Details
[LINCOLN ASSASSINATION]. DAGGETT, ALBERT J. Autograph letter signed ("Dag") to Miss Julie Truman of Troy, New York ("My Dearest Julie"), Washington, D.C., l0 A.M., 15 April [l865]. 3 pages, large folio, 326 x 203mm. (12 7/8 x 8 in.), closely written on black-bordered mourning stationery, with the original postmarked envelope with printed legend "Department of State" (Daggett was a clerk in the State Department). Fine condition.
HOURS AFTER LINCOLN'S DEATH, A THEATRE-GOER'S FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE ASSASSINATION
A quite extensive eye-witness account (about 400 words in all), evidently written under the stress of strong emotion, less than three hours after Lincoln's death. Daggett, a clerk in the State Department and native of Troy New York, lived in a boarding house on l0th Street, where Ford's Theater was located, and attended the performance there of Our American Cousin the night before, during which Lincoln was shot. "Within the last 12 hours this city has been the scene of the most terrible tragedies that can be found upon the records of history. Abraham Lincoln, our noble, self-sacrificing and patriotic President has fallen by the hand of an accursed, traitorous Assassin! The fearful act was committed last evening at l0 o clock, at Ford's Theatre in l0th Street. I was almost an eye witness of the melancholy occurence occupying a front seat in the 'Parquette' not more than twenty feet from the President's box. I had been out and was just entering the...door when I heard the sharp report of a pistol and turned just in time to see the hell-hound of treason [John Wilkes Booth] leap from the box upon the stage, and with glittering dagger flourishing above his head, disappear behind the scenes. As he leaped from the box he exclaimed 'sic semper tyrannis!' and just before he disappeared from the stage, he cried out 'I have done it - the South is avenged.'
"It is impossible to describe the intense excitement that prevailed in the theatre. The audience arose as one person, and horror was stamped upon every face. I helped carry the President out, and we bore our precious burden into the home of Mr. [William] Peterson, next door to my boarding house, where he remained until his death, which melancholy event took place at precisely twenty two minutes past seven this morning. It is impossible to describe the awful event. The mind cannot contemplate the results. Mr. Lincoln, to see, and to know whom, was to honor and love him, has relaxed his hold on the 'ship of state,' to which he has clung with such heroic and noble daring, during the past 4 years of a fratricidal war unknown and unparalelled. The good old ship is now at the mercy of the winds. God grant that she may survive the storm....But Tuesday evening last I listened to his voice, a voice from Richmond and the defeated army of General Lee [Lincoln had returned from his visit to Richmond and City Point, Virginia, on April 9], as it rung out loud and clear from the historic window of the Executive Mansion, at his last speech, the last he shall ever make." [Evidently Daggett had been among the crowd which gathered about the White House on the night of April ll, celebrating the news of the surrender of Lee's army to Grant. Lincoln leaned out the White House window, spoke briefly to the throng, then requested the band to play 'Dixie,' which he referred to as "one of the best tunes I have ever heard."]
"Cheer upon cheer greeted him last night as he entered the theatre. I looked plainly into his face and I assure you it was a smiling one, as he stooped in his last bow, the last one ever to be made to an enthusiastic audience, as he entered the door of his private box which was so appropriately decorated with Union flags. [When Lincoln entered the theater, the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief," and upon entering the box, Lincoln bowed to the applauding audience.] It is difficult to realize the fearful calamity though I have seen the brain, motionless, which but a few hours ago directed the affairs of this great Republic and the rÿattle of the wheels of the hearse upon the pavement has not yet died away, up the avenue, as the earthly remains of Abraham Lincoln are being borne to the Executive Mansion for a last brief residence there...
