Riveting Lincoln Assassination Broadside - Published the Morning of His Death

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016

Broadside, 6” x 24,” variable type faces adorn the stacked headlines, Saturday Morning, April 15, 1865, Lansing Michigan, 1-1/2” clean, open tear at bottom right, else fine. The very attractive layout sets this broadside apart, seven stacked headlines, followed by the 2column report, and closed single column Proclamation by the Mayor. that it clearly reflects, with vivid detail, the chaos, fear and uncertainty that gripped Washington as the horrible facts became known and rumors washed through the city regarding the two simultaneous assassination attempts on Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward. In the turmoil of the first hours, separating fact from fiction must have been an extraordinary challenge. For instance, the broadside erroneously reports that Seward died of his wounds and that Booth had been arrested. The headlines are dramatic, TERRIBLE CALAMITY, President Lincoln, Secretary Seward and Others, Assassinated, THE PRESIDENT DEAD, SECRETARY SEWARD DEAD, ESCAPE OF ONE OF THE ASSASSINATORS - THE OTHER CAPTURED. The actual reporting is intense. Here are a few excerpts, “During the third act, and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious until a man rushed to the president's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, and exclaiming "sic semper tyrannis ... The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President was shot, when all present rose to their feet and pushed towards the stage, many exclaiming ‘hang him!’ ... At midnight, the Cabinet, Messrs. Sumner, Befay and Farnsworth, Judge Bates, Gov. Oglesby, Gen. Meigs, Col. Hays and a few personal friends, with Surgeon General Barnes and his immediate assistants were around his bedside. ... The President was in a state of syncope, totally insensible and breathing slowly -- the blood oozed from the wound at the back of his head. ... Official bulletin, 4:10 a.m., says the President continues insensible, and is sinking. ... Another bulletin from Secretary Stanton says: the President breathed his last at 22 minutes past seven o'clock this morning. ... Booth, the assassin, is arrested. It is J. Wilkes Booth, the actor.”

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