John E. Wilkins Diary: Lincoln's Assassination

These entries from Wilkins's diaries for April 19 and April 20, 1865, record his response to the news of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, which he calls "the greatest most dastardly crime of modern times...The whole country is ar[r]oused and universal gloom prevails throughout the land." Wilkins's first entry repeats early reports that Secretary of State William H. Seward had been assassinated as well, but on April 20 he notes that Secretary of State Seward is alive and hopes he will make a full recovery.