The President never spoke again. He severely, but not mortally. Before he April remained totally unconscious till could deal a fourth and perhaps fatal 15. about seven on the following morn-blow, an invalid soldier in attendance ing, when his breathing, which till that named Robinson, seized Payne around time had continued regular though diffi- the body, and endeavored to separate cult, began to suffer long interruptions, the assassin from his victim. Robinson and at twenty-two minutes past seven received several severe knife wounds, he expired. but did not let go his hold till Mr. Seward had succeeded in getting off the bed on the farther side, when Payne by a violent effort broke away and made off, striking with his dagger Mr. Augustus Seward, whom he met in the upper hall, and Mr. Hansell, whom he encountered on the stairs. There was no one to oppose his exit at the front door, and he succeeded in getting to his horse, when he mounted and rode off. The news that the President had fallen by the hand of an assassin spread immediately through the city, followed quickly by the almost incredible rumor that a still more terrible though less fatal assault had been made upon Secretary Seward. In the accident before alluded to his right arm was broken above the elbow and his jaw shattered. He had been for nearly two weeks confined to his bed in a state of extreme debility. About the time that Booth entered the theatre, a man named Lewis Payne Powell, generally known as Payne, pretending to be the bearer of some medicines, obtained admission into Mr. Seward's residence, rushed up stairs, reached the third floor, and was about to enter the room where the Secretary was lying, when he was confronted by Mr. Frederick Seward, who refused him admission. Payne snapped a pistol at him, but without effect, and then struck him on the head twice with such force as to fracture his skull and prostrate him. Miss Fannie Seward, who was in her father's room, hearing the noise, opened the door, when Payne rushed in, and with a bowie-knife in his hand sprang upon the bed where Mr. Seward was lying, and made three powerful stabs at his throat, wounding him The news of these terrible events produced the utmost indignation throughout the country, and for a time public opinion inclined toward measures of extreme severity in regard to the Confederate leaders, who at first were supposed to have instigated the crime in the hope of producing a diversion which might operate in some way in their favor. But in the subsequent trial of the assassins and their associates it was not made apparent that the rebel authorities were in any degree implicated. The evidence went rather to show that the plot originated with Booth, and that the other conspirators were selected by him as his assistants. The funeral honors paid to the deceased chief magistrate surpassed in magnificence and in the manifestation of real sorrow those ever bestowed on any President who had died either in or out of office, and have hardly been equalled in pomp by the obsequies of any monarch of ancient or modern times. The assassin Booth had been from the outbreak of the rebellion one of its most fanatical devotees, and when its fortunes began to wane, his mind became absorbed in desperate schemes. Papers which he left behind him show that he had deliberately dedicated himself, apparently with little fear of consequences, to the concoction and execution of plans which he hoped might accomplish by secret and treacherous means what open rebellion had proved powerless to secure. With the utmost care and deliberation he plotted the murder of Mr. Lincoln and of the leading members of the Government, including VicePresident Johnson, assuming himself entire charge of the enterprise. He selected for his assistants several persons who appear to have been better fitted for tools than confederates. Their meetings were held at the house of a Mrs. Surratt, in the city of Washington, and arrangements were made according to which she was to render services in aiding the escape of the conspirators after the execution of their plans. Booth, after shooting the President, escaped across the eastern branch of the Potomac and found temporary shelter among rebel sympathizers in Lower Maryland. He subsequently crossed the Long Bridge into Virginia, and turning southward rode a distance of nearly thirty miles to the residence of Dr. Mudd, who set his broken leg, some and aided in concealing him, and finally conveyed him across a swamp, from whence Booth escaped still farther southward, traversed the Northern Neck of Virginia, crossed the Rappahannock at Swan Point, and made his way with great difficulty to Garrett's Farm, near Bowling Green, about twenty miles below Fredericksburg. To this point he was followed by Colonel Baker with a number of detectives, on the night of the 25th of April. He had, in company with an accomplice named Harold, concealed himself in a barn, and when discovered, obstinately refused to surrender. Upon his pursuers setting fire to the barn, he attempted to fire upon them, when he was shot through the head by Sergeant Boston Corbett. He survived about three hours, perfectly conscious, but in great agony, and died about seven o'clock in the morning April of the 26th of April, eleven days 26. after his victim. Several persons implicated more or less directly in Booth's conspiracy were subsequently apprehended and tried before a military commission in the city. of Washington. Harold, who was with Booth when he was shot; Mrs. Surratt, who had aided the assassins; a man named Atzerott, who was to have killed Vice-President Johnson; and Payne, the assailant of Secretary Seward, were executed on the 6th of July, and several others, including Dr. Mudd, were sentenced to imprisonment for life or for a term of years for their share in the conspiracy. Few men either in the North or the South had the temerity to become apologists for the criminals, and public sentiment, overlooking everything that was irregular in the proceedings