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Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 28 April 1865
LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY
The Nova Scotian arrived here this afternoon, having been detained outside many hours by fog. The official despatches of Secretary Stanton, in regard to the assassination of President Lincoln, have already been published, but the following intelligence, which we take from late editions of the Boston and Portland journals of the 15th, gives some additional particulars:—
Washington, April 14. President Lincoln and wife, with other friends, this evening visited Ford's theatre, for the purpose of witnessing the performance of the "American Cousin."
The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act, and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggesting nothing serious, until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, and exclaiming, "Sic semper tyrannis" and immediately leaped from the box in the second tier to the stage beneath, and across to the opposite side, making his escape, amid the bewilderment of the audience, from the rear of the theatre and, mounting a horse, fled. The screams of Mrs Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet and rushed towards the stage, many exclaiming, "Hang him, hang him."
The excitement was of the wildest possible description, and of course there was an abrupt termination of the theatrical performance. There was a rush towards the President's box, when cries were heard – "Stand back and give him air. Has anyone stimulants?" On a hasty examination, it was found the President had been shot through the head, above and below the temporal bone, and that some of the brain was oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite to the theatre, and the Surgeon General of the Army, and other surgeons, were sent for to attend to his condition.
On an examination of the private box, blood was discovered on the sack of the cushioned rocking chair on which the President had been sitting, also the partition, and on the floor a common single-barreled pocket pistol was found on the carpet.
A military guard was placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been conveyed. An immense crowd was in front of it, all deeply anxious to learn the condition of the President. It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal, but all hoped otherwise. The shock of the community was terrible.
