The history of conspiracies in this country is fascinating, and the results of government "investigations" into these conspiracies is likewise fascinating, if only for the fact that there seems to be a standard, pat answer given by government investigators for most political conspiracies -- at least those involving political assassinations. It seems that, according to the government there are few real conspiracies and that most of the assassinations involve lone, crazed gunmen who keep diaries, of which the last several pages are often missing. I wonder if Hillary's "vast Right-wing conspiracy" would fit into this somewhere, but you'll pardon me if I don't take the trouble to find out.

Take the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas back in November, 1963. The Warren Commission issued a report on that, stating the Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and that no one but him was involved. But, in all honesty, most Americans have never really bought the conclusions of the Warren Commission, and knowing how the government lies, who can blame them? I can remember watching on television the killing of Oswald by Jack Ruby. When Ruby stepped out with the gun in his hand the look on Oswald's face was revelatory indeed. He knew why Ruby was there and what was going to happen to him.

By the same token, so many conspiracy theories about Kennedy's assassination have appeared in the following years, both in movies and in print, that who knows which one to believe? I've read at least three myself, all agreeing in some aspects and wildly disagreeing in others. How do you know which is true? I think there have been about a dozen or so theories tossed out there regarding Kennedy's death and I'd be willing to bet there much of the truth is out there amongst them, but, with such a hodge-podge, who knows what to accept? And I think the government likes it that way. If people won't believe the Warren Commission, then let them wallow around in all the other possibilities to completely confuse them.

The same is true regarding the Lincoln assassination. There have been at least seven conspiracy theories regarding that which I have read about, and who, at large, really knows? The official version of Lincoln's assassination is that it was done by John Wilkes Booth and a small band of co-conspirators, some of whom seemed to have about as much intelligence as a flea. Supposedly, no one other than Booth and his merry little band was involved. We will work on that concept in some future articles. However, if you choose to believe the government's "official" version of events you will, as Khrushchev said, "wait for a shrimp to whistle."

Government investigators in Lincoln's day were not one whit more reliable than they are today. It all depends on who is doing the investigating and what their agenda is--and giving the American public the actual truth is never part of the agenda. Giving them cleverly devised fables to get them mad at those you wish to defame is always part of the agenda. Thus, getting the Northern public mad at Jeff Davis and that mean old Confederacy by trying to throw much of the blame on them for the assassination was very much part of the federal program. So the government "investigators" (and I use that term very loosely) sought to sling enough mud against Jeff Davis' wall so that it stuck. Fortunately, the mud was not thick enough, and their lies were not convincing enough, except in the fevered brains of some of our current crop of "historians" (actually, hysterians would be a more apt word) so that most folks didn't buy it.

There have been several books written over the years dealing with the Lincoln assassination, one of which are Otto Eisenschiml's Why Was Lincoln Murdered? in 1937. Viewing material not previously accessible, Eisenschiml strongly felt that Edwin M. Stanton and a cohort of his Radical Republican abolitionist friends had a lot to do with it. They had major problems with Lincoln over how "reconstruction" was to be administered to a beaten and battered South. Lincoln wanted to administer "reconstruction" in his own way, partly because he would benefit from the patronage involved, while the radicals wanted to treat the South as vindictively as possible and have "reconstruction" run by Congress so they could loot and plunder what was left of the South and make sure all their buddies got in on the goodies. It was a supreme case of two dictators (or buzzards) fighting over the same carcase.

Anyway, three years later, in 1940, Eisenschiml also wrote In The Shadow of Lincoln's Death which continued on the same track. Eisenschiml's books sold well although they were fervently attacked by professional historians as being "rambling and disconnected implication and innuendo." It's interesting, though, that Eisenschiml's books have asked several questions that have really never been satisfactorily dealt with.

In 1951 Nathaniel Weyl wrote a book called The Battle Against Disloyalty. In that book he had a chapter, chapter 6, dealing with Edwin Stanton and his high-handed methods and his secret police. That's right, folks, we had secret police in this country too, distasteful as the thought is. More on that, Lord willing, later too.

In the late 1950s Theodore Roscoe wrote a book called The Web of Conspiracy which dealt with the same subject. Roscoe's book went through at least two printings that I know of. He dealt with the definite possibility that Colonel Lafayette Baker, the head of the country's first secret service, was probably involved, with his boss, Stanton, in the plot to assassinate Lincoln. Interestingly enough, Colonel Baker died in 1868 of arsenic poisoning. Seems somebody laced his beer with the stuff. Do you wonder why? Mr. Roscoe's book was attacked by the Secret Service during what has been referred to as "your government always tells the truth era." Folks, I hate to have to be the one to say it, but anyone that really believes this government tells us the truth has got to be a prime candidate for a weekend trip to the planet Venus, on a space ship with the Easter Bunny!

By the late 1970s yet another book had come out which built upon all these earlier ones. It was called The Lincoln Conspiracy and was written by David Balsiger and Charles E. Sellier Jr. Again, this book dealt with the real probability that Edwin M. Stanton and the Radical abolitionist Republicans had had something to do with Lincoln's death because of the potential "reconstruction" issue.

In regard to conspiracies, they are almost as old as mankind. They are nothing new. They are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. Go back and look at John 11:53 and Matthew 26:3-4, where the Pharisees "take counsel" together on how they might put Jesus to death. This from the so-called "religious" leaders of Israel! They are truly a fitting example of how apostate and truly revolutionary Israel had become at that point in history. And yet, even with their evil conspiracies, those men ended up doing God's will. With their plotting and treachery they managed to have Jesus crucified, only to have Him arise from the dead on the third day and in so-doing make total shipwreck of all their well laid plots and machinations.

The question arises, should we then fear conspiracies? Today many do, and they tremble at the power these evil men seem to hold. But, if God is sovereign then we need not fear men's evil conspiracies, for they cannot go beyond what the Lord will allow them to do no matter how powerful they are. However, it is well that we be aware of these conspiracies and that we expose them and oppose them wherever possible, ultimately trusting the Lord for our defense.

The work of building God's Kingdom requires that we be discerning and knowledgeable to the best of our ability, and so we should seek to learn as much as the Lord allows us to, and to use that knowledge as He directs. This is what Donnie Kennedy and I sought to do in our book Red Republicans and Lincoln's Marxists. We took a subject historians have only toyed with in passing and tried to bring the information to the public as large, especially those in the Southern Movement.

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