Lincoln's non pardon

[L Verge]

While searching for something else today, I ran across this - which I may have known, but forgotten. Several historians have tried to make a link between John Yates Beall and John Wilkes Booth (related to each other, school chums, etc.). There is a link, perhaps, but not a direct one between the two.

The direct link is between Beall and Edwin Gray Lee, who were friends from childhood. Most of us know the story of Beall being captured and executed as a "privateer" for his actions against Union vessels. We also know that Edwin Gray Lee was part of the Secret Line activity into Canada near the end of the war (and John Surratt's superior officer).

The source that I found online has Beall coming out of Canada in order to work on the release of Confederate prisoners in New York. It also states that Lee's secreting gold into Canada (likely with the aid of Surratt) was part of the same plot, in cahoots with Jacob Thompson. Remember that Surratt was supposedly sketching the prison camp in Elmira, New York.

Beall's execution on February 24, 1865, caused a big furor with many people, including influential Northerners and some Senators seeking a pardon from Lincoln. All this happening less than two months before Lincoln' assassination. Maybe Beall's execution was a large factor in the President's death, but Booth wasn't the mastermind.