	id AA23565; Tue, 7 Feb 95 07:31:16 CST
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 82


              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3  Num. 82
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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The Lincoln Conspiracy
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
By David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier, Jr.
 
[...continued...]
 
 
Among Booth's earliest recruits in the plan to kidnap Lincoln 
were Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin. Booth and O'Laughlin 
had been involved in a smuggling ring early on in the war. They 
had helped ship contraband quinine, morphine, and other medicines 
to the South. "O'Laughlin believed Booth had been in charge of 
the operation but knew the actor had had the help of men in the 
government."
 
Besides Arnold and O'Laughlin, Booth recruited David Herold, 
George Atzerodt, Edward Spangler, and Lewis Payne into his 
kidnapping team. The original plan was to capture Lincoln when he 
was on one of his frequent unguarded trips from the White House 
to the Soldiers Home. Later, however, Booth decided on a more 
dramatic location for the kidnap attempt -- Ford's Theater.
 
On the night of January 18, 1865, all was in readiness. Lincoln 
was expected to attend a performance at Ford's Theater that 
evening. "Everything was ready -- two sets of handcuffs, gags and 
ropes. The stage lights were to be killed on cue. A vehicle with 
side curtains was stationed in the alley behind the theater."
 
Unfortunately for the plotters, the night was stormy and Lincoln 
decided to stay at home.
 
The leaders of the bankers and speculators plot to kidnap Lincoln 
decided to replace Booth with a military man because they decided 
that a civilian would not be the best person to handle the actual 
kidnapping. All Booth could learn at first was that he had been 
replaced by a Rebel officer, a "Captain B."
 
Captain James William Boyd "bore a resemblance to John Wilkes 
Booth, whose initials he shared." Boyd had served as head of the 
Confederate secret service in West Tennessee before being 
captured in August 1863 by members of the National Detective 
Police (NDP). After being imprisoned for months, he finally 
succumbed to NDP pressure and became a Rebel turncoat.
 
For awhile, Boyd was "paid $90 a month and, in return, reported 
on prisoners' activities and plans." However, when his life 
became endangered because the other prisoners had grown 
suspicious of him, he was released from Federal prison and given 
a new assignment. He was sent "on a mysterious mission that would 
take him to Canada, then Mexico."
 
The authors mention in passing that Boyd suffered from an old 
wound. "Boyd's leg near his ankle had continued to give him 
trouble. A bone and muscle infection had developed from the wound 
that had never healed properly."
 
Besides the change in leadership from Booth to Boyd, the 
"speculators, with Captain Boyd as their leader, appeared to have 
a new strategy... They were not going to take Lincoln to 
Richmond, but to Bloodsworth Island in Chesapeake Bay and 
'legally' dispose of him."
 
In early March of 1865, inside "the nation's governmental centers 
and in New York, the country's financial heart, many were not 
happy."
 
"Power plays were going on behind almost every office door; 
tremendous pressures were building. There was no end to the 
intrigues, lies, deceits, and double-dealing."
 
For the turncoat Rebel agent, Captain James William Boyd, the 
sense of intrigues surrounding him was so great that he was 
unsure of exactly who his real leader was. "He had the impression 
the mastermind was not one, but a number of highly placed men 
working together on a daring plan."
 
Whoever it was that was running things had sent Boyd on a journey 
through Maryland, headed south. In Maryland, wherever "he 
stopped, he asked discreet questions concerning roads through the 
area."
 
For John Wilkes Booth, the urgency of achieving success in his 
kidnap plot was mounting. It became more and more apparent that 
the North was going to win the war. Therefore it was increasingly 
important that the South have *some* sort of advantage, from 
whatever source. Booth became more desperate to kidnap the 
president. He hoped that somehow the South could "yet snatch 
victory from defeat."
 
"It looked as though Grover's Theatre would offer the best 
opportunity to attempt the abduction on March 15." Booth 
assembled his team of recruits and prepared to make a kidnap 
attempt. However, on March 14th the President became so ill that 
the cabinet met in his bedroom. Because it seemed unlikely that 
Lincoln would go to the theatre the following day, the kidnapping 
attempt was called off.
 
When the Grover's Theatre kidnapping attempt was called off, some 
of the co-conspirators had gone to Ford's Theatre to see a 
performance of *Jane Shore*. During the intermission, Booth 
briefly visited the "Presidential Box," a special area reserved 
for president Lincoln when he attended the theatre.
 
