Description:

Lincoln Abraham

Abraham Lincoln Fine Content Assassination Letter

 

Outstanding first-person account of the somber atmosphere in New York City recorded by a Brooklyn laborer two days after President Lincoln's assassination. 4pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by George L. Mosher as "Geo. L. Mosher, 18 Woodhull Street, Brooklyn, L.I." on fourth page. In near fine condition, with expected light toning, paper folds, and a few isolated smears. Accompanied by a mustard colored envelope bearing a rose George Washington 3 cent stamp postmarked from Brooklyn on April 17 and addressed to "Mr. George, N, Willeston, Suffield, Conn." Each page measures 4.75" x 7.875."

 

Suffield, Connecticut native George L. Mosher wrote this letter on April 16, 1865 from the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, New York. Mosher was a laborer making $3.50 a day, and scrambling to pay rent recently increased by 40%. Yet even the busy blue-collar worker remarked on the city's melancholy atmosphere in a letter sent to a friend back home.

 

Excerpt with original spelling and grammar:

 

"Well George we have meet with a grait loss Our President a grait loss too it is a grait panic in this City every was so stricck with news so that they had to stop work stores close buisness all suspended every body is fixing crape to the window and doors to go up Broadway and see the houses and stores it is a site to see and it makes a man that has a hart like a stone melt to walk through these City. Old men crying every body seems turn so they dont know how or what to doe it make a stand still in buisness for a wile…"

 

News of Lincoln's assassination appeared in New York newspapers the following morning, causing universal shock. On April 15th, an anonymous diarist walked miles around the city drawing and transcribing the touching homemade tributes displayed in windows. Images of Lincoln, his initials, and inspirational presidential quotes appeared everywhere. Patriotic verse and funeral imagery expressed both pride and grief. One placard displayed at 429 Broadway simply read: "His deeds have made his name immortal." (The diary is in the McLellan Lincoln Collection, John Hay Library, Brown University.) As George L. Mosher described in his letter, storefronts and houses were draped in black bunting. Mosher also commented on a less tangible change apparent in the city: silence and paralysis.

 

A remarkable document illustrating how New York City reacted to Lincoln's assassination!

 

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