The Irish standard., 1905-04-15
1t Was Good Friday and Easter Sunday
Promised to be the Happiest in the
North For Many Years.
OF All Those Who Gathered to Watch the
Life of the Great Man Pass Away
John Hay Alone Survives

1t was forty years ago yesterday
since John Wilkes Booth shot Abra-
ham Lincoln in his box at Ford's
theatre, says the New York Herald.
They have been the most marvellous
forty years in American history. They
mark the most remarkable develop
ment any country has ever known. 1t
Lincoln had laid down his life that
his native land might prosper. When
he died peace had just been restored.
Half the country had been devas-
tatcd by civil war and the other half
was mourning for its sons, staggering
under IA great debt and facing serious
IL population of about 31,500O00. 1t
is today still enjoying a period of the
greatest prosperity; it is the richest
country on earth and h;is> a population
of nearly S5,OOO,OO0.
President Lincoln about two weeks
before his death, or, to be exact, on
March 23, visited the front, and before
he came back he had entered Peters
burg and Richmond, cities OH the
northern fringe of the country that
had been ruined by the civil war. He
returned to Washington on Sunday,
April 9, to learn of the surrender of
General Lee.
TO the ordinary man the ending of
the war successfully would have
brought feelings of the greatest pleas
ure and eXatation. The war was over.
The Union had been preserved. Gloom
had given way to light and hope The
draft had been under way in a hun
drcd towns when the news came. 1t
was stopped, and thousands in charge
of provost guards obtained their
liberty
There had been anxiety in a million
homes. But the surrender had changed
all this. And 1t was a triumph for
Abraham Lincoln, If for any man.
But there is no evidence that Lincoln
felt the slightest personal elation. The
natural sadness of his face had been
intensifying. He had gone to the front
not to direct the operations but to
escape the opportunities of Office seek
ers, to see Grant, on whom he relied,
and to be near where things of such
moment were happening.
The gloom of fatalism seems to
have settled on him. The photograph
which the Herald publishes of Lin
coin today, was taken by Alexander
Gardner, photographer of the Army
of the Potomac, on the Sunday before
he was shot and Immediately after his
return from the front. The pho.
tographer caught him in the act of
sharpening a lead pencil for his little
son, Thaddeus.
Lincoln must have heard of the sur.
render a short time before. Yet the
face wears a mantle of more than
usual melancholy, and those who
knew Lincoln in his last days say
that he went about his work with an
indescribable sadness written on his
face.
1t will be interesting to take a view
of conditions as they were in Wash
ingtOn about the time of the assassina-
tiOn, and to contrast them with the
changes which have been brought by
twoscore years 1t was just at the
close of the Lenten season that the
victorius army of Grant began to
march home Washington was filled
with soldiers and the Notifications
around the city were still manned by
the army. The hospitals were filled
with wounded and i'll volunteers. The
great shout of relief that had gone up
over the breaking down of the defense
OF Ice and the disintegration of the
Southern armies was still being
echoed in the capital.
The last speech of the president
was delivered on the evening of Thurs
day, April 13. This speech was
brought out by the general gloritica-
ton which was going on. Indeed, this
demonstration was in many respects