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ADDRESSES 
 
 delivered before the Com- 
 mandery of the State of 
 New York, MiHtary Order 
 of the Loyal Legion of the 
 United States, at the regular 
 meeting held February 3, 
 1909, at Delmonico's, in 
 observance of the One 
 Hundredth Anniversary of 
 the birth of President 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 X 
 

 UNOOLNIAN* 
 
preeibent Hbrabam Xincoln 
 
 Gcnrrul Ansoii G. McCook, Senior ricc-CdiiDiunnicr, coiiuiiaiiding, 
 presided, mid spoke as f^'lloc^'s: 
 
 Since the organization of this Commandery two Commanders have died 
 in office, Ulysses S. Grant, in July, 1885, and Joseph B. Coghlan, in Decem- 
 ber, 1908. The sudden death of Admiral Coghlan was not only a shock to 
 all of us. but thereby another distinguished name has been placed on the 
 roll of our honored dead. His life was an active and useful one. He served 
 the country with gallantry and distinction in war and in peace for over 
 forty years. He was devoted to the interests of this Commandery and to 
 the charitable and patriotic purposes for which the Loyal Legion was es- 
 tablished. He was a loyal friend and as manly and lovable a gentleman as 
 I have ever known. 
 
 A delegation from this Commandery accompanied his body ho 
 Washington and he is buried in historic Arlington, by the side of thou- 
 sands of his comrades who died for the Union, and not far from another 
 well-beloved member of this Commandery, General Martin T. McMahon. 
 
 He was buried with the honors due his rank and station. The guns 
 of Fort Meyer^ fired an artillery salute, a company of marines bred three 
 volleys over his grave, and when taps were sounded there were few 
 dry eyes among those who were there to do honor to their commander 
 and friend. 
 
 hnmediately after the return of the delegation the Board of Officers 
 convened and a committee was appointed consisting of General Hub- 
 bard. Captain James Parker and Paymaster Barton to prepare resolu- 
 tions in regard to our former commander. 
 
 General Hubbard is here and I ask him to read tlie resolutions to 
 the Commandery. 
 
 General Hubbard read the following report : 
 
 The New York Commandery of the JMilitary Order of the Loyal 
 Legion has dedicated this evening to the commemoration of the birth 
 and life of Abraham Lincoln. It is fitting that it should at the same 
 time record its affectionate remembrances of that other Union loving 
 native of Kentucky and citizen of the United States, its late Commander, 
 Rear Adntiral Joseph B. Coghlan, U. S. Navy, who died since its last 
 meeting and who like his great predecessors, Farragut and Grant, held 
 at the time of his death the highest office of the Commandery. 
 
 Joseph B. Coghlan was born in Frankfort. Kentucky, December 19, 
 18-14, and on September 27, i860, when less than sixteen years of age, 
 was appointed Midshipman from the Fighth District of Illinois, and 
 sent to the L'. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. On May 
 28, 1863, his class was ordered to sea, a year in advance of the usual 
 time, and he was commissioned Ensign. On Juh' 20th he was ordered 
 to duty on the "Sacramento" and served on her until August 17, 1865. 
 During this last interval, that vessel was actively engaged in pursuit 
 of the Confederate cruiser "Alabama" and arrived ofi Cherbourg only 
 a few days after the "Kearsage" had destroyed that famous vessel. 
 September 19, 1865, he was assigned to duty on the old steam Sloop- 
 
of-vvar "Brooklyn"; March 8, 1866, was commissioned Master; Novem- 
 ber 10, 1866, promoted Lieutenant; March 12, 1868, promoted Lieutenant- 
 Commander. From this time until February, 1882, his duties were those 
 of naval officers of his rank in time of peace. He served on the U. S. S. 
 "Portsmouth" in 1868; on the "Richmond" from 1869 to 187 1 ; in com- 
 mand of the "Saugus" in 1875 and 1876; as Executive of the "Dictator" 
 in 1876; on the "Colorado" in 1877; as Executive of the "Monongahela" 
 in 1878 and 1879; as Executive of the "Independence," 1879 to 1882. In 
 intervals between his service on these vessels he was assigned to va- 
 rious shore duties at League Island, at the Hydrographic office and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 While Lieutenant-Commander he wrote a savage letter to an old 
 clerk in the Navy Department, for which he was tried by Court Mar- 
 tial, and punished by suspension, April 22, 1876, for one year and to 
 retain his then number on the list of Lieutenant-Commanders. The 
 offence was a mere outbreak of high temper and involved nothing dis- 
 honorable ; and on April 14, 1902, the President granted a pardon which 
 restored liim, then Rear-Admiral, to the position on the Navy list that 
 he had lost by sentence of the Court Martial. This restoration met 
 with the unanimous aproval of the gallant officer's friends and brother 
 officers. 
 
 On the 4th of P'eliruary, 1882, he was promoted Commander; on 
 August 4, 1883, he was ordered to command V. S. S. "Adams" and 
 served on her until September 8, 1884. On the 23rd of August, 1888. 
 he was ordered to command the "Mohican," on which vessel he served 
 until January 21, 1890. November 18, 1896, he was promoted Captain. 
 
 On March 25, 1897, he was ordered to command the "Raleigh." 
 Under his command that vessel took part in the battle of Manila Bay, 
 as one of Conmiodore George Dewey's squadron, on May i, 1898. 
 
 On June 10, 1898, Captain Coghlan was "advanced six numbers in 
 grade for eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle on May i, 1898, 
 while in onunand of the U. S. S. 'Raleigh,' during the battle of Ma- 
 nila Bay." 
 
 From this time his health was impaired, but he so recovered that, on 
 April II, 1902, he was promoted Rear Admiral. In May, 1902, he was 
 ordered as second in command of the North Atlantic Squadron, on 
 board the "'Brooklyn" as his flag-ship. On Septemlier 17, 1902, he shifted 
 his flag to Dewey's old flag-ship, the "Olympia," and served on her 
 until ]\Iarch 21, 1904. On September 21, 1904, he became the Com- 
 mander of the New York Navy Yard, where he remained until his re- 
 tirement for age, and, after a few months' further service, left active 
 duties as an officer of the Navy forever. 
 
 Rear Admiral Coghlan was elected Commander of the Command- 
 ery of the State of New York, of the Military Order of the Loyal 
 Legion, at the May meeting, 1907; and re-elected at the Alay meeting 
 of 1908. 
 
 He died at his home in New Rochelle, New York, on December 5, 
 1908, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. 
 
 His conspicuous and efficient service, merely suggested in this brief 
 recital, deserved and won the approving recognition of his brother offi- 
 cers and of his country. 
 
 In the genial popular characteristics of life he was pre-eminent. He 
 was a distinguished example of the Scriptural statement that, "_A Merry 
 heart doeth good like a mjedicine." No one could be brought into rela- 
 tions with him, without becoming at once attracted to him personally. 
 
 6 
 
As a speaker on social occasions, he was inimitable. Mis recital of 
 the "Hoch der Kaiser" lifted that bit of wit into a worldwide promi- 
 nence ; though it had been recited quite a long time before at a meeting 
 of the "Society of the Army of the Tennessee," at Milwaukee, October, 
 1897. In all his addresses on such occasions he proved himself to be 
 well described in Shakespeare's words : "He was a fellow of infinite 
 jest; and of a most excellent fancy." 
 
 He will be greatly missed, not only by his comrades of this Ci)m- 
 mander}-, and his naval friends, but by a multitude of others who have 
 been charmed by his wit and pleasing thoughts most fitly uttered. 
 
 As illustrative of the estimation in which he was held by those over 
 whom he was set, the following is copied from a resolution adopted by 
 the ^Master Workmen of the New York Navy Yard: 
 
 "During his career as an officer, the men always found him a most 
 fair-minded, courteous and just Commander, and we felt as if he was 
 our personal friend and his memory has been made dear to us by his 
 sterling qualities, and we believe and feel that we have been benefited 
 by having come in contact with such a noble life, and that our country 
 has lost a most gallant and courageous commanding officer." 
 
 We cannot lietter close our report than by quotation of the fol- 
 lowing lines : 
 
 The barge is at the gangway. 
 An officer mans each oar. 
 
 For the voyage of life is ended. 
 The Admiral goes ashore. 
 
 Ashore to the rest of the warrior, 
 
 Ashore from life's stormy sea, 
 Wliere the Captain of All the Navies, 
 
 Will welcome him on the quay. 
 
 And we who knew him and loved him, 
 W'ill miss the firm clasp of his hand. 
 
 The happy, friendly greeting. 
 The ringing tone of command. 
 
 Man the side in silence. 
 
 While the parting cannon roar, 
 A gallant gentleman leaves us. 
 
 The Admiral goes ashore. 
 
 Rcsoli'cd. That this minute be entered nn the records of the Com- 
 mandery and tliat a copy be transmitted to the widow and son of our 
 late Commander. 
 
 The report was adopted by a rising vote. 
 
 General McCook : As all of you know, the 12th of this month 
 will be the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. 
 By the action of Congress, of many State Legislatures and municipal 
 authorities and by general consent of the people, the event will be cele- 
 brated throughout the country in a way worthy of the nation he did 
 
 so much to save. 
 
While it was deemed impracticable to postpone our regular meeting 
 until the 12th, it is especially fitting that this Commandery, made up 
 largely of veterans of the war, should take part in the celebration by 
 making to-night a distinctively Lincoln night. 
 
 There are many good reasons for this action. Mr. Lincoln died 
 on the 15th of April, 1865, and on that same day the initial steps were ta- 
 ken in Philadelphia, to organize the Loyal Legion of which we are a part. 
 Within the next few days thousands of persons will listen to eloquent 
 orations in regard to the life and services of the great President, but 
 none of them can have the same deep personal interest in the man and 
 his career, as the gray-haired men who, nearly half a century ago, 
 served in the Army and the Navy of the Union in the war for its 
 maintenance. [Applause.] 
 
 To us Mr. Lincoln is much more than a great historic figure. It 
 was his voice that called us into the service; and although our Com- 
 mander-in-Chief he was our sympathetic friend and comrade through 
 the dangers and privations of the long and trying struggle. Some of 
 us heard him address the people froml the platform. Some of us saw 
 him and heard him on the 4th of March, 1861, when, from the east 
 front of the Capitol, he took the oath as President to "preserve, pro- 
 tect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Some of us have 
 had the honor of shaking him by the hand, and looking into his deep 
 eyes and his kind and thoughtful face ; many of us have seen him in 
 camp and field when he inspected or reviewed the commands to wliich 
 we were attached, while all of us can recall the pride and satisfaction 
 with which we read his inspired appeals to the conscience, the courage 
 and the patriotism of the people. 
 
 You have before you to-night as a souvenir of this meeting one 
 of these appeals made on a great battlefield of the war. In the opinion 
 of competent judges, in depth of feeling and beauty of expression it 
 ranks with the best specimens of eloquence in either ancient or modern 
 times, and nothing, perhaps, can ever take the place of the Gettysburg 
 address in the hearts and minds of the American people. In the light, 
 however, of modern attempts to place the responsibility for actual hos- 
 tilities upon the Government of which Mr. Lincoln was the head, it 
 may not be inopportune to refer, very briefly, to another and earlier 
 address, in which he made an impressive appeal to the men of the 
 South for peace and for the Union. 
 
 Seven States had already formally seceded from the Union and 
 organized a provisional Confederate Government at Montgomery, Ala- 
 bama. Forts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom-houses and post-offices, all 
 the property of the United States, had been seized and their contents 
 either destroyed or confiscated ; while armies were being raised or 
 tendered to maintain the rebellion by force. The country was waiting 
 with an anxiety which you well recall, to hear what response was to 
 1k' made to these acts and threats, by the untried man about to be 
 clothed with the responsibilities of the Presidential office. There was 
 no precedent to guide him, and niany believed that longer delay to use 
 all the powers of the Government to maintain its authority, meant the 
 destruction of our institutions. Not so, however, thought the patient 
 and peace-loving Abraham Lincoln to whom the preservation of the 
 Union was paramount to all other considerations, for in words that 
 will live as long as our language endures he concluded his first inau- 
 gural by sa}'ing : 
 
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, 
 is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail 
 you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggress- 
 ors. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
 passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of afifection. 
 The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and pa- 
 triot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, 
 will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 
 they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 You know how this appeal was disregarded, and what followed 
 when on April 12, 1861, the first rebel shell exploded over Fort Sumter 
 and aroused the countrv from its dream of peace. 
 
 From that date and until the end of the war we were part of the 
 force called into existence to aid in the work to which Mr. Lincoln's 
 life was devoted. Very properly, therefore, we meet to-night to do 
 honor to his memory; for it is no exaggeration, I think, to say, that 
 under God he was largely instrumental in saving the Republic. Ines- 
 timable as were his services to liberty and to the Union, we cannot 
 think of him without also recalling; our own connection with the mighty 
 struggle in which he was the principal figure; for even to-night the 
 "mystic chords of memory" carry us back to the battlefields of the war, 
 to the "patriot graves" of our gallant dead and to the days long past, 
 when, young and strong and full of life and hope, we stood by the 
 side of Abraham Lincoln in defence of the Union of these States. 
 
 And now I feel almost like apologizing for having detained you as 
 long as I have from hearing the gentlemen who have been especially 
 invited to address you. There are four of them, all well known to 
 you and to the Commandery at large, and I am sure that all of 30U will 
 be repaid if you will remain until the last man speaks. 
 
 It is hardly necessary for me to introduce to you the first speaker. 
 Most of you know him, perhaps all of you know him personally. For 
 many years he was our Commander. He has a reputation as a writer 
 and speaker not only national, but international, and I therefore take 
 great pleasure not in formally introducing General Porter, but suggesting 
 that he is here to talk to us for awhile in regard to Mr. Lincoln. 
 
B^^rc50 ot (5cncral Movacc iPortcr 
 
 Mr. C( inmaiiih'f i,ud Coiiipuiiiuiis : 
 
 At the l)rcakiri>- out of the Civil War there was a man with South- 
 ern sympathies who said he would not hang out a Union flag, that he 
 was opposed to the war. A large hody of patriotic people surrounded 
 his house and this demonstration induced him to change his mind 
 very rapidlv. He then put his head out of the window and cried, 
 "Gentlemen, 1 am convinced, and 1 now want to pledge you ni}- word 
 that I am in favor of this war and the next." 
 
 Now when your committee came to me they convinced me that I 
 should come here and speak to you to-night, and I said, "Yes, and I 
 will pledge you my word to come to this centemiial and the next." 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 The life of Abraham Lincoln has always seemed to me to read 
 more like romance than reality. It is more like a fabled tale of ancient 
 days than the story of a plain American citizen of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. As light and shade produce the most attractive features of a 
 picture, so the singular contrast, the strange vicissitudes in the life of 
 this man surround him with an interest that attaches to but few charac- 
 ters in history. At one time we hear of him sitting in the log cabin 
 in which he was born, struggling by the light of a pine knot torch 
 to read the English grammar and the two or three other books that 
 he had been able to obtain. At another time delivering addresses wdiich 
 have been pronounced throughout the world masterpieces of human elo- 
 quence. At one time we see him on his jaded horse jogging along through 
 the mud and rain, from one court house to another, trying insignificant 
 cases before county judges. At another time wielding the helm of state 
 of the greatest of nations and givirg new interpretations to the most 
 intricate questions of international law. These are some of the features 
 of his remarkable career that appeal to the imagination, excite men's 
 wonder and fascinate all who read the story O'f his life. 
 
 He sprung from that class that he constantly referred to as the 
 "plain people." He always possessed their affection; and always had 
 an abiding faith in them. Even when he wore the robes of a master 
 he forgot not that he was still the servant of he people. He believed 
 that governments were made for the people and not the people for 
 governments. Throughout his career he simply did his duty and trusted 
 to history for his mede of praise. The more history discusses him the 
 more brilliant becomes the lustre of his name. His record is like a 
 torch — the more it is shaken the brighter it burns. [Applause.] 
 
 If at the height of his power he had been jeered at on account of 
 his humble origin he might well have replied in the words of the 
 French marshal who had risen from a private in the ranks to a duke- 
 dom when the haughty nobles of Vienna refused to associate with him : 
 "I am an ancestor; you are only descendants." [Laughter.] 
 
 Abraham Lincoln possessed in a remarkal:)le degree that most un- 
 common of all virtues, common sense. With him there was no posing 
 for efifect, no attitudinizing in public, no mawkish sentimentality, no ir- 
 dulgence in mock heroics. There was none of tliat puppyism so often 
 
 10 
 
bred by power, and none of that dogmatism that Dr. Johnson said 
 was only puppyism grown to maturity. [Laughter.] 
 
 He did not want to ride in a gilded chariot of power, the dust from 
 whose wheels would dazzle and blind his followers. He preferred to 
 trudge along on foot so that all the people could march abreast with 
 him. While his mind was one great storehouse of useful information, 
 he laid no claim to any knowledge he did not possess. He seemed to 
 feel with Addison that pedantry in learning is like hypocracy in re- 
 ligion, a form of knowledge without the power of it. 
 
 He had great tact in holding his friends, in convincing those who 
 did not agree with him and often in winning over political opponents, 
 but he wasted no time on the absolutely recalcitrant. He had no part 
 nor lot with those men of mental malformation who are educated be- 
 yond their intellect. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 He never wasted any time in trying to massage the back of a po- 
 litical porcupine. [Laughter.] To use his own words, it was as dis- 
 couraging as trying to shovel fleas across a barnyard. [Laughter.] 
 
 I have been thinking to-night how few there are left who knew 
 Abraham Lincoln personally and who had converse with him. Why, 
 his contemporaries have fallen like autumnal leaves. 
 
 I shall never forget — it is indellibly engraved upon my memor\ — 
 the first time T had the privilege of looking upon the features and 
 hearing the voice of that remarkable man. It was an historic occasion. It 
 was upon the occasion of his first meeting with General Grant. Before this 
 they had corresponded ; their letters, at first official, afterwards became 
 more intimate and familiar until they had learned to have that respect for 
 each other which is based upon perfect confidence. On the 8th of 
 March, 1864, General Grant arrived in Washington in the evening with his 
 staff, coming from the West, having been summoned by the Government to 
 receive his commission of Lieutenant General, a rank which had been 
 created for him, and take command of all the armies. Going to 
 Willard's Hotel, with his accustomed modesty he simply wrote his 
 name on the register "LI. S. Grant, Illinois." He heard that there 
 was a reception at the White House given by Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln 
 and he thought it was his duty to go immediately to see them and pay 
 his respects. Mr. Lincoln was receiving in the Blue Room as usual, 
 with some of his cabinet officers standing near him. shaking hands 
 cordially with the vast crowds that passed. About half-past nine 
 o'clock there was a commotion at the entrance door. It attracted Mr. 
 Lincoln's attention. He saw a man walking slowly towards him, and 
 recognizing him at once by the photographs he had seen of him, reached 
 out his long arm, seized General Grant by the hand, drew him up close to 
 him and cried out to Mrs. Lincoln, "What a surprise, what a delight, 
 why, here is General Grant!" They formed a remarkable contrast. Mr. 
 Lincoln's hair was unkempt, he wore a turned down collar two sizes 
 too large, the motion of his long arms and legs was awkard, but there 
 was nothing that bordered on the grotesque. He always had a certain 
 amount of dignity in his bearing. Lincoln was six feet four inches 
 in height. Grant "five feet eight inches; Lincoln was lifty-five years of 
 age. Grant forty-two. Both in full possession of all their mental and 
 physical faculties. It was an inspiring siaht to watch this first meeting 
 of the illustrious Chief INIagistrate of the nation and the victorious 
 general. It was a fortunate thing for the Republic at that time that 
 these two representatives of the cabinet and the camp into whose hands 
 under Providence the destiny of the land had been placed had no am- 
 bitions but their country's welfare, and who, throughout that death 
 
 11 
 
struggle of the nation stood shoulder to shoulder like the men in the 
 Greek phalanx of old, linking their shields together against a common 
 foe, and teaching the world that it is time to abandon the path of 
 ambition when it becomes so narrow that two cannot walk it abreast. 
 [Applause.] They soon formed a close attachment for each other and 
 three times Mr. Lincoln came down to the front to visit General Grant 
 in his headquarters at City Point, in front of Petersburg and Rich- 
 mond, and there they continued this friendship. At night Mr. Lincoln 
 would sit around the camp fire with General Grant and his staff offi- 
 cers. He sat in a camp chair — it was rather low and brought his knees 
 up high — he crossed his legs, or rather he had a way of winding one 
 leg around the other, and as the smoke of the fire would blow in his 
 face he would brush it away with his large hand, and as we sat there 
 and listened to the words of wit, wisdom and eloquence that fell from 
 his lips, why those evenings became as enjoyable as the "Arabian Nights' 
 Entertainment." 
 
 Upon his first visit he said on arriving that he had come down prin- 
 cipally to get away from the office-seekers; he hadn't enough offices to 
 give them ; there were not enough holes for all the pegs, as he ex- 
 pressed it. "The other day," he remarked, "I had a little fever and 
 a rash on the skin and I sent for the doctor. He said T think this 
 is a case of the measles,' and I cried, 'good; at last I have got some- 
 thing I can give to people.' " [Laughter.] 
 
 His stories were not simph' anecdotes ; they were more to point a 
 moral than to adorn a tale; they were illustrations of his meaning; and 
 they were always apt. What could have been more applicable than the 
 very amusing story he told us in connection with the Trent affair? You 
 know the Confederate emissaries, Mason and Slidell, were taken off 
 the British passenger ship "Trent" by one of our war vessels. He 
 remarked, "The English didn't give us time to turn around. We began 
 to receive offensive and arbitrary dispatches at once. We hardly were 
 given time to search for precedents in international law. It was very 
 humiliating, but we had one big war on hand and we didn't want two 
 at the same time. I said, 'Well, this will only react upon that govern- 
 ment. She in the end will be the only one hurt.' " He continued, "It 
 reminds me of the time in Sangamon County, Illinois, when a man came 
 along and knocked at the door of a barber shop. It was locked. He 
 knocked at the door of the house. The barber put his head out of 
 the window and said, 'Wlhat's up?' The man answered, 'I am going to 
 take my best girl to a ball to-night and I have a four days' growth of 
 beard on my face, and I want you to come down and take it off.' 'I 
 won't do it, the shop's closed,' cried the barber. Said the man, T have 
 a six-shooter here that will put daylight through you if you don't come 
 down quick.' He came down, seated the man in the chair, lathered 
 his face, including the eyes, nose and mouth, and then l)ore down on 
 him and cut a swath across the left cheek, taking off a pimple, two 
 warts and a mole. Said the man in the chair, 'Stranger, you must have 
 been working in a stubble field — you appear to make everything level 
 as you go.' The barber remarked, Tf this handle don't break I think I'll 
 get away with what is there.' But the man had such hollow checks that 
 the barber couldn't work the razor down into the valleys, and the in- 
 genious idea occurred to him to put his finger in the man's mouth and 
 press the cheek out. But the razor slipped, went through the cheek 
 and cut the barber's finger. He drew it out, snapped off the blood, and 
 cried, 'There, 3'ou lantern-jawed cuss, you have made me cut my finger.' 
 [Laughter.] "Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "England has tried to lacerate 
 
 12 
 
I 
 
 us somewhat, but in the end she will find she has only cut her own 
 finger." [Laughter.] 
 
 There was one thing that impressed me deeply on several occasions, 
 the fact that Mr. Lincoln had the tenderest of all hearts and his sym- 
 pathy went out to animals as well as to human beings. In his last visit 
 to our camp, just before we marched out on the Appomatox campaign, 
 I was sitting in the Adjutant's tent when Mr. Lincoln canie to see if 
 some expected dispatches from Washington had arrived. He looked 
 down on the floor and saw crawling around there three little kittens. 
 Their mother had died three days before and they were mewing pite- 
 ously. He forgot all about the dispatches, sat down on a camp stool 
 and tenderly picked up those little waifs, laid them in his lap, drew 
 the skirts of his coat around them to keep them warm, wiped their eyes 
 with his handkerchief and smoothed down their fur as they purred their 
 gratitude. He said to the Adjutant General: "I hope you will take 
 care of these poor little motherless waifs." Colonel Bowers replied : 
 "I shall see that they are taken good care of, Mr. President, and well 
 fed." "And be sure," said Mr. Lincoln, "that they have some milk three 
 times a day." When we were all thinking about the movements of 
 great armies and studying the science of destruction, it was a touching 
 sight to see those three stray kittens fondled by the hand that with a 
 single stroke of the pen had struck the shackles from the limbs of four 
 millions of bondsmen, and had signed the commissions of the illus- 
 trious heroes of a great war. It was a trifling incident, but it spoke 
 more loudly than many an important act of the tenderness of the great 
 man's heart. [Applause.] 
 
 He came down to cam-^ just after he had been elected the second time. 
 We were talking about the methods of election and about the electoral col- 
 lege, when he said, "Well, the electoral college is the only college where 
 they choose their own masters." 
 
 In speaking to General Butler about General Grant's movements 
 and the fact that he had never yielded up a foot of territory he had 
 captured, Mr. Lincoln said, "Yes ; when General Grant gets hold of a 
 place he hangs on to it just as though he had inherited it." 
 
 I came in one evening out after a rain to the camp fire, wiping off 
 my sword blade to keep it from rusting. Mr. Lincoln stepped out ol 
 his tent and remarked. "That is a very formidable looking weapon, but 
 it is not as formidable as one I had occasion to see at one time in my 
 life. I was coming home from a conference of lawyers in Louisville, 
 after midnight, a bright moonlight night, when suddenly a fellow jumped 
 out of a dark alley and pulled out a bowie knife. It looked to me to 
 be three times as long as that sword. I don't really suppose it was. 
 Ke flourished it in the moonlight and for about five minutes seemed 
 to be trying to see how near he could come to cutting off my nose with- 
 out quite doing it, and finally he cried, 'Stranger, can you lend me five 
 dollars on that?' Well, I never got money out of my pocket as fast 
 in my life. I handed him a bill and said, 'There is ten. Now, neighbor, 
 put up your scythe.'" [Laughter.] 
 
 Then he came down just after the successful assault on Fort Gil- 
 man where the negro troops had distinguished themselves and attracted 
 some attention. He said to General Grant, "T like the way the black 
 boys have behaved and I think I ought to ride out to their camp to 
 see them." So the General mounted with his staff to accompany him 
 out to the camp of the colored troops. When he reached there the 
 troops passed the word around and they rushed out in great numbers, 
 
 13 
 
crying, "Dar's ole Massah Linkum ! God bless him ! Old Fader Ab- 
 raham's a-comin', Hallalu!" And they laughed and cheered, and got 
 down on their knees and prayed. Some fondled his horse and others 
 ran to hunt up their comrades and tell them they had kissed the hem 
 of his garment. Mr. Lincoln sat on his horse, his head uncovered, the 
 tears running down their cheeks. It was a pathetic sight to see the 
 homage paid by the liberated to the great liberator. 
 
 In riding home he said, "When we started to raise the first colored 
 regiments you know there was a great deal of adverse criticism, but 
 I said to our people "As long as we are trying to get every able-bodied 
 man down to the front to save the life of this nation, 1 gviess we had 
 better be a little color blind.' " He continued, "I think I can express 
 my appreciation of what the black boys have done here something 
 after the fashion of an old-time Abolitionist in Chicago. Friends brought 
 him in from the country and took him to see Forrest playing 'Othello.' 
 He didn't know it was a white man blacked up, and when they got out 
 he said, "Well, all sectional prejudice aside, and making due allowance 
 for my partiality for the race, durn me if I don't think the nigger held 
 his own with any on 'em.' "' [Laughter.] 
 
 Now I must recount only one more of his illustrations — not anec- 
 dotes — because it amused us greatly one night. I happened to have a 
 grain of the new powder for the big guns in my hands as he walked by. 
 He looked at it and asked, "What is that?" "A grain of powder," I 
 replied. It was about as big as a walnut. He took it in his hand, 
 looked at it and said, "That is a good deal bigger than the grains of 
 powder we used to have out in Sangamon County when I was a boy. 
 Before the newspapers were published and before there was much ad- 
 vertising in print the little merchants used to do a little free advertising 
 before the preacher arrived at the cross-roads church. One night a man 
 got up, he was a powder merchant, ar.d said, 'Brethren, before the 
 arrival of the preacher I would just like to say that I have received a 
 new invoice of sportin' powder, and the grains are so small you can 
 scarcely see 'em with the naked eye and so polished you can stand in 
 front of 'em and part your hair just like you was before a looking 
 glass.' Tliere was a rival powder merchant there who rose up. bailing 
 over with jealousy, and said, 'Brethren. I hope you won't believe a word 
 Brother Smith says about that powder. I have been down to his store 
 and seen it for myself, and every grain is as big as a lump of stone 
 coal and I pledge you my word that any one here could put a barrel 
 of that powder on his shoulder and marcli squar through hell without 
 any danger of an explosion.'" |Laughter.] 
 
 There will be two names always inseparable in American history — 
 Washington and Lincoln. And by the manner in which biographers 
 dwell upon trifling matters }0U would be led to believe from their 
 writing that one spent his whole life in cutting down trees and the other 
 in splitting them up into rails. [Laughter.] 
 
 The difference between them was that Washington never could tell 
 a story and Lincoln always could. But his stories possessed the proper 
 geometrical requisites of excellence — they were never too long and never 
 too broad. [Applause.] I said the stories were illustrations. His wit 
 and humor were the safety valves which gave him relief when he was 
 burdened with the great responsibilities of the nation. I think it had 
 a tendency to prolong his life. He had' the true idea of wit — talk- 
 ing in fuii and thinking in earnest. Why, he could cut the sting from 
 the keenest criticism witli a jilcasantrx- and guild disappointment with 
 
 U 
 
a joke. He knew that in speaking wit is to eloquence what in music 
 melody is to harmony. 
 
 But his heart was not always attuned to mirth. Its chords were 
 often set to strains of sadness. The appalling losses in the held, the 
 enemies in the rear as well as in front, the coffers in the treasury well- 
 nigh drained, the foreign complications threatened, were enough to' 
 overwhelm an ordinary man. People reviled and slandered him; they 
 could not understand him. His wit was too subtle, his philosophy was 
 too logical, his politics too advanced. It passed their understanding. 
 He had to learn what most men in public life have had to learn, that 
 all hours wound, the last one kills, and that success is like the sunshine, 
 it brings forth the vipers. But even when the gloom was darkest he 
 never faltered. Confident of the righteousness of his cause, he always 
 had the courage of his conviction. He had that sublime faith that can 
 leave the efforts to man, the results to God. It was a faith that could 
 see in the sLorm cloud a bow of promise, a faith that could hear in the 
 discords of the present the harmonies of the future, a faith that can 
 be likened only to that of the Christian in his Saviour. [Applause.] 
 
 ^larvelous man ! He was a Hercules, not an Adonis. He was the 
 great example set for those who were to follow him. Marvelous man ! 
 \Ve fail to find another in all the annals of history whose nature was so 
 gentle, whose life had been so peaceful, who was reared in the cabinet 
 and not the camp, and yet who was called upon to martial the armed 
 hosts of an aroused people and for four long years to direct a fierce, a 
 relentless, a bloody fractricidal war. 
 
 It seldom falls to the lot of man to strike the shackles from a race 
 of bondmen, to die the death of a revered martyr with his robes of 
 office still about him, his heart at peace w'ith his fellow man, his soul 
 at peace with God, his country restored to peace within her borders 
 and to peace with all the world. [Applause.] 
 
 We did not bury him in a Roman Pantheon, an Escurial, a Wal- 
 halla, a domed St. Paul's or a cloistered Westminster. We gave him 
 nobler sepulture; we laid him to rest in the bosom of the soil his 
 efforts had saved. Future ages will pause to read the inscription on 
 his tomb, and the praises and the prayers of a redeemed and regenerated 
 people will ascend from that consecrated spot as incense arises from 
 holy places, pointing out even to the angels in Heaven where rest the 
 ashes of him who had filled to the very full the largest measure of human 
 greatness, and covered the earth with his renown. [Applause.] 
 
 For a time he seemed to be too close to us. He was not yet in 
 the proper focus to be clearly seen. Now, with the lapse of time, he 
 has receded to the proper distance at which we can view perfectly his 
 great qualities, and see them in all their beauty and symmetry. A tree 
 is best measured when it is down. He was taken away from us forty- 
 four years ago. We were then called upon to bid farewell to a leader 
 crowned with the sublimity of martyrdom, saviour of the Republic, 
 liberator of a race, whose true sepulchre is the hearts of the .\merican 
 people. 
 
 General McCook : We have with us to-night a gentleman who 
 knew Mr. Lincoln doubtless before any other man in this room, at all 
 events knew him well and intimately before he became the great figure 
 that he was two or three years afterwards. 
 
 The campaign in 1858 in Illinois was the campaign perhaps that de- 
 veloped Mr. Lincoln into a national figure and made him a possible can- 
 didate for President. He had a local reputation, of course. He had 
 
 15 
 
been a member of the Legislature of Illinois, a member of the House 
 of Representatives in Congress for one term, and a defeated candidate 
 for Senator, but until his contest with Stephen A. Douglass, familiarly- 
 called the "Little Giant," Mr. Lincoln was not generally known through- 
 out the United States. 
 
 The debate was watched by the whole country with very great in- 
 terest, for Mr. Douglass was an adroit and clever speaker and a man 
 thoroughly familiar with public afifairs. He won the election to the Sen- 
 atorship, but with the end of the campaign Mr. Lincoln's position in 
 his own party was so well established, that two years afterwards his 
 nomination for the Presidency followed. 
 
 During this campaign Mr. Lincoln had with him a young reporter, 
 Mr. Horace White, who is with us to-night. Long and intimately iden- 
 tified with the literary interests of the country and perfectly familiar 
 with Mr. Lincoln's whole career, what he has to say will be of unusual 
 interest. I take great pleasure in introducing him to you. [Applause.] 
 
 Hi 
 
1Rcinarl^9 of Iborace Mbttc 
 
 What happened to this countr\- because Abraham Lincohi was elected 
 President in i860 has been told many times by many men, and will 
 be told through many generations to come. What would have hap- 
 pened if he had not been elected is largely a matter of conjecture, yet 
 it is not devoid of interest. It is the theme to which I shall invite 
 your attention briefly. I am moved to do so by reading in the Cen- 
 tury Magazine for the present month a few letters, hitherto unpub- 
 lished, written by Lincoln to Senator Trumbull between the time of 
 his election and that of his inauguration. This period of four months 
 was the critical period in his life and in our nation's history. 
 
 When the ballot boxes were closed and the votes counted on the 
 6th of November, i860, the question whether slavery should be allowed 
 to enter the new territories west of the Missouri River (which was 
 the very thing supposed to have been decided by the election), started 
 up afresh, and assumed new and overwhelming importance when it 
 was flanked by the threat of secession. ]\Ir. Lincoln was the steadying 
 influence and chief barrier against any surrender of the principles on 
 which he had been elected. If he had failed no other barrier would 
 have been of any avail whatever. 
 
 To anybody looking back at the Republican National Convention 
 of i860, it must be plain that there were only two men who had any 
 chance of being nominated for President. 
 
 These were Lincoln and Seward. I was present at the Convention 
 as a spectator and I knew this fact at the time, but it seemed to me at 
 the beginning that Seward's chances were the best. One-third of the 
 delegates of Illinois preferred him and expected to vote for him after 
 a few complimentary ballots for Lincoln. If there had been no Lincoln 
 in the field Seward would certainly have been nominated and then the 
 course of history would have been very different from what it was, 
 for if Seward had been nominated and elected there would have been 
 ro forcible opposition to the withdrawal of such States as then desired 
 to secede. And as a consequence the Republican party would have 
 been rent in twain and disabled from making efifectual resistance to 
 other demands of the South. 
 
 It was Seward's conviction that the policy of non-coercion would 
 have quieted the secession movement in the Border States and that the 
 Gulf States would, after a while, have returned to the Union like re- 
 pentant prodigal sons. His proposal to Lincoln to seek a quarrel with 
 four European nations, who had done us no harm, in order to arouse 
 a feeling of Americanism in the Confederate States, _ was an outgrowth 
 of this conviction. It was an indenfensible proposition, akin to that 
 which prompted Bismarck to make use of France as an anvil on which 
 to hammer and weld Germany together, but it was not an _ unpatriotic 
 one, since it was bottomed on a desire to preserve the Union without 
 civil war. 
 
 Traces of this idea can be found in the speeches of Jefferson Davis 
 in the Senate before his State seceded. Davis was not an original 
 secessionist. He would have preferred that the secession movement 
 should not extend beyond South Carolina and to that end he used all his 
 
 17 
 
influence against the coc.cion of that State because coercion of one 
 would int^ame the others. It is not impossible that Seward derived 
 his idea from Davis, or more probably was confirmed by him in an 
 idea to which lie was previously inclined. 
 
 As early as December ii, Lincoln wrote a letter to Congressman 
 Wm. Kellogg, of Illinois, who had shown some signs of an intention 
 to support the Crittenden Compromise. In this letter Lincoln said: 
 "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension 
 of slavery. The instant you do. they have us under again ; all our 
 labor is lost, and sooner or later nuist be done over." 
 
 Four days afterwards he wrote to John A. Gilmer, an eminent 
 statesman of North Carolina, in reply to a letter received from him : 
 "Is it desired that I shall shift the ground on which I have been elected? 
 I cannot do it. On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see 
 my position in the book. On that there is a difference between you 
 and us, and it is the only substantial difference. Vou think slavery is 
 right, and ought to be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be 
 restricted. For this neither has any just occasion to be angry with the 
 other." 
 
 Two days later (December 17th) he wrote to Ihurlow Weed, who 
 was advocating the Crittenden Compromise in his newspaper, that that 
 Compromise "would lose us everything that we gain by the election ; 
 that filibustering for all South of us and making slave States of it 
 would follow, in spite of us, in either case." 
 
 The Cciititry Mciiiaciiic for February contains the following letter: 
 "Springeield, 111., December 24, i860. 
 "I fun. Lyiii.in 1 niiiihull : 
 
 "My dear Sir — Dispatches have come here two days in succession 
 that the forts in South Carolina will be surrendered by order, or con- 
 sent, at least, of the President. I can scarcely believe this, but if it is 
 true, I will, if our friends in Washington concur, announce publicly 
 at once that they are to be retaken after the inauguration. This will 
 give the Union men a rallying cry, and preparations will proceed some- 
 what on this side as well as on the other. Yours as ever, 
 
 "A. Lincoln." 
 
 I have myself discovered a still later saying of Lincoln during this 
 momentous interval. A letter from Dr. William Jayne to Trumbull, 
 dated Springfield, January 28, 1861, says that Governor Yates had re- 
 ceived telegraph dispatches from the Governors of Ohio and Indiana 
 asking whether Illinois would appoint peace commissioners in response 
 to a call sent out by the Governor of Virginia to meet at Washington 
 on the 4fh of February. "Lincoln," he continued, "advised Yates not 
 to take any action at present. He said he would rather be hanged by 
 the neck till he was dead on the steps of the Capitol than buy or beg 
 a peaceful inauguration."' 
 
