Today in the Lincoln Conspiracy: June 8

John Wilkes Booth

Conspirator John Surratt insisted that his involvement with John Wilkes Booth was limited strictly to a plan to abduct President Lincoln, not to kill him.  But testimony at the Lincoln assassination conspiracy trial casts doubt on that assertion.  Marcus P. Norton of Troy, New York, stayed at the National Hotel from January through March 1865.  He testified to the military tribunal that he witnessed several meetings Booth had with conspirators George Atzerodt and Michael O'Laughlen at the hotel.

George Atzerodt

He recalled one in particular.  It happened a day or two before Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4.  Booth and Atzerotd were sitting in the hotel's "rotunda office".  Norton was sitting nearby and could overhear their conversation.  He was probably eavesdropping, since he had seen Booth on stage many times.  Perhaps he was hoping to pick up some juicy tidbits of celebrity gossip.  Norton recounted that Booth and Atzerodt expressed hope that "the matter...with Mr. Johnson" would not succeed "as it did with Old Buchanan" or "their party would get terribly sold.". At the time, Norton admitted, he had no idea what the men were discussing.

On June 8, 1865, Norton told the military tribunal that the assassination of the president -- coupled with the attack on the Secretary of State and the bungled scheme to kill the Vice President -- brought that conversation back to his mind.  So what were Booth and Atzerodt talking about?

In 1857, a horrifying illness swept through the guests at the National Hotel -- twice.

President James Buchanan

Vice President Andrew Johnson

On both occasions, President-elect James Buchanan had been in residence there.  The scuttlebutt in Washington was that someone had tried to poison Buchanan.  That was never proven, but was widely believed to be true.  If Norton heard correctly, it seems that Booth and Atzerodt were discussing an attempt on the life of Vice President Andrew Johnson and noting that if they didn't pull it off, things would go very badly for them.  The conversation took place two weeks before the conspirators tried -- and failed -- to kidnap Lincoln.  Based on Norton's testimony, it seems their plans at that time also included murder -- if not of the president, then of the vice president.

"The History of the Nation Was Made There"

In 1865, the most fashionable address in Washington, D.C. was on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street, NW.  There stood the center of Capitol society -- the National Hotel.  It had been the hub of Washington's political and social wheel since it opened in 1827.  The original owner, John Gadsby, started small.  He first built a collection of bungalows around a central courtyard.  Then he expanded the building until, by 1857, it stood as an imposing five-story edifice just four blocks from the U.S. Capitol and ten blocks from the White House.

The National Hotel

When the English writer Charles Dickens visited Washington in 1842, he stayed at the National. The great orator Henry Clay, who served as Speaker of the House (on three different occasions), U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, lived at the National for many years.  He died there in room 116.  Clay's nemesis Andrew Jackson stayed there too, as did President Polk.  Abraham Lincoln was also a guest at the hotel and held his inauguration banquet there.

In January of 1857. President-elect James Buchanan checked into the National.  During his stay, several of the guests became violently ill.  Some of them died.  When Buchanan left Washington, the illnesses stopped.  He checked back into the National just before his inauguration.  Once again, a mysterious illness swept through the hotel.  Buchanan heeded the advice of the locals and took his meals elsewhere.  After he moved into the White House, the illness again vanished.  Was someone trying to poison the new president?  No one knows.  The cause of the outbreaks was never determined (though a foul sewer opening in one corner of the building was considered a likely culprit).

During the Civil War, the office of the military's official news censor was in the National Hotel.  Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire lived there with his family, including daughter Lucy.  In Room 228, Lucy's beau, John Wilkes Booth, plotted to bring down the United States government.

By all accounts, the National served its guest on a grand scale.  Its dining room was legendary for sumptuous dinners.  The hotel hosted balls, banquets and meetings of all sorts.  The Washington Post reported in 1930, “Apart from the Capitol and the White House, there is no building in this city so historic as this.  For more than half a century the history of the Nation was made there.” But times change. 

By the early 20th Century, the National was having trouble competing with its more contemporary and lavish neighbors, the Raleigh and the Willard.  In 1921, fire heavily damaged the National.  It never recovered.  The District of Columbia government bought the building in 1929, closed it in 1931 and tore it down 11 years later.