University of Virginia Library

Chapter LXI.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN A TRUE MAN OF GOD, AND A TRUE DISCIPLE
OF THE GOSPEL—HIS ASSASSINATION BY BOOTH—
THE TOOL OF THE PRIESTS—MARY SURRATT'S HOUSE—THE
RENDEZVOUS AND DWELLING PLACE OF THE PRIESTS—
JOHN SURRATT SECRETED BY THE PRIESTS AFTER THE
MURDER OF LINCOLN—THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN
KNOWN AND PUBLISHED IN THE TOWN THREE HOURS
BEFORE ITS OCCURRENCE.

EVERY time I met President Lincoln, I wondered how such
elevation of thought and such childish simplicity could be
found in the same man. After my interviews with him, many
times, I said to myself: "How can this rail-splitter have so
easily raised himself to the highest range of human thought and
philosophy?"

The secret of this was, that Lincoln had spent a great part
of his life at the school of Christ, and that he had meditated his
sublime teachings to an extent unsuspected by the world. I
found in him, the most perfect type of Christianity I ever
met.

Professedly, he was neither a strict Presbyterian, nor a
Baptist, or a Methodist; but he was the embodiment of all
which is more perfect and Christian in them. His religion was
the very essence of what God wants in man. It was from
Christ himself, he had learned to love his God and his neighbor,
as it was from Christ he had learned the dignity and the value
of man. "Ye are all brethren, the children of God," was his
great motto.

It was from the Gospel that he had learned his principles
of equality, fraternity and liberty, as it was from the Gospel
he had learned that sublime, childish simplicity, which, alone,
and forever, won the admiration and affection of all those

who approached him. I could cite many facts to illustrate this,
but I will give only one, not to be too long: It is taken from
the memoirs of Mr. Bateman, Superintendent of Public Instruction
for the State of Illinois.

"Mr. Lincoln paused; for long minutes, his features surcharged
with emotion. Then, he rose and walked up and down
the reception-room, in the effort to retain, or regain his self-possession.
Stopping, at last, he said, with a trembling voice, and
his cheeks wet with tears:

" `I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and
slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is
in it. If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has,
I believe I am ready! I am nothing, but truth is everything! I
know I am right, because I know that liberty is right; for Christ
teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided
against itself cannot stand, and that Christ and reason say
the same thing, and they will find it so.

" `Douglas does not care whether slavery is voted up or down.
But God cares, and humanity cares, and I care. And with God's
help, I will not fail. I may not see the end, but it will come,
and I shall be vindicated; and those men will see that they have
not read their Bible right!

"Does it not appear strange that men can ignore the moral
aspect of this contest. A revelation could not make it plainer to
me that slavery, or the Government, must be destroyed. The
future would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this
ROCK on which I stand (alluding to the Gospel book he still
held in his hand). It seems as if God had borne with slavery
until the very teachers of religion had come to defend it from the
Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and sanction. And
now the cup of iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be
poured out.' "

Mr. Bateman adds: "After this, the conversation was continued
for a long time. Everything he said was of a very deep,
tender and religious tone, and all was tinged with a touching
melancholy. He repeatedly referred to his conviction `that the
day of wrath was at hand,' and that he was to be an actor in the

struggle which would end in the overthrow of slavery, though
he might not live to see the end.

"After further reference to a belief in Divine Providence,
and the fact of God, in history, the conversation turned upon
prayer. He freely stated his belief in the duty, privilege and efficacy
of prayer; and he intimated, in no unmistakable terms,
that he had sought, in that way, the divine guidance and favor."

The effect of this conversation upon the mind of Mr. Bateman,
a Christian gentleman, whom Mr. Lincoln profoundly respected,
was to convince him that Mr. Lincoln had, in his quiet
way, found a path to the Christian stand-point; that he had
found God, and rested on the eternal truth of God. As the two
men were about to separate, Mr. Bateman remarked:

"I had not supposed that you were accustomed to think so
much upon this class of subjects; certainly your friends, generally,
are ignorant of the sentiments you have expressed to me."

He quickly replied: "I know they are, but I think more on
these subjects than upon all others, and I have done so for years;
and I am willing you should know it."—The Inner Life of Lincoln,
by Carpenter, pages 193-195.

More than once, I felt as if I were in the presence of on old
prophet, when listening to his views about the future destinies
of the United States. In one of my last interviews with him, I
was filled with an admiration which it would be difficult to express,
when I heard the following views and predictions:

"It is with the southern leaders of this civil war, as with the
big and small wheels of our railroad cars. Those who ignore the
laws of mechanics are apt to think that the large, strong and
noisy wheels that they see, are the motive power, but they are
mistaken. The real motive power is not seen; it is noiseless and
well concealed in the dark, behind its iron walls. The motive
power are the few well concealed pails of water heated into
steam, which is itself directed by the noiseless, small, but unerring
engineer's finger.

"The common people see and hear the big, noisy wheels of
the Southern Confederacy's cars, they call them Jeff Davis, Lee,
Toombs, Beauregard, Semmes, etc., and they honestly think that

they are the motive power, the first cause of our troubles. But
it is a mistake. The true motive power is secreted behind the
thick walls of the Vatican, the colleges and schools of the Jesuits,
the convents of the nuns and the confessional boxes of Rome.

