April Fifteenth
There was but one exception to the general grief too remarkable to be passed over in silence. Among the extreme Radicals in Congress, Mr. Lincoln’s determined clemency and liberality towards the Southern people had made an impression so unfavorable that, though they were shocked at his murder, they did not, among themselves, conceal gratification that he was no longer in their way.
Nicholay and Hay
(Life of Lincoln)
FORESHADOWING RECONSTRUCTION
The Union League of America was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, during the war by friends of Thaddeus Stevens, the Radical leader of Congress. Its prime object was the confiscation of the property of the South. The chief obstacle to this program was Abraham Lincoln. Hence the first work of the League was to form a conspiracy against Lincoln and prevent his renomination for a second term.
E. W. R. Ewing
Abraham Lincoln dies, 1865
Federal Government issues a call for 75,000 volunteers, 1861
April Sixteenth