Download lincoln assassination theories: a simple conspiracy or a grand

LINCOLN ASSASSINATION THEORIES: A SIMPLE CONSPIRACY OR A GRAND
CONSPIRACY?
John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, and questions arose almost immediately. Was Booth solely
responsible for the assassination? Or was Booth simply a tool in a much larger conspiracy? Just who may or may not
have been involved with Booth has been the subject of profound speculation among writers, historians, researchers,
and others for the past 150 years. With the publication of new books and articles in the 1980's, 1990's, and beyond, the
quest to find what really happened has continued. This page will attempt to outline the major conspiracy theories (in no
particular order) that have been put forth since 1865.
THEORY #1
ANDREW JOHNSON WAS INVOLVED WITH BOOTH
Approximately seven hours before shooting the president, Booth dropped by the Washington hotel which was VicePresident Andrew Johnson's residence. Upon learning from the desk clerk that neither Johnson nor his private
secretary, William A. Browning, was in the hotel, Booth wrote the following note: "Don't wish to disturb you Are you at
home? J. Wilkes Booth." Browning testified before the military court that he found the note in his box later that
afternoon.
Did Johnson and Booth know each other? In the 1997 publication "Right or Wrong, God Judge Me" The Writings of
John Wilkes Booth edited by John Rhodehamel and Louise Taper it is stated on p. 146 that Booth had previously met
Johnson in Nashville in February, 1864. At the time Booth was appearing in the newly opened Wood's Theatre. Also,
author Hamilton Howard in Civil War Echoes (1907) made the claim that while Johnson was military governor of
Tennessee, he and Booth kept a couple of sisters as mistresses and oftentimes were seen in each other's company.
Lincoln had essentially ignored Johnson after Johnson's embarrassing behavior on Inauguration Day. Mary Todd
Lincoln felt Johnson was involved. On March 15, 1866, she wrote to her friend, Sally Orne:
Some members of Congress also thought Johnson was involved and a special Assassination Committee was
established to investigate any evidence linking Johnson to Lincoln's death. Nothing suspicious was ever found by the
committee; yet a belief by some Americans that Johnson was somehow involved with Booth continued for many
years.
In the book A Threat to the Republic: The Secret of the Lincoln Assassination that Preserved the Union author Jerry
Madonna argues that Johnson unwittingly assisted with Booth's escape from Washington.
THEORY #2
LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION WAS THE RESULT OF A CONFEDERATE PLOT
The idea that Lincoln was killed as part of a grand conspiracy of Confederates arose almost immediately after the
assassination. Coded letters found in Booth's trunk back at the National Hotel tied him to the Confederacy. This theory
has undergone a marked revival in the past 20+ years. In 1977 a statement conspirator George Atzerodt made before
the trial in 1865 was uncovered. In it Atzerodt told of Booth's knowledge of a Confederate plot to blow up the White
House. The hypothesis of a Confederate grand conspiracy was detailed in 1988 by William A. Tidwell, James O. Hall,
and David Winfred Gaddy in Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln.
Tidwell supplied further evidence in 1995 with the publication of April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American
Civil War. Another work which stresses Confederate involvement, but lacks the detail of the aforementioned books, is
Larry Starkey's Wilkes Booth Came to Washington. In 2015 John Fazio's Decapitating the Union: Jefferson Davis,
Judah Benjamin and the Plot to Assassinate Lincoln was published.
Proponents of the Confederate grand conspiracy point out that as the Confederacy's situation deteriorated, more daring
and reckless planning was needed. Lincoln was viewed as a legitimate wartime target. This was especially true after
the Union's failed Dahlgren raid on Richmond that had been approved by Lincoln himself and was evidence of Lincoln's
increasing determination to take whatever steps were necessary to end the war. Colonel Ulrich Dahlgren was killed in
the raid, and on his person several documents were found, one of which said, "The men must be kept together, and
well in hand, and once in the city, it must be destroyed and Jeff Davis and his cabinet killed." Lincoln had hand-picked
Dahlgren for the raid, and the Confederate government now believed the Union president had ordered Davis's death.
