LINCOLN'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER'S REPORT OF HIS ASSASSINATION.


Daily State Journal, Vol XVII, no 261. Springfield, IL: Saturday Morning, April 15, 1865. 4 pp. Folio (650 x 500 mm). Page 3 with black mourning borders. Paper creased and thumbed, some chipping at left margin."STARTLING INTELLIGENCE! TREASON IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL! PRESIDENT LINCOLN ASSASSINATED!" So begins column 1 of page 3 of Springfield's Daily State Journal, before continuing: "The following startling and afflicting intelligence received at three o'clock this morning will cast a pall of gloom over a land so lately rejoicing in the hour of victory. PRESIDENT LINCOLN IS PROBABLY NO MORE." The article publishes the three dispatches received, the first at 12:30 am DC time, announcing that he is mortally wounded, the second that he is not expected to live through the night, and the third, a lengthy description of the President's attendance at the theater, the assassination, the assassin's escape with the cry of "Sic Semper Tyrannis," and the chaotic events that followed. There is also mention of the attack on Secretary Seward. This appears to be the first time a hometown paper's assassination report has come on the market.