Was Stanton a murder target?

[Wild Bill]

Thanks, John Fazio.

Now as to presidential succession, Lafayette Foster was in line next after Johnson. But I am really not sure it matters much. Foster was recognized as a weak man. I would swear that I read that his weakness was looked on by the plotters as one of the main reasons they looked forward to his taking over the US Govt. He would be too slow to act. But they reckoned without Stanton. There was or would have been a natural power vacuum after Lincoln's death and into such a gap the powerful flow. So one way or the other, barring his own death, Stanton was in the direct line of succession through his own forceful personality and the fact that the pursuit was largely a military operation and he was Sec'y of War. Johnson was it too ill to do much until the end of May 1865, when he introduced his own plans of Reconstruction. But this was after the trial executions of the conspirators, most of which he was satisfied to let others, i.e., Yankees, handle.