From bigxc@prairienet.orgTue Feb  7 06:14:09 1995
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 95 11:39:16 CST
From: Brian Redman 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 81


              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3  Num. 81
             ======================================
                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")


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The Lincoln Conspiracy

By David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

[...continued...]


"Near the end of September, 1864, Patrick Martin [, organizer of
the previously mentioned southern Maryland planter's meeting,]
met with John Wilkes Booth." As a result of this meeting, "Booth
received instructions to meet [Confederate agents] Clement Clay
and Jacob Thompson in Montreal." Booth arrived in Montreal on
October 17th or 18th of 1864.

John Wilkes Booth is a shadowy historical figure. While
ostensibly an actor, he is known to have smuggled medicines and
other contraband into the south. For example, at one time Booth
"obtained 1,000 ounces of valuable quinine, hid the contraband
medicine in a trunk, and sent it by blockade runner to Richmond."

Booth was also involved with other smugglers from that time,
including Confederate courier John Surratt and a childhood friend
named Michael O'Laughlin. One of the front operations they used
for their activities was the Chaffey Company at 178 1/2  Water
Street in New York. Another key figure operating out of this
address "was Lafayette Baker [head of the previously mentioned
National Detective Police (NDP)] who began using Chaffey's in
July."

Instead of turning in confiscated contraband to the military
commissary, Baker began using the Chaffey Company to sell it
to interested buyers. This was especially true for cotton which
had risen from 10 cents/pound to $1.00/pound. "A single bale was
now worth more than $1,000, and a seized shipment of several
bales could be quietly sold for a tidy sum. At the rate Baker was
making deposits, his account would hit $150,000 by the end of the
year."

While in Montreal, Booth was recruited by Confederate agents Clay
and Thompson to organize the kidnapping of Abraham Lincoln. John
H. Surratt, Jr. was suggested to Booth as a good man to help in
his organizing efforts. When Booth returned to Washington,
"$12,499.28 had been transferred from the Bank of Montreal to
Booth's account at the Chaffey Company in New York. This was, to
the penny, what Daniel Watson, a Tennessee cotton speculator, had
deposited in the Bank of Montreal on July 4 for some unknown
reason."

"Booth wrote in his diary, 'I am to find and send North 15 men
whom I trust. The messenger brings me $20,000 in gold to recruit
them. I'm to start at once.'" It is somewhat suspicious that "the
messenger who brought the gold was connected with the Union's
Judge Advocate General's Office."

In addition to the kidnap plot that Booth was involved with,
"another highly secret plot was developing inside the government
in Washington... A hint of the Northern plot was turned up by NDP
operatives." Members of Lincoln's own party, including Radical
Republicans were plotting to "have him kidnapped and kept out of
sight until fake charges... [were] arranged to impeach him."

On November 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln received 55 percent of the
popular vote and was returned to office. One of the things which
helped him win re-election was that the Union army had won timely
victories. He was also helped by the military vote itself. He
received 116,887 military ballots as compared to 33,748 cast for
the Democratic candidate McClellan. "Lincoln had pressured
commanders to furlough soldiers home in time for the election."

Around this time, the National Detective Police (NDP) had made
progress in its investigations into possible kidnap plots against
Lincoln. "The secret police had also discovered [John Wilkes]
Booth's involvement." The authors mention a Confederate Major
Marsh Frye who they claim was a double agent. They claim also
that Booth's wife had been working with this Major Frye as a spy
and courier for the Confederacy but that she was unaware that
Frye was in reality an agent for the Union.

Another informant cultivated by the NDP at the time was one
"James William Boyd, prisoner of war... [who had] been a captain
in the Rebel secret service." The authors mention in passing that
this Captain Boyd had the same initials as John Wilkes Booth.

[B.R. So at this point we have a lot of loose threads. It will be
interesting to see where they lead.]

According to the authors, Booth also met with John Surratt around
this time. "Booth's diary claimed they joined together and began
recruiting men for the [planned] kidnapping."

In the Fall of 1864, Booth made a trip to Richmond where he met
with one Judah Benjamin, a British lawyer, Confederate Vice
President Alexander Stephens, and Jefferson Davis, President of
the Confederacy. "Out of this meeting came detailed instructions
for Booth. An order for $70,000, 'drawn on a friendly bank,' was
also handed the actor."

"Though on opposite sides of a civil war, the Northern
speculators and the Confederate politicians had a common
commodity problem. The speculators needed cotton. The south
needed meat. The Union's blockade prevented cotton from leaving
the South." After the 1864 election, Booth met with banker-
financier Jay Cooke at the Astor House in New York. Cooke's
brother Henry was also in attendance and spoke highly of the
aforementioned Judah Benjamin. This was a curious circumstance in
that Mr. Benjamin was one of the top men in the Confederacy
whereas Cooke was one of the bankers financing the Union side in
the war. Also in attendance at the meeting were "Thurlow Weed,
Samuel Noble, a New York Cotton broker, and Radical Republican
Zachariah Chandler, Michigan senator."