 The pages of the Congressional Globe of i86o-'6l make the two 
 most intensely interesting political volumes in our country's history. 
 They embrace the last words that the North and South had to say 
 to each other before the doors of the temple of Janus were thrown 
 open to the Civil War. As the moment of parting approached the 
 
 18 
 
language became plainer, and its most marked characteristic was nut 
 anger, not hatred between the disputants, but failure to understand each 
 other. It was as though the men on either side were looking at an 
 object through glasses of different color, or speaking different languages, 
 or worshipping different gods. 
 
 P^orty-four 3'ears have passed awaj' since the Civil War came to 
 an end and we are now able to take a dispassionate view of the ques- 
 tion in dispute. The people of the Soulli are now generally agreed 
 that the institution of slavery was a direful curse to both races. We 
 of the North must confess that there was considerable foundation for 
 the asserted right of States to secede. Although the Constitution did 
 in distinct terms make the Federal Government supreme, it was not 
 so understood by the people either North or South at first. Particular- 
 ism prevailed everywhere at the beginning. Nationalism was an after 
 growth and a slow growth proceeding mainly from the habit into 
 which people fell of finding their common centre of gravity at Wash- 
 ington City and of viewing it as the place where the American name 
 and fame were blazoned to the world. During the first half century of 
 the Republic the North and South were changing coats from time to 
 time, on the subject of State Rights and the right to secede, but mean- 
 while the Constitution itself was working silently in the North to 
 undermine the particularism of Jefferson and to strengthen the na- 
 tionalism of Hamilton. It had accomplished its work in the early 
 thirties, when it found its perfect expression in Webster's reply to 
 Hayne. But the Southern people were just as firmly convinced that 
 Hayne was the victor in that contest as the Northern people were that 
 Webster was. Tlie vast material interests bottomed on slavery offset 
 and neutralized the unifying process in the South, while it continued 
 its wholesome work in the North, and thus the clashing of ideas paved 
 the way for the clash of arms. That the behavior of the slaveholders 
 resulted from the circumstances in which they were placed and not 
 from any innate deviltry is a fact now conceded by all impartial men. 
 It was conceded by Lincoln both before the war and during the war, 
 and this fact accounts for the affection bestowed upon him by South- 
 ern hearts to-day. 
 
 The question has been much discussed whether Crittenden's pro- 
 posed amendment to the Constitution ought to have been adopted or 
 not. The only plausible argument for adopting it would have been to 
 prevent secession and civil war; and here lies a wide field for difference 
 of opinion as to whether it would have prevented them or not. The 
 chances are ten to one that it would not have been acceptable to the 
 cotton-growing States. But if we admit that the compromise would 
 have prevened secession for the time being, slavery would have still 
 remained a festering sore and direful curse. All the elements of dis- 
 cord that had been seething and bubbling like lava fires for forty years 
 would have done more business than ever. Other John Browns might 
 torial question, and that one would have continued to burn in the North. 
 Abolition societies would have multiplied. The underground railroad 
 would have done more business than ever. Oother John Browns might 
 have arisen. All these things would have operated upon the active fears 
 and hot temper of the South just as before. Both sides would have used 
 the interval of mock peace to prepare for war, and the irrepressible 
 conflict would have come later. So the election of Lincoln decided that 
 a war which was unavoidable should take place in 1861 instead of later, 
 and that it should be fought by a united North instead of a divided one. 
 
 19 
 
General McCook : It is impossible on this occasion not to recall 
 the fact that, between the spring of 1865 and the autumn of 1901, three 
 Presidents of the United States have been assassinated. These cowardly 
 and brutal crimes shocked the world, but the fact remains that in this 
 free country of ours, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley have been murdered 
 within thirty-five years. 
 
 The first to fall was Mr. Lincoln, and we have here to-night an old 
 meniber of the Commandery who was with him in a professional ca- 
 pacity during his dying hours. Everything connected with the life and 
 death of Mr. Lincoln is, of course, of great interest to us and to the 
 country, and I take pleasure in introducing Dr. Leale, who will speak 
 of his experience on that occasion. 
 
 ^^3B^^ 
 
 20 
 
Lincoln's Xast IF^ours 
 
 Bv Cbarles H. Xeale, /ID. H). 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1909, BV CHARLES A. LEALE, M. D. 
 PRINTED B* PERMISSION 
 
 Cojiiiuaiidcr and Coiiipaiiioiis of tJic Military Order of the Loyal Legion 
 
 of the United States: 
 
 At the historic pageant in Washington, when the remains of Presi- 
 dent Lincohi were being taken from the White House to the Capitol, 
 a carriage immediately preceding the catafalque was assigned to me. 
 (^uiside were the crowds, the martial music, but inside the carriage 
 1 was plunged in deep self-communion, until aroused by a gentle tap 
 at the window of my carriage door. An officer of high rank put his 
 head inside and exclaimed : "Dr. Leale, I would rather have done what 
 you did to prolong the life of the President than to have accomplished 
 my duties during the entire war." I shrank back at what he said, 
 and for the lirst time realized the importance of it all. As soon as 
 I returned to my private office in the hospital, I drew down the win- 
 dow-shade, locked the door, threw myself prostrate on the bare wood 
 floor and asked for advice. The answer came as distinctly as if 
 spoken by a human being present: "Forget it all." I visited our Surgeon 
 Geneial, Joseph K. Barnes, and asked his advice; he also said: "Cast 
 it from your memory." 
 
 On April 17, 1865, a New York newspaper reporter called at my 
 army tent. I invited him in, and expressed my desire to forget all the 
 recent sad events, and to occupy my mind with the exacting present 
 and plans for the future. 
 
 Recently, several of our Companions expressed the conviction, that 
 history now demands, and that it is my dutj' to give the detailed facts 
 of President Lincoln's death as I know them, and in compliance with 
 their request, I this evening for the first time will read a paper on the 
 subject. 
 
 Xiucolu'5 Xast If^ours 
 
 One of the most cruel wars in tiie history of the world had nearly 
 closed. 
 
 The people of the United States were rejoicing at the prospect of 
 peace and returning happiness. President Lincoln, after the surrender 
 of General Robert E. Lee, visited Richmond, Virginia, exposing him- 
 self to great danger, and on his return delivered an address from the 
 balcony of the White House. 
 
 I was then a Commissioned Officer in the ]\Iedical Department 
 of the United States Army, having been appointed from my native 
 State, New York, and was on duty as Surgeon in charge of the Wounded 
 Commissioned Officers' Ward at the United States Army General Hos- 
 pital, Armory Square, \^^ashi^g■ton. District of Colimibia, where my 
 professional duties were of the greatest importance and required con- 
 stant and arduous attention. For a brief relief and a few moments 
 
 21 
 
in the fresh air 1 started one evenirg for a short walk on Peniisx Ivai la 
 Avenue. There were erowds walking toward the President's residence. 
 These I followed and arrived just at the commencement of President 
 Lincoln's last puhlic address to his people. h'rom where I stood I 
 could distinctly hear every word he uttered and 1 was profoundly _ im- 
 pressed with his divine appearance as he stood in the rays of light, 
 which penetrated the windows of the White House. 
 
 The influence thus produced gave me an intense desire again to 
 behold his face and study the characteristics of the "Savior of his 
 Country." Therefore on the evening of April 14, 1865, after the com- 
 pletion of my daily hospital duties. I told my Ward Master that I 
 would be absent for a short time. As a very large number from the 
 Armv stationed near Washington frequently visited the city, a general 
 order was in force that none should be there without a special pass 
 and all wearing uniform and out at night were subject to freqvient 
 challenge. To avoid this inconvenience ofificers stationed in Washing- 
 ton generally removed all signs of their calling when ofif duty. I 
 changed to civilian's dress and hurried to Ford's Theatre, where I 
 had been told President Lincoln, General Grant, and Members of the 
 Cabinet were to be present to see the play, "Our American Cousin." I 
 arrived late at the theatre, 8.15 p. m., and requested a seat in the 
 orchestra, whence I could view the occupants of the President's box. 
 which on looking into the theatre, I saw had been beautifully decorated 
 with American flags in honor of the occasion. As the building was 
 crowded the last place vacant was in the dress circle. 1 was greatly 
 disappointed, but accepted this seat, which was near the front on the 
 same side and about 40 feet from the President's box, and soon be- 
 came interested in the pleasing play. 
 
 Suddenly there was a cheering welcome, the acting ceased tem- 
 porarily out of respect to the entering Presidential party. Many in 
 the audience rose to their feet in enthusiasm and vociferously cheered, 
 while looking around. Turning, I saw in the aisle a few feet behind 
 me. President Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln, Major Rathbone and Miss Har- 
 ris. Mrs. Lincoln smiled very happily in acknowledgment of the loyal 
 greeting, gracefully curtsied several times and seemed to be overflowing 
 with good cheer and thankfulness. T had the best opportunity to dis- 
 tinctly see the full face of the President, as the light shone directly 
 upon" him. After he had walked a few feet he stopped for a mo- 
 ment, looked upon the people he loved and acknowledged their 
 salutations with a solemn bow. His face was perfectly stoical, his 
 deep set eyes gave him a pathetically sad appearance. The audience 
 seemed to be enthusiastically cheerful, but he alone looked peculiarly 
 sorrowful, as he slowly walked with bowed head and drooping shoul- 
 ders toward the box. I was looking at him as he took his last walk. 
 The memory of that scene has never been effaced. The party was pre- 
 ceded by a special usher, who opened the door of the box, stood to 
 one side, and after all had entered closed the door and took a seat 
 outside, where he could guard the er.trance to the box. The play 
 was resumed and ]uv attention was C(incentrate(l on the stage until I 
 heard a disturbance at the duir of the President's box. With many 
 others T looked in that direction, and saw a man endeavoring to per- 
 suade the reluctant usher to admit him. At last he succeeded in gain- 
 ing an entrance, after which tlie door was closed and the usher re- 
 sumed his i)lace. 
 
