Mrs. Lincoln had been disappointed in her effort to lionize General Grant on the occasion of his visit to the White House when he became commander-in-chief of the army. She arranged a theater party for that evening at which the general and his wife were to be her guests. Laura Keene was playing Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater. The manager of the theater did not fail to make it known in the afternoon papers that "the president and his lady" and "the hero of Appomattox" would attend the theater that night. The president's box was draped with flags. General and Mrs. Grant decided to leave for Burlington, New Jersey, that night. Mrs. Lincoln invited Major H. R. Rathbone and his financée, the daughter of Senator Ira Harris, to take the place of General and Mrs. Grant. The president and his party reached the theater about nine o'clock. The president and his wife were greeted with applause as they entered their box from the rear, and took the places assigned. The interruption was brief, and the play proceeded. The president sat down in a rocking chair which had been provided for him, and watched with interest the scene upon the boards. It was broad comedy, and Mr. Lincoln enjoyed it, all unconscious of the tragedy which soon was to supersede it. That tragedy was not long delayed. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, who knew the theater well, and had made his plans carefully, entered the box quietly and fired the fatal shot from a Derringer pistol. The audience at first did not realize that the pistol-shot was not a part of the performance. Major Rathbone was the first to understand what had occurred. He grappled with the assassin, who had already drawn a dagger, and who viciously stabbed the young officer. The blow was aimed at his heart but was warded off and received in the arm. "Sic Semper Tyrannis!" exclaimed Booth. Booth then vaulted from the box to the stage. An American flag, draped below the box, caught his spur and flung the murderer to the stage with a broken leg. Thus did the nation's flag become the mute avenger of its country's chief. Booth rose to his feet and moved quickly to the stage exit. Although his leg was broken, he escaped to the alley behind the theater, where a horse awaited him, and he hurriedly left the city. As soon as the spectators realized what had occurred, there was a rush of people to the box. Among them was Laura Keene, the actress, and others crowded in, bewildered. A surgeon was helped over the balustrade and into the box. The president was borne from the theater at first with no plan where to take him. Nearly opposite the theater was a lodging-house, occupied by the family of William Peterson. A young man named Clark who roomed there was standing upon the steps when men appeared in the street bearing the president. Into this young man's room on the ground floor and toward the rear of the house, they bore the unconscious form and laid it upon the bed. Eminent surgeons were summoned, and the members of the Cabinet were called. A night of unspeakable agony followed. The president never regained consciousness. For a time Washington was in terror. It was not known at once how many of the officers of the government might have been stricken. It seemed as though conspiracy stalked everywhere, and murder lurked in every doorway. Those who lived in Washington can never forget the horror of the night when Lincoln was killed. The same night of Lincoln's assassination an attempt was made to murder also the secretary of state, William H. Seward. He was almost fatally stabbed, and his son Frederick was very severely wounded. General Grant had left the city for Burlington, New Jersey, a few hours before the time fixed for his assassination. Those who were to have assassinated the remaining members of the Cabinet either lost courage, or drank too heavily, or were prevented by other causes not known. A defective door-bell on Stanton's house was probably the reason for his own escape from assassination on the same night. There is good evidence that he was included in the general plan. At the hour fixed for the attack, an attempt was made to enter his house, but his door-bell was out of commission, and the supposed conspirator was frightened away by the approach of witnesses. Stanton was in his own home, in the back room playing with his children, when the attempt was made to enter his house. "The bell wire was broken a day or two before," he said, "and though we had endeavored to have it repaired, the bell hanger had put it off because of a pressure of orders." Very soon after, a messenger arrived at Stanton's informing him that Secretary Seward and his son, the assistant secretary, had been stabbed. Stanton hastened thither, and saw the two men, both of whom seemed to be fatally wounded. While there, he learned that the president had been assassinated. He went at cnce to the headquarters of General C. C. Augur, which was next door to Seward's house, and left orders for him as military governor to hold his troops in readiness for any emergency. Then he and Secretary Welles hastened to the house where the dying president lay. The entire vicinity was filled with people who had gathered before the secretary arrived, but the crowd parted and made way for him. All the remaining members of the Cabinet except Seward, were summoned, and all came. Andrew Johnson, Vice-President, was not there.* *Doctor J. Franklin Jameson calls my attention to the fact that the Washington Star of Saturday, April 16, 1865, mentions the vice-president as being at the president's bedside at one time during the night after the assassination. Honorable James Tanner ("Corporal Tanner") who served as stenographer that night, in a letter to a friend, written on Sunday, the seventeenth, mentions Johnson as present. It is alleged that Mr. Johnson did, indeed, come in for a few minutes, but that his condition and conduct were such as to increase Mrs. Lincoln's grief, and that he withdrew, and was found in the morning in the condition which Stewart describes. This would harmonize all accounts. But it is not difficult to explain the account in the Star on the hypothesis that the reporter, himself on the outside of the house, and making up his report at second hand, heard or assumed, that Johnson was present with the Cabinet. Mr. Tanner subsequently came to believe, and still believes, that he was mistaken about Johnson's having been there. My own impression is that if he had actually been there, and especially if he had been there in a condition of intoxication, we should have more evidence on the subject. There are ten different contemporary pictures of the death of the In that crisis it was Stanton who rose to the emergency. For the next few hours he was virtually president. He called his assistant, Charles A. Dana, who was a stenographer. He dictated orders and a brief account of the assassination, which is still, in some respects, the very best record we have of that event. That record reads thus: This evening at 9:30 o'clock at Ford's Theater, the President, while sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, and Major Rathbone, was shot by an assassin who entered the box and approached behind the President. The person then leaped upon the stage, brandishing 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 it. 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 apartment, and, under a 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 that the wounds may not prove fatal. My apprehension is that they will prove fatal. The nurse alarmed Mr. Frederick Seward, who, from an adjoining room, hastened to the door of his father's where 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 through the night. General Grant and his wife were advertised to be at the theater this evening, but he started to Burlington at 6 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 discussed. The President was very cheerful and hopeful, and spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of the Confederacy and of the establishment of the government in Virginia. All the members of the cabinet, except Mr. Seward, are waiting upon the President. president; only one shows Vice-President Johnson present. He is standing alone near the head of the bed and appears to have been inserted as an afterthought. This picture is in Raymond's Life of Lincoln. |