“too noble a mind”

sacrificed for “his country’s Unity and Freedom!”

His was too noble a mind to indulge in a spirit of retaliation or revenge.

I think the following might have been published on April 21, 1865. It seems that the editors thought it was still possible that Secretary Seward would die from his wounds and that some Confederate leaders were somewhat involved in the plot.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1865:

THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

Its Object and its Fruits.

Last week we rejoiced in common with our readers over the overthrow of the great army of the Rebellion and the prospect of a speedy return to unity and peace. To-day we mourn with them over a dispensation of Providence that has deprived the nation of its great head, and the people the services of one of the greatest and best of men. – ABRAHAM LINCOLN is no more! He whom the loyal people of this Republic had to come to regard with a feeling of love and gratitude, scarcely second in intensity to the emotions with which they revere and cherish the memory of the “Father of his Country,” has fallen, a sacrifice upon the altar of his country’s Unity and Freedom! While in the vigor of manhood, his mental powers and energies not yet having passed their zenith, and while devoting his faculties of both body and mind to his country’s welfare, he is stricken down by the hand of a base and dastardly assassin, while seeking in an hour’s public recreation a slight relaxation from the anxieties and cares of his responsible position. History furnishes not a parallel to the infamy and ingratitude of the deed. It was committed without the slightest, for although the victim had been the special object of Rebel scorn and anathemas from the breaking out of the Rebellion, he has never manifested towards his enemies feelings other than those of kindness and charity. His was too noble a mind to indulge in a spirit of retaliation or revenge. His greatest fault, if fault he had, was the exhibition of too much leniency in cases where severe and condign penalties seemed to be demanded. And for this goodness of heart he has received such a reward as “Southern Chivalry” is wont to mete out. The act is in perfect keeping with the character of the Rebellion from its inception. – The same spirit that seeks to destroy the best Government upon the earth because it could no longer use it in the furtherance of its hellish purposes, would, had it the power, strip the stars from Heaven and palsy the hand of Providence stretched out for its relief, could it thereby glut its mad ambition and satiate its revengeful thirst.

“Let his Counsel still be nigh”

sable drapery in Liberty, Missouri, too

The portrait of Abraham Lincoln is from WPClipart. The Liberty and Union song is credited to the Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets. The Liberty, Missouri mayor’s proclamation is credited to the Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana