We have entered Richmond with our black regiment.
The noblest experience has been mine: I have been allowed to take part in the greatest struggle of our country.
Slavery is no more.
Now let the gentlemen in gowns and bands come, and show us heretics a deed which shall bear such mighty consequences as this.
Later.
Read this! A murder, an assassination! Why was it not to be? Why can nothing be carried out purely to perfection? Lincoln assassinated!
Does it not often seem as if a malicious demon ruled the world?
This deed is a standing proof of how far the supporters of an aristocracy, the defenders of a privileged class, the deniers of human rights, have sunk into barbarism. In future days such wickedness will not be believed; but now it stands plainly before us as assassination, and not the deed of a single individual; it is the work of a sworn band of conspirators.
The fanaticism of the Southern States had burst forth in war, now it has its seal of blood.
[Knopf to Weidmann.]