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(1865) I am going to-morrow to see the President,2 who has sent to me twice. I dined with Charles Sumner last Sunday, against my rule; and as I had stipulated for no party, Mr. Secretary Stanton was the only other guest, besides his own secretary. Stanton is a man with a very remarkable memory, and extraordinarily familiar with my books. He and Sumner having been the first two public men at the dying President's bedside, and having remained with him until he breathed his last, we fell into a very interesting conversation after dinner, when, each of them giving his own narrative separately, the usual discrepancies about details of time were observable. Then Mr. Stanton told me a curious little story which will form the remainder of this short letter. On the afternoon of the day on which the President was shot, there was a cabinet council at which he presided. Mr. Stanton, being at the time commander-in-chief of the Northern troops that were concentrated about here, arrived rather late. Indeed, they were waiting for him, and on his entering the room, the President broke off in something he was saying, and remarked: "Let us proceed to business, gentlemen." Mr. Stanton then noticed, with great surprize, that the President sat with an air of dignity in his chair instead of lolling about it in the most ungainly attitudes, as his invariable custom was; and that instead of telling irrelevant or questionable stories, he was grave and calm, and quite a different man. Mr. Stanton, on leaving the council with the Attorney-General, said to him, "That is the most satisfactory cabinet meeting I have attended for many a long day! What an extraordinary change in Mr. Lincoln!" The Attorney-General replied, "We all saw it, before you came in. While we were waiting for you, he said, with his chin down on his breast, "Gentlemen, something very extraordinary is going to happen, and that very soon." To which the Attorney-General had observed, "Something good, sir, I hope?" when the President answered very gravely: "I don't know; I don't know. But it will happen, and shortly, too!" As they were all imprest by his manner, the AttorneyGeneral took him up again: "Have you received any information, sir, not yet disclosed to us?" "No," answered the President; "but I have had a dream. And I have now had the same dream three times. Once, on the night preceding the Battle of Bull Run. Once, on the night preceding" such another (naming a battle also not favorable to the North). His chin sank on his breast again, and he sat reflecting. "Might one ask the nature of this dream, sir?" said the Attorney-General. "Well," replied the President, without lifting his head or changing his attitude, "I am on a great broad rolling river—and I am in a boat—and I drift—and I drift!—But this is not business—" suddenly raising his face and looking round the table as Mr. Stanton entered, "let us proceed to business, gentlemen." Mr. Stanton and the Attorney-General said, as they walked on together, it would be curious to notice whether anything ensued on this; and they agreed to notice. He was shot that night. 1 From a letter by Dickens, written from Washington in February, 1868, to friends in England. Printed in Forster's "Life of Dickens." Dickens was then making his second visit to the United States as described in a later part of this volume.
2 Andrew Johnson.
THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN (1865) I This evening at about 9:30 P. M., at Ford's Theater, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and Major Rathbone, was shot by an assassin who suddenly entered the box and approached the President. The assassin then leapt upon the stage, brandished a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theater. The pistol-ball entered the back of the President's head and penetrated nearly through the head. The wound is mortal. The President has been insensible ever since it was inflicted and is now dying. About the same hour an assassin, whether the same or not, entered Mr. Seward's apartments, and under the pretense of having a prescription, was shown to the Secretary's sick chamber. The assassin immediately rushed to the bed, and inflicted two or three stabs on the throat and two on the face. It is hoped the wounds may not be mortal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal. The nurse alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who was in an adjoining room, and hastened to the door of his father's room, when he met the assassin, who inflicted upon him one or more dangerous wounds. The recovery of Frederick Seward is doubtful. It is not probable that the President will live throughout the night. General Grant and wife were advertised to be at the theater this evening, but he started for Burlington at six o'clock this evening. At a cabinet meeting at which General Grant was present, the subject of the state of the country, and the prospect of a speedy peace was discust. The President was very cheerful and hopeful, and spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of the Confederacy, and of the establishment of government in Virginia. All the members of the cabinet, except Mr. Seward, are now in attendance upon the President. I have seen Mr. Seward, but he and Frederick are both unconscious. EDWIN M. STANTON, April 14, 1865. 1 As printed in the newspapers of April 15, 1865. Lincoln was shot shortly after 10 o'clock P.M., and died at 7:22 the following morning.
