The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend.
4 I Obcfuqua t WatAingo. are the representatives and leading officials of the various deA rtm, with a few odd folk like George' Francis Train, exquisite as ever, and, for this time only, with nothing to say. Close by the corpse sit the relatives of the deease, plain, honest hardy people, typical as much of',he simplicity of our institutions as of Mr. Lincoln's self-made eminePce. No blood relatives of Mr. Lincoln were to be found.. It is a singular evidence of the poverty of his origin, and therefore of his exceeding good report, that, excepting his immediate family, none answering to his name could be discovered. Mrs. Lincoln's relatives were present, however, in some force. Dr. Lyman Beecher Todd, General John B. S. Todd, C. M. Smith, Esq., and Mr. N. W. Edwards, the late President's brother-in-law, plain, self-made people were here and ,were sincerely affected. Captain Robert Lincoln sat during the services with his face in his handkerchief weeping quietly, and little Tad his face red and heated, cried as if his heart would break. Mrs. Lincoln, weak, worn, and nervous, did not enter the- East room nor follow the remains. She was the chief magistrate's lady yesterday; to-day a widow bearing only an immortal name. Among, the neighbors of the late President, who came from afar to pay respect to his remains, was one old gentleman who left Richmond on Sunday. I had been upon the boat with him and heard him in hot wrangle with some officers who advised the summary execution of all rebel leaders. This the old man opposed, when the feeling against him became so intense that he was compelled to retire. lie counselled mercy, good faith, and forgiveness. To-day, the men who had called him a traitor, saw him among the family mourners, bent with grief. All these are waiting in solemn lines, standing erect, with a space of several feet between them and the coffin, and there is no bustle nor unseemly curiosity, not a whisper, not a footfall-only the collected nation looking with cwed hearts upon eminent death. This scene is historic I regret that I must tell you of it over a little wire, for it admits of all exemplification. In this high, spacious, elegant apartment, laughter and levee, social pleasantry and refined badinage, had often held their session. Dancing and music had made those mirrors thrill which now reflect a pall, and where the most beautifuil women of their day had mingled here with men of brilliant favor, now only a very few, brave enough to look upon death, were wearing funeral weeds. The pleasant face of Mrs. Kate Sprague looks out from these; but such scenes gain little additional power by beauty's presence. And this wonderful relief was carved. at one blow by John Wilkes Booth. The religious services began at noon. They were remarkable not only for their association with the national event, but for a tremendous political energy which they had. While none of the prayers or speeches exhibited great literary carefulness, or will obtain perpetuity on their own merits, they were full of feeling and expressed all the intense concern of the country. The procession surpassed.in sentiment, populousness, and sincere good feeling, anything of the kind we have had in America. It was several miles long, and in all its elements wag full and tasteful. The scene on the avenue will be alway remembered as the only occasion on which that great thoroughfare was a real adornment to the seat of government. In the tree tops, on the house tops, at all the windows, the silent and affected crowds clustered beneath half.mast banners and waving crape, to reverentially uncover as the dark vehicle, bearing its rich silver-mounted coffin, swept along; mot, toWes of reos Ad homage were on many edifices, and singularly some of 2 17 I
About this Item
- Title
- The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend.
- Author
- Townsend, George Alfred, 1841-1914.
- Canvas
- Page 17
- Publication
- New York,: Dick & Fitzgerald
- [1865]
- Subject terms
- Booth, John Wilkes, -- 1838-1865.
- Lincoln, Abraham, -- 1809-1865 -- Assassination.
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- Making of America Books
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"The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth,: with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices./ By George Alfred Townsend." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aau8937.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 4, 2025.