Appalling Tragedy
This whole community was startled this morning, early, by reports trom Washington, of the murder of the President of the United States, and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State and his son. So astounding was the intelligence, that the rumor was at first discredited. No one believed that such an awful tragedy did or could happen. The idea of such an occurrence is abhorrent to the minds ot the American people? Assassination is foreign to the habits and disposition of our race. Not even the excitements of the fiercest political passions, not even the fires of civil or sectional war, can alter or chango public feelings on such a subject. All felt and thought alike, in reference to such an atrocity. As the particulars became known, men, gathered in groups — heard with wonder and amazement — and expressed their indignation. Nothing else was thought of or talked of. War, is what brave and good men, can and do enter into; actuated by honorable motives, and conducted in an honorable manner. But all good men — all brave men — all honorable men, abhor murder and assassination — cowardly and atrocious as they are.
Note: This editorial (minus the artwork) appeared in the Alexandria Gazette on April 15, 1865. Lincoln died earlier that morning after being shot the night before by John Wilkes Booth.