CHAPTER XLIV.

DEATH OF LINCOLN.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN RICHMOND.-HIS LAST SPEECH.-THREATS OF ASSASSINATION.-GRANT IN WASHINGTON. ― ROBERT LINCOLN. LEE'S SURRENDER. AT THE THEATRE. JOHN WILKES BOOTH.-THE FATAL SHOT.-SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS-THE ASSASSIN'S ESCAPE.— DEATH OF LINCOLN.-POWELL ATTACKS SECRETARY SEWARD.-REWARD FOR JEFFERSON DAVIS. DEATH OF BOOTH, — UNIVERSAL SORROW.WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE.FUNERAL HONORS.-AT REST.-PRESIDENT JOHNSON.

MR.

R. LINCOLN had been with Grant at City Point for several days before the surrender of Lee. The day after the evacuation of Richmond he went up to the city with Admiral Porter, and after a short rest at General Weitzel's quarters, the former residence of President Davis, rode in an open carriage through the principal parts of the city. He returned to City Point at night, but two days afterward (April 6) went to Richmond again, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson, and other prominent people, and he did not return to Washington until the 9th of April, the day of Lee's surrender. On the night of the 11th the grounds of the White House were brilliantly lighted and a brass band was playing national airs. When the great crowd which had assembled there called loudly for him he came out and made a short speech, in which he showed that, while he gave due honor and praise to the gallant men who had brought the war to a triumphal end, he had no bitterness of feeling for those who had struggled so long in what he believed to be a wrong cause. This was his last speech in public. Three days afterward he fell by the hand of the assassin.

President Lincoln had been several times threatened with assassination, but being by nature fearless he had paid no attention to the wishes of his friends that he would take precautions against danger of that kind. Many thought that his visit to Richmond so soon after the evacuation, when the passions of men were still inflamed, was a foolish exposure of his person; but he could not be led to believe that the President of a free people was not safe everywhere. As he felt kindly toward every one, he was loth to think that any, even of those who had

called themselves his enemies, could entertain different feelings toward himself.

General Grant arrived in Washington in the morning of Friday, April 14, early enough for Captain Robert Lincoln, the President's son, who was a member of the Lieutenant-General's staff, to breakfast with his father. As Captain Lincoln had been present at the surrender of Lee, we may imagine that he gave his father a full account of all that took place, and that the President had many questions to ask about that most eventful scene in our history. During the morning Mr. Lincoln attended a meeting of the Cabinet, at which General Grant was present. After the meeting he invited the General to attend Ford's Theatre with him in the evening to see the play of "Our American Cousin." It was announced in the newspapers in the afternoon that the President and LieutenantGeneral would attend the theatre, but General Grant was called to New York that evening, and so escaped, perhaps, a similar fate to that of Mr. Lincoln.

At eight o'clock in the evening the President, accompanied by his wife, another lady, and Major H. R. Rathbone, took their seats in the box in the theatre which had been prepared for the party, the front being festooned with flags. A few minutes. past ten o'clock, when all were intently watching the play, an actor named John Wilkes Booth, son of the famous English tragedian Junius Booth, entered the President's box, and, stealing up behind Mr. Lincoln, put a pistol to the back of his head and fired. The sound of the shot rang through the house and startled every one. Major Rathbone sprang to his feet and tried to seize the assassin, whom he saw indistinctly through the smoke which nearly filled the box. Booth struck him in the left arm with a dagger, and rushing to the front shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!"* and leaped over the railing upon the stage. As he did so one of his spurs caught in the flag in front of the box, causing him to fall and sprain his ankle badly; but he quickly sprang to his feet, and brandishing his dagger again, shouted, "The South is avenged!" In the confusion he escaped through the back of the stage, mounted a horse which

“Latin for “So be it always with tyrants," the motto of the State of Virginia.

1865.]

THE FATAL SHOT.

543

was awaiting him in a back street, and rode safely out of the city.

President Lincoln probably never knew what had happened. The ball passed through his brain; his head fell for. ward, his eyes closed, and he uttered no sound. He was carried from the theatre to a house across the street and laid upon a bed, where he died the next morning, surrounded by the officers of the Government and many other prominent persons.

