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
Dr. Mudd voluntarily confessed to Captain Dutton, who had charge of
the convicts who were sent to the Dry Tortugas, whilst on their voyage
thither, that he knew Booth when he came to his house on the morning
of the 15th of April; and said that he denied it because he was afraid
of endangering his own life, and the lives of his family. He also
admitted that he went to Washington by appointment to introduce Booth
to Surratt, and that Wiechmann's testimony on this point was true. Why,
if innocent, should he have been afraid to let it be known that Booth
and Herold called at his house on that morning, and what he had done
for them? This fear could only have come from a consciousness of guilt,
and shows that he not only knew what they had done, but, also, that he
was implicated in their guilt by his previous knowledge of what they
were going to do. John H. Surratt, after he had been set at liberty,
delivered a lecture at Rockville, Maryland, in which he denied that
he ever knew of the plot to assassinate, but admitted that he was a
member of a conspiracy to capture President Lincoln and carry him a
prisoner to Richmond. He asserts that this was Booth's purpose whilst
he was co-operating with him, and that they had spent a great deal
of money ($10,000) in preparations to effect their object. He claims
that neither the Richmond government, nor its agents in Canada, knew
anything about their scheme, and that they alone were responsible for
it. Where then did they get their $10,000 to spend on it? They were
both without means of their own, and without employment. The Rockville
lecture is simply a plausible tissue of falsehoods, well put together,
but altogether inconsistent with the whole tenure of the evidence in
the case. It is contradicted at almost every point by the testimony
we have had under review. Yet its admissions are important, as they
establish the theory of the conspiracy which we have maintained. He
admits that he was engaged in the secret service of the Confederate
government almost constantly from the time he left college in the
summer of 1861, and that he enjoyed that service greatly, and was very
active in it. He claims that he was entrusted with dispatches for the
agents of that government in Canada, and that he passed from the one
place to the other frequently. He admits that he reached Montreal on
the 6th of April with dispatches from Davis and Benjamin to Thompson.
Of course he does not say that he also carried Bills of Exchange on
Liverpool at the same time for $70,000, or that he carried funds at
any time; but we have had the proof of this fact. He admits that he
went from Montreal on the 12th of April, to Elmira, New York, and
claims that he remained there until after the assassination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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