There is another very remarkable coincidence revealed in this testimony; that is, the fact of Thompson's leaving Canada on the 14th of April, 1865, for Europe, travelling overland to Halifax, when by waiting two weeks longer he could have gone by steamer. This was such an unusual circumstance as to require explanation, and excited remarks amongst the clerks in the bank at the time. If we have been led by the evidence to the conclusion that the government fully sustained its charge and specification against Jacob Thompson, we can at once explain this coincidence of his leaving Montreal for Europe by the overland route to Halifax on the very day on which he expected the plot to be consummated. He could not afford to wait for the opening of navigation, lest his flight might be impeded by arrest, and a warrant or demand for his extradition on the charge that he was a member of the conspiracy. "The wicked flee where no man pursueth." A guilty conscience is its own accuser. This remarkable coincidence, equally with the other, is presumptive evidence of his guilt.
Booth kept his bank account in the same bank with Thompson, and there is every reason to believe that his credits were from money supplied to him by Thompson. When he drew the bill of October 27th, which was found on his person after his death, he explained that he was going to run the blockade. We have seen what he meant by that; and this gives additional evidence that the assassination plot was fully matured, as shown by the Selby letter, at that time, and that on the part of Booth, acting under the latitude of discretion contained in that letter, he was only biding his time, waiting and watching for, and seeking to make, an opportunity; and that had he not been restrained by Thompson until he could get authority from Richmond that would serve him as a voucher for the large outlay of money involved, he would have acted long before he finally did.
Now the question comes up, what became of the money deposited to Thompson's credit by the Confederate government in the banks of Canada? We have seen that he had deposited to his credit in the Ontario Bank of Montreal $649,873.28, and have learned that he had, in addition to this, large transactions in other Canada banks. The reduction of his account in the Montreal bank of over $200,000 by the drafts of the 6th and 8th of April, we have every reason to believe was dependent upon contingencies for their payment which were never fulfilled, and so this large amount reverted to Thompson. The Confederate government died suddenly and unexpectedly about this time, leaving no executor with will annexed, and no one to look after its assets, or court authorized to appoint an administrator; and so it would seem that in this case Jacob Thompson was not only a man that had achieved notoriety, but that he also had riches thrust upon him. Perhaps he and Clay, Tucker, Sanders, Cleary, and Holcombe held a court in equity, and distributed amongst them the assets thus accidentally left in their hands.
[CHAPTER XV.]
THE CASE OF MRS. SURRATT.
So earnest and persistent have been the efforts of rebel priests, politicians and editors to pervert public opinion in regard to the case of Mrs. Surratt that it becomes necessary to devote some special consideration to it even at the expense of some repetition. Immediately after her execution a wild howl was set up by these people for the purpose of making political capital out of the sympathy and tender feeling which we all have for her sex. Her innocence was boldly asserted, and the government was denounced for her execution. They suppressed or set at naught all the evidence against her, and made many false statements to subserve the purpose they had in view. These efforts were only made by those who had been the enemies of the government during the war—who had either asserted the right of secession, or denied the right of the government to coerce (to use their own expression) a State into submission to its authority.
MRS. MARY E. SURRATT.
Because President Lincoln felt that the obligations of his official oath required him to maintain the authority of the government and to preserve the Union they had all through the terrible struggle in which he was engaged been his bitter enemies. They were actuated by a spirit of malignant hatred of the Union cause, and stood ready to oppose and denounce every measure that the President had found necessary to the success of his purpose and work. Their hostility to the government was only rendered more intense by its success in putting down the rebellion, and so they were ready to seize on this occasion, that they might, out of it, make political capital. This effort has never been abandoned, and the case of Mrs. Surratt continues to be worked for all that it is worth by that portion of the Northern press that inherits the old copperhead animus.