The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-09
MURDERED PRESIDENTS.
THE AssAssINATIONs OF LINCOLN
AND GARFIELD.

| Against Rulers.
From the Philadelphia Record.
President Mckinley is the third Ex-
ecuitve of the Federal government to
! fall under the bullet of the assassin.
Both Abraham Lincoln and James A.
Garfield died from their dastardly in
! flicted wounds, and have their names
inscribed upon the national calendar
of martyrs. The sad details of the
! fatal shooting of each of these rulers
| of the country have been vividly re-
called by the terrible crime at Buffalo.
and it may be worth while to narrate
again the main facts concerning those
past Presidential assassinations.
The shooting of Lincoln by John
| Wilkes Booth was the more sensation
al in view of the troubled state of the
| government at Washington, and was
highly dramatic in manner OF accom-
plishment. The additional feature that
Booth was the head of a sort of con-
| spiracy gave to the nartyrdon of Lin
coin a peculiar political significance
which most assassinations of modern
history have lacked. When Lincoln
went to Washington to take the oath
with fears of an attempted assassina,-
ton of the negro's friend But
| Honest Abe" passed through the grim
| ordeal of the Civil War without an at
| tempt on his life, and fell a victim to
| the assassin in the very hour of SEEM
| ing triumph and restored peace. On
April Il, 1865, General Anderson had
raised over Fort Sumter the tattered
flag he had hauled down just four
years before. The North was rejoicing
| that the war was over, when suddenly,
the news flashed throughout the land
| that Lincoln had been murdered.
When Lincoln Was Stricken.
On the night of that same April IA
| the wearied President had sought
slight diversion from the burdens OF his
Office in attending Ford's Theater, on
Tenth street, Washington, accompanied
| by Mrs. Lincoln and two friends-Ma-
| jor Henry Rathbone and a daughter of
| Senator Ira Harris The bill was Our
American Cousin" with Laura Keene
| in the cast. Miss Keene was awaiting
one of her cues in the side-wing and
| the audience was eagerly watching the
! play, when the report of a pistol star
tied everybody. A man was seen to
! leap from the Presidents box to the
| stage, brandishing a dagger, ana
| shouting sic semper tyrannis! The
| South is avenged" His foot caught in
the folds of flag, and he fell break
ing his leg. but regaining his feet he
| managed to escape to a side alley,
where he leaped upon a horse that had
| been kept saddled there, and fled from
| the city. The audience was seized with
| panic. Laura Keene running into the
| Presidents box held Lincoln's bleeding
head on her lap, and the robes of COM
| edy were becrimsoned with the blood OF
this terrible tragedy.
Booths Attempt to Escape.
John Wilkes Booths bullet had en-
tered one of Lincolns temples. After
shooting the President, the half-de-
mented actor had stabbed Maj. Rath-
| bone. The dying President was carried
| to a small house opposite the theater,
where, surrounded by his family and
| the principal officials of the govern
ment, he breathed his last at Z o'clock
on the morning of April IS, in the third
month of his 57th year. They JOY over
! the return of peace was ecipsed every
where by this bloody event. The body
| lay in state at the Capitol on April
| 90 and was viewed by a grand con-
course of mourning people. The next
| day the funeral train set out for Spring
| field, Ill. The cortege halted at all the
principal cities on the way, and was
greeted everywhere with extraordinary
| demonstrations of grief for the dead
| leader. The remains were finally laid
| to rest at Oak Ridge, near Springfield,
! on May 4. and a white harble monu-
ment (by the sculptor, Larkin G. Mead
now marks the consecrated ground.
The expressions of sorrow and condol-
| ence that were sent to the federal gov
| eminent from all over the world were
afterward published by the State De-
| partment in a quarto volume of near
| ly a thousand pages, called The Trib
ute of the Nations to Abraham Lin
| coin"
John wilkes Booth, the assassinator,
| succeeded in eluding capture for twelve
days after his crime. Fleeing on horse
| back to a farm about So miles from
| Washington, he lay for six days in the
| woods. Then he secretly crossed both
| the Potomac and the Rappahannock,
and took refuge in barn on a farm
near Bowling Green. To this hiding
| place a squadron OF United states
! troops tracked him. The barn was set
on fire and Booth, while resisting ar
rest, was shot dead by soldier named
Boston Corbett. Thus miserably per-
| ished the murderer of Lincoln, who was
a son of the noted actor, Junius Brutus
Booth. and whose gifts had seemed to
destine him to a noble career He had
been born at Bel Air, Md, in 1888, and
was only q years old. His last appear
ance as an actor had been at bene-
fiet for John Mccullough The deed
| brought for time an unmerited public
| contempt for the actors profession. His
own corpse was secretly buried under
| the f1agstones Of the arsenal ware
house at Washington. Two years later.
however, his brother, Edwin Booth, had
the remains reinterred in the family
plot in the cemetery ar Baltimore.
Booths HalIucination.
Booth undoubtedly labored under
the hallucination that he was reveng-
| ing Southern wrongs and sufferings in
| Staying Lincoln. The actor was at the
head of small conspiracy, and on the
same evening that he shot the Presi-
| dent fellow conspirator gained access
to the home of Secretary of State Will
| liam Henry Seward, where Seward lay
on couch with a fractured arm and
jaw, and stabbed the secretary several
times in the face and neck. Stewards
son was also struck down. After Sc
we're sufferings both of the attacked
men recovered from their knife wounds.
Later the conspiracy was unearthed:
four of the conspirators were hanged,
three were imprisoned for life and one
was sentenced for a term of years.
Andrew Johnson succeeded to the pres
| idency and to the tremendous problem
of Federal reconstruction, which he so