AS REPORTED IN THE NEW YORK
"TRIBUNE" II We give the dispatches in the order in which they reached us, the first having been received a little before midnight, for we know that every line, every letter will be read with the intensest interest. In the sudden shock of a calamity so appalling, we can do little else than give such details of the murder of the President as have reached us. Sudden death is always overwhelming; assassination of the humblest of men is always frightfully startling; when the head of thirty millions of people is hurried into eternity by the hand of a murderer—that head a man so good, so wise, so noble as Abraham Lincoln, the chief magistrate of a nation in the condition of ours at this moment—the sorrow and the shock are too great for many words. There are none in all this broad land to-day who love their country, who wish well to their race, that will not bow down in profound grief at the event it has brought upon us. For once all party rancor will be forgotten, and no right-thinking man can hear of Mr. Lincoln's death without accepting it as a national calamity. We can give in these its first moments, no thought of the future. God, in His inscrutable Providence, has thus visited the nation; the future we must leave to Him. First Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14, 1865. To the Associated Press: The President was shot in a theater to-night, and perhaps mortally wounded. Second Dispatch.
To the Editors: Our Washington agent orders the dispatch about the President "stopt." Nothing is said about the truth or falsity of the dispatch. Third Dispatch.
Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune:
The President was shot at Ford's Theater. The ball entered his neck.2 It is not known whether the wound is mortal. Intense excitement. Fourth Dispatch.
Special to the New York Tribune:
The President expired at a quarter to 12.3 Fifth Dispatch.
Washington, April 15-12:30 A. M. To the Associated Press: The President was shot in a theater to-night, and is perhaps mortally wounded. The President is not expected to live through the night. He was shot at the theater. Secretary Seward was also assassinated. No arteries were cut. Particulars soon. Sixth Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14, 1865. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: Like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky spread the announcement that President Lincoln was shot while sitting in his box at Ford's Theater. The city is wild with excitement. A gentleman who was present thus describes the event: At about 10:30 o'clock in the midst of one of the acts, a pistol-shot was heard, and at the same instant a man leapt upon the stage from the same box occupied by the President, brandished a long knife, and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!" then rushed to rear of the scenes and out of the back door of the theater. So sudden was the whole thing that most persons in the theater supposed it a part of the play, and it was some minutes before the fearful tragedy was comprehended. The man was pursued, however, by some one connected with the theater to the outer door and seen to mount a horse and ride rapidly away. A regiment of cavalry have started in all directions, with orders to arrest every man found on horseback. Scarce had the news of this horror been detailed, when couriers came from Secretary Seward's, announcing that he also had been assassinated. Seventh Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14,1865. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: The President attended Ford's Theater, and about 10 o'clock an assassin entered his private box and shot him in the back of the head. The ball lodged in his head, and he is now lying insensible in a house opposite the theater. No hopes are entertained of his recovery. Laura Keene4 claims to have recognized the assassin as the actor, J. Wilkes Booth. A feeling of gloom like a pall has settled on the city. About the same hour a horseman rode up to Secretary Seward's, and, dismounting, announced that he had a prescription to deliver to the Secretary in person. Major Seward and Miss Seward were with their father at the time. Being admitted the assassin delivered the pretended prescription to the Secretary in bed, and immediately cut his throat from ear to ear.5 Fortunately the jugular vein was not severed, and it is possible that Mr. Seward may survive. Secretary Stanton was undisturbed at his residence. Thus far, no other murderous demonstrations are reported. It is deemed Providential that General Grant left tonight for New Jersey. He was publicly announced to be present at the theater with the President.6 Ten thousand rumors are afloat, and the most intense and painful excitement pervades the city. Washington, Friday, April 14,1865. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: The assassin is said to have gained entrance to the President's box by sending in his card requesting an interview. The box was occupied by Mrs. Lincoln and Colonel Parker7 of General Grant's staff. The villain drew his pistol across Mrs. Lincoln's shoulder and fired. Colonel Parker sprang up and seized the assassin, but he wrested himself from his grip and sprang down upon the stage as described. His spur caught in the American flag as he descended, and threw him at length. He unloosed the spur and dashed to the rear, brandishing his knife and revolver. Ninth Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14, 1865. To the Associated Press: The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet, rushed toward the stage, many exclaiming, "Hang him, hang him!" The excitement was of the wildest possible description, and of course there was an abrupt termination to the theatrical performance. There was a rush toward the President's box, when cries were heard: "Stand back and give him air." "Has any one stimulants?" On a hasty examination, it was found that the President had been shot through the head, above and back of the temporal bone, and that some of the brains were oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite to the theater, and the Surgeon-General of the army and other surgeons sent for to attend to his condition. On an examination of the private box, blood