"In his diary Booth later recorded, 'Each and every one asserted
that he had dealings with the Confederate States and would
continue to whenever possible.'"

According to the authors, the link between most or all of these
groups was economic. Due to the Union blockade of the
Confederacy, the South, northern speculators, and the British
were all suffering. Because the South could not export its
cotton, mills in Britain and France were shutting down. The
blockade also cut off Northern moneymen from lucrative
investments in the cotton trade.

According to the recently recovered Booth diary pages, while in
Montreal near the end of 1864 Booth saw National Detective Police
(NDP) head Lafayette Baker in the company of Confederate agent
Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. Later that day, Booth met with Tucker
and Canadian Confederate secret service chief Jacob Thompson.
Booth delivered coded messages to each of them and Thompson gave
Booth a satchel containing $50,000 in bank notes. He was to
deliver $20,000 of this money to Senator Benjamin Wade, co-author
of the previously mentioned Wade-Davis Bill. Thus, if the missing
Booth diary pages are to be believed, we have evident collusion
between Radical Republicans and the Confederate secret service.
Furthermore, some connection between the head of the Union's NDP
and the southern secret service seems likely.

[B.R. -- Yet this all hinges on the veracity of the recently
recovered (c. 1977) Booth Diary Pages. The mystery deepens in
that I am writing this in 1993; whatever became of the 18 pages
that were recovered? Were they authenticated? Were they
published?]

Around this time (December 1864), one of Lincoln's most trusted
bodyguards, Ward Lamon, tried to warn Lincoln that he was in
great danger. When Lincoln shrugged off Lamon's warning, Lamon
threatened to resign stating that the President's life was sure
to be taken unless he were more cautious. The NDP also tried to
warn Lincoln of the danger he was in. Twice they notified
Secretary of War Stanton that a plot was underway to kidnap
Lincoln.

The authors furthermore claim that a Major Thomas Eckert, a
member of Stanton's office in the War Department, also had
knowledge of the proposed kidnapping of the president.

Booth returned to Washington, carrying the previously mentioned
satchel containing $50,000. He delivered portions of this money
to Senators Conness, Wade, and Chandler of the Radical Republican
faction of Lincoln's party. According to NDP chief Lafayette
Baker's notes, Senator Conness was involved with at least one of
the upcoming kidnap plots.

The authors contend that there had to be some hidden
person/persons linking the Radical Republicans (who were seeking
to control the Union and to ravage the post-war South) with the
Confederate secret service.  The plan of the Radical Republicans
was to "seize control of the executive branch... [and] control
reconstruction." Why the Confederate secret service would team up
with them is not clear. Superficially, these two groups should
have had nothing in common.

Around this time Secretary of War Stanton personally ordered that
Federal prisoner Captain James W. Boyd (initials J.W.B., same as
John Wilkes Booth) was to be delivered to the Provost Marshal in
Washington, D.C.

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

{ Sources used for this section include, but are not limited    }
{ to the following:                                             }
{                                                               }
{ Andrew Potter Papers, Ray A. Neff Collection, Marshall, IL    }
{                                                               }
{ Baker, Lafayette C., *History of the United States Secret     }
{   Service* (L.C. Baker, Philadelphia, 1967)                   }
{                                                               }
{ Brennan, John C., "General Bradley T. Johnson's Plan to       }
{   Abduct President Lincoln," Chronicles of St. Mary's County  }
{   Historical Society, (Leonardtown, MD) Vol. 22, Nov. 1974    }
{                                                               }
{ Clarke, Asia Booth, *The Unlocked Book: A Memoir of John      }
{   Wilkes Booth* (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1938)          }
{                                                               }
{ Eisenschiml, Otto, *Why Was Lincoln Murdered?* (Little,       }
{   Brown and Co., Boston, 1937)                                }
{                                                               }
{ Gray, Clayton, *Conspiracy in Canada* (L'Atelier Press,       }
{   Montreal, 1957)                                             }
{                                                               }
{ Lamon, Ward Hill, *Recollections of Abraham Lincoln*          }
{   (University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1895)                     }
{                                                               }
{ Lafayette Baker's Unpublished Cipher-Coded Book Manuscript,   }
{   1868, Dr. Ray A. Neff Collection                            }
{                                                               }
{ "Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 68, "Martin Family,"      }
{   Fall 1973                                                   }
{                                                               }
{ 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     }
{                                                               }
{ Mogelever, Jacob, *Death to Traitors* (Doubleday & Co.,       }
{   New York, 1960)                                             }
{                                                               }
{ Peterson, T.B., *The Trial of the Assassins and Conspirators* }
{   (T.B. Peterson and Brothers, Philadelphia, 1865)            }
{                                                               }
{ Roscoe, Theodore, *The Web of Conspiracy* (Prentice-Hall,     }
{   Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959)                                 }
{                                                               }
{ Weichmann, Louis J., *A True History of the Assassination of  }
{   Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865*, ed. Floyd   }
{   E. Risvold, (Alfred E. Knopf, New York, 1975)               }


                  [...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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