Yup. The plotters planned to kill the President, Vice President, and Sec’y of State, which (at that time, not any more) would have put Stanton in the White House. The Sec’y of State was attacked as he lay sleeping and almost died. Another conspirator arrived at the Vice President’s residence, but was fought off by (if memory serves) the VP’s son.
Booth was successful in his murder. He rode out of D.C. across a bridge that was guarded.
The bridges out of Washington were all closed after dark, and (because the country was still on a war footing) military sentries were posted. When the watch changed on that bridge, the commander rode up and told the sentries that a man might try to leave, and that if he gave such-and-such a password, that he should be allowed to cross. Some hours later, Booth rode up, was challenged, gave the password, and left town.
Those pages “found in 1977” came from a box in the attic of the house where Stanton had lived during the war. After those were found, analyzed, and announced, I’ve never heard much about them.
Need I say it? Stanton was a Democrat. :’)
In later years, Stanton tried to get appointed to the Supreme Court.
I would also like to add that after the two men's deaths, the two men's sons remained close for decades.
This would not have been the case if Lincoln's surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln believed Stanton had anything to do with his father's death. Indeed, the opposite is true. Robert was deeply grateful to Stanton for his friendship and service to his father.
Finally, no reputable historian has ever believed the Secretary of War was part of a Lincoln assassination plot.
Oh, and Stanton was appointed & confirmed to the USSC. He died before he could take his seat.
A slight correction: Sec. of State Seward was recuperating from a bad carriage accident. If not for his wearing a jaw splint, he might have been killed. He was stabbed several times in the face with a Bowie knife wielded by Louis Powell (aka Paine). It was Seward's son Frederick who was beaten severely on the head by Powell with the pistol that had misfired. He wasn't expected to survive, but he did. As for the V.P., George Atzerodt was supposed to assassinate him, but he chickened out. He was later taken into custody when he showed up at Mary Surratt's boarding house at the same time investigators were there. He claimed he was doing some work for Mrs. Surratt, but she denied even knowing him.
I'm shocked Stanton was a Demoncrat!
LOL!!!
“Need I say it? Stanton was a Democrat. :’)”
So much for Lincoln’s vaunted ‘filling your cabinet with the opposition’ strategy.
Darn Copperheads.
Stanton at some point switched to the GOP. I don’t know what party I would have been in then.
What he said about AL though, “Now he belongs to the ages,” and lamented, “There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen.” is fishy!
But I’ve never heard the idea of huge wide conspiracy behind the plots to Kill Linc and the others. Just that it was Booth and his buddies.
Why aren’t there conspiracy theories about McKinley and Garfield!? No one cares about them! :-(