was discovered on the back of the cushioned rocking-chair on which the President had been sitting, also on the partition and on the floor. A common single-barreled pocket-pistol was found on the carpet. A military dispatch was placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been conveyed. An immense crowd was in front of it, all deeply anxious to learn the condition of the President. It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal, but all hoped otherwise. The shock to the community was terrible. At midnight the Cabinet, together with Messrs. Sumner, Colfax, and Farnsworth, Judge Curtis, Governor Oglesby, General Meigs, Colonel Hay8 and a few personal friends, with Surgeon-General Barnes and his immediate assistants, were around his bedside. The President was in a state of syncope, totally insensible, and breathing slowly. The blood oozed from the wound at the back of his head. The surgeons exhausted every possible effort of medicinal skill, but all hope was gone. The President and Mrs. Lincoln did not start for the theater until 8:15 o'clock. Speaker Colfax was at the White House at the time, and the President stated to him that he was to go. Mrs. Lincoln had not been well, but because the papers had announced that General Grant and they were to be present, and, as General Grant had gone North, he did not wish the audience to be dispirited. He went with apparent reluctance, and urged Mr. Colfax to go with him, but that gentleman had made other engagements, and with Mr. Ashman, of Massachusetts, bade him good night. Tenth Dispatch.
Washington, April 15-1 A. M. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: One of our reporters is just in from the Presidential mansion, who says an orderly reports the President still breathing, but beyond all probable recovery. The circumstances of Secretary Seward's assassination were thus narrated by a member of his household: A man on horseback rode to the Secretary's house, rang the bell and told the servant attending upon the door that he had a prescription from Dr. Verdi, Mr. Seward's attending physician, for the suffering Secretary, which he must deliver in person. The servant took him upstairs, and ushered him into Mr. Frederick Seward's room, where he delivered the same message, but was assured by young Mr. Seward that he could not see his father. He then started to retire, but he turned with an inaudible mutter and leveled a blow at Frederick with a slung-shot. A scuffle then ensued, in which the assassin used his knife, and very seriously wounded the Assistant Secretary; then rushing by him he passed through the door into the father's room. He found the Secretary in charge of his male nurse, and with an instantaneous rush he drew his knife and cut the Secretary's throat from ear to ear, then, lunging his knife into the nurse, he darted out, when he encountered young Major Seward, who seized him and endeavored to detain him, without knowing the horrible tragedy he had enacted. He again used his knife and billy, but was most eager to escape, and as soon as he had cut himself loose fled to the outer door, mounting his horse and was off before the inmates could give to any one an alarm. In fact the wonderful suddenness with which both acts of brutality were enacted, is perhaps the most surprizing feature, of this dire national calamity. Eleventh Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14—1:15 A. M. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: The President is slowly dying. The brain is slowly oozing through the bullet-hole in his forehead. He is of course insensible. There is an occasional lifting of his hand, and heavy stentorous breathing; that is all. Mrs. Lincoln and her two sons are in a room opposite to Ford's Theater, where the President was taken, and adjoining that where he is lying. Mr. Sumner is seated at the head of the bed. Secretary Stanton, Welles, Dennison, Usher, and McCulloch, and Mr. Speed are in the room. A large number of surgeons, generals, and personal family friends of Mr. Lincoln fill the house All are in tears. "Andy" Johnson is here. He was in bed in his room at the Kirkwood when the assassination was committed. He was immediately apprized. of the event, and got up. The precaution was taken to provide a guard of soldiers for him, and these were at his door before the news was well through the evening. Captain [Major] Rathbone of Albany was in the box with the President. He was slightly wounded. Later—The accounts are confused and contradictory. One dispatch announces that the President died at 12:30 P. M. Another, an hour later, states that he is still living, but dying slowly. We go to press without knowing the exact truth, but presume there is not the slightest ground for hope. Mr. Seward and his son are both seriously wounded, but are not killed. But there can be little hope that the Secretary can rally with this additional and frightful wound. Twelfth Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14, 1865. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: Secretaries Stanton, Welles, and other prominent officers of the Government called at Secretary Seward's house to inquire into his condition, and there heard of the assassination of the President. They then proceeded to the house where he was lying, exhibiting, of course, intense anxiety and solicitude. An immense crowd was gathered in front of the President's house, and a strong guard was also stationed there, many persons evidently supposing he would be brought to his home. The entire city to-night presents a scene of the wildest excitement, accompanied by violent expressions of indignation , and the profoundest sorrow; many shed tears. The military authorities have dispatched mounted patrols in every direction, in order, if possible, to arrest the assassins. The whole metropolitan police are likewise vigilant for the same purpose. The attacks, both at the theater and at Secretary Seward's house, took place at about the same hour—ten o'clock—thus showing a preconcerted plan to assassinate those gentlemen. Some evidences of the guilt of the party who attacked the President are in the possession of the police. Vice-President Johnson is in the city, and his headquarters are guarded by troops. Thirteenth Dispatch.
