Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 207He brooded over this a long time, and finally decided to makehimself forever famous in one night.This was his first plan: He would follow Lincoln to thetheater some night; and, while one of his confederates turnedoff the gas-lights, Booth would dash into the President's box,rope and tie him, toss him onto the stage below, hustle himthrough a back exit, pitch him into a carriage, and scurry awaylike mad in the darkness.By hard driving, he could reach the sleepy old town of PortTobacco before dawn. Then he would row across the broadPotomac, and gallop on south through Virginia until he hadlodged the Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army safely behindthe Confederate bayonets in Richmond.And then what?Well, then the South could dictate terms and bring the warto an end at once.And the credit for this brilliant achievement would go towhom? To the dazzling genius John Wilkes Booth. He wouldbecome twice as famous, a hundred times as famous as hisbrother Edwin. He would be crowned in history with the auraof a William Tell. Such were his dreams.He was making twenty thousand dollars a year then in thetheater, but he gave it all up. Money meant little to him now,for he was playing for something far more important than materialpossessions. So he used his savings to finance a band ofConfederates that he fished out of the backwash of Southernsympathizers floating around Baltimore and Washington. Boothpromised each one of them that he should be rich and famous.And what a motley crew they were! There was Spangler, adrunken stage-hand and crab-fisherman; Atzerodt, an ignoranthouse-painter and blockade-runner with stringy hair and whiskers,a rough, fierce fellow; Arnold, a lazy farm-hand and adeserter from the Confederate Army; O'Laughlin, a livery-stableworker, smelling of horses and whisky; Surratt, a swaggeringnincompoop of a clerk; Powell, a gigantic penniless brute, thewild-eyed, half-mad son of a Baptist preacher; Herold, a silly,giggling loafer, lounging about stables, talking horses andwomen, and living on the dimes and quarters given him by hiswidowed mother and his seven sisters.With this supporting cast of tenth-raters, Booth was preparingto play the great role of his career. He spared neither time normoney in planning the minutest details. He purchased a pair of