the stage-avenge the South and make his name famous ? It is not probable that he gave any thought as to what benefit or loss might come to the people of the Southern States by murdering the President. Revenge and vanity impelled him. He determined to send a bullet through the brain of the "tyrant" who had conquered and despoiled the South, who had walked in triumph through the streets of the capital of the Confederacy. Passion and self-gratulation had taken