 For a few moments all was (|uiet, and the i)la\- again lield my at- 
 tention until, suddenly, the report of a i)istol was heard, and a short 
 
time after I saw a man in mid-air leaping from the President's liox 
 to the stage, brandishing in his liand a drawn dagger. His spur caught 
 in the American flag festooned in front of the box, causing him to 
 stumble when he struck the stage, and he fell on his hands and knees. 
 He quickl}- regained the erect posture and hopped across the stage, 
 flourishing his dagger, clearing the stage before him and dragging the 
 foot of the leg, which was subsequently found to be l)roken, he dis- 
 appeared behind the scene on the opposite side of the stage. Then 
 followed cries that the President had been murdered, interspersed with 
 cries of "Kill the murderer !" "Shoot him !'" etc., from different parts 
 of the building. The lights had been turned down, a general gloom 
 was over all, and the panic-stricken audience were rushing toward the 
 doors for exit and safety. 
 
 I instantly arose and in response to cries for help and for a sur- 
 geon, I crossed the aisle and vaulted over the seats in a direct line to 
 the President's box, forcing my way through the excited crowd. The 
 door of the box had been securely fastened on the inside to prevent 
 anyone following the assassin before he had accomplished his cruel 
 object and made his escape. I he obstruction was with difficulty re- 
 moved and I was the first to l)e admitted to the l)o.\. 
 
 The usher having been told that I was an army surgeon, had lifted 
 up his arm and had permitted me alone to enter. 
 
 I passed in, not in tne slightest degree knowing what 1 had to en- 
 counter. At this moment, while in self-communion, ilu- military com- 
 mand: "Halt!" came to me, and in obedience to it 1 stood still in the 
 box, having a full view of the four other occupants. Then came the 
 advice ; "Be calm !" and with the calmest deliberation and force of 
 will I brought all m\' senses to their greatest activity and walked for- 
 ward to my duty. 
 
 Major Rathbone had Ijravely fought the assassin; his arm had 
 been severely wounded and was bleeding. He came to me holding his 
 wounded arm in the liand of the other, beseeching me to attend to his 
 wound. I placed m\- hand under his chin, looking into his eyes an 
 almost instantaneous glance revealed the fact that he was in no im- 
 mediate danger, and in response to appeals from INIrs. Lincoln and 
 Miss Harris, who were standing by the high-backed armchair in which 
 President Lincoln sat, I went immediately to their assistance, saying 
 I was a LInited States army surgeon. T grasped Airs. Lincoln's out- 
 stretched hand in mine, while she cried piteously to me, "Oh, Doctor! 
 Is he dead? Can he recover? Will you take charge of him? Do 
 wdiat you can for him. Oh, my dear 'husband !" etc., etc. I sooth- 
 ingly answered that we would do all that possibly could be done. 
 While approaching the President, I asked a gentleman, who was at the 
 door of the box, to procure some brandy and anotlier to get some 
 water. 
 
 As I looked at the President, he appeared' to be dead. I lis eyes 
 were closed and his head had fallen forward. He was being held 
 upright in his chair by Mrs. Lincoln, who was weeping bitterly. From 
 his crouched down sitting posture it was evident that Mrs. Lincoln 
 had instantly sprung to his aid after he had been wounded and had 
 kept him from tumbling to the floor. By Mrs. Lincoln's courage, 
 strength and energy the President was maintained in this upright po- 
 sition during all the time that elapsed while ALijor Rathbone had 
 bravely fought the assassin and removed the obstruction from the 
 door of the box. 
 
 23 
 
I placed my finger on the President's right radial pulse but could 
 perceive no movement of the artery. For the purpose of reviving him, 
 if possible, we removed him from his chair to a recumbent position 
 on the floor of the box, and as I held his head and shoulders while 
 doing this, my hand came in contact with a clot of blood near his 
 left shoulder. Remembering the flashing dagger in the hand of the 
 assassin, and the severely bleeding wound of Major Rathbone, I sup- 
 posed the President had been stabbed, and while kneeling on the floor 
 over his 'head, with my eyes continuously watching the President's 
 face, I asked a gentleman to cut the coat and shirt open from the neck 
 to the elbow to enable me, if possible, to check the hemorrhage that 
 I thought might take place from the subclavian artery or some other 
 blood vessel. This was done with a dirk knife, but no wound was 
 found there. I lifted his eyelids and saw evidence of a brain injury. 
 I quickly passed the separated fingers of both hands through his 
 blood matted hair to examine his head, and I discovered his mortal 
 wound. The President had been shot in the back part of the head, 
 behind the left ear. I easily remioved the obstructing clot of blood 
 from the wound, and this relieved the pressure on the brain. 
 
 The assassin of President Lincoln had evidently carefully planned 
 to shoot to produce instant death, as the wound he made was situated 
 within two inches of the physiological point of selection, when instant 
 death is desired. A Derringer pistol had been used, which had sent 
 a large round ball on its awful mission through one of the thickest, 
 hardest parts of the skull and into the brain. The history of surgery 
 fails to record a recovery from such a fearful wound and I have never 
 seen or heard of any other person with such a wound, and injury to 
 the sinus of the brain and to the brain itself, who lived even for an 
 hour. 
 
 As the President did not then revive, I thought of the other mode 
 of death, apnoea, and assumed my preferred position to revive by ar- 
 tificial respiration. I knelt on the floor over the President, with a 
 knee on each side of his pelvis and facing him. I leaned forward, 
 opened his mnutli and introduced two extended fingers of my right 
 hand as far ])ack as possible, and by pressing the base of his paralyzed 
 tongue downward and outward, opened his larynx and made a free 
 passage for air to enter the lungs. I placed an assistant at each of 
 his arms to manipulate them in order to expand his thorax, then slowly 
 to press the arms down by the side of the body, while I pressed the 
 diaphragm upward : methods which caused air to be drawn in and 
 forced out of his lungs. 
 
 During the intermissions T also with the strong thumb and fingers 
 of my right hand by intermittent sliding pressure under and beneath 
 the ribs, stimulated the apex of the heart, and resorted to several 
 other physiological methods. We repeated these motions a number of 
 times before signs of recovery from; the profound shock were attained; 
 then a feeble action of the heart and irregular breathing followed. 
 
 Tlie effects of the shock were still manifest by such great pros- 
 tration, that T was fearful of any extra agitation of the President's 
 body, and became convinced that something more must be done to 
 retain life. T leaned forcibly forward directly over his body, thorax to 
 thora.x, face to face, and several times drew in a long breath, then forcibly 
 breathed directly into his mouth and nostrils, which expanded his 
 lungs and improved his respirations. After waiting a moment I placed 
 my ear over his thorax and found the action of the heart improving. 
 I arose to the erect kneeling posture, then watched for a short time, 
 
 24 
 
and saw that the President could continue independent breathing and 
 that instant death would not occur. 
 
 I then pronounced my diagnosis and prognosis: "His wound is 
 mortal ; it is impossible for him to recover." This message was 
 telegraphed all over the countr}-. 
 
 When the brandy and water arrived, I very slowly poured a small 
 quantity into the President's mouth, this was swallowed and retained. 
 
 Many looked on during these earnest efforts to revive the Presi- 
 dent, but not once did any one suggest a word or in any way interfere 
 with my actions. Mrs. Lincoln had thrown the burden on me and 
 sat nearby looking on. 
 
 In the dimly lighted box of the theatre, so beautifully decorated 
 with American tlags, a scene of historic importance was being enacted. 
 On the carpeted floor lay prostrate the President of the United States. 
 His long, outstretched, athletic body of six feet four inches appeared 
 unusually heroic. His Isleeding head rested on my white linen hand- 
 kerchief. His clothing was arranged as nicely as possible. He was 
 irregularly breathing, his heart was feebly beating, his face was pale 
 and in solemn repose, his eyelids were closed, his countenance made 
 him appear to be in prayerful communion with the Universal God he 
 always loved. I looked down upon him and waited for the next in- 
 spiration, which soon came : "Remove to safety." From the time Mrs. 
 Lincoln had placed the President in my charge, I had not permitted 
 my attention to be diverted. Again I was asked the nature of his 
 wound and replied in these exact words: "His wound is mortal; it 
 is impossible for him to recover." 
 
 While I was kneeling over the President on the floor Dr. Charles 
 S. Taft and Dr. Albert F. A. King had come and offered to render any 
 assistance. I expressed the desire to have the President taken, as soon 
 as he had gained sufficient strength, to the nearest house on the op- 
 posite side of the street. I was asked by several if he could not be 
 taken to the White House, but I responded that if that were attempted 
 the President would die long before we reached there. While we were 
 waiting for ]\lr. Lincoln to gain strength Laura Keene, who had been 
 taking part in the play, appealed to me to allow her to hold the Presi- 
 dent's head. I granted this request and she sat on the floor of the box 
 and held his head on her lap. 
 
 Wt decided that the President could now be moved from the pos- 
 sibility of danger in the theatre to a house where we might place him 
 on a bed in safety. To assist in this duty I assigned Dr. Taft to carry 
 his right shoulder. Dr. King to carry his left shoulder and detailed a 
 sufficient number of others, whose names I have never discovered, to 
 assist in carrying the body, while I carried his head, going first. We 
 reached the door of the box and saw the long passage leading to the 
 e.xit crowded with people. I called out twice: "Guards, clear the pass- 
 age ! Guards, clear the passage !" A free space was quickly cleared 
 by an officer and protected by a line of soldiers in the position of 
 present arms with swords, pistols and bayonets. When we reached 
 the stairs, I turned so that those holding the President's feet would 
 descend first. At the door of the theatre, I was again asked if the 
 President could be taken to the White House. I answered : "No, the 
 President would die on the way." 
 
 The crowd in the street completely obstructed tlie doorway and a 
 captain, whose services proved invaluable all through the night, came 
 to me, saying: "Surgeon, give me your commands and I will see that 
 they are obeyed." I asked him to clear a passage to the nearest house 
 
 25 
 
opposite. He had on side arms and drew his sword. With the sword 
 and word of command he cleared the way. We slowly crossed the 
 street. It was necessary to stop several times to give me the oppor- 
 tunity to remove the clot of blood from the opening to the wound. A 
 barrier of men had been formed to keep back the crowds on each side 
 of an open space leading to the house. Those who went ahead reported 
 that the house directly opposite the theatre was closed. I saw a man 
 standing at the door of Mr. Petersen's house, diagonally opposite, hold- 
 ing a lighted candle in his hand and beckoning us to enter. This we 
 did, not having been interrupted in the slightest by the throngs in the 
 street, but a number of the excited populace followed us into the house. 
 
