They have manifested an especial venom of feeling against the then Secretary of War, Hon. E. M. Stanton, iterating and reiterating the absurd and false statement that he died from the violence of his own hand, being crazed with remorse. Why they should thus select Mr. Stanton as the especial object of their hatred cannot be seen from any connection he had with this case. His part, though important and involving great responsibility, was, in fact, a very subordinate one. He selected the officers to be embraced in the order of detail for the Commission, under the order of the President, that was all. Judge Holt conducted the trial and recorded the proceedings under the President's order, and when he handed that record over to the President his connection with the case ended. President Johnson then held the temporal destiny of this woman, as well as that of all the others convicted, in his own hand. He and he alone was responsible. From all this it appears that the time has come when a clear, concise history of this conspiracy and trial should be given to the world. To this task the writer has addressed himself, and he offers this volume as the result of his labors. The facts herein narrated in regard to the assassination, as well as to the parts enacted by each of the individual members of the conspiracy, are drawn from the testimony before the Commission. They have been thrown into the form of a connected narrative, and there has been nothing stated as a fact but what is fully sustained by the evidence which formed the basis of the decisions of the Commission. Nothing has been admitted into this narrative but what rests on the specific testimony of unimpeachable witnesses. The author only deems it necessary that the opinion, or belief, of Father Walter, and all others of his persuasion, shall be confronted by the testimony in the case, in order that an intelligent judgment shall be reached. At the time of this trial there were just two classes of people in this country--the friends and the enemies of the government. The former were united and determined in their purpose and effort to preserve and perpetuate the government established by our fathers under the constitution that included in its purpose and provisions the union of the states and made us a nation. The latter were madly bent on its overthrow, and so judged favorably or unfavorably of the occurrences of the times, as they tended to favor or hinder the accomplishment of their purposes. The feelings of both parties had been wrought up to the highest pitch of intensity because the matters at issue had been submitted to the arbitrament of the sword. The result of this appeal was clearly foreshadowed at the time of the assassination of the President, and before the conclusion of the trial of his murderers the cause of the Confederacy had collapsed. The rebellion was virtually overcome. The deep political scheme to give it a new lease of life and bring to its aid new elements of