A little band of desperate secessionists, of which John Wilkes
Booth, an actor of a family of famous players, was the head, had
their usual meeting-place at the house of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt,
the mother of one of the number. Booth was a young man of
twenty-six, strikingly handsome, with an ease and grace of manner
which came to him of right from his theatrical ancestors. He was
a fanatical southerner, with a furious hatred against Lincoln and
the Union. After Lincoln's reelection he went to Canada, and
associated with the Confederate agents there; and whether or not
with their advice, made a plan to capture the President and take
him to Richmond. He passed a great part of the autumn and winter
pursuing this fantastic scheme, but the winter wore away, and
nothing was done. On March 4 he was at the Capitol, and created a
disturbance by trying to force his way through the line of
policemen who guarded the passage through which the President
walked to the East front of the building to read his Second
Inaugural. His intentions at this time are not known. He
afterwards said he lost an excellent chance of killing the
President that day.
After the surrender of Lee, in a rage akin to madness, he called
his fellow-conspirators together and allotted to each his part in
the new crime which had risen in his mind. It was as simple as it
was horrible.
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