THE NEWS COMMUNICATED TO THE WORLD, AND ITS EFFECT.
On the morning of the 15th of April, 1865, the telegraph wires carried
to every part of the United States that was in communication with
Washington, and to the rest of the civilized world, the astounding
intelligence that Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
had been assassinated on the previous night by John Wilkes Booth,
at Ford's Theatre in Washington City; that at the same hour a most
savage attempt had been made to assassinate the Secretary of State,
Hon. William H. Seward, and that he was lying in a most critical and
dangerous condition from the wounds which he had received, and would
probably die. Never, perhaps, in the history of the race were so many
hearts bleeding, and so many eyes suffused with tears at one time, as
on that sorrowful day. The nation was filled with grief, mingled with
indignation and horror at the deed. The land was literally draped in
mourning. Every city, and every town and village, displayed the sable
habiliments of grief. The response came back to our people, in kind,
from every civilized people on earth.
The writer was at the time a member of Grant's victorious army, and
had large opportunities for witnessing the effects produced by the sad
intelligence on the soldiery of our country. From the highest officers
down to the rank and file of the army, sorrow and grief were depicted
on every countenance. From Appomattox to Richmond the victorious
army that had been filled with joyful and hopeful anticipations over
its successes, and the prospect of the speedy dawn of peace, and of
returning to their homes and friends and to the pursuits of peaceful
life, after four years of arduous military service, was at once plunged
into the deepest sadness and gloom. Strong men wept. It was as though
every soldier had lost his dearest friend. There was always a day of
sadness in the army after every great battle, even in the triumphs
of victory, at the thought of the many brave comrades who had given
up their lives for their country, and would never again be seen in
the ranks,--who were even then being gathered up from the field and
carefully laid away in silence to await the resurrection morn; and of
the others, who with loss of limbs and fearful wounds, were receiving
the care of the surgeons and nurses in the hospitals improvised for the
occasion; but never before had such a pall of grief been thrown over
the entire army.
The depth of sorrow into which the nation was plunged by the news
of his assassination revealed, as nothing else could have done, the
place Abraham Lincoln held in the confidence and affections of the
loyal people of the land. The first shock of the sad intelligence was
almost paralytic. The people--even the army--for the moment stood dazed
and bewildered. What was the meaning of all this? Was the war to be
prolonged? Were we now to be called upon to turn our victorious arms
upon the enemy in the rear, of whose existence we had all the time been
conscious? Such were the questions that first suggested themselves. If
so, the army was then in a state of mind to have made a short work of
it. The victory over our armed foe in front, who had so bravely met us,
and often with success, on many a hotly-contested field, would never
have been yielded to the disloyal cowards who, through all of these
years of the war, from their safe retreats and hiding-places, threw
every obstacle they could in the way of our now martyred President, and
who had planned and accomplished his taking off.
The extent of the conspiracy had not as yet been revealed; but enough
was known to the government to evince the fact that this was an act of
deep political significance, having behind it a very different class of
men from the dissolute and depraved assassins who were executing their
behests, and not merely done for the gratification of personal and
political revenge. It was obvious that the occasion called for the most
vigorous and decided measures on the part of the government to meet
and overcome the strategy of assassinations just now entered upon. It
very soon became known to the authorities that the plot had been but
very partially executed, and that the purpose of the conspirators was
to subvert the constitution by depriving the nation of its executive
head, and leaving no constitutional way of electing a new President,
and at the same time to deprive the armies in the field of a lawful
commander. To accomplish this, the President, Vice-President, Secretary
of State, and General Grant were all to have been assassinated. The
conspirators in Canada and also the rebel president, when they heard
that only President Lincoln had been killed, could not conceal their
disappointment, and virtually confessed that their deep-laid scheme
had proven a failure. The former still adhered to their purpose, and
in their rage declared, "We are not done with them yet." We hardly
dare to venture upon the consideration of what would have been the
result had they completed the work they had planned. We have reason
for profound thankfulness to that God who has thus far so wisely and
graciously watched over our national progress, that he did not permit
its accomplishment. But we, who were actors on the stage at that time,
knowing how the principal actors in our national affairs, both civil
and military, had been schooled in self-sacrificing, patriotic devotion
to the institutions of our fathers, and their unfaltering purpose to
transmit them unimpaired to their children and children's children for
a perpetual inheritance, can but feel assured that even in the dire
extremity now under consideration they would have proven true to their
trust, and would have found a way to restore all of the machinery of
government provided for in the Constitution. The people are above the
Constitution even as the maker is above the thing made.
The rebel armies had been so completely overcome that they could no
longer have formed even a nucleus around which the traitors in the
North could have organized an opposition that could have been regarded
with other than feelings of contempt by our victorious hosts. The time
had passed; the opportunity was gone. No wonder the conspirators in
Canada gnashed their teeth with rage and disappointment because "the
boys had not been allowed to act when they wanted to." They had amongst
their many schemes concocted during the summer of 1864, such as making
raids, liberating rebel prisoners of war held in Northern prisons,
burning cities, spreading pestilence, and poisoning reservoirs, been
led also to consider this scheme of assassinations. All of these things
were to be done in aid of the rebellion.
As their cause became desperate on account of the continued success
of our arms, so did they become desperate in planning to retrieve. As
early as January, 1865, they received a communication from Jefferson
Davis suggesting these things and urging them to stop at nothing,
however desperate, and plainly intimating that Lincoln ought not to
be allowed to live; but it was not until the latter part of March,
1865, that they were prepared to present to him a definitely-prepared
plan for the accomplishment of their purposes that he could accept and
sanction. They had thus been long delayed, and now they were compelled
to realize that their work was a failure. No wonder that they all, from
Jefferson Davis down, felt and expressed grievous disappointment. It
reminds us of Milton's description of the malignant schemes, failures,
disappointments, and rage of the Prince of Devils in his contests with
the Almighty.