They Wanted Lincoln Dead

By Troy Cowan

Some of the people involved in Lincoln’s assassination he called friends. This is the shocking true story of the men that wanted Lincoln dead.
To maintain their grip on the nation, Republicans couldn’t allow Lincoln to welcome the Confederate states back into the Union with their voting rights intact. The Republicans had Lincoln killed so they could keep control over this large voting bloc. The Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, was the mastermind behind Lincoln’s assassination. James William Boyd was Stanton’s assassin. When Boyd failed to show, Vice-president Andrew Johnson found John Wilkes Booth a willing replacement. Booth was able to take advantage of Stanton’s preparations, but he was not told and did not know of Stanton’s involvement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troy Cowan
• Release date: Sep 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370932733

Troy Cowan

My aunt’s grandfather called Jefferson Davis—cousin. Jefferson Davis wanted to go into politics and could not let any voter know that he was once married to an Indian girl. That Indian girl died giving birth to Jefferson's baby boy. The boy lived, grew up, married an Indian girl and they had a baby. Unfortunately, they both died before their baby could talk. Jefferson Davis could not take this girl into his house where visitors could learn that the Indian girl was his granddaughter, so he gave the girl to my aunt’s grandfather to raise. John Riley Davis raised Jefferson Davis’ granddaughter, a half-breed named Novella.I grew up, went into education, and retired with her stories in my head. I had time on my hands after retirement and I began doing research to learn if those stories were true. I did find support for everything she said. While doing research for "Lincoln's Family" and "They wanted Lincoln Dead"—I learned about Izola. Her story was so interesting and compelling that I wrote Izola.

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They Wanted Lincoln

DEAD

by Troy Cowan

Copyright © 2015 Troy Cowan

Contents

DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF HATE

THE EARLY LIFE OF TWO KILLERS

THE SURRATTS

STANTON’S GROWING POWER BASE

STANTON’S PARTNERS IN CRIME

BOOTH’S SUPPORTERS

LINCOLN’S PROTECTOR

PLANNING THE ASSASSINATION

LINCOLN’S LAST DAY

BOOTH SEEKS DOCTOR

ELUDING SOLDIERS

INDIA

BOOTH BEGINS A NEW LIFE.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Introduction

People began questioning the government’s version of Lincoln’s assassination shortly after his death. It has been over a century, and still, doubts remain.

Some of those unanswered questions are:

• Why was Detective John Parker at the saloon drinking instead of guarding the president?

• Who made the brace for the door that kept others from assisting Lincoln?

• Why was Booth killed? The soldiers surrounded him, and all they had to do was wait.

• Why weren’t family and friends allowed to view the body?

• Why did it take two years for Stanton to produce Booth’s diary?

• Why did so many people claim to have seen Booth after his death?

• Was John Wilkes Booth the mastermind behind Lincoln’s assassination, or was he just a hired killer?

The answers are in this book.

The following chapters include statements from people who may have had something to hide. Those self-serving statements are included to give the reader an idea of what happened. No guilty person would admit to their involvement in Lincoln’s assassination. If they did, it meant death.

For example, Stanton had to lie and give false information to conceal his activities. All communications by the telegraph went through his War Department. Stanton would have all reports, statements, and telegrams censored, edited, or returned for rewriting until it met with his approval.

In the United States, a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Any person who has committed murder and has never been charged in court with a crime can freely walk among us as if nothing happened. That person is entitled to all the protections and benefits the law allows.

The people planning and financing Lincoln’s assassination were never brought to trial. They could continue their lives without interruption.

All the people involved in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln are dead and not subject to prosecution in a court of law. All we can expect is a judgment in the court of public opinion.

They Wanted Lincoln

DEAD

Chapter 1

Destructive Power of Hate

Before the war, two antislavery contingents came into being that would play a significant part in Lincoln’s assassination.

The Abolitionists

Many orthodox Christians began calling for the end of slavery. They believed that slavery was incompatible with Christianity. They wanted to end slavery but rarely got involved in politics. Few would vote.

