As some of you know I'm at the moment writing my final university papers on the German newspaper press-coverage of the American Civil War. During this work I have come across one article in the "Neue Hannoversche Zeitung" (a paper which showed some sympathies with the South and which often echoed the tone of some British newspapers of the time) which, with the benefit of hindsight is really somewhat macabre. I'll translate an excerpt as closely as possible. Note that it is from the issue of March 22nd 1865, mere three weeks before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
Yesterday an attempt was made to boost the gold price through the sensational dispatch that an attempt had been made on the life of the president. A chap had been arrested in Washington who blurted out threats against Lincoln while he was intoxicated, "because he had lost his money through him!" - That is all - certainly little enough. Our new Vice-President, former tailor, Andrew Johnson, who was so pixilated by the inauguration that he could only babble* gabbled far more stupid stuff in that disposition than this drunken assassin. But one does not care about such trivialities.
* To understand this you need to know that the article also refers to the second inaugural speech of Lincoln during which his vice-president and successor to be, Andrew Johnson, was drunk.
