Unwanted Facts: Facts that Most Books on the Lincoln Assassination Ignore

[mikegriffith1]

(12-01-2018 12:36 PM)L Verge Wrote:  You, sir, are dead wrong in your last paragraph. The FBI did not find any indication that the diary was tampered with by the War Department. Quite a few Surratt members were privy to that investigation and report because of our close ties with the instigator - James O. Hall.

If I remember correctly, Ed Steers's book on Lincoln Hoaxes et al gives good coverage to this as well as the continuing saga of Neff, Balsiger and Sellier. You will enjoy also reading about the Deep Throat escapades with Joseph Lynch.

That little book had been with Booth since 1864, and there would be very little chance of determining when pages were removed because of being full and outdated, because Booth needed to send a quick note (as in the later Stuart incident), etc. One gentleman on a Surratt bus tour over the Booth escape route even suggested that pages were used for hygienic purposes while Booth and Herold were on the run with few opportunities to find an outhouse...

I'm sorry, but you simply do not know what you are talking about. The FBI lab experts found massive evidence of tampering. I have to wonder how on earth you could claim otherwise. It seems obvious that you have only read only read one side of the story and appear unwilling to read the other side.

You could start by reading Dan Thomas's chapter on the FBI report in The Reason Booth Had to Die. Thomas provides long quotes from the FBI report that discuss the extensive and complicated editing that was done to the diary. (I agree that the term "diary" is a bit of a misnomer, and that it was more of a notebook.)

I suspect you might be relying partly on the public statements of Directory Kelley to the effect that the FBI forensic experts found no signs of invisible writing or textual alteration. Go read the report itself and you'll see that Kelley either purposely misrepresented his lab's findings or he was simply passing on erroneous information that was fed to him by his staff. Kelley failed to mention the complicated editing and manipulation that was done to the diary.

If you can't bring yourself to read Thomas's detailed chapter on the FBI lab report, go read the FBI lab report itself, which starts on page 24 of the PDF copy at archive.org, and pay special attention to the section titled "Result of examination," which starts on page 25:

https://ia800306.us.archive.org/30/items...booth4.pdf

(12-01-2018 12:36 PM)L Verge Wrote:  As for Lincoln's Reconstruction policies, Wild Bill gave an excellent talk on this two years ago at our Surratt conference. The title was "My Policy is to Have No Policy." It was so detailed that I asked Bill to turn it into a booklet for sale in our museum. It may have sold out by this time.

Huh???? Again, you simply do not know what in the world you are talking about. Lincoln's policy was to have no policy?! Perhaps "Wild Bill" was referring to Lincoln's policy during the secession crisis, because that's when Lincoln made that comment ("my policy is to have no policy").

Lincoln laid out his Reconstruction policy in great detail, down to what percentage of the population had to declare their loyalty for the state to be readmitted. Recall that Lincoln established the Reconstruction policy for Louisiana, which came under Federal control long before the war ended. His terms for Louisiana's readmission to the Union are there for all to read. Or, if you want a thorough summary, read historian Richard Current's detailed article on Lincoln's Reconstruction policy, which article I cited in my previous reply.

Lincoln spoke on Reconstruction twice in the four days before he was shot, once in his April 11 speech (in which he replied to Salmon Chase's letter on Reconstruction) and again to his cabinet on the morning of April 14.

I notice you simply ignored the quote I provided from Gideon Welles' extensive account of Lincoln's comments on Reconstruction at the April 14 cabinet meeting. And, as mentioned, we know from the Radicals' own mouths, from statements that they made starting just hours after Lincoln died, that they viewed Lincoln's lenient, forgiving terms as throwing away the Union victory and as practically rewarding rebellion and treason.