"There is a fact which is too much ignored by the American
people, and with which I am acquainted only since I became
President; it is that the best, the leading families of the South,
have received their education in great part, if not in whole, from
the Jesuits and the nuns. Hence those degrading principles of
slavery, pride, cruelty, which are as a second nature among so
many of those people. Hence that strange want of fair play,
humanity; that implacable hatred against the ideas of equality
and liberty, as we find them in the Gospel of Christ. You do
not ignore that the first settlers of Louisiana, Florida, New Mexico,
Texas, South California and Missouri, were Roman Catholics,
and that their first teachers were Jesuits. It is true that
those states have been conquered or bought by us since. But
Rome had put the deadly virus of her anti-social and anti-christian
maxims into the veins of the people before they became
American citizens. Unfortunately the Jesuits and the nuns have
in great part remained the teachers of those people since. They
have continued, in a silent, but most efficacious way, to spread
their hatred against our institutions, our laws, our schools, our
rights and our liberties, in such a way, that this terrible conflict
became unavoidable, between the North and the South. As I
told you before, it is to Popery that we owe this terrible civil war.

"I would have laughed at the man who would have told me
that, before I became the President. But Professor Morse has
opened my eyes on that subject. And, now, I see that mystery;
I understand that engineering of hell which, though not seen,
nor even suspected by the country, is putting in motion the large,
heavy and noisy wheels of the state cars of the Southern Confederacy.

"Our people is not yet ready to learn and believe those things,
and perhaps it is not the proper time to initiate them to those
dark mysteries of hell; it would throw oil on a fire which is already
sufficiently destructive.

"You are almost the only one with whom I speak freely on
that subject. But sooner or later, the nation will know the real
origin of those rivers of blood and tears, which are spreading
desolation and death everywhere. And, then, those who have
caused those desolations and disasters will be called to give an
account of them.

"I do not pretend to be a prophet. But though not a prophet,
I see a very dark cloud on our horizon. And that dark cloud is
coming from Rome. It is filled with tears of blood. It will
rise and increase, till its flanks will be torn by a flash of lightning,
followed by a fearful peal of thunder. Then a cyclone
such as the world has never seen, will pass over this country,
spreading ruin and desolation from north to south. After it is
over, there will be long days of peace and prosperity: for Popery,
with its Jesuits and merciless Inquisition, will have been forever
swept away from our country. Neither I nor you, but our children,
will see those things."

Many of those who approached Abraham Lincoln felt that
there was a prophetic spirit in him, and that he was continually
walking and acting with the thought of God in his mind, and had
only in view to do his will and work for his glory. Speaking of
the slaves, he said, one day, before the members of his cabinet:

"I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the
slaves, but I hold the matter under advisement. And I can
assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and by night,
more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will,
I will do."—Six Months in the White House, by Carpenter,
page 86.

A few days before that proclamation, he said, before several
of his counsellors:

"I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was
driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the
declaration of freedom to the slaves."—Six Months in the White
House.

But I would have volumes to write, instead of a short chapter,
were I to give all the facts I have collected of the sincere
and profound piety of Abraham Lincoln.

I cannot, however, omit his admirable and solemn act of faith
in the eternal justice of God, as expressed in the closing words
of his last inaugural address of the 4th of March, 1865.

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that
it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 250 years
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood
drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword,
as was said 3,000 years ago, so, still, it must be said: `The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' "

These sublime words, falling from the lips of the greatest
Christian whom God ever put at the head of a nation, only a few
days before his martyrdom, sent a thrill of wonder through the
whole world. The God-fearing people and the upright of every
nation listened to them as if they had just come from the golden
harp of David. Even the infidels remained mute with admiration
and awe. It seemed to all that the echoes of heaven and
earth were repeating that last hymn, falling from the heart of
the noblest and truest Gospel man of our days: "The judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

The 6th of April, 1865, President Lincoln was invited by
General Grant to enter Richmond, the capital of the rebel states,
which he had just captured. The ninth, the beaten army of Lee,
surrounded by the victorious legions of the soldiers of Liberty,
were forced to lay down their arms and their banners at the feet
of the generals of Lincoln. The tenth, the victorious President
addressed an immense multitude of the citizens of Washington,
to invite them to thank God and the armies for the glorious victories
of the last few days, and for the blessed peace which was
to follow these five years of slaughter.

But he was on the top of the mountain Pisgah, and though
he had fervently prayed that he might cross the Jordan, and
enter with his people into the Land of Promise, after which he
had so often sighed, he was not to see his request granted. The
answer had come from heaven: "You will not cross the Jordan,
and you will not enter that Promised Land, which is there, so
near. You must die for your nation's sake!" the lips, the

heart and soul of the New Moses were still repeating
the sublime words: "The judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether," when the Jesuit assassin, Booth,
murdered him, the 14th of April, 1865, at 10 o'clock
P. M.

Let us hear the eloquent historian, Abbott, on that sad
event:

"In the midst of unparalleled success, and while all the bells
of the land were ringing with joy, a calamity fell upon us which
overwhelmed the country in consternation and awe. On Friday
evening, April 14th, President Lincoln attended Ford's
Theatre, in Washington. He was sitting quietly in his box, listening
to the drama, when a man entered the door of the lobby
leading to the box, closing the door behind him. Drawing near
to the President, he drew from his pocket a small pistol, and shot
him in the back of the head. As the President fell, senseless
and mortally wounded, and the shriek of his wife, who was seated
at his side, pierced every ear, the assassin leaped from the box,
a perpendicular height of nine feet, and, as he rushed across the
stage, bare-headed, brandished a dagger, exclaiming, `sic semper
tyrannis!' and disappeared behind the side scenes. There was a
moment of silent consternation. Then ensued a scene of confusion
which it is in vain to attempt to describe.

"The dying President was taken into a house near by, and
placed upon a bed. What a scene did that room present! The
chief of a mighty nation lay, there, senseless, drenched in blood,
his brains oozing from his wounds! Sumner, Farwell and Colfax
and Stanton, and many others were there, filled with grief
and consternation.

