The New York Crowd

[JMadonna]

John,
I found the Union spy Dr. Merritt's testimony interesting;

About the middle of February, 1865 Sanders in a meeting of rebels in Montreal at which ten or fifteen persons were present, amongst whom were Sanders, Colonel Steele, Captain Scott, George Young, Byron Hill, Caldwell, Ford, Benedict, Kirk, and Merritt read a letter. Sanders said he had received the letter from "the President of our Confederacy" (Jefferson Davis). The substance of this letter was, that if the confederates in Canada and in the States were willing to submit to be governed by such a tyrant as Lincoln he did not wish to recognize them as friends and associates, and he expressed his approbation of any measures they might take to accomplish this object.

It is true Dr. Merritt did not see Davis's signature to the letter, and would not have known it had he seen it, but the letter was first read openly by Sanders, and then handed to the others, several of whom read it, and none questioned either its author or authenticity. Colonel Steele, Young, Hill, and Captain Scott read it, and no objection was raised. After reading this letter, Sanders went on to name a number of persons who were ready and willing, as he said, to engage in the undertaking to remove the President, Vice-President, the cabinet, and some of the leading generals, and said there was any amount of money to accomplish the purpose.
Amongst the persons whom he said thus stood ready to engage in this work, he named Booth, George Harper, Charles Caldwell, one Randall, and Harrison (by which name Surratt was known), and one or two others, one of whom they called "Plug Tobacco," or "Port Tobacco."
Sanders said that Booth was heart and soul in this project of assassination, and felt as much as any person could feel, for the reason that he was a cousin to Beall, who was hung in New York. He said that if they could dispose of Mr. Lincoln it would be an easy matter to dispose of Mr. Johnson; he was such a drunken sot it would be an easy matter to dispose of him in some of his drunken revelries.

On the 6th of April Dr. Merritt met George Harper, Caldwell, Randall, and others, who are spoken of in this meeting, at Montreal, as engaged to assassinate the President and Cabinet, when Harper said they were going to the States to make a row, such as had never been heard of, and added, that "if I did not hear of the death of Old Abe, of the Vice. President and of General Dix in less than ten days, I might put him down as a fool. That was on the 6th of April. He mentioned that Booth was in Washington at that time he said they had plenty of friends in Washington and that some fifteen or twenty were going.