In the early morning of March 16th, Booth met with his recruits. 
One of them had received word that Lincoln would be visiting the 
Seventh Street Hospital-Soldiers Home. Booth came up with another 
plan. On a portion of the road that the President was to travel, 
the plotters would ride out of the woods and surround Lincoln's 
carriage. However, when they tried to carry out their plot later 
that day, the carriage that they surrounded did not contain 
Lincoln. "Booth's third kidnap attempt had now failed."
 
The following morning, Booth was visited in his Washington hotel 
room by Colonel Lafayette Baker, head of the National Detective 
Police (NDP). Booth may have been understandably panicy that the 
formal head of the Union's secret service was paying him a visit. 
It may have been that he was fearful that his attempts at 
kidnapping the President had been found out. However Baker's 
mission that day was to deliver three sealed envelopes from 
(respectively) Jefferson Davis [President of the Confederacy!], 
Judah Benjamin, and Clement Clay. One of the messages that Booth 
received directed him to pay Baker a sum of money.
 
After Baker had received the money from Booth and had left, Booth 
was probably astonished. He immediately sent a note by special 
courier to Confederate agent Judah Benjamin in Richmond. He then 
went to the office of Radical Republican, Senator John Conness. 
Conness had been connected with NDP head Baker as a member of a 
vigilante group in California during the 1850's. He calmed 
Booth's fears and assured him that Baker could be trusted.
 
Not long after this meeting with Senator Conness, Booth received 
a reply to his message to Judah Benjamin in Richmond. It said 
that Baker was to be trusted.
 
"Word now came to Booth that the President would pass a certain 
spot on Saturday, March 18. Booth and an unknown number of 
conspirators waited seven hours. When the President did approach, 
he was escorted by a squad of cavalry." Booth called off this 
fourth kidnapping attempt.
 
Following this latest attempt, NDP head Baker and a Lt. Col. 
Everton J. Conger called on Booth. Booth did not record the topic 
of this second meeting with Baker.
 
Booth attended another of many Washington parties. At this party, 
he was approached by Senator Conness who informed him that he 
was expecting information shortly as to Lincoln's planned 
movements within the Washington area.
 
"Booth thought Yankee politicians were beyond belief. Their only 
interest was money. They had no patriotism, no personal honor. 
They were cowards, hiding behind their office, spouting 
hypocrisy."
 
On Sunday, March 19th, Conness forwarded to Booth information on 
the next kidnap possibility. "The conspirators rushed to the 
location named. And waited in vain... The President did not 
appear."
 
"On Monday, March 20, the conspirators made a sixth attempt at a 
kidnap. About the time the President was supposed to pass the 
ambush site, a warning was given Booth that the kidnapping was 
expected. Booth ordered his men to scatter, sure he had been 
betrayed."
 
Later that evening, Booth and two of his gang waited for Lincoln 
in another spot by which Lincoln was supposed to be travelling. 
When a horseman with a group of soldiers approached, Booth fired 
a shot and the President's hat flew off. One of Booth's 
companions, Lewis Payne, also fired twice but missed. Booth and 
his companions "spurred furiously away, the President's armed 
escort thundering after them... Within a couple of miles the 
conspirators had eluded pursuit."
 
Shortly thereafter, Booth was visited by the previously mentioned 
Lt. Col. Conger. Conger carried orders that Booth was to halt his 
efforts. Booth refused. Conger then told Booth that "If you make 
another move without orders, you and your friends are going to be 
found in the Potomac."
 
On Monday, April 3, 1865, Richmond fell and the Confederate 
cabinet fled the city.
 
"For Booth, time had about run out." On Saturday, April 1, he 
left Washington for New York where he met with Northern cotton 
speculators. Booth informed these people his apprehensions that 
their plot was about to be betrayed by NDP head Lafayette Baker. 
At the end of the meeting, "Booth was instructed to return to 
Washington to wait for orders."
 
On Thursday, President Lincoln had authorized Gen. Godfrey 
Weitzel to give permission to the "gentlemen who had acted as the 
Legislature of Virginia in support of the Rebellion" to meet and 
take measures to withdraw that state's troops from fighting the 
Union soldiers. "Secretary of War Stanton saw the action as 
allowing Virginia lawmakers to proceed as though nothing had 
happened, setting a precedent for all future insurgent 
legislatures to reconvene and be recognized." Needless to say, 
this would severely curtail the postwar plans of Radical 
Republicans and Northern businessmen for "reconstruction" in the 
South. "The authorization had Washington in an uproar."
 
On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant. "Lee's action, as 
supreme Confederate Commander meant the war was over."
 
