Was there an assassin on Grant's train?

[John Fazio]

Rick, Gene, Herb, Laurie, Pamela, Eva, et al.:

Some might think of Surratt as vile simply because he saw justice in rupturing the Union for the purpose of preserving human bondage, but let us pass over that one inasmuch as he was far from alone in so finding. Instead, let us speak of deeds in which he had relatively less company.

1. He masqueraded as a legitimate United States postmaster in Surrattsville, after his father died, while at the same time using the facility as a Confederate safe house and doing double duty as a Confederate courier.
2. He was co-leader, with Booth, of a conspiracy against the United States government. He was so identified not by his enemies, but by his co-conspirators, after their arrest and incarceration. The conspiracy resulted in the kidnapping of no one, but the assassination of the President and the attempted assassination of at least four other federal officeholders. Let that serve to indicate his true intentions.
3. With Harbin's help, he recruited Atzerodt into the conspiracy and then abandoned him, after the assassination, to the hangman.
4. With Parr's help, he recruited Powell into the conspiracy and then abandoned him too, after the assassination, to the hangman.
5. He participated in the Jack Cade affair, lying to his employer and even dragging his mother along to lie to his employer, so that he could participate.
6. He participated in the Gautier's Restaurant meeting, at which a well-oiled Booth clearly implied that murder was in the cards. By his silence, he approved the same. In failing utterly to stand with Arnold against Booth, he demonstrated where his first loyalty lay and his true intentions.
7. He participated in the Campbell Hospital fiasco, following which he had a hand in depositing guns, ammunition and tools at the Surrattsville Tavern for later use. The only use made of the guns (one of them) was by Booth and Herold, after the assassination. Let that serve to indicate his true intentions.
8. He may have attempted to assassinate Lincoln in March, 1865, aboard the River Queen at City Point, Va. William Crook and Tad Lincoln both thought Surratt was the man who tried to access Lincoln at that time and place, with purpose, in Crook's opinion, to assassinate him.
9. He arranged with Smoot for a boat to be used to cross the Potomac. Only Booth and Herold crossed the Potomac. Let that serve to indicate his true intentions.
10. He went to the home of James L. Walker Murray in Richmond, with Booth, in March, 1865, for the purpose of securing funds for their conspiracy, a conspiracy that resulted in the assassination and attempted assassination of at least five federal officeholders.
11. He knew all about the assassination plan and even admitted to Ste. Marie, in Italy, that "We killed Lincoln, the *****'s friend".
12. He admitted to McMillan that he and his party, including Sarah Slater, murdered in cold blood about a half dozen emaciated Union POW's whom they encountered during their last trip to Richmond in late March, 1865. Laurie doubts this, calling it "braggadocio", but Laurie, respectfully, people do not brag about killing defenseless POW's in cold blood; they brag about heroic deeds, about overcoming long odds, about triumphing despite adversity. This is the opposite of that.
13. He and his party executed in cold blood a Union telegrapher caught in the act of telegraphing.
14. He and his party treacherously fired into a Union gunboat, killing some of its occupants, after they had agreed to surrender to the officers on board the gunboat.
15. He gave three radically different accounts of his meanderings after arriving in Montreal on April 6--where he went; where, when and how he learned of the assassination and what he did in response thereto.
16. He told McMillan, waving a gun for emphasis, that he hoped to God he lived long enough to serve Andrew Johnson the same way Abraham Lincoln had been served.
17. He told McMillan that if he, McMillan, knew all the things he had done, it would make him stare or gape or words to that effect.
18. Putting his own skin first, he fled the country after the assassination, first to Canada, then to Europe, leaving his co-conspirators to the hangman and four years in hell and leaving his own mother to the hangman, whom he could surely have saved if he had returned to Washington. Powell regarded his desertion of his mother as "detestable".
19. After he was freed, because of a hung jury, he peddled his story in the form of a Rockville lecture, in 1870, for a fee of course.
20. He threatened to kill Weichmann, one of the Prosecution's two star witnesses, who was lauded by numerous others because of his steadfastness and courage.
21. He expressed no regret or remorse over the events of April 14, 1865.
22. He lied about his escape in Italy (the "leap" into a 100-foot ravine) to flatter his ego, rather than admit that he had escaped by crawling through a sewer with the connivance of a dozen Zouave comrades.

The tip of the iceberg. some would consider "vile" an understatement.

John