George Sheldon (1818-1916) used Abraham Lincoln’s popular campaign slogan “Honest Ole Abe” when he reported in his diary that Lincoln had been elected President. Thanks to the telegraph, when he reported the president’s assisination four years later, he knew the assassin’s name- John Wilkes Booth, only hours after the killing at 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865. Sheldon wrote: “The whole people are in tears- words are ‘insufficant to express the feeling’”. He then noted how the following days were full of public grieving with buildings draped in mourning.
Sheldon, George. [Excerpts from “Diary kept from Date of Father’s Death- 1860” on President Lincoln.] November 6, 1860. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l05-084/. Accessed on April 6, 2025.
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