"The surgeon, General Barnes, solemnly examined the
wound. There was silence as of the grave, the life and death of
the nation seemed dependent on the result. General Barnes
looked up sadly and said: `The wound is mortal!'

" `Oh! No! General, no! no! cried out Secretary Stanton,
and sinking into a chair, he covered his face, and wept like a
child. Senator Sumner tenderly held the head of the unconscious
martyr.

"Though all unused to weep, he sobs as though his great
heart would break. In his anguish, his head falls upon the bloodstained
pillow, and his black locks blend with those of the dying
victim, which care and toil has rendered gray, and which blood
has crimsoned. What a scene! Sumner, who had lingered
through months of agony, having himself been stricken down by
the bludgeon of slavery, now sobbing and fainting in anguish
over the prostrate form of his friend, whom slavery had slain!
This vile rebellion, after deluging the land with blood, has culminated
in a crime which appals all nations.

"Noble Abraham, true descendant of the father of the faithful;
honest in every trust, humble as a child, tender-hearted as a
woman, who could not bear to injure even his most envenomed
foes; who in the hour of triumph, was saddened lest the feelings
of his adversaries should be wounded by their defeat, with `charity
for all, malice towards none,' endowed with `common sense,'
intelligence never surpassed, and with power of intellect which
enabled him to grapple with the most gigantic opponents in debates,
developing abilities as a statesman, which won the gratitude
of his country and the admiration of the world, and with
graces and amiabilities which drew to him all generous hearts;
dies by the bullet of the assassin!"—History of the Civil War,
by Abbott, vol. ii., page 594.

But who was that assassin? Booth was nothing but the tool
of the Jesuits. It was Rome who directed his arm, after corrupting
his heart and damning his soul.

After I had mixed my tears with those of the grand country
of my adoption, I fell on my knees and asked my God to grant
me to show to the world what I knew to be the truth, viz.: that
that horrible crime was the work of Popery. And, after twenty
years of constant and most difficult researches, I come fearlessly,
to-day, before the American people, to say and prove that the
President, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated by the priests and
the Jesuits of Rome.

In the book of the testimonies given in the prosecution of the
assassin of Lincoln, published by Ben. Pitman, and in the two
volumes of the trial of John Surratt in 1867, we have the legal

and irrefutable proof that the plot of the assassins of Lincoln
was matured, if not started, in the house of Mary Surratt, No.
561 H Street, Washington City, D. C. But who were living in
that house, and who were visiting that family? The legal answer
says: "The most devoted Catholics in the city!" The sworn
testimonies show more than that. They show that it was the
common rendezvous of the priests of Washington. Several
priests swear that they were going there "some times," and when
pressed to answer what they meant by "some times," they were
not sure if it was not once a week, or once a month. One of
them, less on his guard, swore that he seldom passed before that
house without entering; and he said he never passed less than
once a week. The devoted Roman Catholic (an apostate from
Protestantism) called L. J. Weichman, who was himself living
in that house, swears that Father Wiget was very often in that
house, and Father Lahiman swears that he was living with Mrs.
Surratt, in the same house! * * * *

What does the presence of so many priests, in that house,
reveal to the world? No man of common sense, who knows
anything about the priests of Rome, can entertain any doubt
that, not only they knew all that was going on inside those
walls, but that they were the advisers, the counselors, the very
soul of that infernal plot. Why did Rome keep one of her
priests under that roof, from morning till night, and from night
till morning? Why did she send many others, almost every day
of the week, into that dark nest of plotters against the very existence
of the great republic, and against the life of her President,
her principal generals and leading men, if it were not to be the
advisers, the rulers, the secret motive power of the infernal
plot.

No one, if he is not an idiot, will think and say that those
priests, who were the personal friends and the father confessors
of Booth, John Surratt, Mrs. and Misses Surratt, could be constantly
there without knowing what was going on, particularly
when we know that every one of those priests, was a rabid
rebel in heart. Every one of those priests, knowing that his
infallible Pope had called Jeff Davis his dear son, and had taken

the Southern Confederacy under his protection, was bound to
believe that the most holy thing a man could do, was to fight
for the Southern cause, by destroying those who were its enemies.

Read the history of the assassination of Admiral Coligny,
Henry III. and Henry IV., and William the Taciturn, by the
hired assassins of the Jesuits; compare them with the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln, and you will find that one resembles the
other as one drop of water resembles another. You will understand
that they all come from the same source, Rome!

In all those murders, you will find that the murderers, selected
and trained by the Jesuits, were of the most exalted Roman
Catholic piety, living in the company of priests, going to confess
very often, receiving the communion the day before, if not
the very day of the murder. You will see in all those horrible
deeds of hell, prepared behind the dark walls of the holy inquisition,
that the assassins were considering themselves as the chosen
instruments of God, to save the nation by striking its tyrant;
that they firmly believed that there was no sin in killing the
enemy of the people, of the holy church, and of the infallible
Pope!

Compare the last hours of the Jesuit Ravaillac, the assassin
of Henry VI., who absolutely refuses to repent, though suffering
the most horrible tortures on the rack, with Booth, who, suffering
also the most horrible tortures from his broken leg, writes
in his daily memorandum, the very day before his death: "I
can never repent, though we hated to kill. Our country owed
all our troubles to him (Lincoln), and God simply made me the
instrument of his punishment." — Trial of Surratt, vol. i.,
page 310.

Yes! Compare the bloody deeds of those two assassins, and
you will see that they had been trained in the same school; they
had been taught by the same teachers. Evidently the Jesuit Ravaillac,
calling all the saints of heaven to his help, at his last
hour; and Booth pressing the medal of the Virgin Mary on his
breast, when falling mortally wounded (Trial of Surratt, page
310), both came from the same Jesuit mould.