"But I have not completed this dreadful chapter....At the same hour of the attack on Mr. Lincoln a murderer entered the house of Mr. Seward with designs upon the life of that good and patriotic statesman. After forcing his way into the house...he pushed his way to the chamber of the Secretary [of State] who was still suffering from his recent accident...., and dragging him from his bed attempted to cut his throat!....[Daggett gives further particulars of the assassination attempt by Lewis Payne, co-conspirator with Booth.]. Since the 14th of April l861 when Fort Sumpter [sic] was first fired into nothing has occurred so calculated to exasperate the loyal millions of the country and cause them to demand vengeance upon the authors of this unholy rebellion. Leniency lost its champion when Abraham Lincoln ceased to breathe and now deeds must take the place of words [Lincoln had urged moderate treatment of the South, in his address of April ll]. Andrew Johnson is now President of the United States [he had taken the oath of office the same morning as Daggett's letter]. Let us hope that his misconduct during the inauguration exercises, resulting from a too free use, on account of sickness, of spirits, will be retrieved. [At Lincoln's and his inauguration, on March 4, Johnson had been recovering from typhoid fever; fortified with a large dose of whiskey, he gave a rambling, incoherent address which convinced many he was a drunkard.] I cannot think that he will be equal to Abraham Lincoln, but, supported by the people of the country, he will crush this hydra of treason and rebellion North and South so deep into the soil on which it germinated that the blasts from the trumpet of Gabriel will fail to call it forth....The crimson blood of a Lincoln, of a Seward and of a hundred thousand fallen patriots and martys calls for revenge. The news has just reached me that the traitor - at least - in this city, has met his death. He dared to say, in company, that he was glad President was dead: the words had hardly left his mouth before the bullet from the pistol of a Union soldier went crashing through his brain...[the incident does not refer to one of the actual Booth conspirators]. The greatest gloom pervades the city. Every house and store from the highest to the lowest is draped in mourning. The faces of the passers by are stamped with the most abject woe....Never has a nation passed through such an ordeal as this.
"It has been positively ascertained that the murderer of President Lincoln was John Wilkes Booth an actor who has appeared in Troy on several occasions. The officers of justice are at his heels and it is impossible for him to escape. A reward of $30,000 has already been offered for his apprehension...."
Most of Daggett's account is corroborated by other sources regarding the events of April 14 and 15, but Daggett may have exagerrated one particular to impress the young lady whom he is addressing. In most accounts, Lincoln was borne across the street to Peterson's house by three of the President's doctors and several soldiers from a Pennsylvania Artillery brigade summoned as word of the assassination spread through Washington.
Contemporary accounts by persons close to the events of April l4 assassination are extremely rare on the market. While several persons recorded their recollections of that night many years after the event, there are very few letters like Dagett's, written at the time. An account by Lincoln's personal physician, Dr. Stone, of his examination and post-mortem, from the collection of Philip D.Sang (sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 26 April l978, lot 198) was undated, and may have been written in connection with the conspirators' trial, in May l865. No other accounts dated so close to the assassination by a witness are recorded in American Book Prices Current as far back as l940.
HOURS AFTER LINCOLN'S DEATH, A THEATRE-GOER'S FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE ASSASSINATION
A quite extensive eye-witness account (about 400 words in all), evidently written under the stress of strong emotion, less than three hours after Lincoln's death. Daggett, a clerk in the State Department and native of Troy New York, lived in a boarding house on l0th Street, where Ford's Theater was located, and attended the performance there of Our American Cousin the night before, during which Lincoln was shot. "Within the last 12 hours this city has been the scene of the most terrible tragedies that can be found upon the records of history. Abraham Lincoln, our noble, self-sacrificing and patriotic President has fallen by the hand of an accursed, traitorous Assassin! The fearful act was committed last evening at l0 o clock, at Ford's Theatre in l0th Street. I was almost an eye witness of the melancholy occurence occupying a front seat in the 'Parquette' not more than twenty feet from the President's box. I had been out and was just entering the...door when I heard the sharp report of a pistol and turned just in time to see the hell-hound of treason [John Wilkes Booth] leap from the box upon the stage, and with glittering dagger flourishing above his head, disappear behind the scenes. As he leaped from the box he exclaimed 'sic semper tyrannis!' and just before he disappeared from the stage, he cried out 'I have done it - the South is avenged.'
"It is impossible to describe the intense excitement that prevailed in the theatre. The audience arose as one person, and horror was stamped upon every face. I helped carry the President out, and we bore our precious burden into the home of Mr. [William] Peterson, next door to my boarding house, where he remained until his death, which melancholy event took place at precisely twenty two minutes past seven this morning. It is impossible to describe the awful event. The mind cannot contemplate the results. Mr. Lincoln, to see, and to know whom, was to honor and love him, has relaxed his hold on the 'ship of state,' to which he has clung with such heroic and noble daring, during the past 4 years of a fratricidal war unknown and unparalelled. The good old ship is now at the mercy of the winds. God grant that she may survive the storm....But Tuesday evening last I listened to his voice, a voice from Richmond and the defeated army of General Lee [Lincoln had returned from his visit to Richmond and City Point, Virginia, on April 9], as it rung out loud and clear from the historic window of the Executive Mansion, at his last speech, the last he shall ever make." [Evidently Daggett had been among the crowd which gathered about the White House on the night of April ll, celebrating the news of the surrender of Lee's army to Grant. Lincoln leaned out the White House window, spoke briefly to the throng, then requested the band to play 'Dixie,' which he referred to as "one of the best tunes I have ever heard."]
