Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, from
The History of Abraham Lincoln, and
The Overthrow of Slavery, by Isaac
N. Arnold. Chicago: Clarke & Co., 1866.

In a communication to the Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives just two days after President Abraham Lincoln's death on April 15th, 1865, Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew—a strong supporter of the President—expressed his sorrow for the country’s great loss:

“…I desire on this grave occasion, to record my sincere testimony to the unaffected simplicity of his manly purpose, to the constancy with which he devoted himself to his duty, to the grand fidelity with which he subordinated himself to his country, to the clearness, robustness, and sagacity of his understanding, to his sincere love of truth, his undeviating progress in its faithful pursuit, and to the confidence which he could not fail to inspire in the singular integrity of his virtues and the conspicuously judicial quality of his intellect.”

From Massachusetts House Document #227, 1865, page 3.

Special Collections Department