Who has lost his common sense enough to suppose that it
was Jeff Davis who had filled the mind and the heart of Booth
with that religious and so exalted fanaticism! Surely Jeff Davis
could have promised the money to reward the assassins and nerve
their arms by the hope of becoming rich. The testimonies on
that account says that one million dollars had been asked from
him. (Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, p. 51-52.)

The arch-rebel could give the money; but the Jesuits alone
could select the assassins, train them, and show them a crown of
glory in heaven, if they would kill the author of the bloodshed,
the famous renegade and apostate—the enemy of the Pope and
of the Church—Lincoln.

Who does not see the lessons given by the Jesuits to Booth,
in their daily intercourse in Mary Surratt's house, when he reads
those lines written by Booth a few hours before his death: "I
can never repent, God made me the instrument of his punishment!"
Compare these words with the doctrines and principles
taught by the councils, the decrees of the Pope, and the laws of
holy inquisition, as you find them in chapter 55 of this volume,
and you will find that the sentiments and belief of Booth flow
from those principles, as the river flows from its source.

And that pious Miss Surratt who, the very next day after
the murder of Lincoln, said, without being rebuked, in the
presence of several other witnesses: "The death of Abraham
Lincoln is no more than the death of any nigger in the army,"
where did she get that maxim, if not from her church! Had
not that church recently proclaimcd, through her highest legal
and civil authority, the devoted Roman Catholic, Judge Taney,
in his Dred-Scott decision, that negroes have no right, which
the white is bound to respect! By bringing the President on a
level with the lowest nigger, Rome was saying that he had no
right, even to his life; for this was the maxim of the rebel
priests, who, everywhere, had made themselves the echoes of the
sentence of their distinguished co-religionist—Taney.

It was from the very lips of the priests, who were constantly
coming in and going out of their house, that those young ladies
had learned those anti-social and anti-christian doctrines. Read

in the testimony concerning Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, (p. 122-123)
how the Jesuits had perfectly drilled her in the art of perjuring
herself. In the very moment when the government officer orders
her to prepare herself, with her daughter, to follow him as prisoners,
at about 10 P. M., Payne, the would-be murderer of Seward,
knocks at the door and wants to see Mrs. Surratt. But
instead of having Mrs. Surratt to open the door, he finds himself
confronted, face to face, with the government detective, Major
Smith, who swears:

"I questioned him in regard to his occupation, and what business
he had at the house, at this late hour of the night. He
stated that he was a laborer, and had come to dig a gutter, at the
request of Mrs. Surratt.

"I went to the parlor door, and said: `Mrs. Suraatt, will you
step here a minute?' She came out, and I asked her: `Do you
know this man, and did you hire him to come and dig a gutter
for you?' She answered, raising her right hand; `Before God,
sir, I do not know this man, I have never seen him, and I did
not hire him to dig a gutter for me.' "—Assassination of Lincoln,
p. 122.

But it was proved after, by several unimpeachable witnesses,
that she knew very well that Payne was a personal friend of her
son, who, many times, had come to her house, in company of
his friend and pet, Booth. She had received the communion
just two or three days before that public perjury. Just a moment
after making it, the officer ordered her to step out into the carriage.
Before doing it, she asked permission to kneel down and
pray; which was granted (page 123.)

I ask it from any man of common sense, could Jeff Davis
have imparted such a religious calm, and self-possession to that
woman, when her hands were just reddened with the blood of
the President, and she was on her way to trial!

No! such sang froid, such calm in that soul, in such a terrible
and solemn hour, could only come from the teachings of those
Jesuits who, for more than six months, were in her house,
showing her a crown of eternal glory, if she would help to kill
the monster apostate—Lincoln—the only cause of that horrible

civil war! There is not the least doubt that the priests had perfectly
succeeded in persuading Mary Surratt and Booth that the
killing of Lincoln was a most holy and deserving work, for which
God had an eternal reward in store.

There is a fact to which the American people have not yet
given a sufficient attention. It is, that, without a single exception,
the conspirators were Roman Catholics. The learned and
great patriot, General Baker, in his admirable report, struck
and bewildered by that strange, mysterious and portentous
fact, said:

"I mention, as an exceptional and remarkable fact, that every
conspirator in custody, is, by education, a Catholic."

But those words which, if well understood by the United
States, would have thrown so much light on the true causes of
their untold and unspeakable disasters, fell as if on the ears of
deaf men. Very few, if any, paid attention to them. As General
Baker says, all the conspirators were attending Catholic
Church services, and were educated Roman Catholics. It is true
that some of them, as Atzeroth, Payne and Harold, asked for
Protestant ministers, when they were to be hung. But they had
been considered, till then, as converts to Romanism. At page
436, of The Trial of John Surratt, Louis Weichman tells us
that he was going to St. Aloysin's Churoh with Atzeroth, and
that it was there that he introduced him to Mr. Brothy (another
Roman Catholic).

It is a well authenticated fact, that Booth and Weichman,
who were themselves Protestant perverts to Romanism, had
proselytized a good number of semi-Protestants and infidels who,
either from conviction, or from hope of the fortunes promised to
the successful murderers, were themselves very zealous for the
Church of Rome. Payne, Atzeroth and Harold were among
those proselytes. But when those murderers were to appear
before the country, and receive the just punishment of their crime,
the Jesuits were too shrewd to ignore that if they were all
coming on the scaffold as Roman Catholics, and accompanied
by their father confessors, it would, at once, open the eyes of
the American people, and clearly show that this was a Roman

Catholic plot. They persuaded three of their proselytes to avail
themselves of the theological principles of the Church of Rome,
that a man is allowed to conceal his religion, nay, that he may
say that he is an heretic, a Protestant, though he is a Roman
Catholic, when it is for his own interest or the best interests of
his church to conceal the truth and deceive the people. Here is
the doctrine of Rome on that subject:

"Soepe melius est ad dei honorem, et utiliatatem proximi,
tegere fidem quam frateri, ut si latens inter herticos, plus boni
facis; vel si ex confessione fidei, plus mali sequeretur, verbi gratia
turbatio, neces, exacerbotio tyrannis."—Ligouri Theologia, b. ii.,
chap. iii., p. 6.

