Page:The life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (1906).djvu/17

PREFACE The assassination of Abraham Lincoln startled and shocked the civilized world as few events have done in the whole course of human history. It occurred at a time when, by reason of the termination of the Civil War with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, there was promise and hope of a more kindly feeling between the people of the two great sections of the country who, during a period of four years, had been arrayed against each other in deadly strife. The victors had granted magnanimous terms to the vanquished. The conciliatory and generous spirit shown by the Commanding General of the victo- rious armies in the hour of his crowning success, and to which he afterward gave expression in the famous de- claration, "Let us have peace," awakened hopeful re- sponse in the hearts of the conquered people. It was at this point of time, when better and brighter days seemed to be dawning for the whole country, that the tragedy of Lincoln's death aroused throughout the land. North and South, an excitement unparalleled in the nation's history. The victim of the assassin had become almost deified in the minds of the Northern people. The people of the South had learned to respect and honor him for his lofty virtues as a man, while conscientiously con- demning the administrative policies for which he stood. When the estimation in which he was held by the people is considered, it is not a matter to cause surprise, al- though to be deplored, that the news of the assassination excited for the time a feeling of bitterness more intense than had existed at any period during the bloody years of the Civil War. This feeling, deplorable but not alto- gether unnatural under the circumstances, was so ex- treme that, at first, a large number of the Northern people