Was there an assassin on Grant's train?

[L Verge]

I have stated repeatedly on this forum that I can never and will never defend the final act of assassination. Those of you who have known me over the years know that I was raised in a family who thought Mrs. Surratt was guilty, so I am not trying to whitewash anything.

However, I will continue to study and impart information that I think will help others to understand society, culture, and human instincts of our ancestors who were caught up in the tragedies of the Civil War -- and there were many tragedies on both sides with humans doing nasty things to other humans. Abraham Lincoln was not the only victim.

It is possible to understand history without being pious and judgmental. I was describing to someone the other day the "trauma" that we went through forty years ago in convincing some in the Lincoln world that we were not the enemy, that we were not intending to besmirch Lincoln and praise Booth. We have carefully crafted our presentations at Surratt House to reflect both sides of the story and to encourage others to do more reading and research.

When my colleagues, Ed Steers and Joan Chaconas, were voted in as presidents of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, I thought we had achieved legitimacy. Ed, Joan, and I went on to become members of the advisory board of the nationally recognized Lincoln Forum as well as appointees by President Clinton to the advisory board of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission That's my offering of braggadocio because I think those honors reflect the unbiased approach that we and many others have chosen in trying to understand our fascination with one of the best murder mysteries in history.

In my opinion, we cannot accomplish anything further with this thread. I think we are fully aware of how three or four of us feel about the situation. I'm stepping back (not out!) before we resort to name calling over something that happened 150 years ago. Not good for public relations, but instructional as to how deeply the results of the Civil War are still ingrained in us.