I'm John Batchew with Professor Michael Vorenberg.

His new book is Lincoln's Peace.

It is June, 1865 in Washington.

The prosecution, a military prosecution, of the conspirators so-called,

who were part of the assassination plot on Abraham Lincoln and the near death,

well, they're still not sure of Secretary Seward. Those on trial, four of them will be

hanged on July 7th. And the hanging, is that the end of the war? The assassins have been vanquished.

I note, Professor, that Jefferson Davis,

so he was captured May 10th, fleeing, is not on trial.

All those things are significant at the time.

Is the hanging on July 7th?

Is that an event that's regarded as the end?

Well, it's a really important event because from the moment that Lincoln's assassinated,

it is in many ways the number one objective of certain members

of the administration to find the assassins. Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, this is his

main job. And President Johnson, a successor, has come in with blazing language to talk about how treason will be punished and traders will be punished and treason will be made odious.

And part of that is this idea of we will find all the conspirators and round them up.

So that's been going on for a while. As you say, there's a trial. But I need to

tease some of these things out now. First of all, the trial. One of the issues is, was this

assassination ordered by the Confederacy?

Was this an official Confederate operation ordered perhaps by Jefferson Davis?

Edwin Stanton and Joseph Holt is the Judge Advocate General,

...