The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1865-04-19
The National CalaInity-The As.
sassinatiOn Of the President
and the Secretary of State.


While the heart of the Nation, says
the Cincinnati Enquirer, was thrilling
with joy, on Friday the l4th, at the pros
pect Of peace while illuminatioas and
bonfres made the horizon glow with the
brightest hope-tbe act of assassins, at
the Capitol, threw a dark cloud of gloom
over the people and rendered the close of
the day as melancholy as its opening was
bright and joyous. We have exchanged
the gay and merry peal of the festive
bell for the deep and solemn toncslof fun
eral solemnities, The laurel wreathes of
triumph have been darkly shaded in cy-
press, aud the banners that SO splcndidly
waved have dropped aud fallen in the
breeze. From the nights Of gladness we
have fallen to the deepest slough of sor-
row and regret.
1T with the deepest sorrow that we
make the dreadful announcement to our
readers that ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the
President Of the United States, aud WIN
II. SEWARD, the Secretary of State, has
hten assassinated in Washington, under
circumstances Of peculiar and dreadful
atrocity ; the former having been shot by
an assassin while witnessing the perform
ance at the thnater, and the latter, while
confined to u sick bed, had his throat cut,
and other fatal injuries inflicted. So sud.
den and overwhelming was this announce
ment, that when our eyes first rested up.
on il, it seemed like some horril and ter.
rible dream from which We had just been
awakened.
The act was SO bloody and desperate,
so ferocious and cruel, SO entirely opposed
to all the practice of the American peC-
pie, who, whatever their faults, have not
been inclined to secret assassination as q
remedy for imagined political or personal
wrongs, that we could hardly persuade
ourselves that w were not pursuing some
dark chapter in Italian infamy. We
doubt whether, among all the warmest
personal and political friends of LIN
COLIN and SEWARD, tkero can be found
one who is more deeply panied and shock
ed at this catastrophe, or who has darker
fears of its unfortunate results to the
country, than ourselves.
At this crisis Of our national affairs,
there were no two men in the Admins
tration whom the mas Of the people
looked to with as much hope and conf.
dence that their influence would be
upon the side of wisdom and hu,
manity, as those whom the hand of an
assassin has taken from us. Especially
this true of the party that has been
opposed to the Administration. We are
now thrown upon the deep ocean of I'm.
certainty. Sorrowlul it is, inexpensive
y sorrowful, that be, of ell others, who
had it in his power, and it was apparent.
his disposition to hold up the cup of
peace to the nation, and to extract, So far
Is he could, the stings of war, should
with his mission unperfOrmcd.
What could have been the motive Of
he murderer or murderers, who deliber.
ltely and with malice perpetrated these
'wful crimes? Were they Influenced
With the spirh of hate against their couu.
ny, and animated with the desire to do
he greatest possible amount of mischief
it in their power? We must confess
hat upon no other hypothesis can we &C.
for acts at met so demoniac aud
md crazy.
This is one of the most awful pages in
The dread history of the last fohr years,
stained as IL is with horrors, and render
ID bloody with crime. The hand Of af-
has been indeed laid heavily upon
,ur people, and we have been visited
With the most dreadful ills that can
a nation, Or render its tenure of
sxistance painful and insecure.
Fondly do We express the hope that
The history is ncar its conclusion, and
the murder Of our chief rulers in
places is the eliminating leaf of an
ntrocious record, and that our darkest
hour has passed, soon to be succeeded by
A brighter dawn,
EEEZEEzHEZEZEV
pa- Notwithstanding "Our great VIC