WAR DEPARTMENT,
April 15, 1865
— 3 p.m.
Major General DIX:
Official notice of the death of the late President Abraham
Lincoln was given by the heads of Department this morning to Andrew Johnson,
Vice-President, upon whom the Constitution devolved the office of President.
Mr. Johnson upon receiving this notice appeared before the Hon. Salmon P.
Chase, Chief Justice of the United States, and took the oath of office as
President of the United States, and assumed its duties and functions. At 12
o'clock the President met the heads of Department in Cabinet meeting at the
Treasury building, and among other business the following was transacted:
1. The arrangements for the funeral of the late President
was referred to the several Secretaries, so far as relates to their respective
Departments.
2. William Hunter, esq., was appointed Acting Secretary of
State during the disability of Mr. Seward, and his son, Frederick Seward, the
Assistant Secretary.
3. The President formally announced that he desired to
retain the present Secretaries of Departments as his Cabinet, and that they would
go on and discharge their respective duties in the same manner as before the
deplorable event that had changed the head of the Government.
All business in the Departments was suspended during this
day. The surgeons report that the condition of Mr. Seward remains unchanged. He
is doing well. No improvement in Mr. Frederick Seward. The murderers have not
yet been apprehended.
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume
46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 781-2
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