d
for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a
just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

That gigantic system of fleets and armies, the creation of which was due
to Lincoln, was closing tight around the dying Confederacy. Five weeks
after the inauguration Lee surrendered, and the war was virtually at an
end. What was to come after was inevitably the overshadowing topic of
the hour. Many anecdotes represent Lincoln, in these last few days
of his life, as possessed by a high though melancholy mood of extreme
mercy. Therefore, much has been inferred from the following words, in
his last public address, made on the night of the 11th of April: "In the
present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some
new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering and shall
not fail to act when action shall be proper."

What was to be done for the South, what treatment should be accorded the
Southern leaders, engrossed the President and his Cabinet at the meeting
on the 14th of April, which was destined to be their last. Secretary
Welles has preserved the spirit of the meeting in a striking anecdote.
Lincoln said that no one need expect he would "take any part in hanging
or killing those men, even the worst of them. Frighten them out of the
country, open the gates, let down the bars, scare them off;" said he,
throwing up his hands as if scaring sheep. "Enough lives have been
sacrificed; we must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and
union."

While Lincoln was thus arming himself with a valiant mercy, a band of
conspirators at an obscure boardinghouse in Washington were planning his
assassination. Their leader was John Wilkes Booth, an actor, brother of
the much abler Edwin Booth. There seems little doubt that he was insane.
Around him gathered a small group of visionary extremists in whom much
brooding upon Southern wrongs had produced an unbalanced condition. Only
a morbid interest can attach today to the strange cunning with
which Booth laid his plans, thinking of himself all the while as a
reincarnation of the Roman Brutus.

On the night of the 14th of April, the President attended a performance
of "Our American Cousin". While the play was in progress, Booth stole
into the President's box, came close behind him, and shot him through
the head. Lincoln never spoke again and, shortly after seven next
morning, ceased breathing.

At the sam