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Lincoln’s Death, New Nation: April 1865 to 1877

Lincoln on the Mountaintop

What did Lincoln do on Good Friday?

Good Friday fell on April 14, and Lincoln was in an unusually cheerful mood. He met with his Cabinet for several hours, discussing and debating the approach the federal government should take to the defeated Confederacy. Lincoln was already setting the tone, but he and his officials had to establish parameters of conduct as well. There was concern that the Radical Republicans in Congress would do their best to prevent the former Confederate states from being readmitted to the Union. Lincoln, as ever, hoped this could be bypassed by simply stating that those states had never departed it in the first place, but members of his Cabinet were less hopeful. Late that afternoon, Lincoln expressed regret that General Grant and his wife could not accompany him and Mrs. Lincoln to the theater. The Grants were already on a train for Philadelphia.



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