"Cheer upon cheer greeted him last night as he entered the theatre. I looked plainly into his face and I assure you it was a smiling one, as he stooped in his last bow, the last one ever to be made to an enthusiastic audience, as he entered the door of his private box which was so appropriately decorated with Union flags. [When Lincoln entered the theater, the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief," and upon entering the box, Lincoln bowed to the applauding audience.] It is difficult to realize the fearful calamity though I have seen the brain, motionless, which but a few hours ago directed the affairs of this great Republic and the rÿattle of the wheels of the hearse upon the pavement has not yet died away, up the avenue, as the earthly remains of Abraham Lincoln are being borne to the Executive Mansion for a last brief residence there...
"But I have not completed this dreadful chapter....At the same hour of the attack on Mr. Lincoln a murderer entered the house of Mr. Seward with designs upon the life of that good and patriotic statesman. After forcing his way into the house...he pushed his way to the chamber of the Secretary [of State] who was still suffering from his recent accident...., and dragging him from his bed attempted to cut his throat!....[Daggett gives further particulars of the assassination attempt by Lewis Payne, co-conspirator with Booth.]. Since the 14th of April l861 when Fort Sumpter [sic] was first fired into nothing has occurred so calculated to exasperate the loyal millions of the country and cause them to demand vengeance upon the authors of this unholy rebellion. Leniency lost its champion when Abraham Lincoln ceased to breathe and now deeds must take the place of words [Lincoln had urged moderate treatment of the South, in his address of April ll]. Andrew Johnson is now President of the United States [he had taken the oath of office the same morning as Daggett's letter]. Let us hope that his misconduct during the inauguration exercises, resulting from a too free use, on account of sickness, of spirits, will be retrieved. [At Lincoln's and his inauguration, on March 4, Johnson had been recovering from typhoid fever; fortified with a large dose of whiskey, he gave a rambling, incoherent address which convinced many he was a drunkard.] I cannot think that he will be equal to Abraham Lincoln, but, supported by the people of the country, he will crush this hydra of treason and rebellion North and South so deep into the soil on which it germinated that the blasts from the trumpet of Gabriel will fail to call it forth....The crimson blood of a Lincoln, of a Seward and of a hundred thousand fallen patriots and martys calls for revenge. The news has just reached me that the traitor - at least - in this city, has met his death. He dared to say, in company, that he was glad President was dead: the words had hardly left his mouth before the bullet from the pistol of a Union soldier went crashing through his brain...[the incident does not refer to one of the actual Booth conspirators]. The greatest gloom pervades the city. Every house and store from the highest to the lowest is draped in mourning. The faces of the passers by are stamped with the most abject woe....Never has a nation passed through such an ordeal as this.
"It has been positively ascertained that the murderer of President Lincoln was John Wilkes Booth an actor who has appeared in Troy on several occasions. The officers of justice are at his heels and it is impossible for him to escape. A reward of $30,000 has already been offered for his apprehension...."
Most of Daggett's account is corroborated by other sources regarding the events of April 14 and 15, but Daggett may have exagerrated one particular to impress the young lady whom he is addressing. In most accounts, Lincoln was borne across the street to Peterson's house by three of the President's doctors and several soldiers from a Pennsylvania Artillery brigade summoned as word of the assassination spread through Washington.
Contemporary accounts by persons close to the events of April l4 assassination are extremely rare on the market. While several persons recorded their recollections of that night many years after the event, there are very few letters like Dagett's, written at the time. An account by Lincoln's personal physician, Dr. Stone, of his examination and post-mortem, from the collection of Philip D.Sang (sale, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 26 April l978, lot 198) was undated, and may have been written in connection with the conspirators' trial, in May l865. No other accounts dated so close to the assassination by a witness are recorded in American Book Prices Current as far back as l940.