Mourning Lincoln Read Online Free PDF Page B

outrage.”
Horror. Grief. Outrage
. Sarah Browne’s description encapsulated the emotions of many: first shock, then sorrow, then anger. She copied down parts of the official account by Secretary of War Stanton from the morning newspapers: the time of the shooting, who else had been sitting in the presidential box, Booth’s leap to the stage, the attack on Secretary of State William Seward and his son Frederick (servingas assistant secretary of state). As Sarah walked through Salem over the following days—so different from the walk she had taken earlier that week, when neighbors had joyously congratulated one another over Union victory—she saw that neighborhood women had hastily sewn black borders onto the flags recently unfurled to celebrate triumph. “Almost every house shows something to symbolize deep grief,” she recorded, noticing as well the miniature black-trimmed flags pinned to children’s clothing.
    Sarah did not write to Albert for five days, wanting to be absolutely sure that he had already heard, that she would not be the one to convey the news. “By this time, the
atrocious deed
must have been made known to you,” she wrote then, imagining her husband’s state of mind: “
Your
heart as a part of the heart of
our
Nation must be distracted by feelings of honor and indignation.” Then Sarah helped Albert imagine the scene at home in Salem. She described the black-bordered flags and the black and white bunting on the houses and public buildings. After that, she attempted to convey something of her own experience. “The terrible news came to us in the midst of our great rejoicing,” she wrote, “on the very day too when the eyes of the nation were turned towards Fort Sumter—what a change! from frantic joy to frantic grief!” Unable to bring herself to rehearse the details, she bundled up the newspapers, adding a perfunctory, “I refer you to the daily press.” Later that day, Sarah wrote to Albert again, realizing that she had told him nothing else about herself or the family. “We have not recovered from the terrible shock,” she explained, adding that they all remained haunted by visions of the scene in the theater. 1
    Albert Browne was among a party of dignitaries accompanying Henry Ward Beecher when the telegram arrived at Saint Helena Island, between Charleston and Savannah, on Tuesday, April 18. The message was addressed to Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts and contained, Albert told Sarah, the “astonishing intelligence of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln.” Beecher decided to return to New York at once, and so the two bade farewell with sentiments restrained. “I took his hand in mine, he took mine in his,” Albert wrote, “and we parted without saying goodbye.” Stoic silence was an acceptable reaction to devastating news, comporting with conventions of manly behavior, as were the responses Sarah had imagined for her husband: identification with the nation and indignation for national honor. Even more than Sarah, Albert could find few words to expresshis feelings on paper, settling for a sentence with less emotion than his wife’s horror, grief, and outrage: “I cant say more & am too full.” Emotion crept in only when he once again recorded his sense of participation in history: “O how much I have lived in these few days!” 2
    Events in Charleston better permitted Albert to articulate his shock and sorrow. The Union-occupied city was draped and flags were lowered, while officers wore black bands on their left arms, as ordered by the War Department. Although he took in the “unmistakable evidence of its truth,” the whole thing still seemed truly unbelievable, coming as it did amid the celebrations at Sumter. “The reaction has been so sad so sudden, as to take from me the power of just thought,” Albert wrote to his family. 3
    THE MURDER OF GREAT LEADERS is at least as old as Julius Caesar, and death threats and attempts had not been unknown to Abraham Lincoln.