As time passed, some became radicalized. These radicalized Christians became known as abolitionists. The abolitionists hated slavery, the unbaptized, and the heathen governmental institutions.

By voting, they would acknowledge the government’s authority. They refused to participate in any government that did not recognize Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures as the only rule of law, faith, and practice. When issues over slavery appeared on the ballot, only then did these abolitionists decide that voting was necessary.

Radical Republicans

The Radical Republicans were the major player in Lincoln’s assassination. They had the same philosophy as the abolitionist without the religious fervor.

***

John Brown

John Brown was an abolitionist living in Kansas. He was a white man willing to fight for the freedom of the black man. John Brown believed it was a great wrong against God and humanity to have slaves.

He believed everyone had the right to interfere and set free anyone wickedly held against their will in bondage. On October 17, 1859, John Brown and twenty men attempted to steal rifles from an armory near Harper’s Ferry. His purpose was to start an insurrection by arming a group of rebellious blacks.

Brown’s plan failed. Union soldiers captured John Brown. They put him in jail and sentenced him to hang.

Emotions were running high on both sides. Virginia governor Wise expressed his opinion of John Brown in a letter to Fernando Wood.

Governor Wise wrote, John Brown’s body will be taken from the State so that the carcass shall not pollute the soil of Virginia. The slaveholders agreed.

One anonymous letter expresses the sentiment at the time on the part of the abolitionist.

Governor Wise,

Mark it well! Just as sure as John Brown swings from the scaffold. I will not rest, day or night, until I have taken your life.

John Cook was one of the condemned men. His last letter to his wife shows his acceptance of his fate.

My dear wife,

For me there waits no far-off or uncertain future. I am only going from my camp on earth to a home in heaven; from the dark clouds of sin and grief, to the clear blue skies, the flowing fountains and the eternal joys of that better and brighter land, whose only entrance is through the vale of death, whose only gateway is the tomb.

John Cook

It did not bother those who were pro-slavery that they were sending people like John Brown and John Cook to a place of blue skies and flowing fountains as long as they weren’t here on earth causing problems.

The raid on Harper’s Ferry alerted the Southern slave owners that they needed to take up arms to protect their interests. The South began to arm itself. Many historians believe this was the start of the Civil War. The North and the South seemed irretrievably divided. The opposing factions separated into free and slave states.

Different views on slavery

Before William Seward became the Governor of New York, he and his wife would allow runaway slaves passing their farm to sleep in their barn. They also fed them and gave them supplies for their trip. The Sewards were abolitionists and believed that they were doing God’s will.

Some believed that freeing the slaves was God’s will, while others believed that God gave the blacks to the whites.

In 1860, John Wilkes Booth was introduced to Catholicism and joined the Knights of the Golden Circle. He believed that blacks were incapable of caring for themselves and needed the white man to guide them.

Many believed blacks would degenerate into heathens without the white man directing them. Booth and many slave owners thought they were doing God’s will by removing blacks from their savage, Godless life in Africa.

Secession

Southern states were becoming increasingly concerned about the president-elect’s policies. Three months after Lincoln’s election and a month before his inauguration, seven states seceded: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

On February 9, 1861, the provisional Congress at Montgomery, Alabama, unanimously elected Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

In March 1861, Lincoln took office as the sixteenth president of the United States.

Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union. Tennessee seceded in June 1861. When Tennessee seceded, Andrew Johnson was their senator in Washington. Each time a state seceded from the Union, the seceded state senators either resigned or were removed from office for disloyalty. There was one exception—Andrew Johnson.

Johnson remained loyal to the Union and refused to renounce his citizenship. He chose to keep his seat in Congress. People in the South considered him a traitor, while he was a welcomed hero in the North.

Lincoln’s first term

The new president wanted to find the most capable men to help him run the government. Lincoln retained the services of the Attorney General, Edwin Stanton.

Lincoln respected Stanton’s intellect and capabilities, while Stanton had no respect for Lincoln. Stanton said Lincoln was a long-armed ape. Stanton expressed his opinion of Lincoln: No one about Washington had any respect for him; had not even faith in his candor and sincerity.

