W.T. Stead on the Assassination of President Lincoln
Extracted from The Gateshead Observer (May 6, 1865), reprinted in The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries, Vol. 21, No 1, pp. 7-8
The horror and indignation caused by the assassination of President Lincoln, and the attempted murder of Mr. Seward and his son, have created, as our readers already know universal feelings of detestation in every corner of Her Majesty’s dominions.
We rejoice exceedingly in the demonstration; we never knew any good come out of assassinations even of tyrants, as they are called – the death of the greatest of them never seems to have ended in any beneficial result. But, Mr. Lincoln was no tyrant – The sympathy therefore is universal. We rejoice that political opinions were carefully suppressed in our local meetings and the opinions of the assemblies confined to expressions of indignation at the crime and of sympathy with the sufferers.