The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend.

n Mart.
uor subtracted not hing else; it tells a long story of dum and loiterer,
oontrahunters and seekers for commissions, garrulolu parents on paltry
errands, toadies without measure and talkers without conscience. They
ressed upon him through the great door opposite his window, and hat in
and, come courtsying to his chair, with an obsequious " r. President!"
If he dared, though the chief magistrate and commander of the army an a
navy, to go out of the great door, these vampires leaped upon him with
their Babylonia-n pleas, and barred his walk to his hearthside. He could
not insult them since it was not in hip nature, and perhaps many of them
had really urgent errands. So he called up the carpenter and ordered a
strategic route cut from his office to his harth, and perhaps told of it after
with much merriment.
Here should be written the biography of his official life-in the room
where have concentrated all the wires of action, and where have proceeded
the resolves which vitalized in historic deeds. But only the great measures,
however carried out, were conceived in this office. The little ones proceeded
from other places.
Here once came Mr. Stanton, saying in his hard and positive way:
"Mfr. Lincoln, I have found it expedient to disgrace and arrest General
8tone."
" Stanton," said Mr. Lincoln, with an emotion of pain, "when you considered it necessary to imprison General Stone, I am glad you did not
consult me about it."
And for lack of such consultation, General Stone, I learn, now lies a
maniac in the asylum. The groundless pretext, upon which he suffered the
reputation of treason, issued from the Department of War-not from this
office.
But as to his biography, it is to be written by Colonel Nicolay and
Major Itay. They are to go to Paris together, one as attache of legation,
the other as consul, and while there, will undertake the labor. They are
the only men who know his life well enough to exhaust it, having followed
his official tasks as closely as they shared his social hours.
Major Hay is a gentleman of literary force. Colonel Nicolay has a fine
judgment of character and public measures. Together they should satisfy
both curiosity and historiy.
As I hear from my acquaintances here these episodes of the President's
life, I recall many reminiscences of his ride from Springfield to Harrisburg,
over much of which I passed. Then he left home and became an inhabitant of history. His face was solid and healthy, his step young, his speech
and manner bold and kindly. I saw him at Trenton stand in the Legi
lature, and say, in his conversational intonation:
"We may have to put the foot down firm."
How should we have hung upon his accents then had we anticipated his
-irtues and his fate.
Death is requisite to make opinion grave. We looked upon Mr. Lincoln
then as an amusing sensation, and there was much guffaw as he was re.
garded by the populace; he had not passed out of partisan ownerships
Little by little, afterward, he won esteem, and often admiration, until the
measure of his life was full, and the victories he had achieved made the
world applaud him. Yet, at this date, the President was sadly changed.
Four years of perplexity and devotion had wrinkled his face, and stooped
his shoulders, and the failing eyes that glared upon the play closed as his
mission was completed, and the world had been educated enough to cornm
prhebnd him.
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