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Lincoln’s Assassination Stuns the Nation
NEH - National Endowment for the Humanities ^ | Spring 2015 | Martha Hodes

Posted on 09/14/2025 1:11:21 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

The crowds were phenomenal. Pews always filled to capacity on Easter, but no one had ever seen anything like April 16, 1865…

Shot on Good Friday and dead on Saturday: The timing of the assassination made Easter Sunday 1865 a particularly important—and confusing—occasion, as shocked mourners came to church for what should have been a day of rejoicing over both the resurrection of Christ and military victory.

The reversal of fortunes was manifested materially, as churchwomen rearranged the colorful springtime displays they had readied. Easter decoration had become something of a commercial enterprise by the mid nineteenth century…As a congregant in Boston recorded, grappling with the juxtaposition of joy and sorrow, “This glorious Easter morn our Church put on the garb of mourning.”

African Americans claimed for themselves a special place in the outpouring of sorrow, and the prayers and sermons of Easter Sunday magnified Lincoln’s role as the Great Emancipator…Would they “have to be slaves again”?

Frederick Douglass, speaking extemporaneously in Rochester on Saturday, told the overflowing crowd that he felt the loss “as a personal as well as national calamity” because of “the race to which I belong.” Even the most stricken white mourners conceded the point.

“Do not feel like doing anything,” wrote sixteen-year-old Margaret Howell in Philadelphia…

Grief affected people’s physical well-being too, in all kinds of ways: lightheadedness or debilitating headaches, prolonged trembling, “prostration of the nervous system,” even days of indefinable sickness. The declaration of victory had enabled Moses Cleveland, serving outside Mobile, to bear his poor health more easily, but the assassination brought him back to the army surgeon, who dispensed medicine and orders to rest.

(Excerpt) Read more at neh.gov ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: assassination; civilwar; frederickdouglass; greatestpresident; history; lincoln; newyork; rochester
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To: Ditto

Were we a divided country in 1941 there’s a decent chance we’d be watching Germans goose stepping down Broadway every Hitler’s birthday.

We needed the WHOLE country to win that war.

Lincoln did what he had to do after the South fired the 1st shots.


21 posted on 09/14/2025 3:21:38 PM PDT by Old West Conservative
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
The real tragedy of Lincoln's assassination is that it didn't occur five years earlier.

He killed a lot of people and transformed our government into something very different than what the framers left us.

22 posted on 09/14/2025 3:28:26 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: MinorityRepublican
Pretty much the South had decided to declare war on the North who believed that the Union was a sacred and almost divine bond and that it cannot be divided.

Like the bond we had with England? Why was the Union of the United Kingdom a lesser bond, though it had been in place hundreds of years, than the one that had only been in place for "four score and seven"?

And the South didn't decide to declare war. We have all been misled to believe they fired first, but the fact of the matter is Lincoln drew his pistol before they did.

So if Lincoln did not mobilize his army in the beginning of the war, they would have impeached him.

When the Southern states left in December of 1860, many in the North wished them well. There was no worries about a "sacred bond". As Horace Greeley said: “Let the erring sisters go in peace."

It wasn't until they realized how much trade and how much money they would lose that they suddenly became very angry that the South was leaving.

People lie. The bedrock core of most people's lives are their own self interest, but they always portray the promotion of their own self interest as some sort of greater good, because this makes it seem noble and not self serving.

So yeah, they will wax indignantly about the "sacred bond" of Union, while they are nervously looking at their cash register.

23 posted on 09/14/2025 3:39:15 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Fledermaus
Wrong. Democrat slave holders launched a civil war.

And how did they do that?

History books are easy to find.

History books say whatever the government wants them to say. As the government was the prime beneficiary of all the destruction of that war, of course the history books are going to reflect propaganda that makes them look good.

Do you think Japanese history books mention the rape of Nanking? Every nation's history books must be approved by their governments or they don't get published.

It is no different here in America.

24 posted on 09/14/2025 3:42:37 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp; CondoleezzaProtege
The pro-Confederate National Volunteers group were the ones who tried to kill Lincoln in the Baltimore Plot (before Lincoln was even inaugurated). Did that have a sway in Lincoln's decision to follow the lead of his predecessor (Dim President Buchannan) in not removing U.S. troops from Ft Moultrie/Sumter? I don't know. I'm not saying that would have been a justified reason. I'm just saying human nature may have caused Lincoln to be too mad at that point to care if the Dim Confederates fired on Sumter.

Another thing to consider: what was the norm for the time? Again, not saying whether it's right or wrong. Just saying it would have been unusual for the U.S. to not let the south secede.

Just 85 years before that in 1776, England didn't let the U.S. secede without having to fight for it. Nor did Spain let Mexico secede in 1821. Nor did the new nation of Mexico let Texas secede in 1836. Nor did the U.S. allow the Confederate States secede in 1860.

25 posted on 09/14/2025 3:46:15 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Ditto
Did he launch that war? Did the idiots in Charleston who fired the first shots launch the war?

Lincoln drew his pistol and aimed it at them while telling them he was going to fire.

Normal men shoot when they see the gun drawn, as Lincoln drew the gun on them.

