 After Lincoln 's landslide re @-@ election in early November 1864 on a platform advocating passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish slavery altogether , Booth devoted increasing energy and money to his kidnap plot . He assembled a loose @-@ knit band of Southern sympathizers , including David Herold , George Atzerodt , Lewis Powell ( also known as Lewis Payne or Paine ) , and John Surratt , a rebel agent . They began to meet routinely at the boarding house of Surratt 's mother , Mrs. Mary Surratt . 