 The great difficulty of retaining life during this brief time occu- 
 pied in moving the President from the theatre to Mr. Petersen's 
 house, conclusively proved that the President would have died in the 
 street if I had granted the request to take him such a long distance as 
 to the White House. 1 asked for the best room and we soon had the 
 President placed in bed. He was lifted to the longitudinal center of 
 the bed and placed on his back. While holding his face upward and 
 keeping his head from rolling to either side, I looked at his elevated 
 knees caused by his great height. This uncomfortable position grieved 
 me and T ordered the foot of the bed to be removed. Dr. Taft and 
 Dr. King reported that it was a fixture. Then I requested that it be 
 broken off ; as I found this could not satisfactorily be done, I had the 
 President placed diagonally on the bed and called for extra pillows, 
 and with them formed a gentle inclined plane on which to rest his head 
 and shoulders. His position was then ore of repose. 
 
 Tlie room soon filled with anxious people. I called the officer and 
 asked him to open a window and order all except the medical gentle- 
 men and friends to leave the room. After we had given the President 
 a short rest I decided to make a thorough physical examination, as I 
 wished to see if he had been wounded in any other part of the body. 
 I requested all except the surgeons to leave the room. The Captain 
 reported that my order had been carried out with the exception of 
 Mrs. Lincoln, to whom he said he did not like to speak. I addressed 
 Mrs. Lincoln, explaining my desire, and she immediately left the room. 
 I examined the President's entire body from his head to his feet and 
 found no other injury. His lower extremities were very cold and I 
 sent the Hospital Steward, who had been of great assistance to us in 
 removing the President from the theatre, to procure bottles of hot 
 water and hot blankets, which were applied. I also sent for a large 
 sinapism and in a short time one \er\- nicely made was brought. This 
 T applied over the solar-plexus and tn tlic anterior surface of his body. 
 We arranged the bed clothes nicely and I assigned Dr. Taft and Dr. 
 King to keep his head upon the pillows in the most comfortable posi- 
 tion, relieving each other in this duty, after which I sent an officer to 
 notify Mrs. Lincoln that she might return to her husband : she came in 
 and sat on a chair placed for her at tlie head of the bed. 
 
 As the symptoms indicated renewed lirain compression. I again 
 cleared the opening of clotted blood and pushed forward the button of 
 bone, which acted as a valve, permitted an oozing of blood and re- 
 lieved pressure on the brain. 1 again saw good results from this action. 
 
 After doing all that was professionally necessary, 1 stood aside for 
 a general view and to think what to do next. While thus watching sev- 
 eral army officers anxiously asked if they could in any way assist. I 
 told them my greatest desire then was to send messengers to the White 
 House for the President's son. Captain Robert T. Lincoln, also for the 
 Surgeon General. Josi'pli K. P>arres. .Surgeon D. \\'i]l,ir(l lUi^^, in 
 
 26 
 
charge of Armory Square General Hospital, the President's family 
 physician, Dr. Roljert K. Stone, and to each member of the President's 
 Cabinet. All these desires of mine were fullillcd. 
 
 Having been taught in early youth to pay great respect to all re- 
 ligious denominations in regard to their rules concerning the sick or 
 dying, it became my duty as surgeon in ciiarge of the dying President 
 to sitmmon a clergyman to his 1)edsidc. Therefore after inquiring and 
 being informed that the Rev. Dr. Gurley was Mrs. Lincoln's pastor, I 
 immediately sent for him. 
 
 Then I sent the Hospital Steward for a Nelaton probe. Xo drug 
 or medicine in any form was administered to the President, l)Ut the 
 artificial heat and mustard plaster that 1 had applied warmed his cold 
 body and stimulated his nerves. Only a few were at any time admitted 
 to the room by the officer, whom I had stationed at the door, and at 
 all times I had maintained perfect discipline and ordc-r. 
 
 While we were watching and letting Nature do her part, Dr. Taft 
 came to me with brandy and water and asked permission to give some 
 to the President. I objected, stating as my reason that it would produce 
 strangulation. Dr. Taft left the room, and again came to me stating 
 that it was the opinion of others also that it might do good. I replied : 
 "I will grant the request, if you will please at first try by pouring only 
 a very small quantity into the President's mouth." This Dr. Taft very 
 carefully did, the liquid ran into the President's larynx producing laryn- 
 geal obstruction and unpleasant symptoms, which took me about half 
 a mintite to overcome, but no lasting harm was done. ^ly physiological 
 and practical experiences had led to correct conclusions. 
 
 On the arrival of Dr. Robert K. Stone, who had been the Presi- 
 dent's family physician during his residence in Washington, I was pre- 
 sented to him as the one who had been in charge since the President 
 was shot. I described the wound and told him all that had been done. 
 He said he approved of my treatment. 
 
 Stirgeon General Joseph K. Barnes" Inng delay in arriving was due 
 to his going first to the White House, where he expected to find the 
 assassinated President, then to the residei ce of Secretary Seward and 
 his son, both of whom he found reqttiring immediate attention, as they 
 had been severely wounded by the attempts of another assassin to kill 
 them. 
 
 On the arrival of the Surgeon General and Assistant Surgeon Gen- 
 eral, Charles H. Crane, I reported what we had done and officially de- 
 tailed to the Surgeon General mj- diagnosis, stating that whenever the 
 clot was allowed to form over the opening to the wound the President's 
 breathing became greatly embarrassed. 1 he Surgeon General approved 
 the treatment and my original plan of treatment was continued in 
 every respect until the President's death. 
 
 The Hospital Steward arrived with the Nelaton probe and an ex- 
 amination was made by the Surgeon General and myself, who introduced 
 the probe to a distance of about two and a half inches, where it came 
 in contact with a foreign substance, which lay across the track of the 
 ball; this was easily passed and the probe was introduced several inches 
 further where it again touched a hard substance at first supposed to 
 be the ball, but as the white porcelain bulb of the probe on its with- 
 drawal did not indicate the mark of lead it was generally thought to 
 be another piece of loose bone. The probe was introduced the second 
 time and the ball was supposed to be distinctly felt. After this second 
 exploration nothing further was done with the wound except to keep 
 the opening free from coagula, whicli, if allowed to form and remain 
 
 27 
 
for a short time, produced signs of increased compression, the breathing 
 becoming profomidly stertorous and intermittent, the pulse more feeble 
 and irregular. After I had resigned my charge all that was profes- 
 sionally done for the President was to repeat occasionally my original 
 expedient of relieving the brain pressure by freeing the opening to the 
 wound and to count the pulse and respirations. The President's posi- 
 tion on the bed remained exactly as I had first placed him with the 
 assistance of Dr. Taft and Dr. King. 
 
 Captain Robert T. Lincoln came and remained with his father and 
 mother, bravely sustaining himself during the course of the night. 
 
 On that awful memorable night the great War Secretary, the Hon- 
 orable Edwin M. Stanton, one of the most imposing iigures of the 
 nineteenth century, promptly arrived and recognized at that critical 
 period of our country's history the necessity of a head to our Govern- 
 ment and as the President was passing away established a branch of 
 his War Department in an adjoining room. There he sat, surrounded 
 by his counsellors and messengers, pen in hand, writing to General Dix 
 and others. He was soon in communication with many in authority 
 and with the Government and army officials. By Secretary Stanton's 
 wonderful ability and power in action, he undoubtedly controlled mil- 
 lions of excited people. He was then the Master, and in reality Acting 
 President of the United States. 
 
 During the night Mrs. Lincoln came frequently from the adjoining 
 room accompanied by a lady friend. At one time Mrs. Lincoln ex- 
 claimed, sobbing bitterly: "Oh! that my little Taddy might see his 
 father before he died !'' This was decided not advisable. As Mrs. Lin- 
 coln sat on a chair by the side of the bed with her face to her hus- 
 band's his breating became very stertorous and the loud, unnatural 
 noise frightened her in her exhausted, agonized condition. She sprang 
 up suddenly with a piercing cry and fell fainting to the floor. Sec- 
 retary Stanton hearing her cry came in from the adjoining room and 
 with raised arms called out loudly: "Take that woman out and do not 
 let her in again." Mrs. Lincoln was helped up kindly and assisted in 
 a fainting condition from the room. Secretary Stanton's order was 
 obeyed and Mrs. Lincoln did not see her husband again before he died. 
 
 As Captain Lincoln was consoling his mother in another room, 
 and as 1 had promised Mrs. Lincoln to do all 1 possibly could for her 
 husband, I took the place of kindred and continuously held the Presi- 
 dent's right hand firmly, with one exception of less than a minute, 
 when my sympathies compelled me to seek the disconsolate wife. I 
 found her reclining in a nearby room, being comforted by her son. 
 Without stopping in my walk, 1 passed the room where Secretary Stan- 
 ton sat at his official table and returning took the hand of the dying 
 President in nnne. The hand that had signed the Emancipation Proc- 
 lamation liberating 4,000,000 slaves. 
 
 As morning dawned it became (|uite (.-vident that the Presick-nt was 
 sinking, and at several times his pulse could not be counted. I wo or 
 three feeble pulsations being noticed, followed by an intermission when 
 not the slightest movements of the artery could be felt. Tlie inspira- 
 tions became very prolonged and labored, accompanied by a guttural 
 sound. 1 lie respirations ceased for some time and several anxiously 
 looked at their watclies imtil tlic profound silence was disturbed by a 
 prolonged inspiration, which was followed by a sonorous expiration. 
 
 During these moments the Surgeon General occupied a chair by the 
 head of the President's bed and occasionally held his finger over the 
 carotid :irtery to note its pulsations. Dr. Stone sat on the edge of the 
 foot of the bed. and 1 st.M.d liolding the President's right hand with my 
 
 28 
 
extended forefinger on his pulse, being the only one between the bed 
 and the wall, the bed having been drawn out diagonally for that pur- 
 pose. While we were anxiously watching in profound solemn silence, 
 the Rev. Dr. Gurley said : "Let us pray," and offered a most impres- 
 sive prayer. After which we witnessed the last struggle between life 
 and death. 
 
