Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/364

 IVES OF THE PRESIDENTS ... If we reject and spurn them, we do our ut most to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white men, You are worthless or worse, we will neither help you, nor be helped hy you. To the blacks we say, This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we will dash from you and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how. ... If, on the contrary, we sustain the new govern ment of Louisiana, the converse is made true. Concede that it is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.&quot; These words were the last he uttered in public; on April 14, at aj^abinet meeting^Jie developed these views in detail, and found no difference of opinion among his advisers. The same evening he attended a per formance of &quot;Our American Cousin&quot; at Ford s theatre, in Tenth street. He was accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and two friends Miss Harris, a daughter of Senator Ira Harris, of New York, and Maj. Henry R. Rathbone. In the midst of the play a shot was heard, and a man was seen to leap from the president s box to the stage. Brandishing a dripping knife, with which, after shooting the president, he had stabbed Maj. Rathbone, and shouting, &quot;Sic semper tyrannis! the south is avenged!&quot; he rushed to the rear of the building,