ntry is not what it was. This forced union is not what I have
loved. I have not desired to outlive my country. . . . After being
hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased
by gunboats till I was forced to return wet, cold, and starving with
every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why? For doing
what Brutus was honored for--what made Tell a hero. And yet I for
striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as
a common cut-throat. My action was purer than either of theirs. One
hoped to be great. The other had not only his country's, but his own
wrongs to avenge. I knew no private wrong. I struck for my country
and that alone. A country that groaned beneath this tyranny, and
prayed for the end, and yet now behold the cold hand they extend to me.

"God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong, yet I cannot see my wrong
except in serving a degenerate people. The little, the very little I
left behind to clear my name, the Government will not allow to be
printed. So ends all. For my country I have given up all that makes
life sweet and holy, brought misery upon my family, and am sure there
is no pardon for me in Heaven since man so condemns me.

"I do not repent of the blow I struck. I may before my God but not to
man. I think I have done well. Thought I am abandoned with the curse
of Cain upon me, when if the world knew my heart that one blow would
have made me great, though I did desire no greatness."

Finally, he writes:

"I bless the entire world. Have never hated or wronged anyone. This
last was not a wrong unless God deems it so; and it is with him to
damn or bless me."

These extracts from Booth's diary reveal the influences that controlled
him in the great tragedy in which he became the principal actor.

The death of Booth was only a lesser tragedy than the death of Mr.
Lincoln.

Following the murder and escape of Booth a small military force was
organized hastily under the direction and command of Colonel Lafayette
C. Baker, a detective in the service of the War Department. The force
consisted of about thirty men chiefly convalescents from the army
hospitals in Washington. Colonel Everton G. Conger was in command of
the expedition, and his testimony contains a clear account of what
transpired at Garrett's Farm, where Booth was captured and shot.
Conger reached Garrett's Farm on the night of the 25th of April, or the
early morning