Useless, useless

[BettyO]

I believe that what JWB was saying was perhaps twofold -

He asked to view his hands. Therefore he was bemoaning the fact that his hands themselves were useless AND I also believe that he, at the end, was uttering the finality that his act of "saving the South" itself was useless. He had read the papers - he knew that as he stated in his diary, that "every man's hand was against him." Forced to be on the run, treated like a criminal - not the welcomed hero he believed. He, at the end, knew that his life was wasted and damned by perpetuating this useless crime. He destroyed Lincoln's life, Seward and Seward's family, Davey's life, the lives of the other conspirators as well his own. It was all "Useless"......