n for the
capture of Mr. Lincoln, and that Booth, Mrs. Surratt and others--who
were implicated finally in the murder--were concerned in the project
to abduct the President and to hold him a hostage.

2. That the undertaking failed.

3. That following Lee's surrender and the downfall of the Confederacy,
Booth originated the plan to murder the President, under the influence
of the motives and reasons that are set forth in his diary and in the
letter to Mr. Coyle.

4. His influence over the persons who were involved in the conspiracy
to abduct Mr. Lincoln, was so great that he was able to command their
aid in the commission of the final crime.

When the investigations were concluded there remained in the possession
of the Committee on the Judiciary a quantity of papers, affidavits,
letters and memoranda of no value as evidence. These were placed
within a sealed package. The package was deposited with the clerk of
the House of Representatives. The preservation of the papers may have
been an error. They should have been destroyed by the committee. Some
doubts were expressed however as to the authority of the committee.
Further investigations were suggested as not impossible. I am the only
person living who has knowledge of the papers. They are now in the
possession of the House of Representatives. It is not in the public
interest that the papers should become the possession of the public.

MR. LINCOLN AND THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER

The testimony of John Minor Botts of Virginia, given before the Joint
Committee on Reconstruction, February 18, 1866, presents Mr. Lincoln as
a diplomatist at the outset of his experience as President.

Mr. Botts had been a leading member of the Whig Party and he was a
Union man from the beginning of the contest to the end of the war. As
the work of secession was advancing in the Gulf States Mr. Lincoln
became anxious for the fate of the border States and especially for
Virginia and Kentucky, which promised to serve as barriers to the
aggressive movements of the South in case of war. Mr. Botts came to
Washington at the request of Mr. Lincoln in the early days of April,
1861, and they were together and in private conversation during the
evening of the 7th of April from seven to eleven o'clock. In the
conversation of that evening the President gave Mr. Botts an account
of the steps that he had taken to prevent a collision in the harbor
of Charleston.

Mr. Summers and Mr. Bald