Washington, Friday, April 14,1865. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: It was Major Rathbone, late of General Burnside's staff, and stepson of Senator Harris, with Miss Harris, who were in the box with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. The captain received a wound in the arm in his effort to detain the assassin. The President is rapidly sinking, and the attending surgeons say he will expire in a very short time. Secretary Seward has just dropt into a comfortable sleep. His pulse remains full, and his physicians pronounce him in a hopeful state. A burden of anxiety has been lifted by a dispatch just received from General Grant. The train reached Philadelphia all right. The six rebel generals accompanied him on this train, while the remainder of the three or four hundred other officers below that rank, who arrived to-day, were sent to the Old Capitol.9 There is one universal acclaim of accusation rising against J. Wilkes Booth as the assassin. If he be indeed innocent, popular feeling against him must be to him unbearable. Fourteenth Dispatch.
Washington, Saturday, April 15—1:30 A. M. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: I have just visited the dying couch of Abraham Lincoln. He is now in the agonies of death, and his physicians say he cannot live more than an hour. He is surrounded by the members of his Cabinet, all of whom are bathed in tears. Senator Sumner is seated on the right of the couch on which he is lying, the tears streaming down his cheeks and sobbing like a child. All around him are his physicians, Surgeon-General Barnes directing affairs. The President is unconscious, and the only sign of life he exhibits is by the movement of his right hand, which he raises feebly. Mrs. Lincoln and her two sons are in an adjoining room, into which Secretary Stanton has just gone to inform them that the President's physicians have pronounced his case hopeless. As I passed through the passage to the front door I hear shrieks and cries proceeding from the room in which the grief-stricken wife and children are seated. Fifteenth Dispatch.
Washington, Saturday, April 15—2:12 A. M. Special Dispatch to the New York Tribune: The President is still living, but he is growing weaker. The ball is lodged in the brain three inches from where it entered the skull. He remains insensible, and his condition is utterly hopeless. The Vice-President has been to see him; but all company, except the members of the Cabinet and of the family, is rigidly excluded. Large crowds still continue in the street, as near to the house as the line of guards allows.10 1 From the Tribune of April 15, 1865. So late was the hour, and so great the excitement and confusion in Washington, that none of the regular editions of the papers of the following morning had more then disconnected reports. The Tribune's thirteen short dispatches, here given as then printed, illustrate alike the confusion and the difficulties reporters had in learning details.
2 Lincoln was shot in the back of the head.
3 A false report. Lincoln did not die until several hours later—at 7:22 in the morning.
4 Laura Keene was playing in "Our American Cousin," a play afterward recast into "Lord Dundreary," in which the elder Southern achieved much reputation.
5 Seward was struck in the face and neck several times with a dagger.
6 Mrs. Lincoln had invited General and Mrs. Grant to go with her and the President, and the evening papers of Washington had announced that they would go, but the plans were changed, as General Grant had to leave by an afternoon train for Burlington, New Jersey. Major Rathbone and Miss Harris, daughter of Senator Harris, of New York, had then been asked in place of General and Mrs. Grant.
7 A mistake for Major Rathbone.
8 John Hay, afterward Secretary of State. At the time of the shooting he and Lincoln's son Robert were sitting together in one of the rooms of the White House.
9 Then used as a prison.
10 Five hours later Lincoln died. Stanton broke the silence with his historic comment, "Now he belongs to the ages."
THE FUNERAL OF LINCOLN |