With the end of the war, Booth now expected that Northern 
politicians and their business friends would strip the South 
bare. He also wrote in his diary that "I believe that [Major] 
Eckert, [Lafayette] Baker, and the Secretary [of War, Stanton] 
are in control of our activities."
 
There were at least three good reasons that Stanton could be 
behind Booth and his plotters: (1) Removing Lincoln would assure 
that Stanton would continue as War Secretary, (2) Under the 
proposed "reconstruction," the "War Department and the Secretary 
of War would be vital in a military occupation of conquered 
states." Thus, Stanton would wield tremendous power during the 
proposed "reconstruction." Lincoln opposed this planned 
despoliation of the South, and (3) By remaining in power, Stanton 
could further his own ambitions to be president.
 
It has already been shown that Stanton disliked Lincoln. Stanton 
even went so far in his audacity to *countermand* Lincoln's order 
to Gen. Weitzel which had given the Legislature of Virginia 
permission to reconvene. Lafayette Baker notes in his unpublished 
book that "That's the first time I knew Stanton was one of those 
responsible for the assassination plot." Baker even feared that 
he himself would be used as a "sacrificial goat" [i.e. a "patsy"] 
by Stanton.
 
Booth also was apprehensive about what the hidden forces plotting 
against Lincoln might do to Booth himself. In his diary he wrote, 
"If by this act, I am slain, they too shall be cast into hell, 
for I have given information to a friend who will have the nation 
know who the traitors are."
 
At the White House, Lincoln's trusted bodyguard, Ward Lamon, had 
obtained a special pass from the President which allowed him and 
an unspecified friend to travel from Washington to Richmond. On 
the night before Lamon left the capital he urged the President 
not to go out after nightfall, especially not to the theatre.
 
Meanwhile, Rebel turncoat Capt. James William Boyd had been 
acquiring horses in southern Maryland. While there, Boyd had 
learned that one Thomas Watkins had attempted to sexually assault 
the wife of one of Boyd's colleagues. Boyd went and shot Watkins 
in the back of the head. Although the Federal government was 
aware of what Boyd had done, it did nothing. "His [Boyd's] 
freedom was more important to someone than having him tried for 
murder."
 
 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
 
{ Sources used for this section include, but are not limited    }
{ to the following:                                             }
{                                                               }
{ Arnold, Samuel B., *Defence and Prison Experiences of a       }
{   Lincoln Conspirator* (The Book Farm, Hattiesburg, MS, 1943) }
{                                                               }
{ Captain James William Boyd Letter to Moe Stevens, Boyd Papers }
{   Ray A. Neff Collection                                      }
{                                                               }
{ John Surratt Lecture at Rockville, Maryland, December 6, 1870 }
{   (Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 1870)              }
{                                                               }
{ Lafayette Baker's Unpublished Cipher-Coded Book Manuscript,   }
{   1868, Dr. Ray A. Neff Collection                            }
{                                                               }
{ Lee, Thomas C., "The Role of Georgetown's Dr. Samuel A. Mudd  }
{   in the Lincoln Conspiracy," Georgetown Medical Bulletin,    }
{   May, 1976                                                   }
{                                                               }
{ Major Thomas T. Eckert Letter to Col. Lafayette C. Baker,     }
{   April 22, 1865. In the private collection of Stanton        }
{   descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts of        }
{   Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch                           }
{                                                               }
{ Missing Booth Diary Pages. In the private collection of       }
{   Stanton descendants. Released in 1976 through the efforts   }
{   of Americana appraiser, Joseph Lynch of Worthington, MA     }
{                                                               }
{ Oldroyd, Osborn H., *The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln:    }
{   Flight, Pursuit, Capture and Punishment of the              }
{   Conspirators* (Privately Published, Washington, D.C. 1901)  }
{                                                               }
{ Pitman, Benn, *The Assassination of President Lincoln and the }
{   Trial of the Conspirators* (Funk & Wagnalls, New York,      }
{   1954)                                                       }
{                                                               }
{ Shelton, Vaughan, *Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder       }
{   Trial* (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1965)              }
{                                                               }
{ Shutes, Milton H., *Lincoln's Emotional Life* (Dorrance and   }
{   Co., Philadelphia, 1957)                                    }
{                                                               }
{ Wilson, Francis, *John Wilkes Booth: Fact and Fiction of      }
{   Lincoln's Assassination* (Houghton Mifflin Co., New York,   }
{   1929)                                                       }
 
 
                  [...to be continued...]
 
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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