shirt, or the leg of drawers of the same material, the top of the cap being formed by tying a string around one of the ends.

Upon searching his pockets they were found to contain a comb, hair- and tooth-brushes, a pot of pomatum, a package of pistol cartridges, a new pocket compass, and twentyfive dollars in greenbacks. After the preliminary examination, he was taken, in charge of officers Sampson and Devoe, to General Augur's head-quarters, where, upon further examination, he gave an account of himself quite different from the one previously given. It was evident that he was in disguise, and had been completely taken by surprise in finding the officers at the house where he expected to find a welcome and refuge. The facts disclosed in the examination induced the belief that he was the blood-thirsty villain who had attempted the life of Secretary Seward on Friday night. He was placed in a room with two other strangers. The light was made dim, as nearly as possible in imitation of the condition of the light in Mr. Seward's room on that eventful night, and the domestics of Mr. Seward were sent for. Upon entering the room, the porter, a colored boy about seventeen years of age, threw up his hands with an exclamation of horror, and, pointing to the man, said, "That is the man! I don't want to see him; he did it; I know him by that lip!" The servant had already described some peculiarity about the upper lip of the man whom he had admitted to commit the foul and murderous deed at Secretary Seward's, and testimony had been procured tracing him step by step, from the time of his separation from Booth until he entered Mr. Seward's house. The chain of evidence was complete and fastened upon him as the perpetrator of the horrid crime which had shocked the whole community. The villain was heavily ironed, and placed in confinement on one of the gunboats.

J. Wilkes Booth and David E. Herold, it is well known, succeeded in making their way over the Eastern Branch of

the Potomac into Maryland, stopping there at Dr. Samuel A. Mudd's to have Booth's leg set, broken in jumping from the President's box at the theatre; then they were chased through the swamp in St. Mary's County across the Potomac to Garrett's farm, near Port Royal, Virginia, on the Rappahannock, where they were brought to bay in Garrett's barn on the 26th of April. Herold surrendered, but Booth refusing to surrender, after a long parley, the barn was set on fire. The flames rose rapidly, firing the whole building, when Booth ran to where the fire was kindled, and with pistol raised, was peering through the darkness, but seemed unable to see any one. He then turned, gazed upon the flames, and suddenly started for the door, when Sergeant Corbett, in violation of orders, left the line, and, going close to the wall before him, fired his pistol through a crack, shooting Booth in the neck, causing his death in about three hours.

G. A. Atzerodt, whose assignment was to kill the VicePresident, was arrested on the 18th of April, near Germantown, Montgomery County, Md. Samuel Arnold, charged with conspiracy to kidnap the President, Michael O'Laughlin, believed to have been chosen to murder General Grant, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Edward Spangler, who held Booth's horse in the alley leading from the theatre, and Mrs. Surratt were all soon in custody. John H. Surratt, another of the conspirators, left the city immediately after the tragedy, and, going first to Canada, went from there to Italy, where he was found in the military service of the pope, arrested in December, 1866, and brought back for trial, but escaped conviction.

Payne, Atzerodt, Herold, and Mrs. Surratt were declared guilty by a military commission, and were hanged on the 7th of July, 1865. O'Laughlin, Arnold, and Mudd were sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for life. Spangler was let off with six years like imprisonment, and all four were sent to serve their sentence at the Dry Tortugas.

Mudd was pardoned February 8, 1869, and Arnold and Spangler on the 1st of March, 1869. O'Laughlin died of yellow fever, September 23, 1867, while in confinement at Fort Judson, Florida.

The purpose of the assassins was believed to be to take the lives also of Secretary Stanton, the Vice-President, and General Grant, the latter of whom was advertised to attend. the theatre with the President, but left early in the evening for Burlington, N. J., returning immediately, however, the next morning, on learning of the assassination.

It was currently reported that, on the evening of the assaults, two gentlemen, who went to apprise the Secretary of War of the attack on Mr. Lincoln, met at the residence of the former a man muffled in a cloak, who, when accosted by them, hastened away without a word. It was evident, therefore, as was remarked at the time, that the aim of the conspirators was to paralyze the nation by at once striking down the head, heart, and arm of the country.