of the military commission, applauded its action and gave it the sanction of a general and emphatic approval. If evidence had been wanting of the stability of republican institutions and of the capacity of the people to meet any possible emergency in the conduct of their officers, it was afforded in the steadiness with which the business of the Government went on in spite of a shock which in many countries would have been the signal for a bloody revolution. In the event of a President's death the Constition had provided that the functions of his office should devolve upon the VicePresident. Accordingly, at ten o'clock on the morning of the 15th of April, the day of the decease of President Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson took the oath of office as President, and entered upon the discharge of his new duties, without opposition in any quarter, thus making it apparent that in war as in peace, in the most trying crisis of a nation's career, as well as in the ordinary course of public affairs, a government "of the people and for the people" is the strongest and safest in the world. Much interest was immediately awakened in the public mind to learn the views of President Johnson on the state of the country and the plan to be pursued in restoring the seceded States to the Union. From several States delegations waited upon him, tendering their hearty support. To these he replied in general terms that his past course must be the indication of what his future. would be. "I have now as always," said the President, in reply to a delegation from New Hampshire, "an abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of justice and right, and I shall seek the inspiration and guidance of this faith, in the assured belief that the present struggle will result in the permanent establishment of our Government, and in making us a free, united, and happy people. This Government is now passing through a fiery, and, let us hope, its last ordeal one that will test its powers of endurance, and will determine whether it can do what its enemies have deniedsuppress and punish treason. This is the trial through which we are now passing, and, if we are true to ourselves and the principles upon which the Constitution was framed, who can doubt that the Government will settle down upon a more enduring basis than its best friends have dared to hope for it? "In entering upon the discharge of the grave duties before me, it has been suggested and even urged by friends whose good opinions I value, and whose judgment I respect, that I should foreshadow the policy that would guide me, in some formal, public manifesto. But who could have foretold the events of the past four years? Who was wise enough to indicate beforehand a line of policy adapted to all the changing emergencies of that period? It is not in the wisdom and foresight of man to prescribe a course of action in advance, for such disturbed and perilous condi the temerity to become apologists for the criminals, and public sentiment, overlooking everything that was irregular in the proceedings of the military commission, applauded its action and gave it the sanction of a general and emphatic approval. If evidence had been wanting of the stability of republican institutions and of the capacity of the people to meet any possible emergency in the conduct of their officers, it was afforded in the steadiness with which the business of the Government went on in spite of a shock which in many countries would have been the signal for a bloody revolution. In the event of a President's death the Constition had provided that the functions of his office should devolve upon the VicePresident. Accordingly, at ten o'clock on the morning of the 15th of April, the day of the decease of President Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson took the oath of office as President, and entered upon the discharge of his new duties, without opposition in any quarter, thus making it apparent that in war as in peace, in the most trying crisis of a nation's career, as well as in the ordinary course of public affairs, a government "of the people and for the people" is the strongest and safest in the world. Much interest was immediately awakened in the public mind to learn the views of President Johnson on the state of the country and the plan to be pursued in restoring the seceded States to the Union. From several States delegations waited upon him, tendering their hearty support. To these he replied in general terms that his past course must be the indication of what his future would be. "I have now as always," said the President, in reply to a delegation from New Hampshire, "an abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of justice and right, and I shall seek the inspiration and guidance of this faith, in the assured belief that the present struggle will result in the permanent establishment of our Government, and in making us a free, united, and happy people. This Government is now passing through a fiery, and, let us hope, its last ordeal. -one that will test its powers of endurance, and will determine whether it can do what its enemies have deniedsuppress and punish treason. This is the trial through which we are now passing, and, if we are true to ourselves and the principles upon which the Constitution was framed, who can doubt that the Government will settle down. upon a more enduring basis than its best friends have dared to hope for it? "In entering upon the discharge of the grave duties before me, it has been suggested and even urged by friends whose good opinions I value, and whose judgment I respect, that I should foreshadow the policy that would guide me, in some formal, public manifesto. But who could have foretold the events of the past four years? Who was wise enough to indicate beforehand a line of policy adapted to all the changing emergencies of that period? It is not in the wisdom and foresight of man to prescribe a course of action in advance, for such disturbed and perilous condi |