Was Stanton a murder target?

[RJNorton]

I still wonder about the Baltimore trip - was there really time to do it? On the morning of April 13th Art Loux has Booth going to Ford's in the morning to pick up his mail.

Art writes, "When Booth stopped at Ford's Theatre to pick up his mail, he told actor E. A. Emerson that when Lincoln had visited the White House of the Confederacy, he had 'squirted tobacco juice all over the place. Somebody ought to kill the old scoundrel.' Harry Ford observed Booth alone on the gallery steps. Booth next stopped at Taltavull's saloon next to the theatre."

Art then goes on to discuss the afternoon visit to Grover's.

Harry Clay Ford said:

"Saw him (Booth) on Thursday morning in front of the theater. I did not see anyone with him then. He was there alone. He was standing, walking, and sitting about there on the gallery steps. He did not have any political conversation with me. I asked him how much money he could lend me for a year. He asked me how much I wanted. I told him I wanted to raise one, two, or three thousand dollars, as much as he could let me have. He did not give me any answer at all. He appeared to be perfectly sober. I think he said, 'I will see about it.' In the conversation that we had the next day, I cannot recall particularly what he said. I only saw him about 5 or 10 minutes that day."

This is from Harry Clay Ford's statement of April 20, 1865.