The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes BoothTownsend, George Alfred
History
The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
Townsend, George Alfred
Assassins -- United States -- Biography; Booth, John Wilkes, 1838-1865; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination
thin-haired, conical head of the viking Farragut, close by General
Grant, with many naval heroes close behind, storm-beaten, and every inch
Americans in thought and physiognomy?
What think the foreign ambassadors of such men, in the light of their
own overloaded bodies, where meaningless orders, crosses, and ribbons
shine dimly in the funeral light? These legations number, perhaps, a
hundred men, of all civilized races,--the Sardinian envoy, jetty-eyed,
towering above the rest. But they are still and respectful, gathered
thus by a slain ruler, to see how worthy is the republic he has
preserved. Whatever sympathy these have for our institutions, I think
that in such audience they must have been impressed with the futility of
any thought that either one citizen right or one territorial inch can
ever be torn from the United States. Not to speak disparagingly of these
noble guests, I was struck with the superior facial energy of our own
public servants, who were generally larger, and brighter-faced, born of
that aristocracy which took its patent from Tubal Cain, and Abel the
goatherd, and graduated in Abraham Lincoln. The Haytien minister,
swarthy and fiery-faced, is conspicuous among these.
But nearer down, and just opposite the catafalque so that it is
perpendicular to the direction of vision, stand the central powers of
our government, its President and counsellors. President Johnson is
facing the middle of the coffin upon the lowest step; his hands are
crossed upon his breast, his dark clothing just revealing his plaited
shirt, and upon his full, plethoric, shaven face, broad and severely
compact, two telling gray eyes rest under a thoughtful brow, whose
turning hair is straight and smooth. Beside him are Vice-President
Hamlin, whom he succeeded, and ex-Governor King, his most intimate
friend, who lends to the ruling severity of the place a half Falstaffian
episode. The cabinet are behind, as if arranged for a daguerreotypist,
Stanton, short and quicksilvery, in long goatee and glasses, in stunted
contrast to the tall and snow-tipped shape of Mr. Welles with the rest,
practical and attentive, and at their side is Secretary Chase, high,
dignified, and handsome, with folded arms, listening, but
undemonstrative, a half-foot higher than any spectator, and dividing
with Charles Sumner, who is near by, the preference for manly beauty in
age. With Mr. Chase are other justices of the Supreme Court and to their
left, near the feet of the corpse, are the reverend senators,
representing the oldest and the newest states--splendid faces, a little
worn with early and later toils, backed up by the high, classical
features of Colonel Forney, their secretary. Beyond are the
representatives and leading officials of the various departments, with a
few odd folks like George Francis Train, exquisite as ever, and, for
this time only, with nothing to say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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