It is easy
also to imagine the sharp anxiety of those who had the
President's safety in their charge during this tiresome and even
foolhardy march through a town still in flames, whose white
inhabitants were sullenly resentful at best, and whose grief and
anger might at any moment break out against the man they looked
upon as the chief author of their misfortunes. No accident befell
him. He reached General Weitzel's headquarters in safety, rested
in the house Jefferson Davis had occupied while President of the
Confederacy; and after a day of sightseeing returned to his
steamer and to Washington, there to be stricken down by an
assassin's bullet, literally "in the house of his friends."
XIII. THE FOURTEENTH OF APRIL
Refreshed in body by his visit to City Point and greatly cheered
by the fall of Richmond, and unmistakable signs that the war was
over, Mr. Lincoln went back to Washington intent on the new task
opening before him--that of restoring the Union, and of bringing
about peace and good will again between the North and the South.
His whole heart was bent on the work of "binding up the nation's
wounds" and doing all which lay in his power to "achieve a just
and lasting peace." Especially did he desire to avoid the
shedding of blood, or anything like acts of deliberate
punishment. He talked to his cabinet in this strain on the
morning of April 14, the last day of his life.
Pages:
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221