Why was Booth admitted into the presidential box?

[John Fazio]

(04-25-2015 04:12 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  I realize that I am not much of an historian, but I think that Kees hit the nail on the head when it comes to what history is. I like to see history as three things: What really happened to our best knowledge or what Leopold von Ranke described as history as it really happened, i.e., Geschicte wie es eigenlich gewesen ist (always changing hence the arguments among historians and buffs each generation, generally known as historiography), What fiction writers use as a pattern for their popular works (which I like to call historicals), and What other writers use as a pattern for they really do not know but suspect happened (which I like to call historical fiction). I see my writing on Booth as the latter, much to the disgust and/or disbelief of many.

And, deep in my heart, I still believe that Edwin Stanton and the Radical Republicans were behind Lincoln's assassination, despite my public writings and assertions in favor of Tidwell, Hall, and Gaddy.

Bill:

Good to hear from you.

Edwin Stanton? No way. Recent scholarship has thoroughly discredited Eisenschiml, Roscoe, et al. Radical Republicans? Sort of. I do not believe they were the prime movers; the Confederate government was, per your own works (principally The Last Confederate Heroes, whose conclusions I completely agree with). But I do believe there were some in the Federal government who had ties to the Confederate government and most likely played some role in the conspiracy, such as, for example, arranging for the theater engagement, arranging for Parker to be on duty that night rather than one of the other guards, possibly even the corruption of Parker (Mills thinks so), and most certainly arranging for passage of the fugitives across the Navy Yard Bridge by use of a particular password and countersign, per Demond. Nicolay wrote that some of the Radicals thought the assassination was a "Godsend", but that statement suggests a fortuitous happenstance rather than the fruit of their conspiring.

John