Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. SurrattHarris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
History
Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt
Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination; Surratt, John H. (John Harrison), 1844-1916
Now the question comes up, what became of the money deposited to
Thompson's credit by the Confederate government in the banks of Canada?
We have seen that he had deposited to his credit in the Ontario Bank
of Montreal $649,873.28, and have learned that he had, in addition to
this, large transactions in other Canada banks. The reduction of his
account in the Montreal bank of over $200,000 by the drafts of the 6th
and 8th of April, we have every reason to believe was dependent upon
contingencies for their payment which were never fulfilled, and so this
large amount reverted to Thompson. The Confederate government died
suddenly and unexpectedly about this time, leaving no executor with
will annexed, and no one to look after its assets, or court authorized
to appoint an administrator; and so it would seem that in this case
Jacob Thompson was not only a man that had achieved notoriety, but
that he also had riches thrust upon him. Perhaps he and Clay, Tucker,
Sanders, Cleary, and Holcombe held a court in equity, and distributed
amongst them the assets thus accidentally left in their hands.
CHAPTER XV.
THE CASE OF MRS. SURRATT.
So earnest and persistent have been the efforts of rebel priests,
politicians and editors to pervert public opinion in regard to the
case of Mrs. Surratt that it becomes necessary to devote some special
consideration to it even at the expense of some repetition. Immediately
after her execution a wild howl was set up by these people for the
purpose of making political capital out of the sympathy and tender
feeling which we all have for her sex. Her innocence was boldly
asserted, and the government was denounced for her execution. They
suppressed or set at naught all the evidence against her, and made
many false statements to subserve the purpose they had in view.
These efforts were only made by those who had been the enemies of
the government during the war--who had either asserted the right of
secession, or denied the right of the government to coerce (to use
their own expression) a State into submission to its authority.
[Illustration: MRS. MARY E. SURRATT.]
Because President Lincoln felt that the obligations of his official
oath required him to maintain the authority of the government and to
preserve the Union they had all through the terrible struggle in which
he was engaged been his bitter enemies. They were actuated by a spirit
of malignant hatred of the Union cause, and stood ready to oppose and
denounce every measure that the President had found necessary to the
success of his purpose and work. Their hostility to the government
was only rendered more intense by its success in putting down the
rebellion, and so they were ready to seize on this occasion, that they
might, out of it, make political capital. This effort has never been
abandoned, and the case of Mrs. Surratt continues to be worked for all
that it is worth by that portion of the Northern press that inherits
the old copperhead animus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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