Was Stanton a murder target?

[loetar44]

John,
I’ve read and reread the pages you mentioned. You say in your book: “The evidence for an attempt on Stanton can fairly be said to be moderately strong, neither very strong nor weak”. In my opinion, it is better to say that the circumstantial evidence is moderately strong, cause all allegations that Stanton was a murder target are based on circumstantial evidence (some is stronger or weaker than others) and hearsay. Where is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Stanton was a murder target? In my opinion you have built your case through prima facie evidences (indications). It is up to the individual reader to weigh the importance of each piece you mention, and then come to a conclusion. For me the burden of proof is always quite high. In my mind there still exists reasonable doubt. On the other hand, you did a marvelous job and kudos for that! But it takes more to convince a Dutchman, exempli gratia:

(1) How reliable are Montgomery, Dunham, Merritt and Henry Von Steinacker and others? For example, Dunham was a mysterious figure, aka Sanford Conover. Carman Cumming wrote in his book "Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham", that he was "astonishingly clever and a prolific fraud", "an enormously inventive, imaginative, daring scoundrel", a “storyteller”. Was his account that Lincoln, Johnson, Stanton, Seward, Chase and Grant all were Confederate targets "to leave the government entirely without a head", true or one of his fanciful tales? And what about Henry von Steinacker (real name Hans von Winklestein), a convicted deserter from the U.S. army, a horse-thief who had been court-martialed by the Confederates after he had fled to them for protection, who maybe bought his release by false statements? Is such a man a reliable source?

(2) How sure, without any doubt, is it that O’Laughlen was in Stanton’s home at the night of April 13? Or did Stanton, Cox and Hatter only see a man with a black moustache, who resembled O’Laughlen, cause Walter Cox came at the trial with 9 other witnesses, all of whom stated that O'Laughlen was that night between 9.00 and 10.30 p.m. with friends wandering through the city, to see the Grand Illumination. An airtight alibi?

BTW John, you say in your book that David Stanton was “the war secretary’s son”. How sure are you about that?

(3) Why are the accounts concerning a figure on Stanton’s porch, and (another?) figure hiding behind a tree box (in my opinion) inconclusive, unconvincing? Well, spoken is about a “skulking figure”, a figure “muffled in a cloak”, etc. The figure(s) fled upon approach of officers coming to warn Stanton. In another account they fled upon approach of two employees of the Department, or when a messenger arrived to bring Stanton the news about the assassination of Seward. No man was ever identified or arrested. In my opinion it is more “early rumor” pointing to a possible assassin, more than it is (raw) evidence. Other rumors (?): “a man was heard by (Attorney General) Speed walking on his back porch” and “a person took cover at the Kirkwood House where the vice president was staying” ("They Have Killed Papa Dead!" by Door Anthony Pitch)

(4) Hudson Taylor credited a broken doorbell which saved Stanton’s life. Stanton himself spoke about that broken doorbell (“If the door bell had rung it would have been answered and the man admitted, and I no doubt would have been attacked, but the bell-wire was broken a day or two before …”). In my opinion a strange story. Why would an assassin leave because a doorbell was broken if he was assigned to murder Stanton? But also remember the following story, described by Thomas Goodridge in “The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy” (p. 106): “Edwin Stanton had already locked his door for the night … the secretary of war was weary and preparing for bed. When he was nearly undressed, Stanton heard his wife Ellen go downstairs to answer the door. A moment later, she yelled out in a terror-filled voice, “Mr. Seward is murdered.” Please note: “to answer the door”. How was that possible when the doorbell was broken? Have we to assume that the messenger knocked on the door? Goodrich is also saying in his book “Stanton found his hallway filling with people, when he came downstairs. And note “was weary and preparing for bed”. Stanton himself said: “I was tired out and went home early, and was in the back room playing with the children when the man (i.e. the would-be assassin) came to my steps”.

All those various accounts make the story that Stanton was also marked for assassination more and more unconvincing to me.