The theory of a Confederate grand conspiracy portrays Booth as a rebel agent working to organize a band of men to
kidnap Lincoln. When Richmond fell, the plans turned to assassination. First, there was the failed effort to blow up the
White House followed by the successful effort to kill Lincoln at the theater. Just as Lincoln may have ordered the killing
of Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet by Ulrich Dahlgren and his men, Judah Benjamin and Jefferson Davis were involved
in the plans to kidnap and later assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The theory of Confederate complicity in the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln is accepted by several of the current Lincoln assassination historians, scholars, researchers, and
writers. The actual trigger for Booth's actions was the April 10th capture of explosives expert Thomas F. Harney who
was on his way to Washington to bomb the White House. Booth, knowing Harney's mission had failed, tried to make up
for Harney's disaster by taking matters into his own hands and killing the president at Ford's Theatre.
For details on this theory see the articles entitled "Who Ordered Lincoln's Death?" by James E.T. Lange and Katherine
DeWitt in the June 1998 edition of North & South magazine and "The Lincoln Assassination Revisited" by William
Hanchett and "Risking the Wrath of God" by Edward Steers, Jr. in the September 2000 issue of North & South. H.
Donald Winkler's 2003 publication entitled Lincoln and Booth: More Light on the Conspiracy stresses Confederate
involvement in the plot. In 2003 the Surratt Society published a pamphlet written by Lincoln assassination experts
James O. Hall and Michael Maione. The article attempts to show that Booth was not a wealthy man and was offered a
large amount of money by the Confederates to capture Lincoln and deliver him to Richmond. The article is titled TO
MAKE A FORTUNE John Wilkes Booth: Following the Money Trail.
Confederate plans to blow up the White House seem to be confirmed by George Atzerodt's Lost Confession.
THEORY #3
LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION WAS THE RESULT OF A CONSPIRACY OF POWERFUL
INTERNATIONAL BANKERS
This theory is that Abraham Lincoln was killed as a result of his monetary policies. John Wilkes Booth would be seen as
a hired gun. In its simplest terms, the theory is that Lincoln needed money to finance the Civil War. Bankers in Europe
led by the Rothschilds offered him loans at high interest rates. Rather than accept the loans, Lincoln found other means
to fund the war effort. More importantly, the British bankers opposed Lincoln's protectionist policies. Some Englishmen
in the 1860's believed that "British free trade, industrial monopoly and human slavery travel together." Lincoln's policies
after the Civil War would have destroyed the Rothschilds' commodity speculations. After the war, Lincoln planned a mild
Reconstruction policy which would have enabled a resumption of agriculture production. The Rothschilds were betting
the other way on high prices caused by a tough Reconstruction policy toward the South. Lincoln was viewed as a threat
to the established order of things, and he was assassinated as a result. The goal was to weaken the United States so
the Rothschilds could takeover its economy. An article titled "The Rothschilds' International Plot to Kill Lincoln" was
published October 29, 1976, in New Solidarity.
THEORY #4
SECRETARY OF WAR EDWIN STANTON WAS THE MASTERMIND BEHIND LINCOLN'S
ASSASSINATION
In 1937 Otto Eisenschiml's Why Was Lincoln Murdered was published. The book espoused the hypothesis that
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was directly involved in Lincoln's death. It alleged that Stanton was against
Lincoln's mild Reconstruction policies and wanted him out of office so a more radical Reconstructionist policy
could be employed. On the day of the assassination Ulysses S. Grant was expected to attend Our American
Cousin with the Lincolns. Eisenschiml argued that had Grant attended, the military guards who protected him
would never have allowed Booth to enter the State Box at Ford's Theatre. Eisenschiml further argued that
Grant's refusal of the Lincolns' theater invitation was due to an order by Stanton to change his plans for the
evening. Eisenschiml's theory was that Grant's absence left Lincoln vulnerable. Stanton was also alleged to
have known that conspirators were meeting at the Surratt boardinghouse, and that he refused to release from
duty the powerful Major Thomas T. Eckert after Lincoln asked for him as a bodyguard (falsely stating that
Eckert had vital work to do at the War Department's Telegraph Office). Eisenschiml continued from there to
make a case against Stanton by examining an entire series of events following Booth's shot. Nearly every
move Stanton made is seen as suspicious and containing an ulterior motive. Among these behaviors and
events were not alerting the security at the Navy Yard Bridge (over which Booth escaped), the mysterious
interruption of telegraph communications, secretly arranging to have Booth killed before being brought to trial,
and the suppression of evidence by removing pages from Booth's diary.
Between the publication of Why Was Lincoln Murdered and the late 1970's, other books were published which
supported and amplified Eisenschiml's hypothesis. For example, Theodore Roscoe's The Web of
Conspiracy (1959) found Stanton's behavior very suspect. Other high government officials were also
implicated.