The gun was a war fleet headed to Charleston to subdue the confederates there.

Or do your believe it would have been a better place if it were broken apart 165 years ago, half slave and half free?

I think England would have been a far more powerful empire if we had remained under their control, but do you know what? It's not up to them to keep us under their thumb. We had a right to leave, and so did the Southern states, and what effect it may have on the future of the Nation being left is immaterial to their right to leave.

26 posted on 09/14/2025 3:47:09 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Ditto
If that’s the case, why did they organize that big army?

The one that surrounded Sumter? Well it's because Major Anderson destroyed all the cannons in Fort Moultrie in the middle of the night, and snuck over to unfinished Fort Sumter, and took it over.

The people woke up the next day and found a hostile force occupying the entrance to their harbor.

So yeah, they call up the army to deal with it.

27 posted on 09/14/2025 3:49:31 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

They fired on Ft. Sumter.

“History books say whatever the government wants them to say”.

Oh geez, you are delusional.

Oh BTW, Telefon!


28 posted on 09/14/2025 3:50:36 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
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To: Reily
On December 17, 1836, South Carolina officially ceded all “right, title and, claim” to the site of Fort Sumter to the United States. Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, and Fort Johnson, along with sites for the future erection of forts were ceded by South Carolina to the United States in 1805.

The 1805 land grant had requirements which the Federal government never lived up to.

Also, the forts were to be constructed for the *DEFENSE* of Charleston, not to threaten it's shipping or threaten the city.

29 posted on 09/14/2025 3:51:08 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: McCarthysGhost

Nope, the South had the Fexeral Government, then through a sissy fir when Kincoln won. Sounds like now.


30 posted on 09/14/2025 3:51:14 PM PDT by cowboyusa ( YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFO n9t born againRE HIM!)
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To: DiogenesLamp
We had a right to leave, and so did the Southern states.

Except that the South wanted to leave the Union due to slavery. Not exactly a righteous cause there.

31 posted on 09/14/2025 3:53:02 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: cowboyusa

Lincoln wasn’t even on the ballot in much or all of The South. They were really two different countries much like we are today.


32 posted on 09/14/2025 4:07:01 PM PDT by McCarthysGhost
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Let’s stop and look at the big picture on this thread.

In 2025 people of good will here are strongly battling over the first US Civil War and who was responsible for it.

April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865.

Then people wonder how our two Dem/Socialist versus GOP/Conservative sides today can be so divided.


33 posted on 09/14/2025 4:12:05 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: DiogenesLamp
Well it's because Major Anderson destroyed all the cannons in Fort Moultrie in the middle of the night, and snuck over to unfinished Fort Sumter, and took it over. The people woke up the next day and found a hostile force occupying the entrance to their harbor.

So yeah, they call up the army to deal with it.

Called them up? Did they have them on speed dial? Was that army busy somewhere else but decided to go to Charleston instead? Is that the way your comic book history tells the story? Those damn Yankees at Fort Sumter were threatening Charleston. Those damn Yankees were so pesky. ;~))

34 posted on 09/14/2025 5:33:28 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: DiogenesLamp
Lincoln drew his pistol and aimed it at them while telling them he was going to fire.

He did? When did he do that? Please tell the class Professor.

35 posted on 09/14/2025 5:36:42 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: MinorityRepublican
We had a right to leave,…

Don’t let the door……… .

36 posted on 09/14/2025 5:48:07 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: McCarthysGhost
The North wasn't just saying that they owned the fort. They were saying that they owned the entire South and everything in it. It was theirs to do with whatever the hell they liked including burn it all down and kill some or even all of its inhabitance if needs be.

Can you tell us who in the North ever said that or even implied that? I have seen some over the top posts on these WBTS threads, but yours deserves some sort of prize for being stratospheric.

37 posted on 09/14/2025 6:00:20 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: DiogenesLamp
The real tragedy of Lincoln's assassination is that it didn't occur five years earlier.

Spoken like the moron you are.

38 posted on 09/14/2025 6:01:54 PM PDT by Ditto
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Any civil war will resemble the Spanish Civil War, I believe.


39 posted on 09/14/2025 7:29:10 PM PDT by dynachrome (Auslander Raus!)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Except that the South wanted to leave the Union due to slavery.

Well firstly, if they have a *RIGHT* to leave, do you get to say "that reason isn't good enough for you to exercise *YOUR* right."?

The question is, did they have a right? And the answer is *YES*. They did have a right to secede.

Secondly, 3 or 4 states asserted it was because of slavery. There were 11 states in the Confederacy, but nobody remembers what the rest of them said. The most important one was Virginia, yet nobody focuses on what Virginia said.

Virginia said they were leaving because the Federal government had become tyrannical, and the act of waging war on her sister states effectively dissolves the compact between the states and the Federal government.

Virginia left to oppose tyranny, but everyone has been constantly taught it was only about slavery.

Well if it was only about slavery, why didn't they take the deal Lincoln offered? (Corwin Amendment)

Why didn't they sign on to the Union with an amendment to protect slavery in perpetuity?

All they had to do to protect slavery was stay in the Union.

40 posted on 09/14/2025 7:39:42 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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