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 appalls 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 proclaimed, 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. Surratt, 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 Church 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 infallibly 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:
“A STRANGE COINCIDENCE!
“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.
“Respectfully,
“F. A. CONWELL.”
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:
State of Illinois,} s.s.
Cook County }
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, under 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.
STEPHEN R. MOORE, Notary Public.
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:
State of Minnesota, } Sterns County, City } of St. Cloud. }
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.
ANDREW C. ROBERTSON, Notary Public.
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.
October 20th, 1883.
J. H. LINNEMAN.
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.