Joy Morris to J. A. Johnson, May 10, 1865

Mr. Morris to Mr. Johnson

Sir: You have no doubt already received information of the assassination of President Lincoln, and of the attempt on the life of Secretary Seward, through the telegraph and the State Department. These dreadful deeds have aroused a feeling of horror and indignation throughout all Europe, and have betrayed to the world the fiendish passions engendered by the institution of slavery. It seems in the order of human events that no great humanitarian revolution can be accomplished without the sacrifice of some illustrious victim. Men offer up their lives on the scaffold for the benefit of their race, and others risk life and fortune, and all that endears them to existence, to further the cause of human rights. Great social and political evils cannot be uprooted without commotions that shake the world by their violence.

Certainly there never occupied the post of a ruler of a country a man who had less bitterness in his heart towards his fellow-men than President Lincoln, or one who was more genial in his nature, more tolerant to his enemies, and more just in his political conduct. The only offence he committed was that of being loyal to his country when others were false to her; of saving the republic when menaced by destruction. God, in his mercy, permitted him to live till he had baffled the schemes of the conspirators and had established the Union in its original integrity. His glory the dagger of the assassin cannot take away. It will live immortal in history and endear his name to the remotest generations of American freemen.

Had not the plans of the conspirators failed for want of unity of action, we should have had to mourn the deaths of the Vice-President and all the members of the cabinet. Their diabolical malignity aimed at paralyzing the government by a temporary anarchy of rule, thus hoping to create a widespread disorder and confusion.

President Johnson I believe you know. I knew him from six years since in Congress, when he was a member, and I know him to be a man of the utmost firmness of character and force of will, and to be possessed of a moral courage that renders him equal to any emergency. Amidst bad examples around him and the temptations incident to southern life, he has always been distinguished for exemplary habits of life. If there has been any deviation from these habits it is exceptional and not characteristic of the man, and no doubt induced by accidental causes. I have unlimited confidence in him from my own personal knowledge and observation, and I beg that you will refer to me when speaking to your colleagues of his capacity and character. How long I may continue to serve the government under him I know not, and shall take no steps to interfere with the free exercise of the judgment of the President in relation to the incumbent of this post; but as an American citizen I deem it my duty to aid in dispelling serious misapprehensions as to his character and capacity. He will be traduced and calumniated, as his predecessor was, because he is the President of a republic in the overthrow of which every enemy of human liberty has an interest, and every hour of whose existence gives the lie to the necessity of despotism and arbitrary power as instruments of government.

I rejoice to be able to inform you that the Secretary of State and his son are in a fair way of recovery, and that their assailant has been arrested with several of his accomplices.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,