"It is often more to the glory of God and the good of our
neighbor to conceal our religious faith, as when we live among
heretics, we can more easily do them good in that way; or if by
declaring our religion, we cause some disturbances, or deaths, or
even the wrath of the tyrant."

It is evident that the Jesuits had never had better reasons
to suspect that the declaration of their religion would damage
them and excite the wrath of their tyrant, viz: the American
people.

Lloyd's, in whose house Mrs. Surratt concealed the carbine
which Booth wanted for protection, when just after the murder
he was to flee towards the Southern States, was a firm Roman
Catholic.

Dr. Nudd, at whose place Booth stopped, to have his broken
leg dressed, was a Roman Catholic, and so was Garrett, in whose
barn Booth was caught and killed. Why so? Because, as Jeff
Davis was the only man to pay one million dollars to those who
would kill Abraham Lincoln, the Jesuits were the only men to
select the murderers and prepare everything to protect them
after their diabolical deed, and such murderers could not be found
except among their blind and fanatical slaves.

The great, the fatal mistake of the American Government in
the prosecution of the assassins of Abraham Lincoln was to constantly
keep out of sight the religious element of that terrible
drama. Nothing would have been more easy, then, than to

find out the complicity of the priests, who were not only coming
every week and every day, but who were even living in that
den of murderers. But this was carefully avoided from the beginning
to the end of the trial. When, not long after the execution
of the murderers, I went, incognito, to Washington to begin
my investigation about its real and true authors, I was not a little
surprised to see that not a single one of the government men, to
whom I addressed myself, would consent to have any talk with
me on that matter, except after I had given my word of honor
that I would never mention their names in connection with the
result of my investigation. I saw, with a profound distress, that
the influence of Rome was almost supreme in Washington. I
could not find a single statesman who would dare to face that
nefarious influence and fight it down, except General Baker.

Several of the government men, in whom I had more confidence,
told me:

"We had not the least doubt that the Jesuits were at the
bottom of that great iniquity; we even feared, sometimes, that
this would come out so clearly before the military tribunal, that
there would be no possibility of keeping it out of the public
sight. This was not through cowardice, as you think, but
through a wisdom which you ought to approve, if you can not
admire it. Had we been in days of peace, we know that with a
little more pressure on the witnesses, many priests would have
been compromised; for Mrs. Surratt's house was their common
rendezvous; it is more than probable that several of them might
have been hung. But the civil war was hardly over. The Confederacy,
though broken down, was still living in millions of
hearts; murderers and formidable elements of discord were still
seen everywhere, to which the hanging or exiling of those priests
would have given a new life. Riots after riots would have accompanied
and followed their execution. We thought we had had
enough of blood, fires, devastations and bad feelings. We were
all longing after days of peace; the country was in need of them.
We concluded that the best interests of humanity was to punish
only those who were publicly and visibly guilty; that the verdict
might receive the approbation of all, without creating any new

bad feelings. Allow us also to tell you that this policy was that
of our late President. For you know it well, there was nothing
which that great and good man feared so much as to arm the
Protestants against the Catholics and the Catholics against the
Protestants."

But if any one has still any doubts of the complicity of the
Jesuits, in the murder of Abraham Lincoln, let them give a
moment of attention to the following facts, and their doubts will
be forever removed. It is only from the very Jesuit accomplice's
lips that I take my sworn testimonies.

It is evident that a very elaborate plan of escape had been
prepared by the priests of Rome, to save the lives of the assassins
and the conspirators. It would be too long to follow all the
murderers when, Cain-like, they were fleeing in every direction
to escape the vengeance of God and man. Let us fix our eyes
on John Surratt, who was in Washington on the 14th of April,
helping Booth in the perpetration of the assassination. Who
will take care of him? Who will protect and conceal him? Who
will press him on their bosoms, put their mantles on his shoulders
to conceal him from the just vengeance of the human and divine
laws? The priest, Charles Boucher (Trial of John Surratt,
vol. ii., page 904-912), swears that only a few days after the
murder, John Surratt was sent to him by Father Lapierre, of
Montreal; that he kept him concealed in his parsonage of St.
Liboire, from the end of April to the end of July, then he took
him back, secretly, to Father Lapierre, who kept him secreted
in his own father's house, under the very shadow of the Montreal
bishop's palace. He swears (p. 905-914) that Father Lapierre
visited him (Surratt) often, when secreted at St. Liboire, and
that he (Father Boucher) visited him, at least twice a week, from
the end of July to September, when concealed in Father Lapierre's
house in Montreal.

That same Father Charles Boucher swears that he accompanied
John Surratt in a carriage, in the company of Father
Lapierre, to the steamer "Montreal," when starting for Quebec.
That Father Lapierre kept him (John Surratt) under lock, during
the voyage from Montreal to Quebec, and that he accompanied

him, disguised, from the Montreal steamer to the ocean
steamer, "Peruvian."—Trial of John Surratt, p. 910.

The doctor of the steamer "Peruvian," L. I. A. McMillan,
swears (vol. i., p. 460) that Father Lapierre introduced him to
John Surratt, under the false name of McCarthy, whom he was
keeping locked in his state room, and whom he conducted disguised
to the ocean steamer "Peruvian," and with whom he remained
till he left Quebec for Europe, the 15th of September,
1865.

