Lincoln's non pardon

[JMadonna]

The following is an excerpt from my next book. It seems germane to the subject.

One man who seemed to be cognizant was Captain Thomas Hines. Within a week after Lincoln’s assassination he told a friend that Booth killed Lincoln because Lincoln allowed the execution of John Beall.

Of the many reasons postulated by the press immediately after the assassination, the execution of Beall was not one of them. Historian William C. Davis postulated that Hines must have learned this information directly from Booth himself when both men were in Canada shortly after Beall’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–Beall 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.”

If Hines was in attendance at this meeting then he not only confirmed the Davis thesis but the testimony of Dr. Merritt as well.