Lincoln the Target

LINCOLN THE TARGET
1865

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln happened just as the North began to embrace a brighter postwar, postslavery future. Lincoln was killed because he had won the war, ended slavery, and saw a future with some amount of voting rights granted to African Americans. While it was clearly a Confederate plot, the direct responsibility for the murder rested in the hands of the assassin who fired a single shot while Lincoln attended the theater. The response across the Union was immediate shock and anger. While two previous presidents had died in office, no president had yet been killed by a conspiracy. The nation was consumed not only with unprecedented anguish but also with an unprecedented pursuit of justice for the slain executive. The obsequies for Lincoln were conducted on a national scale, with simultaneous services on all military posts and a funeral train that curved through the North and West.

“From Washington. Pres. Lincoln Assassinated!” Clarion Extra (Princeton, IN) Apr. 15, 1865.

Abott A. Abott, The Assassination and Death of Abraham Lincoln (New York: American News, [1865]).

“Sad News! The President Assassinated!” [Newspaper Extra] (n.p.: n.p., 1865).

“The Nation’s Calamity!” [Newspaper Extra] (n.p.: n.p., 1865).

George Alfred Townsend, The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth (New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, [1865]).

Life, Trial and Extraordinary Adventures of John H. Surratt (Philadelphia: Barclay, [ca. 1867]).

Trial of the Assassins and Conspirators for the Murder of Abraham Lincoln (Philadelphia: Barclay, [1865]).

“Execution of the Conspirators,” National Police Gazette (New York, NY) July 15, 1865.

“Assassin of the President,” American Phrenological Journal (New York, NY) June 1865.