Further evidence against Stanton was discovered by chemist Ray Neff who found cipher messages allegedly written
in 1868 by Lafayette Baker, head of the National Detective Police, which implicated himself, the Secretary of War,
and many others including Congressmen. David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier's 1977 publication, The Lincoln
Conspiracy, was made into a major motion picture. However, during the past 20 years, research has clearly tended
to vindicate Edwin Stanton. In hindsight, behavior by Stanton that appears to be linked to a conspiracy has been
shown to be innocent and in some cases, fabricated. Current scholarship indicates plausible explanations for the
actions Eisenschiml and other authors of the 1937-1977 era found suspicious. One good source for those wishing to
read about the vindication of Edwin Stanton is Section 3 of Part Five (pp. 170-177) of Stephen B. Oates' Abraham
Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths. A book which revives the Stanton suspicions is Robert Lockwood Mills' 1994
publication of It Didn't Happen The Way You Think. The Lincoln Assassination: What The Experts Missed.
Dr. William Hanchett's closing sentences in The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies are as follows: "Lincoln would not have
enjoyed the extravagant and pseudoreligious praise being offered in his name by so many Americans. Possibly he
would have been reminded of some anecdote by which to deflate the absurdities of such exaggerations. But one
suspects that if he could learn of the slush written about the suggested involvement of his secretary of war in his own
death he would simply become angry."
THEORY #5
DISAFFECTED NORTHERNERS WERE BEHIND LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION
Several groups in the North opposed Abraham Lincoln and his policies. Radical Republicans feared the
president's purported mild plans for Reconstruction. They wanted greater control over what would happen to
the South after the war. Also, because of the Union blockade, the price of cotton had risen dramatically, and
cotton speculators were reaping the profits. Lincoln himself, seeing the Union need for Southern cotton, had
allowed the purchase of cotton in exchange for greenbacks and meat. Despite opposition from Ulysses S.
Grant and other generals, Lincoln approved cotton trading permits for many individuals including some of his
closest friends. Some devoted Southerners burned their own cotton to keep it out of enemy hands. Others,
however, discovered that Union agents were willing to pay the highest prices for cotton in over half a century.
Bankers, financiers, businessmen, cotton speculators, and profiteers all benefited from the cotton trade, but
they feared the good times would end as the war was drawing down. The center for the illicit activity was the
Demill & Co. at 178 1/2 Water Street in New York. Even Lafayette Baker and some Confederates may have
had ties to this address. Anti-Lincoln sentiment grew in 1864, and covert plotting to rid the nation of Abraham
Lincoln increased. In the ciphers found by Ray Neff, Baker wrote:
"There were at least eleven members of Congress involved in the plot, no less than twelve Army officers, three
Naval officers and at least twenty-four civilians, of which one was a governor of a loyal state. Five were
bankers of great repute, there were nationally known newspapermen and eleven were industrialists of great
repute and wealth."
Regarding the Northern opposition to Lincoln, on September 20, 1864, Thurlow Weed wrote to William Seward
that opposition against Lincoln "was equally formidable and vicious, embracing a larger number of leading men
than I supposed possible." At the conspiracy trial following Lincoln's assassination, Samuel Chester, a friend of
Booth's, testified Booth told him "there were from fifty to one hundred persons engaged in the conspiracy." In
his Lost Confession George Atzerodt stated, "Booth said if he did not get him quick the N. York crowd would.
Booth knew the New York party apparently by a sign. He saw Booth give some kind of sign to two parties on
the Avenue who he said were from New York."
At the 1864 Democratic National Convention Benjamin Allen, of New York, said, "The people will soon rise,
and if they cannot put Lincoln out of power by the ballott they will by the bullet" (loud cheers).
A lenient peace was abhorrent to the Radicals, and the cotton speculators feared an end to their big profits.
Cotton traders saw the price of $1.41 per pound in November 1864 fall to $.85 by February and below $.40 by
early April. Disaffection grew; Lincoln had to go, and John Wilkes Booth was their man in the field to take
action.
One book which ties Lincoln's assassination to moneyed interests motivated by their own trading activities is
Charles Higham's Murdering Mr. Lincoln: A New Detection of the 19th Century's Most Famous Crime(Beverly
Hills, New Millennium Press, 2004). Another book which emphasizes Northern clandestine business deals with
the South is Dark Union: The Secret Web of Profiteers, Politicians, and Booth Conspirators That Led to
Lincoln's Death by Leonard F. Guttridge and Ray A. Neff (Hoboken, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2003).