by furnishing, suddenly, a greater supply of labor than there will be demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room enough for all. Immigration, which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our shores hundreds of thousands more from over-crowded Europe. I intend to point them to the gold and silver that wait for them in the West. Tell the miners for me that I shall promote their interests to the best of my ability, because their prosperity is the prosperity of the nation, and we shall prove in a very few years, that we are indeed the treasury of the world.” As he uttered the last sentence his eyes kindled with enthusiasm. At eleven o'clock he met his cabinet. General Grant was present, having come direct from the field. The questions arising out of victory were fully discussed, and the leading propositions of the President received the hearty approval of the Secretaries and the victorious Chieftain, so that the Secretary of War declared the Government stronger than at any time since the beginning of the rebellion. In the afternoon Mr. Lincoln saw a number of gentlemen from Illinois, and in the early evening conversed at some length with Messrs. Colfax and Ashmun. Before separation he wrote the fol lowing in pencil, his last note: "Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come in at nine o'clock to-morrow. "A. LINCOLN." The President and General Grant had been invited to attend Ford's Theater that night, and the public prints had announced that they would do so, and occupy the State-box. The General left the City. Mr. Lincoln was disinclined to go, but fearing a popular disappointment if neither himself nor the General was present, decided to attend and invited Colfax and Ashmun to accompany him, who declined. The President and Mrs. Lincoln entered their carriage, drove to the house of Senator Harris where they were joined by Miss Harris and Major Rathborne, the Senator's step-son. They reached the theater at forty minutes past eight. They entered the reserved box and were greeted with prolonged and hearty applause in which was mingled love for the man, admiration for the President, gladness for the victory of the nation. The President bowed and was seated. The box was a double one, on the second floor, above the stage. From the front, a narrow passage to the rear of the dress-circle reached the box, requiring three doors. The President occupied a high-backed rocking-chair, and the play went on. Turn to another person. In the morning of that sad Good Friday, John Wilkes Boothe, a disloyal actor, a man whose sympathy was all with rebellion, learned of the arrangement for the theater. He engaged a rapid and well-trained mare for a saddleride in the afternoon. Visiting Kirkwood's Hotel he sent a card to Vice-President Johnson on which was written "I don't wish to disturb you; are you at home?" It was signed with his name. He was answered that the Vice-President was busy. At four he called at the stable and rode off on the mare, which he placed where it was to serve his purpose. In the evening he proceeded to the theater, passed through the narrow hall, and showing a card to the President's messenger, entered the vestibule of the fated box. He secured himself against entrance from without by bracing the door with a piece of plank. All his arrangements were made with diabolical coolness. He took a careful survey of the interior of the box and saw that all was ready; his victim was seated as it was meant he should be and there was a way of escape across the stage. The President was leaning forward, holding the curtain of the box. The assassin cocked a small silver-mounted Derringer pistol, and taking in his left hand a keen, double-edged dagger, he stepped to the inner door. The back and side of the President's head were fully exposed. Boothe instantly fired, and the ball crashed through Mr. Lincoln's brain; his head dropped forward very slightly, and he was quiet. The report of the pistol was supposed by the audience to be a part of the programme. Major Rathborne sprang to his feet and seized the assassin, who dropped his pistol and struck the officer with his dagger, wounding him in the left arm near the shoulder. He sprang to the front of the box, drew aside the folds of the flag with which it was festooned, and leaped to the stage. As he did so, his spur caught the folds of the flag and he partly fell. Recovering his balance, he waved his dagger and repeated the motto of Virginia, "Sic semper Tyrannis!" and added "the South is avenged!" He started for the passage leading to the stage-door in the rear of the theater. He had calculated upon the audacity of the act as its security, and so it proved. The audience did not yet comprehend the terrible fact. The murderer dashed aside all in his way, rushed through the door opened in readiness for him, sprang into the saddle, and rode rapidly over the Anacosta bridge, and for the time being was safe. The shot, the scene upon the stage, the escape were the work of a moment. Mrs. Lincoln screamed. Rathborne