Most of the residents of Washington, D.C. were shocked and horrified by the assassination of Republican President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Because of its geographical location, the city was sometimes suspected of being sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War. Since Lincoln was killed in Washington, some of the residents worried Republican congressional leaders would seek revenge on the city. Thirteen days after Lincoln died, in an attempt to show loyalty, city and business leaders decided to erect a memorial honoring the slain president. It was the first Lincoln monument commissioned after his death, but not the first one built. In 1866, a plaster statue (later replaced by a metal one) of Lincoln was erected in San Francisco. It was destroyed during the firestorm that followed the 1906 earthquake.