But who is that Father Lapierre who takes such a tender, I
dare say a paternal care of Surratt? It is not less a personage
than the canon of Bishop Bourget, of Montreal. He is the confidential
man of the bishop. He lives with the bishop, eats at
his table, assists him with his counsel, and has to receive his advice
in every step of life. According to the laws of Rome, the
canons are to the bishop what the arms are to the body.

Now, I ask: Is it not evident that the bishops and the
priests of Washington have trusted this murderer to the tender
care of the bishops and priests of Montreal, that they might conceal,
feed and protect him for nearly six months, under the very
shadow of the bishop's palace? Would they have done that if
they were not his accomplices? Why did they so continually
remain with him, day and night, if they were not in fear that he
might compromise them by an indiscreet word? Why do we
see those priests (I ought to say, those two ambassadors and appointed
representatives of the Pope) alone in the carriage, which
takes that great culprit from his house of concealment to the
steamer? Why do they keep him there, under lock, till they
transfer him, under a disguised name, to the oceanic steamer, the
"Peruvian," the 15th of July, 1865? Why such tender sympathies
for that stranger? Why go through such trouble and
expense for that young American, among the bishops and priests
of Canada? There is only one answer. He was one of their
tools, one of their selected men to strike the great Republic of
Equality and Liberty to the heart. For more than six months
before the murder, the priests had lodged, eaten, conversed,
slept with him under the same roof in Washington. They

had trained him to his deed of blood, by promising him protection
on earth, and a crown of glory in heaven, if he would
only be true to their designs to the end. And he had been true
to the end.

Now the great crime is accomplished! Lincoln is murdered!
Jeff Davis, the dear son of the Pope, is avenged! The great
republic has been struck to the heart! The soldiers of Liberty
all over the world are weeping over the dead form of the one
who had led them to victory; a cry of desolation goes from earth
to heaven.

It seems as if we heard the death-knell of the cause of freedom,
equality and fraternity among men. It was many centuries
since the implacable enemies of the rights and liberties of men
had struck such a giant foe: their joy was as great as their
victory complete.

But do you see that man fleeing from Washington toward the
north? He has the mark of Cain on his forehead, his hands are
reddened with blood, he is pale and trembling, for he knows it;
a whole outraged nation is after him for her just vengeance; he
hears the thundering voice of God: "Where is thy brother?"
Where will he find a refuge? Where, outside of hell, will he
meet friends to shelter and save him from the just vengeance of
God and men?

Oh! He has sure refuge in the arms of that church which, for
more than a thousand years, is crying: "Death to all heretics!
death to all the soldiers of Liberty!" He has devoted friends
among the very men who, after having prepared the massacre
of Admiral Coligny and his 75,000 Protestant countrymen, rang
the bells of Rome to express their joy when they heard that, at
last, the King of France had slaughtered them all.

But where will those bishops and priests of Canada send
John Surratt, when they find it impossible to conceal him any
longer from the thousands of detectives of the United States,
who are ransacking Canada to find out his retreat? Who will
conceal, feed, lodge and protect him after the priests of Canada
pressed his hand for the last time, on board of the "Peruvian,"
the 15th of September, 1865.

Who can have any doubt about that? Who can suppose that
any one but the Pope himself and his Jesuits will protect the
murderer of Abraham Lincoln in Europe?

If you want to see him, after he has crossed the ocean, go to
Vitry, at the door of Rome, and there, you will find him enrolled
under the banners of the Pope, in the 9th company of his
Zouaves, under the false name of Watson (Trial of John Surratt,
vol. i., p. 492). Of course, the Pope was forced to withdraw
his protection over him, after the government of the United
States had found him there, and he was brought back to Washington
to be tried.

But on his arrival as a prisoner in the United States, his
Jesuit father confessor whispered in his ear: "Fear not, you will
not be condemned! Through the influence of a high Roman
Catholic lady, two or three of the jurymen will be Roman Catholics,
and you will be safe."

Those who have read the two volumes of the trial of John
Surratt, know, that never more evident proofs of guilt were
brought against a murderer than in that case. But the Roman
Catholic jurymen had read the Theology of St. Thomas, a book
which the Pope had ordered to be taught in every college,
academy and university of Rome, they had learned that it is the
duty of the Roman Catholics to exterminate all the heretics.—
St. Thomas' Theology, vol. iv., p. 90.

They had read the decree of the councils of Constance, that
no faith was to be kept with heretics. They had read in the
council of Lateran, that the Catholics who arm themselves for
the extermination of heretics have all their sins forgiven, and receive
the same blessings as those who go and fight for the rescue
of the Holy Land.

Those jurymen were told by their father confessors that the
most holy Father, the Pope Gregory VII., had solemnly and infalliby
declared that "the killing of an heretic was no murder."
— Jure Canonico.

After such teachings, how could the Roman Catholic jurymen
find John Surratt guilty of murder, for killing the heretic
Lincoln? The jury having disagreed, no verdict could be given.

The government was forced to let the murderer go unpunished.

But when the irreconcilable enemies of all the rights and
liberties of men were congratulating themselves on their successful
efforts to save the life of John Surratt, the God of heaven
was stamping again on their faces, the mark of murder, in such
a way that all eyes will see it.

"Murder will out," is a truth repeated by all nations from
the beginning of the world. It is the knowledge of that truth
which has sustained me in my long and difficult researches of
the true authors of the assassination of Lincoln, and which enables
me to-day, to present to the world a fact, which seems
almost miraculous, to show the complicity of the priests of Rome
in the murder of the martyred President.

Some time ago, I providentially met the Rev. Mr. F. A.
Conwell, at Chicago. Having known that I was in search of
facts about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he told me he
knew one of those facts, which might perhaps throw some light
on the subject of my researches.