started for assistance to find the outer door barred, and the terrible fact of assassination burst upon the audience! Women shrieked and fainted. Men shouted impotently for vengeance and rushed to pursue the flying murderer. The uproar was terrific. The lights were turned off, and the griefstricken multitude dispersed. Several surgeons came forward and examined the wound. The President was conveyed to the house of Mr. Peterson on Tenth street, where he was placed on a bed in a small room. Surgeon General Barnes examined the wound and in a sad undertone said "Mortal." Secretary Stanton burst into tears and sobbed out, "Oh no! General, no, no! Secretaries Welles and McCulloch, Postmaster-General Dennison, Attorney-General Speed, General Meigs, Senator Sumner and other distinguished gentlemen were soon in attendance and remained until all was over. Charles Sumner held one of the hands of the dying man and wept as a child. The wife, to be widowed in a few hours, sat with her son and Mrs. Senator Dixon in an adjoining room. The following minutes kept by Dr. Abbott show the progress of dissolution through that terrible night: 12.40 o'clock, pulse 69, right eye much swollen and ecchymosis. 86, very quiet, respiration irregular, Mrs. Lincoln present. Mrs. Lincoln retired with Robert to an adjoining room. President very quiet, pulse 54, respiration 28. pulse 48, respiration 30. 12.55 1 1.30 visited again by Mrs. Lincoln. prayer by Rev. Dr. Gurley. 7.22 66 pulse failing, respiration 28. still failing and labored breathing. DEATH. At the last moment there were in attendance the Vice-President, Secretaries Stanton, Wells, McCulloch, Usher; AttorneyGeneral Speed, Postmaster-General Dennison, Generals Halleck, Meigs, Farnsworth, Augur and Todd; Senator Sumner, Rev. Dr. Gurley, Speaker Colfax, Ex-Governor Farwell, Judge Carter, Judge Otto, Surgeon-General Barnes; Doctors Crane, Stone, Abbott, and Hall; M. B. Field and R. F. Andrews. At the moment death was announced Dr. Gurley kneeled and offered prayer, and then proceeding to the adjoining apartment prayed with those whose mourning was saddest as their grief was deepest. In another quarter of the city the tragedy of assassination was going forward, but not to completion. At ten o'clock, within a few minutes of the time of the President's murder, a man, subsequently proven to be Lewis Payne Powell, one of the conspirators, ordinarily known as Payne, called at the residence of Secretary Seward, who was disabled from a recent accident, and said to the colored lad at the door that he came with medicines for Mr. Seward. He was refused admission but forcibly made his way to the third floor and was about entering Mr. Seward's room when Mr. Frederick Seward stopped him. The villain drew a pistol and snapped it, and then struck Frederick with it so violently as to fracture the skull and knock him to the floor, made his way to the Secretary's bedside, and stabbed at his throat, wounding him severely. A soldier named Robinson, Mr. Seward's nurse, himself an invalid, threw his arms around Payne and struggled with him until severely stabbed. During this struggle, Mr. Seward rolled himself from his bed. The villain alarmed by cries of murder sprang for the door, meeting Major Augustus Seward he struck him with his knife, and on the stairs stabbed Mr. Hansell, one of Mr. Seward's attendants, in the back. Thus he severely wounded five persons and made his escape! The intelligence of this double blow at the organic lite of the state produced a fearful excitement. Many clamored for vengeance. There was a general inquiry, How far does the conspiracy extend? If we have entered upon an era of assassination how many are written in its doom-book? In Washington the commotion was terrible. Mr. Stanton hearing of the assault at once upon his superior, and his colleague, saw that a formidable conspiracy was striking desperately, and promptly issued orders closing all drinking shops and places of public gatherings in the city, stationing guards at all avenues of assault or escape, for protecting the person of the VicePresident and government officials and for securing the public buildings. Throughout the country strong men staggered under the intelligence. Bells tolled in every steeple, and mourning badges were on every house. In Illinois that grief was the deeper because Illinois. best knew and loved the slain chieftain. He had grown with her growth, he was identified with her history, he had fought the battle of freedom on her prairies, she had given him to the nation, and had sent him with loving benedictions and earnest prayers to the post of responsibility, peril, death! At Springfield and Chicago, the grief and indignation were most intense. Yet at its hight, men and women as by instinct made their way to the principal churches, crowding them to the utmost, and calling for Christian pastors to lead them in prayer and steady them with exhortation. So wore away that day. The next was the Sabbath, and almost every pulpit made fitting allusion to the sad blow which had fallen |