Another person of note was the very knowledgeable William Seward. He became Lincoln’s Secretary of State. Historian Charles Francis Adams Jr. was Seward’s friend. He said that Seward considered Lincoln a clown and a clod. Seward told Charles Adams that he would use his position to steer Lincoln by subtle maneuvering and astute plotting in the direction the Republican Party should go.

Shortly after Lincoln became president, he was informed that Fort Sumter was running low on supplies. Fort Sumter would have to be resupplied or abandoned.

Secretary of State Seward was an abolitionist. Unlike most abolitionists, Seward believed a civil war would be disastrous for the country. He intended to manipulate Lincoln away from war. Seward assured Jefferson Davis that the North would abandon Fort Sumter.

Meanwhile, Lincoln sent his friend, Ward Lamon, to Charleston to assess the situation. Lamon was warmly welcomed in Charleston. Lamon returned to Washington without incident and reported that the fort would soon run out of supplies.

Then, Lincoln sent the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus V. Fox, to Charleston. His purpose was to plan a strategy to resupply the fort. Again, the leaders in Charleston welcomed Gustavus Fox. The Southern leadership believed the North was going to abandon the fort.

The people’s unwanted war

In 1847, Lincoln said, Any people, whatever, have the right to abolish the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This statement and others like it led people to believe Lincoln would allow states to leave the Union. The United States itself seceded from the Crown in 1776. The Southerners were comfortable in their belief that secession would not cause a war between the states.

In the North, workers feared that freeing the slaves would create a massive number of people looking for work. The average man didn’t want a war to free the slave that might take his job. There were many anti-war protests and rallies. Many opposed the prospect of a draft, and Congress itself was divided.

The Radical Republicans knew they would have to use force to end slavery. The people in the North didn’t want war, and the Radical Republicans knew they would have to create conditions where northerners would be willing to fight. The Radical Republicans needed the South to start the war.

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter was a little fort with about one hundred people inside. It was located on a strategically placed island in the middle of Charleston Harbor.

Charleston Harbor was the gateway to the Confederacy. If the North could resupply the fort, cannon fire from the fort would end shipping in and out of Charleston. The war would be over before it even started.

The Union’s admiralty knew the South had built numerous artillery cannons on all points of land surrounding Fort Sumter. The Confederacy also made floating artillery platforms on the water circling the fort. No navy ship would survive the artillery storm falling on it as it entered the harbor. The admiralty in Washington had little hope of resupplying Fort Sumter.

Gustavus V. Fox came up with a plan to resupply the fort. He presented his idea to members of Lincoln’s Cabinet and the Secretary of the Navy. His plan had the Union’s largest battleships engage the Confederate cannons along Charleston Harbor. Simultaneously, tugboats pulling supply boats would deliver the needed food and equipment. His plan was well received, and the next step was to get Lincoln’s approval.

After Fox presented his idea to Lincoln’s Cabinet, Seward concluded that if the Powhatan weren’t available, the plan to resupply Fort Sumter would have to be postponed or suspended. Seward knew Fort Pickens needed supplies and got Lincoln’s approval to send the Powhatan to Florida.

On April 4, 1861, Fox met with Lincoln and got his plan approved. The next day, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles ordered the Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas, and the Harriet Lane to Charleston.

The four ships had an aggregate of 715 officers and men and the firepower of thirty-eight heavy guns. Welles also sent a large transport steamer with two hundred infantry soldiers and boats loaded with supplies. He included three seagoing tugs to pull the heavy-laden supply boats.

Welles believed the four warships could keep the Confederacy engaged while the tugs would pull the boats loaded with supplies to the fort. The Powhatan had the firepower needed for the success of the operation. Unknown to Welles, Seward convinced Lincoln to send the Powhatan to Fort Pickens a few days earlier.

Welles became upset when he discovered that the Powhatan was about to get underway to Florida. He immediately rushed to see Lincoln. Welles informed Lincoln that the Powhatan, with its massive firepower, was the crucial ship to resupply Fort Sumter.

Seward did not want the fort resupplied