The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-14
AT LINCOLN'S DEATHBED
Secretary John Hay Only SurvvorCorporal Tanner
Was Capacity of StenograPher and Gives
+ene and Craphic Description of Presidents

I have the original shorthand notes
which 1 made on that table ana the
longhand copy which wrote out before
leaving the Peterson house. We had
Harry Hawk who had been on the
stage: Laura Keene and various others
before US. No one said positively that
the assassin was John Wilkes Boo h,
but all thought it was he. 1t was
evident that the horror of the crime
held them back. They seemed to hate
to think that one they had known
at all could be guilty of such an awful
crime.
Many distinguished people came in
during the night. Our work was often
interrupted by reports coming in to
Secretary Stanton and more often in
terrupted by him when he halted the
testimony to give orders. Through all
that awful night Stanton was the one
man of steel
Mrs Lincoln was in the front parlor
adjoining the room in which we sat.
The folding doors We're closed. but her
means and cries We're plainly audible
and pitiful to the last degree. II had
been about midnight when I was call
ed in. The President and Mrs. Lincoln
had been accompanied to the theatre
by a niece of Senator Ira Harris of
New York and by Major Rathbone of
the army. My impression is that the
young lady's name was Rathbona AMI
that she was a distant relative of the
Major. He had been slashed in the
arm by Booth, but in the great excite
ment did not notice it nor did any one
else until he tainted from loss of blood.
He and the young lady afterward
married.
The door leading from our room
into the hallway was open much Of
the time, and twice during the night
Mrs. Lincoln was escorted down the
hallway to the room in the L where
her husband lay dying. Once as they
supported her back to the front parlor
I heard her exclaim: oh, my God, and
have given my husband to die?'
II finished transcribing my notes at
Gas A. NJ. and then passed back to
the room in the L where the President
was dying. Many of the chief men of
the nation were there. such as Secre-
taries Stanton. Welles and Usher,
Gems. Speed and Dennison. Assistant
Secretaries Field and Otto. Gov. Ogles-
by of Illinois, Senator Sumner and
SGCISldIy Mc1uAlOuSD, 1SllS. U1tl=S anu
Augur. Private Secretary John Hay,
the Surgeon General of the army and
many other men of eminence. At the
head of the bed stood Capt. Robert
Lincoln. supported by Senator Sumner.
Both were very much affected. I APP
preached quite near the bed and stood
a little to the left of Robert Lincoln.
Gen. Halleck was just behind me and
Gems. Halleck and Mefgs and had
fair view of the dying Presidents
features, looking from behind and over
him. He was entirely unconscious from
the time he was shot until the end.
He breathed very hard until a short
time before he died. when he drew his
minutes past A. NJ. he breathed his
last.
1.-The bed had been pulled out of the
corner of the room, where il usually
stood and the Presidents great length
had made it necessary to place him
crosswise on it. The Surgeon-GeneraI
sat on the edge of the bed his finger
on the Presidents pulse Occasional
~ he stopped to place his ear at the
heart of the dying man. Secretary
EotcHlOII Iei1 ldhSu d seat DE the SlQS
of the bed.
Il r peat Stanton had been steel all
through the night, but as l looked at
his face across the corner of the bed
and saw the twitching of the muscles
L knew it was only by a powerful eff
fort that he restrained himself and
that he was near a break.
The first indication that the expect
ed but dreaded end had come was
when the Surgeon General gently laid
the pulseless hand of Lincoln across
the motionless breast and rose to his
feet The Rev DR.. Gurley lifted his
hands and we knew without any an
nouncement that the end had come. I
snatched the pencil from my pocket
but my haste defeated my purpose The
point caught in my coat and broke and
the world lost the prayer-a prayer
which was only interrupted by the sobs
of Mr.. Stanton as he buried his face
in the bedclothes. AS Thy will be
done. Amen. in subdued and tremu-
lous tones fioated through that little
chamber, Mr. Stanton raised his face,
the tears streaming down his cheeks.
and calculated while he looked. OH so
~