Lincoln's non pardon

[JMadonna]

Ran across this tidbit by Historian William C. Davis

Within a week after Lincoln’s assassination Captain Thomas Hines told a friend that Booth killed Lincoln because Lincoln allowed the execution of John Bealle.

Of the many reasons postulated by the press immediately after the assassination, the execution of Bealle was not one of them. Davis postulated that Hines must have learned this information directly from Booth himself when both men were in Canada shortly after Bealle’s death. If Booth told this to Hines, Davis reasoned, he must have also told it to his superior.

The first mention of the Booth & Bealle connection came during the trial of the Lincoln conspirators when Dr. James B. Merritt testified that at a meeting with Sanders and other rebels in Montreal in February;

“Sanders said that Booth was heart and soul in this project of assassination, and felt as much as any person could feel, for the reason that he was a cousin to Beall, who was hung in New York.”

Merritt's testimony was later discredited but if Hines was in attendance at this meeting then he not only confirmed the Davis thesis but also puts Merritt's testimony in a new light.