Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 200

Price Realized: $ 2,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.) Bascomb, William F. Vivid diary kept by a Washington official during the period of the Lincoln assassination. [85] manuscript pages. 4to, original 1/4 calf, moderate wear, rejointed; one blank leaf cut out; signed on front free endpaper. Vp, 11 April to [1 [June] 1865
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A detailed diary of Washington in April 1865, describing his eyewitness impressions of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, as well as the impact of the assassination. William Franklin Bascom (1817-1903) was a Vermont native and Middlebury College graduate. He practiced law, and after the Civil War taught at Howard University. From 1863 to 1867, he served as an agent for the United States Sanitary Commission, a private charity dedicated to providing for the nation's servicemen and veterans.
This diary begins in Washington on 11 April 1865, with Bascom in attendance at what proved to be President Lincoln's last speech. Bascom had a good seat, and summarized Lincoln's points in detail, adding that "he spoke slowly but emphatically & though rather harsh in voice, was easily heard." 13 April was a public illumination of Washington, described as "a very splendid affair--the display of flags and colored lights at the war and navy departments was very brilliant, surpassing all that I ever witnessed in that line of things." The next evening was a torchlight procession to the White House, but the exuberant mood was soon broken: "Hardly had the procession passed back to its point of departure, before all this rejoicing was succeeded by a thrill of horror, as the truth was flashed throughout the city, that President Lincoln has been assassinated. . . . I had gone to bed by 10 1/2 o'clock and was nearly asleep . . . when our hostess Mrs. Clark rushed into the room crying out 'They have shot the president at the theatre! Oh it is awful! Oh it is awful!' and this she continued to utter, gasping for breath." She had heard the news from her daughter, who had been at Ford's Theatre that evening. Bascom rushed out to the street, and soon found himself in a crowd front of Secretary Seward's residence, where he heard a visitor give a report on the victim's health. John Wilkes Booth was soon rumored to be the Lincoln assassin; Bascom reported that he was "an inferior actor and has had no success in the profession."
On 22 April, Bascom joined a delegation of a hundred Vermonters to visit the new president Andrew Johnson, offering their state's support. He found Johnson "dwelling upon the truth that treason is a crime," and noted that he "has a mild and pleasant expression of the mouth. He speaks with a fair degree of fluency and correctness. . . . His manners are much easier than Mr. Lincoln's and he speaks with more readiness. . . . His pronunciation is not always classical."
The remainder of the diary is devoted to Sanitary Commission business. Bascom was sent on two journeys to establish pension offices for veterans. From 24 April to 3 May he describes a journey across Pennsylvania, offering thorough descriptions of Harrisburg, Erie, Pittsburgh, and Chambersburg, still devastated by an 1864 Confederate raid. On 16 May he describes touring the vast camps of returning soldiers in Washington, and then concludes with two days of description of a trip to Lawrence and Leavenworth, KS. A diary of momentous times by a careful observer.