 At this time my knowledge of physiology, pathology and psychology 
 told me that the President was totally blind as a result of blood press- 
 ure on the brain, as indicated by the paralysis, dilated pupils, pro- 
 truding and bloodshot eyes, but all the time I acted on the belief that 
 if his sense of hearing or feeling remained, he could possibly hear me 
 when I sent for his son, the voice of his wife when she spoke to him 
 and that the last sound he heard, may have been his pastor's prayer, 
 as he finally committed his soul to God. 
 
 Knowledge that frequently just before departure recognition and 
 reason return to those who have been unconscious caused me for sev- 
 eral hours to hold his right hand firmly within my grasp to let him in 
 his blindness know, if possible, that he was in touch with humanity 
 and had a friend. 
 
 The protracted struggle ceased at twenty miinites past seven o'clock 
 on the morning of April 15, 1865. and I announced that the President 
 was dead. 
 
 Immediately after death the few remaining in the room knelt 
 around the bed while the Rev. Dr. Gurley delivered one of the most 
 impressive prayers ever uttered, that our Heavenly Father look down 
 in pity upon the bereaved family and preserve our afflicted and sorrow- 
 stricken country. 
 
 Then I gently smoothed the President's contracted facial muscles, 
 took two coins from my pocket, placed them over his eyelids and drew 
 a white sheet over the martyr's face. I had been the means, in God's 
 hand, of prolonging the life of President Abraham Lincoln for nine 
 hours. 
 
 Every necessary act of love, devotion, skill and loyalty had been 
 rendered during his helpless hours to the President of the L^nited 
 States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Xavy, to the be- 
 loved of millions of people throughout the world. 
 
 Many reported, anxious in any way to be of service. I accepted 
 their offers to the extent of abundantly filling every want. Of all the 
 people I have met in different parts of the world, I have found that as 
 a class, good Americans are not to be excelled when occasions demand, 
 in strength, endurance, calmness, good judgment, ardent loyal devotion 
 and self-sacrificing love. 
 
 By prolonging the life of President Lincoln, liis son Robert, whom 
 I sent for, was enabled to see his father alive. Physicians and surgeons, 
 lawyer and clergyman, whom I sent for, visited the President and were 
 given time to deliberate. ^lembers of the Cabinet, whom I sent for 
 with soldiers and sailors and friends, had the opportunity to surround 
 him. Million? of dangerous, e.xcited and disappointed people were 
 nioralK dissuaded from acts of discord. I he ration was held in sup- 
 pressed, sympathetic suspense and control, when the people heard that 
 the President was living, though severely wounded and dying. 
 
 Before the people had time to realize the situation there was an- 
 other President of the L'^nited States and the grandeur of the continuity 
 of the Republic was confirmed. 
 
 After all was over, and as T stood l)y the sidr of the covered mor- 
 tal remains I thought: "You have fulfilled your promise to the wife. 
 your duty now is to the many living, suffering, wounded otficers com- 
 
 29 
 
mittcil til your care in your ward at Armory Square General Hospital, 
 and I left the house in deep meditation. In my lonely walk I was 
 aroused from my reveries by the cold drizzling rain dropping on my 
 bare head, my hat I had left in my seat at the theatre. Aly clothin> 
 was stained with blood, I had not once l)een seated since I first sprang 
 to the President's aid ; I was cold, weary and sad. The dawn of peace 
 was again clouded, the most cruel war in history had not completely 
 ended. Our long sorrowing country vividly came before me as 1 
 thought how essential it was to have an organization composed of re- 
 turning soldiers to guard and protect the officers of state and uphold 
 the Constitution. 1 his great need was simultaneously recognized by 
 others, for on that day, April 15, 1865, there assembled at Philadelphia 
 a few army officers for that purpose and originated the Military Order 
 of the Loyal Legion of the United States. 
 
 Among the archives of our organization, the Military Order of the 
 Loyal Legion of the United States, we have recorded : — 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Prcsiilriit of the United States. Murcli _i, iSdi, to A[^ril 15, 1865. 
 
 Born February 12, 1809. Hardin {La Rne County), Keutueky. 
 
 Assassinated April 14, 1865; died April 15, 1865, at IVashington. D.C. 
 
 Enrolled by Special Resolution, to date from April 15, 1865. 
 
 I herewith give in the order in which they arrived, the names of tlie 
 ph_\sicians and surgeons, and the clergyman whom I recognized as taking 
 a professional part in the physical, mental or spiritual welfare of the 
 President from the time he was shot until his death. The first person to 
 enter the box after the President was shot, and who took charge of 
 him at the recjuest of Mrs. Lincoln, was myself, Charles A. Leale, 
 AL D., Assistant Surgeon. United States Volunteers and the surgeon 
 in charge of the ward containing the wounded commissioned officers 
 at the United States Army General Hospital, Armory Square, Wash- 
 ingon, D. C. The next who reported and simiultaneously ofifered their 
 services to me, which were accepted, were Charles S. Taft, M. D., 
 Acting Assistant Surgeon, United States Army, and Albert F. A. King, 
 M. D., Acting Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. Then appar- 
 ently a ver}' long time after we had cared for the President in Mr. 
 Petersen's house, and in response to the numerous messengers whom 
 I had sent, there arrived Robert K. Stone, M. D., Mrs. Lincoln's family 
 physician ; Joseph K. Barnes, M. D., Surgeon General, United States 
 Army; Charles H. Crane, M. D., Assistant Surgeon General, United 
 States Army, and the Rev. Dr. Gurley, Mrs. Lincoln's pastor. During 
 the night several other physicians unknown to me called, and through 
 courtesy I permitted some of them to feel tlie President's pulse, but 
 none of them touched the wound. 
 
 Later in the forenoon as I was in the midst of important surgical 
 duties at our hospital, T was notified by my lady nurse that a messenger 
 had called inviting me to be present at the necropsy. Later a doctor 
 called for the same purpose. I respectfully asked to be excused, as 
 I did not dare to leave the large number of severely wounded expecting 
 my usual personal care. I was fearful that the shock of hearing of 
 the sudden death of the President might cause trouble in their de- 
 pressed painful conditions. 
 
 One of my patients was profoundly depressed. He said to me : 
 "Doctor, all we have fought for is gone. Our country is destroyed, 
 and I want to die." This officer the day before was safely recovering 
 from an amputation. I called my lady nurse, "Please closely watch 
 Lieutenant ; cheer him as much as possible, and give him two 
 
 30 
 
ounces of wine every two hours." etc., etc. This brave soldier received 
 the greatest kindness and skillful care, but he would not rally from the 
 shock and died in a short time. 
 
 Among my relics 1 have a photograph taken a few days later in 
 full staff unifiorm as 1 appeared at the obsequies. The crape has never 
 been removed from my sword. I have my cuffs stained with the mar- 
 tyr's blood, also my card of invitation to the funeral services, held on 
 Wednesdav, April 19, which 1 attended, having been assigned a place 
 at the head of the coffin at the White House, and a carriage immediately 
 preceding the catafalque in the grand funeral procession from the 
 Wlhite House to the Capitol ; where during the public ceremonies 1 
 was assigned to a place at the head of the casket as it rested beneath 
 the rotunda. 
 
 One of the most devoted of those who remained in_ the room wuli 
 the dying President was Senator Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts. 
 He vi'sited me subsequently and said: "Dr. Leale. do you remember 
 that I remained all the time until President Lincoln died?" Senator 
 Sumner was profoundly affected by this great calamity to both North 
 and South. 
 
 On my visit to Secretary Seward son^e time after the President s 
 death, he was still suffering from his fracture and from the brutal 
 attacks of the assassin, who'made such a desperate attempt to kill Inm 
 on that fatal night. 
 
 When I again met Secretary Stanton we sat alone ui his private 
 office. He was doing his utmost to continue what he deemed best for 
 our countrv. The long continued strain and great burden had left their 
 deep impre'ss upon him. At the close of my call we shook hands fra 
 ternally. 
 
 After the war had closed Governor Fenton. of New^ York State. 
 one of the "War Governors." came to me and said: "Dr. Leale, I 
 will give you anything possible within my power." I responded: "I 
 sincerely thank you, Governor; but I desire nothing, as T wish to fol- 
 low mv mission in liie." 
 
 The city of Washington was wrapped in a mantle ot gloom. 1 he 
 President had known his people and had a heiirt full of love for his 
 soldiers and sailors. With "malice toward none" he alone seemed to 
 have the power to restore fraternal love. He alone appeared able to 
 quicklv heal his countrv's wound. 
 
 In May there occurred in Washington one of the most pathetic 
 and historic events, the return of the Northern Army for the tmal 
 review of more than 70.000 veterans. A grandstand had been erected 
 in front of the White House for the new President, his Cabinet. Offi- 
 cers of State. Foreign Ministers and others. I had a seat on this grand- 
 stand, from which on May 24th we watched one of the most imposing 
 parades recorded in historv. Among the many heroes, I recall the 
 passing of statelv General William Tecumseh Sherman on his majestic 
 horse, which had been garlanded with roses. After we had been sit- 
 ting there for several hours a forei.gn official tapped me on the shoulder 
 and said : "What will become of these thousands of soldiers after the-r 
 discharge?" I answered: "They will return to their homes all over 
 the countrv and soon be at work doing their utmost to pay off the 
 national debt." He replied: "Ts it possible! No other country could 
 expect such a result." 
 
 All had lost comrades, manv were to return m desolate and iiroken 
 homes. Amidst all the grandeur of victory there was profound sorrow 
 Among the thousands of passing veterans, tliere were many who h^okec 
 for their former Commander-in-Chief, but their "I'ather Abrah;im had 
 answered to his last bugle call and with more than 300,000 eonir.-Hies 
 had been mustered out. 
 
 31 
 

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