I did not intend in this paper to say another word about Mrs. Surratt, but when it was nearly finished I happened to mention it to one of the oldest and most distinguished United States senators, who remarked that a great deal had been said by her apologists against her execution, claiming that it was unjust and cruel, since, if guilty at all, it was only in conspiring to kidnap the President, which he believed she herself had confessed; but, said he, even were this the extent of her guilt, there is not another Government in the world that would not, for such a crime, have condemned her to death.

But whether there was ever a plot to kidnap or not, is it not simply preposterous to suppose that Booth and Herold alone were to attempt it, or that Mrs. Surratt was ignorant of the final purpose to assassinate the President? Why did she go twice to Surrattville, first on the 11th, and the second time on the afternoon of the 14th of April, when she made of John M. Lloyd, who kept the Surratt House, particular

inquiry about two carbines and some ammunition left there in concealment five or six weeks previously, by John H. Surratt, in company with Herold and Atzerodt, as testified by Lloyd, who was there and her friend, and who was thrown into the old capitol prison on suspicion of being implicated with them? Weichman, another witness, who drove Mrs. Surratt both times to Surrattville, testified that, on the last occasion, they returned to Mrs. Surratt's about half-past nine or ten on the night of the 14th, and that a few minutes thereafter Mrs. Surratt answered the door-bell, and he "heard footsteps going into the parlor and immediately going out." Was it Booth, who had called to make sure that the two carbines and ammunition were in readiness for him and Herold? Lloyd testified that he thought Mrs. Surratt, on both visits, spoke of the carbines, which she called "shooting irons," and he is positive she did so on the last, when she said to him, "Mr. Lloyd, I want you to have the shooting irons ready; some parties will call for them to-night."

I will conclude with a remarkable incident which comes to me from good authority, touching Mr. Stanton. It is known, of course, that there was a time when he did not hesitate to speak contemptuously of Mr. Lincoln, and that, not infrequently, while a member of his Cabinet, his bearing toward the President was highly disrespectful, as it was, likewise, toward some of his subordinate chiefs and officers of the army. He is sometimes called the "Great War Secretary," and in many respects he doubtless was entitled to that distinction; nor would I detract one iota from the value of the great services he rendered the country during the war. But in some respects, certainly, he was a strange man, not easily comprehended. Few among his intimate acquaintances felt that they really knew him. Even President Buchanan was not sure on this point. In a letter to me of 12th of November, 1861, the ex-President, referring to his intention to write a history of his administration, said, "You must not be astonished some day to find in

print portraits drawn by myself of all those who ever served in my Cabinet. I think I know them all perfectly, unless it may be Stanton."

Visitors at the War Department will remember seeing there Mr. Stanton's portrait, a perfect likeness, which represents him leaning on his elbow, the forefinger of his right hand against his cheek, and his thumb under his chin. This was the position chosen by the artist for his picture, it being Mr. Stanton's exact pose when looking with mournful anxiety on the face of the dying President; and at the moment he breathed his last, when the attending physician, with hand on Mr. Lincoln's pulse, announced that it had ceased to beat, Mr. Stanton, with deep feeling, said, “He now belongs to the ages."

It is pleasant to find that, even in this late and last hour, Mr. Stanton was brought to realize the true grandeur of the illustrious man whose martyrdom will bear precious fruit through the centuries to come.

December 1, 1893.

CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL HOLT AND THE LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS.

Triumphant Refutation of the Charges of allowing Mrs. Surratt to be manacled, and of his withholding from President Johnson the Recommendation for Commutation of her Sentence to Life Imprisonment.

In the New York Tribune of September 2, 1873, there appeared an anonymous communication written from Washington under the signature of "Truth," so grossly calumnious of General Joseph Holt, Judge-Advocate-General in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln, that he demanded the name of the author, who proved to be John T. Ford, of Ford's Theatre, where the fearful tragedy was