hands, and he wants to run away, better let him run.'"

During the afternoon the President signed a pardon for a soldier
sentenced to be shot for desertion; remarking, as he did so, "Well, I
think the boy can do us more good above ground than under ground." He
also approved an application for the discharge, on taking the oath of
allegiance, of a Southern prisoner, on whose petition he wrote, "_Let it
be done_." This act of mercy was his last official order.

It had been decided early in the day that the President and Mrs. Lincoln
would attend Ford's Theatre in the evening, to witness the play of "The
American Cousin." Lincoln had invited General Grant to accompany his
party to the theatre, saying that the people would expect to see him and
should not be disappointed. But the General had declined, as Mrs. Grant
was anxious to start that afternoon to visit their children, who were at
school in Burlington, New Jersey.

As the hour approached for leaving for the theatre, the President was
engaged in a conversation with two friends--Speaker Colfax and Hon.
George Ashmun of Massachusetts. The business on which they had met not
being concluded, the President gave Mr. Ashmun a card on which he had
written these words: "Allow Mr. Ashmun and friend to come in at 9 A.M.
to-morrow--A. Lincoln." He then turned to Mr. Colfax, saying, "You are
going with Mrs. Lincoln and me to the theatre, I hope." Mr. Colfax
pleaded other engagements, when Lincoln remarked: "Mr. Sumner has the
gavel of the Confederate Congress, which he got at Richmond to hand to
the Secretary of War. But I insisted then that he must give it to you;
and you tell him for me to hand it over." He then rose, but seemed
reluctant to go, expressing a half-determination to delay a while
longer. It was undoubtedly to avoid disappointing the audience, to whom
his presence had been promised, that he went to the play-house that
night. At the door he stopped and said to Speaker Colfax, who was about
to leave for the Pacific coast, "Colfax, do not forget to tell the
people in the mining regions, as you pass through, what I told you this
morning about the development when peace comes. I will telegraph you at
San Francisco."

It was nine o'clock when the Presidential party reached the theatre. The
place was crowded; "many ladies in rich and gay costumes, officers in
their uniforms, many well-known citizens, young folks, the usual
clusters of gaslights, the usual magnetism of so