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Wanganui Herald, Volume III, Issue 533, 16 February 1869, Page 2

THE ASSASSIAN BOOTH. Mr James E. Murdoch gave his "Recollection of Lincoln,"'at the Music Hall, in Cincinnati recently, J and in tho course of his remarks spoke of Wilkes Booth as follows :— " No just dispassionate man could claim that Booth was acting- i rom mistaken patriotism whenl he com- ' mitt.cd the hideous deed. At was a grovelling- personal ambition that promoted the assnssian to his damnable work. E.xcifed by love 6f naboriety and applause," Booth fliirfuhimself into the arms of a few murderous conspirators, and with, them hatched the plot for assassinating the President. Mr Murdoch remeinhered that on one occasion when Booth was cast for the character of Charles de Moor, in Schiilers tragedy of The Robbers,' he wanted the stage carpenter to so arrange the the scenes that at a certain tnr.e in the progress of the play he would hurl himself down a precipice-from a great height. They expostulated with him against the arrangement, but be insisted on having his plan carried out, say no matter whether he was killed or not by the fall, the jump would be sensational, and would ' bring down the house.' So it, was with the last desperate and terrible act of his life A band of rebels, knowing that he was ambitious to do something tragic for the cause that was fast losing its strength, encouraged him in his idle plans, and gave aim an ostensible leadership of their party only to fire his excited brain with their hellish plot for the murder of Mr. Lincoln. The mantle of Junius Brntus Booth, the elder, did not fall upon the shoulders of John Wilkes, and the consciousness of that fact rankle^ in Booth's heart, though it did not ruffle his handsome brow. The tool in the hands of his designing companions, he was made to believe that the fame he coveted was to be gained only by performing the last bloody act of that long and disastrous tragedy. The impenitent ends South wanted a man to strike the final blow, and they would lift him on their shoulder and give him the first place in the new nation they thought to rear when anarchy and bloodshed had destroyed the old. A weak and miserable ambition led Booth to the terrible crime of murdering in cold blood the nation's best benefactor, and, in firing that fatal shot, he brought upon himself all the abhorrence that the American people can ieel. lie perished, as he deserved to perish, like a doj», and his name will ever ibe henceforth detested by all men."