"The very day of the murder," he said, "he was in the
Roman Catholic village of St. Joseph, Minnesota State, when,
at about six o'clock, in the afternoon, he was told by a Roman
Catholic of the place, who was a purveyor of a great number of
priests who lived in that town, where they have a monastery,
that the State Secretary Seward and the President Lincoln had
just been killed. This was told me," he said, "in the presence
of a most respectable gentleman, called Bennett, who was not
less puzzled than me. As there were no railroad lines nearer
than 40 miles, nor telegraph offices nearer than 80 miles, from
that place, we could not see how such news was spread in that
town. The next day, the 15th of April, I was at St. Cloud, a
town about twelve miles distant, where there are neither railroad
nor telegraph, I said to several people that I had been told in the
priestly village of St. Joseph, by a Roman Catholic, that Abraham
Lincoln and the Secretary Seward had been assassinated. They
answered me that they had heard nothing about it. But the next
Sabbath, the 16th of April, when going to the church of St.
Cloud, to preach, a friend gave me a copy of a telegram sent to

him on the Saturday, reporting that Abraham Lincoln and Secretary
Seward had been assassinated, the very day before, which
was Friday, the 14th, at 10 P. M. But how could the Roman
Catholic purveyor of the priests of St. Joseph, have told me the
same thing, before several witnesses, just four hours before its
occurrence? I spoke of that strange thing to many, the same
day, and the very next day, I wrote to the `St. Paul Press,' under
the heading of `A Strange Coincidence.' Sometime later, the
editor of `The St. Paul Pioneer,' having denied what I had
written on that subject, I addressed him the following note,
which he had printed, and which I have kept. Here it is, you
may keep it as an infallible proof of my veracity:"

"To the Editor of The St. Paul Pioneer.

"You assume the non-truth of a short paragraph addressed by me to
the St. Paul `Press,' viz:

"At 6:30 P. M., Friday last, April 14th, I was told as an item of news,
8 miles west of this place, that Lincoln and Seward had been assassinated.
This was three hours after I had heard the news."

St. Cloud, 17th of April, 1865.

"The integrity of history requires that the above coincidence be established.
And if anyone calls it in question, then proofs more ample than
reared their sanguinary shadows to comfort a traitor can now be given.

I asked that gentleman if he would be kind enough to give
me the fact under oath, that I might make use of it in the report
I intended to publish about the assassination of Lincoln. And
he kindly granted my request in the following form:

Rev. F. A. Conwell, being sworn, deposes and says that he is seventy-one
years old, that he is a resident of North Evanston, in Cook County,
State of Illinois, that he has been in the ministry for fifty-six years, and is
now one of the chaplains of the "Seamen's Bethel Home," in Chicago; that
he was chaplain of the First Minnesota Regiment, in the war of the rebellion.
That, on the 14th day of April, A. D., 1865, he was in St. Joseph,
Minnesota, and reached there as early as six o'clock in the evening in company
with Mr. Bennett, who, then and now, is a resident of St. Cloud, Minnesota.
That on that date, there was no telegraph nearer than Minneapolis,

about 80 miles from St. Joseph; and there was no railroad communication
nearer than Avoka, Minnesota, about 40 miles distant. That when he reached
St. Joseph, on the 14th day of April, 1865, one Mr. Linneman, who, then,
kept the hotel of St. Joseph, told affiant that President Lincoln and Secretary
Seward were assassinated, that it was not later than half-past six o'clock,
on Friday, April 14th, 1865, when Mr. Linneman told me this. Shortly
thereafter, Mr. Bennett came in the hotel, and I told him that Mr. Linneman
said the President Lincoln and Secretary Seward were assassinated; and then
the same Mr. Linneman reported the same conversation to Mr. Bennett in
my presence. That during that time, Mr. Linneman told me that he had
the charge of the friary or college for young men, uuder the priests, who
were studying for the priesthood at St. Joseph. That there was a large multitude
of this kind at St. Joseph, at this time. Affiant says that, on Saturday
morning, April 15th, 1865, he went to St. Cloud, a distance of about 10
miles, and reached there about eight o'clock in the morning. That there
was no railroad nor telegraph communication to St. Cloud. When he arrived
at St. Cloud he told Mr. Haworth, the hotel-keeper, that he had been
told that President Lincoln and Secretary Seward had been assassinated, and
asked if it was true. He further told Henry Clay, Wait, Charles Gilman,
who was afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, and Rev. Mr. Tice,
the same thing, and inquired of them if they had any such views; and they
replied that they had not heard anything of the kind.

Affiant says that, on Sunday morning, April 16th, 1865, he preached in
St. Cloud, and on the way to the church, a copy of a telegram was handed
him, stating that the President and Secretary were assassinated Friday evening,
at about 9 o'clock. This telegram had been brought to St. Cloud by
Mr. Gorton, who had reached St. Cloud by stage; and this was the first intelligence
that had reached St. Cloud of the event.

Affiant says further that, on Monday morning, April 17th, 1865, he furnished
the "Press," a paper of St. Paul, a statement that three hours before
the event took place, he had been informed at St. Joseph, Minnesota, that
the President had been assassinated, and this was published in the "Press."

FRANCIS ASBURY CONWELL.

Subscribed and sworn to by Francis A. Conwell, before me, a Notary
Public of Kankakee County, Illinois, at Chicago, Cook County, the 6th day
of September, 1883.

