196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



to attain its purpose, and the heroic deeds achieved by both 

 during this long and sanguinary war, resulting in the complete 

 victory of the North, and the lamentable death of Abraham 

 Lincoln. 



The war of secession was just ended, peace was restored, 

 and business was progressing actively everywhere, when this 

 foul act was perpetrated. On the I4th of April, 1865, the 

 President and his wife assisted for the first time, since the 

 war, to a theatrical representation, accompanied by Mrs. 

 Harris and Mr. Rashburn. They occupied the front of the 

 stage on the left of the theatre. The play represented, was 

 a gay one, Our American Cousin. The President leaning 

 forward, his head between his hands, was entirely absorbed 

 w r ith the play, when a shot was heard, and at the same time 

 a man was seen jumping in the front of the stage, a dagger in 

 hand, and crying Sic semper tyrannis. All the spectators 

 rose, the murderer ran away in the lobby, pursued by a lawyer, 

 Mr. Stuart, who very nearly overtook him, but the murderer 

 escaped by shutting a door in his face. 



The President had been shot in the head. He was 

 carried immediately into a house, close by the theatre, where 

 he died the next morning at 7.20. 



As to the murderer, who had been able to make his escape 

 on horseback, he had been recognised by another actor, one of 

 his comrades, as one named John Wilkes Booth. This Booth 

 had been mixed up in many political events. He was an 

 enthusiastic Sudist ; he declared that he murdered President 

 Lincoln to avenge the defeat of the Sudists. He was dis 

 covered hy the police in a hut near Port Royal, Maryland, 

 where he had taken refuge with one of his accomplices. 

 Summoned to deliver themselves up, the two criminals wavered. 

 The accomplice, Harold, surrendered, but Booth decided to 

 resist. Then the police set fire to the hut, and when Booth 

 appeared, trying to escape, he \vas shot. The corpse was 

 deposited on board a monitor, from where it disappeared 

 several days after. This dreadful drama ended in absolute 

 mystery, and the slavery, to the maintenance of which Booth 

 had sacrificed President Lincoln, was nevertheless definitely 

 abolished. 



On the morrow of the assassination of President Lincoln, 

 Minister Seward was also murdered. 



Abraham Lincoln was born the I2th of February, 1809, 

 in the State of Kentucky. Son of a pioneer, from the early 

 age of seven, he took part in the hard labour of clearing land. 