At the same time when Booth entered the theatre, another person named Lewis Payne Powell made his way into the house of Secretary Seward, who was confined to his bed from injuries received by being thrown from his carriage, and tried to kill him with a bowie-knife. He gave him three stabs, none of which were fatal, and succeeded in escaping. Attempts to

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assassinate other Cabinet ministers also met with failure. the excitement of the moment it was believed that the Confederate Government was concerned in the murder of Mr. Lincoln, and President Johnson issued a proclamation offering a reward of $100,000 for the arrest of Jefferson Davis, and smaller sums for other Confederates supposed to have been engaged in the plot. But when the facts became known it was made clear that it was the work of only a few desperate persons, and that neither Mr. Davis nor any of those charged with the crime in the proclamation knew anything about it. Booth was soon after shot in a barn in Virginia by his pursuers, who tracked him thither. Payne also was arrested and hung with three other persons engaged in the plot, and several more were imprisoned.

The death of President Lincoln was the cause of almost universal sorrow. His course throughout the war had won him the love of the people, and even his enemies, if he could be said to have any, had learned to respect his honesty and his evidently sincere desire to do what he believed to be for the good. of the whole country. He had earnestly looked forward to the time when the civil strife should cease and the disbanded armies should again take their places in the field and the workshop, and it is believed by those who knew him best that it was his intention to extend a kindly hand to those who had borne arms against the Government, and to welcome them

back as erring brethren. His loving heart is best shown in the closing sentence of his last inaugural address, written only a few weeks before his death: "With malice toward none, with charity for all-with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are engaged in; to bind up the wounds of our nation; to care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan; and to do all which may achieve a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and between us and all other nations."

President Lincoln's body was embalmed, and after funeral services in Washington was borne in solemn procession, over the same route which he had travelled when he went to Washington to become President, to his home in Springfield, Illinois. It lay in state in most of the large cities through which the funeral train passed, and at every village and station on the long route great crowds gathered with tokens of love and grief. The dead President was at last laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield, where a splendid monument, crowned with his statue, has since (1874) been erected to his memory.

Though the head of the nation was thus stricken down, it was followed by no confusion such as is sometimes seen in monarchical governments, where the succession is frequently a cause of dispute. Six hours after the President's death the oath of office was taken by the Vice-President before ChiefJustice Chase, and Andrew Johnson became President of the United States.

CHAPTER XLV.

JOHNSTON.-DAVIS.

SHERMAN MARCHES AGAINST JOHNSTON.-JOY AT LEE'S SURRENDER.-JOHNSTON'S LETTER.— AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE.-BAD NEWS.-MEETING WITH JOHNSTON.-SECOND INTERVIEW.— BRECKINRIDGE. THE TERMS REJECTED.-GRANT IN RALEIGH.-SURRENDER OF JOHNSTON. STANTON'S INSULTS.--HALLECK AND SHERMAN.-SURRENDER OF KIRBY SMITH.PRESIDENT DAVIS'S FLIGHT.-DANVILLE.-PLEASING DREAMS.-A LAST PROCLAMATION.— LEE ANXIOUSLY LOOKED FOR.-HOPE CRUSHED.-DAVIS, JOHNSTON, AND BEAUREGARD.— CHARLOTTE.-REPORTS OF TREASURE.-SCRAMBLE FOR MONEY.-CAVALRY ON THE TRAIL.CONFEDERATE PLUNDERERS.-IRWINSVILLE.-THE CAMP SURPRISED.-FATAL MISTAKE.HA! FEDERALS-THE STORY OF THE DISGUISE.-THE CAPTURE.-FORTRESS MONROE.PARDON.

WE

E left General Sherman at Goldsboro ready to move northward on the 10th of April. According to the plan settled upon in the conference at City Point, Sherman was to place his army north of the Roanoke River and in communication with the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg. But in the midst of preparations for this move news came (April 6) of the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, and of Lee's retreat toward Danville. General Sherman then changed his plan, and instead of marching to cross the Roanoke, moved directly against Johnston's army, which was then at Smithfield, on the road to Raleigh. Johnston did not await his coming, but moved toward Raleigh. On the night of the 11th official news was received from Grant of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. This caused great joy in Sherman's army, for all felt that the war was ended. Two days afterward General Sherman entered Raleigh, where he received (April 14) a letter from General Johnston, asking for a short suspension of hostilities, with the object of making peace. Sherman replied, offering the same terms given by Grant to Lee. Johnston wrote again agreeing to meet Sherman near Durham's Station in the morning of April 17th. Sherman was about leaving the railway station at Raleigh in a car when the telegraph operator ran to him and asked him to wait a few minutes, as he was just then receiving a most important message in cipher.*

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* Important messages and despatches during the war were generally sent in cipher; that is, in concealed or secret characters, so that everybody would not understand them.