How the New York Times on April 15, 1865 reacted to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

“THE PRESIDENT IS REPORTED DEAD”: THE NEW YORK TIMES FOR APRIL 15, 1865, WITH FRONT PAGE DEVOTED TO LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION (LINCOLN, Abraham). Awful Event: President Lincoln Shot by an Assassin. IN: The New York Times. Volume XIV, No. 4230. New York: New York Times, Saturday, April 15, 1865. Folio tabloid sheet, measuring 15 by 21 inches. Matted and framed, entire piece measures 19-1/2 by 25 inches. Original New York Times issue reporting the events surrounding Lincoln’s death and the search for his assassin. [ In the early morning, on the day of Lincoln’s death, the editors of The New York Times printed within funerary black borders, “Midnight. The President is reported dead. Cavalry and infantry are scouring the city in every direction for the murderous assassins, and the city is overwhelmed with excitement. Who the assassins were no one knows, though every body supposes them to have been rebels.” Included are details of the events surrounding the assassination, efforts to save the President’s life, the manhunt for the perpetrators, and evidence of similar attempts made on the lives of both Seward and Stanton. In a small box on page 4, the stunned voice of the editors reports, “The events of last night in Washington will strike with profound horror the whole American people. At this moment of writing, we have only a partial announcement of the facts, and have neither the data nor the spirit for comment.” “Never had the nation mourned so, over a fallen leader. Not only Lincoln’s friends, but his legion of critics—those who’d denounced him in life, castigated him as a dictator, ridiculed him as a baboon, damned him as stupid and incompetent—now lamented his death and grieved for their country” (Oates, 434).]