Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, “The Calamity,” April 19, 1865

The following is taken from the comments of the New York Tribune on the death of the President:

To the human vision it would seem that Mr. Lincoln has fallen at the very moment when his loss would be most keenly and justly felt.  Soldiers had done his work.  The hour of the statesman had fully struck, and the President was ready and eager for his task.  Had he lived a very few days longer we believe he would have issued a proclamation of amnesty which would have dissolved all that remains of the rebellion, leaving its leaders no choice between flight and surrender.

Mr. Lincoln, as soon as the war cloud was visibly lifted, set himself to the performance of acts which commanded the approval even of his former opponents, and the day which preceded his death was passed in employments more full of promise than any other in the conduct of this momentous war.  There will fall into his opening and honored grave no warmer or more plentiful tribute of honest sensibility than is shed by those of his loyal fellow citizens who did not contribute to his re-election.

In its editorial on Andrew Johnson, the Tribune continues:

Had Lincoln lived we are confident that no Confederate flag would have been flying in this country in thirty days hence.  Now we cannot read the future with any certainty, but only trust that behind the clouds are all the stars of Heaven. President Johnson will doubtless soon issue some sort of manifesto setting forth his views, and what terms he is prepared to offer to rebels, and what advantages are to accrue to them from promptly laying down their arms.  In the meantime we entreat those who are intimate friends of out new President to insist that he shall not allow his time and energies to be consumed by office seekers.  The hungry clan almost wore out Mr. Lincoln, let them spare the new President.