O'Laughlin, he had assigned the task of the assassination of General Grant; and having made these preparations, he spent the day and afternoon of the 14th of April looking after the matter generally, and keeping up his courage, or rather recklessness, with frequent potations of whiskey. To Payne he had given a one-eyed bay horse, which he had purchased of a man by the name of Gardner, a neighbor of Dr. Samuel Mudd, in Charles County, Maryland. Mudd accompanied him, and introduced him to Gardner as a man who was desirous of purchasing land in that part of Maryland, and who wished a good driving horse that he could use for a short time. During the afternoon of the 14th, Booth, Herold, and Atzerodt hired horses from liverymen, and were to be seen riding here and there about the streets of Washington, frequently stopping at saloons to refresh themselves with that which obtunds all moral sensibility and makes men reckless in wickedness. Booth was acting the part of a general mustering his forces for the conflict, part of which he thus displayed openly, but keeping another part in concealment. He kept himself in active communication with all, and delivered his orders and instructions. Feeling the full force of the responsibility of his engagement, and earnestly intent on its complete and thorough accomplishment, he attended in person to every detail to make failure, if possible, an impossibility.

It would seem that a previous attempt had been made to assassinate the President, which had resulted in a failure. It was known that President Lincoln was in the habit of riding out to the Soldiers' Home of evenings, passing through a lonely suburb of the city unguarded. Some time in March, John Wilkes Booth, John H. Surratt, Payne, Atzerodt, Herold, and two others, left the house of Mrs. Surratt about two o'clock in the afternoon, on horseback, armed with revolvers and bowie-knives, and returned about six o'clock under the greatest possible excitement of rage and disappointment. All the evidence went to show that this expedition was regarded by them as one of the greatest importance, involving the necessity of leaving the city, perhaps for good, as their return in the evening was as much of a surprise to their friends as it was an occasion of dissatisfaction to themselves. I think there can hardly be a doubt that they expected to intercept the President on his way to the Home, and were lying in wait for him with the purpose of there assassinating him, and then making their escape. The President, however, upon the earnest advice of his cabinet, had yielded the point of riding unprotected and alone, and had accepted the protection of an escort of cavalry on these rides. Booth and his party finding him thus guarded had been compelled to abandon the idea of thus finding an opportunity to assassinate him, and so had to prepare a new plan of operations. There was a rumor, which found its way into the papers about this time, that there was a plot to capture the President and carry him a prisoner to Richmond; but however much Booth's pride and vanity might have impelled him to achieve the notoriety that would have attended the accomplishment of such a feat, the difficulties and dangers attending its accomplishment must have been too obvious to a man of Booth's sagacity, and its success involved in too much uncertainty, to have justified him in making such an attempt.

In view of all the facts, I conclude that the real purpose of Booth and his party on the occasion referred to was to murder the President, and trust to flight for concealment and safety. But now Booth was fully possessed with the idea of the practicability of his present plan, and was determined to know no such word as fail; and that it was entirely possible that, but for a Providential interference, he might have made good his escape after murdering the President, we shall hereafter see.

President Lincoln had been convinced by the most undoubted proofs that a plan for his assassination at Baltimore whilst on his way to Washington, in 1861, to assume the responsibilities of the office to which he had been called by the choice of the people, had been arranged and prepared for by his enemies, and had only been prevented of its execution by the strategic movement planned by his friends, by which he passed through that city during the night previous to the morning on which he was expected.

"From the very beginning of his Presidency Mr. Lincoln had been constantly subject to the threats of his enemies and the warnings of his friends. The threats came in every form: his mail was infested with brutal and vulgar menace, mostly anonymous, the proper expression of vile and cowardly minds.

"The warnings were not less numerous; the vaporings of village bullies, the extravagancies of excited secessionist politicians, even the drolling of practical jokers, were faithfully reported to him by zealous or nervous friends. Most of these communications received no notice. In cases where there seemed a ground for inquiry it was made, as carefully as possible, by the President's private secretary and by the War Department, but always without substantial results.

"Warnings that appeared to be most definite, when they came to be examined proved too vague and confused for further attention. The President was too intelligent not to know he was in some danger. Madmen frequently made their way to the very door of the executive offices, and sometimes into Mr. Lincoln's presence.

"He had himself so sane a mind, and a heart so kindly even to his enemies, that it was hard for him to believe in a political hatred so deadly as to lead to murder. He would sometimes laughingly say, 'Our friends on the other side would make nothing by exchanging me for Hamlin,' the Vice-President having the reputation of more radical views than his chief. He knew, indeed, that incitements to murder him were not uncommon in the South. An advertisement had appeared in a paper of Selma, Alabama, in December, 1864, opening a subscription for funds to affect the assassination of Lincoln, Seward, and Johnson before the inauguration."1

In view of all this danger he would say "that he could not possibly guard against it unless he were to shut himself up in an iron box, in which condition he could scarcely perform the duties of a President. By the hand of a murderer he could only die once; to go continually in fear would be to die over and over."

To his faithful and devoted friend, Father Chiniquy, who on several occasions warned him of his danger, and of the ultimate source of its inspiration, he said, "I see no other way than to be always prepared to die. I know my danger; but man must not care how and where he dies, provided he dies at the post of honor and duty."

We have come to the point now where we find, on the part of his murderers, all things ready for his taking off; and their intended victim prepared in mind for his fate, and ready to "die at the post of honor and duty." What a fearful, and at the same time, sublime spectacle! The powers of light and the powers of darkness were contending, as ever, for the supremacy. Satan, the usurper, claims this world for his kingdom. He has seduced and enslaved the human race, and, by every false and cunning device, is always resisting every movement that looks to the disenthralment of mankind, and bringing the world back to its allegiance to God, its rightful sovereign. How sublime was the faith of President Lincoln in the ultimate triumph of the right! How sincerely and believingly could he have sung,