The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln in the New York Daily Tribune
”HIGHLY IMPORTANT!
The President Shot!”
ONE OF THE EARLIEST REPORTS OF NEWS OF LINCOLN’S ASSASSINATION: THE MORNING EDITION, APRIL 15, 1865, OF THE NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE.
Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater on the night of April 14, 1865, at 10:15PM. By the time the news spread around the country, the morning papers had already been typeset. Horace Greeley’s pro-Lincoln newspaper, The New York Daily Tribune, however, found room on page 4 (not on page 1!) to break the news in a series of eleven printed “Dispatches” filling nearly three columns.
The “Dispatches” read like a timeline of events, reflecting the uncertainty and contradictory news of the unfolding events. The first Dispatch simply reads, “The President was shot in a theater to-night, and perhaps is mortally wounded.” The Second Dispatch then reflects the difficulty in getting accurate information, reading, “Our Washington agent orders the dispatch about the President ‘stopped.’ Nothing is said about the truth or falsity of the dispatch.”
The Dispatches then get longer, filling in details and providing updates, although in the final Dispatch, the paper has to admit, “The accounts are confused and contradictory. One dispatch announces that the President died at 12 1/2 p.m. Another, an hour later, states that he is still living, but dying slowly. We go to press without knowing the exact truth, but presume there is not the slightest sound for hope.”
The complete 8-page issue for April 15, 1865 (morning edition). New York: April 15, 1865. Approx. 15x21 inches. Usual folds, modest expected wear. A particularly nice copy of a fragile item. Protected in removable acid-free mylar and housed in handsome custom box by noted book artist Sjoerd Hofstra.
A FASCINATING PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTING ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY AS IT HAPPENED.
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