Though this document was very important and precious to
me, I felt that it would be much more valuable if it could be
corroborated by the testimonies of Messrs. Bennett and Linneman,
themselves, and I immediately sent a magistrate to find out
if they were still living, and if they remembered the facts of the

sworn declaration of Rev. Mr. Conwell. By the good providence
of God, both of these gentlemen were found living, and
both gave the following testimonies:

Horace B. Bennett, being sworn, deposes and says that he is aged sixty-four
years; that he is a resident of St. Cloud, Minnesota, and has resided in
this county since 1856; that he is acquainted with the Rev. F. A. Conwell,
who was chaplain of the First Minnesota Regiment in the war of the rebellion;
that on the 14th of April, 1865, he was in St. Joseph, Minnesota, in
company with Mr. Francis A. Conwell; that they reached St. Joseph about
sundown of said April 14th; that there was no railroad or telegraph communication
with St. Joseph at that time, nor nearer than Avoka, about 40 miles
distant. That affiant, on reaching the hotel kept by Mr. Linneman, went
to the barn, while Rev. F. Conwell entered the hotel; and shortly afterward,
affiant had returned to the hotel, Mr. Conwell told him that Mr. Linneman
had reported to him the assassination of President Lincoln; that Linneman
was present and substantiated the statement.

That on Saturday morning, April 15th, affiant and Rev. Conwell came
to St. Cloud, and reported that they had been told at St. Joseph, about the
assassination of President Lincoln, that no one at St. Cloud had heard of
the event at this time, that the first news of the event which reached St.
Cloud was on Sunday morning, April 16th, when the news was brought by
Leander Gorton, who had just come up from Avoka, Minnesota; that they
spoke to several persons of St. Cloud concerning the matter, when they
reached there, on Sunday morning, but affiant does not now remember who
those different persons were, and further affiant says not.

HORACE P. BENNETT.

Sworn before me, and subscribed in my presence, this 18th of October
A. D., 1883.

Mr. Linneman having refused to swear on his written declaration,
which I have in my possession, I take only from it
what refers to the principal fact, viz: that three or four hours
before Lincoln was assassinated at Washington, the 14th of
April, 1865, the fact was told as already accomplished, in the
priestly village of St. Joseph, Minnesota.

"He (Linneman) remembers the time that Messrs. Conwell and
Bennett came to this place (St. Joseph, Minnesota) on Friday evening, before
the President was killed, and he asked them if they had heard he was

dead, and they replied they had not. He heard this rumor in his store
from people who came in and out. But he cannot remember from whom.

I present here to the world a fact of the greatest gravity,
and that fact is so well authenticated that it cannot allow even
the possibility of a doubt.

Three or four hours before Lincoln was murdered in Washington,
the 14th of April, 1865, that murder was not only known
by some one, but it was circulated and talked of in the streets,
and in the houses of the priestly and Romish town of St.
Joseph, Minnesota. The fact is undeniable; the testimonies are
unchallengeable, and there were no railroad nor any telegraph
communication nearer than 40 or 80 miles from the nearest
station to St. Joseph.

Naturally every one asked: "How could such news spread?
Where is the source of such a rumor?" Mr. Linneman, who is
a Roman Catholic, tells us that though he heard this from many
in his store, and in the streets, he does not remember the name
of a single one who told him that. And when we hear this
from him, we understand why he did not dare to swear upon it,
and shrunk from the idea of perjuring himself.

For everyone feels that his memory cannot be so poor as
that, when he remembers so well the name of the two strangers,
Messrs. Conwell and Bennett, to whom he had announced the
assassination of Lincoln, just seventeen years before. But if the
memory of Mr. Linneman is so deficient on that subject, we can
help him, and tell him with mathematical accuracy:

"You got the news from your priests of St. Joseph! The
conspiracy which cost the life of the martyred President was
prepared by the priests of Washington in the house of Mary
Surratt, No. 541 H. Street. The priests of St. Joseph were
often visiting Washington, and boarding, probably, at Mrs. Surratt's
as the priests of Washington were often visiting their
brother priests at St. Joseph.

"Those priests of Washington were in daily communication
with their co-rebel priests of St. Joseph; they were their intimate
friends. There were no secrets among them, as there are no

secrets among priests. They are the members of the same body,
the branches of the same tree. The details of the murder, as the
day selected for its commission were as well known among the
priests of St. Joseph, as they were among those of Washington.
The death of Lincoln was such a glorious event for those priests!
That infamous apostate, Lincoln, who, baptized in the Holy
Church, had rebelled against her, broken his oath of allegiance
to the Pope, taken the very day of his baptism, and lived the
life of an apostate! That infamous Lincoln, who had dared to
fight against the Confederacy of the South after the Vicar of
Christ had solemnly declared that their cause was just, legitimate
and holy! That bloody tyrant, that godless and infamous
man was to receive, at last, the just chastisement of his crimes,
the 14th of April! What glorious news! How could the priests
conceal such a joyful event from their bosom friend, Mr. Linneman?
He was their confidential man: he was their purveyor:
he was their right hand man among the faithful of St. Joseph.
They thought that they would be guilty of a want of confidence
in their bosom friend, if they did not tell him all about the glorious
event of that great day. But, of course, they requested him
not to mention their names, if he would spread the joyful news
among the devoted Roman Catholics who, almost exclusively,
formed the people of St. Joseph. Mr. Linneman has honorably
and faithfully kept his promise never to reveal their names,
and to-day, we have, in our hand, the authentic testimonies
signed by him that, though somebody, the 14th of April, told
him that President Lincoln was assassinated, he does not know
who told him that!

But there is not a man of sound judgment who will have any
doubt about that fact. The 4th of April, 1865, the priests of
Rome knew and circulated the death of Lincoln four hours before
its occurrence in their Roman Catholic town of St. Joseph,
Minnesota. But they could not circulate it without knowing it,
and they could not know it, without belonging to the band of
conspirators who assassinated President Lincoln.