Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1875 — Explanation of the Plot to Assassinate Mr. Summer. [ARTICLE]

Explanation of the Plot to Assassinate Mr. Summer.

The following account and explanation of the plot to assassinate Senator Sumner in 1865 is given by his former Secretary, Mr. A. B. Johnson, in some interesting recollections of Charles Sumner in Scribner's Monthly for June: Simultaneously with the murder of the President, two rough, stalwart men had gone twice to Mr. Sumner’s rooms, and their suspicious demeanor had so frightened the women-servants who saw them that no concurrent story had been obtained from them as to the appearance of the intruders. The servants had been carefully examined and their every word had been phonographed; drawings of the suspicious visitors had been made by artists from the description shown to them, and altered again and again until they could no longer suggest any change in form or feature. Photographs of these had then been placed in the hands of the detectives, but up to this time no tidings had been gained as to the persons sought. They might have come up from hell and then gone back there, for all he could learn, the Secretary said. But so long as they were undiscovered —or at least so long as their identity was not known Mr. Stanton thought it absolutely necessary that some care should be taken of Mr. Sumner, so notoriously careless was be of his own safety. On hearing these details Mr. Sumner ceased to demand the removal of the guard, though he jocosely professed to be more afraid of them than of those they were to defend him against. Perhaps he had reason, for the soldiers had refreshments each night at his expense, and the kind of refreshment was left to the selection of the Sergeant. But when the lady of the house permitted her cook to give the soldiers coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen at midnight, instead of having the refreshments served from the neighboring restaurant, the guards were less dangerous to their friends. Who the two men were that so frightened the servants at Mr. Sumner's lodgings and by their singular actions gave point to the suspicions of the Secretary of War was often a subject of conversation among the very few of the Senator’s friends to whom the incident was known. They naturally watched the developments made during the trial of the conspirators but no conclusion was reached. It remained as one of the unraveled tangles of affairs until after the Senator’s death, when I accidentally came upon the trail which led to the discovery of the identity of the suspicious characters, and I received from their own lips, they having little idea of the commotion their course had caused, an account of their visit to Mr. Sumner’s rooms on that eventful night. They were members of the Massachusetts delegation to Con-gress-one the late Chairman of the Com. mittee of Ways and Means, now Mr. Sumner’s successor in the Senate, Henry L. Dawes; and the other his friend Mr. Gooch. The facts were thus detailed: Mr. Dawes and Mr. Gooch had been to Richmond, and, returning to Washington, had made a tour of the battle-fields about Manassas, reaching Washington on the night of the 14th of April, 1865, about sunset. After supper they started out for a walk, joking each other as to their appearance. And well they might. Their clothing was rough, travel-worn, dusty, and even mud-stained. Their hands, faces and necks were much sun-burned, in spite of the wide-brimmed hats they wore. Each carried a stick, or, rather, a cudgel, cut as a souvenir on some battle’field, and the hair and beard of each were longer than usual. Thus accoutered, they concluded to call on Mr. Sumner. He then had chambers at the corner of F and Thirteenth streets; they knew the house well; so, without ringing, they mounted the stairs and rapped at his door, using their sticks. When it appeared that the Senator was out they left his house, and, passing on, concluded to call on the President. There again they were disappointed, for it appeared, when they rung at the White House, that Mr. Lincoln had gone with some friends to the theater. On their way back to their hotel they stopped again at Mr. Sumner’s lodgings, and again went up to his rooms and rapped at his door. The made brought a servant to the foot of the stairs. They leaned over the balustrade and questioned her. When did the Senator go out ? Did he say when he should return ? Would it, they queried between them, selves, be worth while to wait? And then they laughed at the evident fear the servant had of two such rough-looking customers. As they were quite fatigued they went back to their hotel, and in the morning woke to learn that while they were last at Mr. Sumner’s lodgings the shot had been fired that took the life of Mr. Lincoln.

—Petroleum oils are coming into use for dressing leather, and it is stated that their use for this purpose is largely increasing. It is claimed that by the use of petroleum many advantages are gained, among which are: that the leather can be reduced to a pliable condition more rapidly and with less cost than with pure animal oils; that the coloring of tanned leather is'effected more rapidly and thoroughly than by the old process, and that the finished product is superior, both in pliability and toughness, to animal oils. The heavier gravities of petroleum, such as paraffine and steam-reduced oils, are »be only ones used in this way. A man dressed in sailor costume was up in a criminal court the other day upon the charge of stealing a pair of boots. As he had no counsel the Court appointed a young lawyer to take charge of the defense. The lawyer opened the case with a speech in which he alluded to his client “as a child of the sad sea waves, a nursling of the storm, whom the pitless billows had cast a forlorn and friendless waif upon the shores of time, after a life spent in fierce and heroic contests with the raging elements.” Then the defendant was put in the dock and the faet was revealed that he was the cook upon a canal boat, previous to Which he had hawked fish. The. “nursling of the storm” is now in jail for six months. Food for thought—Flsfr,