Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a photostat of an 1865 letter from John Palmer Usher, a member of Lincoln's cabinet, to his wife.
John Palmer Usher (1816-1889) was a lawyer who met Abraham Lincoln while traveling the circuit in Indiana and Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s. Usher was serving as the Indiana Attorney General when Lincoln asked him to join his cabinet as Assistant Secretary of the Interior in 1862. Shortly after accepting the position, the Secretary of Interior resigned, and Usher took his place, serving until May 1865.
The collection is comprised of a photostat of a letter from John Palmer Usher to his wife, written on April 16, 1865. It describes in detail the death of Abraham Lincoln, which Usher witnessed, as well as earlier hints of the assassins' intentions.
This item is a photostat of the original letter, which is located in the Library of Congress.
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