The Capitol Dome

assigned ceremonial logistics to Assistant Treasury Secretary George Harrington, while he and Benjamin B. French, the commissioner of public buildings, took responsibility for all tasks related to Lincoln's body, ensuring its safe transfer from the Petersen House, the private residence where Lincoln died, to the White House. 6 ere, Stanton oversaw the autopsy, the embalming and the dressing, choosing Lincoln's inaugural black Brooks Brothers suit for the burial outfit. As recounted by writer Benjamin Franklin Morris, "the turned-down collar and the black cravat were adjusted precisely as they were wont to be seen in his life-time. e face and features looked quite natural, and much credit was due to the embalmer, Dr. Charles D. Brown." 7 e solid walnut coffin (fig. 1), with its hinged, satin-lined face lid, allowed a clear view of Brown's work. Costing more than one thousand dollars, it was "a magnificent affair, indeed." 8 Morris described the casket as "lined with lead, cov- ered with superb black broadcloth, and with four massive sil- ver handles upon each side. In the spaces between the handles were ornamental figures, formed with silver cord, resembling the leaf of a shamrock." Silver stars adorned the shamrocks, as well as each end of the casket. 9 In contrast to the coffin, with its "exceedingly good taste and fine workmanship," the White House catafalque bore the signs of a hasty construction. Designed by French, and built on April 16, Easter Sunday, it was the first of Lincoln's several funeral biers. e massive structure included a platform, six- teen feet long, ten feet wide, which supported a box-shaped stand, four feet high. Covered in "black and white silk, satin, and velvet fabric," the catafalque featured a soaring canopy, creating such as imposing presence that reporters referred to it as the "temple of death." 10 ough dominated by the catafalque, the East Room, itself, according to a Washington Chronicle reporter, "was far more artistically prepared for the coming ceremonies." e plates of four large mirrors "were covered with white crepe, while their frames were hidden by the falling folds of a black drapery" that also covered the windows' lace curtains. "rough the dark shadows of the catafalco (sic) the light seemed to struggle in dim religious rays that stole rather than leaped back from the silver ornaments of the coffin and the shrouded surfaces of the polished mirrors." 11 On Tuesday, after waiting in line for several hours, 25,000 members of the general public filed past the catafalque and coffin to observe Lincoln's first lying in state, while thousands more, denied entry, stood outside the White House. e fol- lowing day, April 19, four ministers and six hundred invited guests gathered for the funeral at noon. W hile many in attendance remained standing, fifteen reporters received chairs, "all draped, which were especially reserved by Secre- tary Harrington, of the Arrangement Committee." 12 The press, so situated, recorded each word spoken over Lincoln's body, including those uttered by the president's own minister, Phineas D. Gurley, the pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, who had earlier kept vigil over his dying parishioner. Now in his funeral sermon, Dr. Gurley lamented, "It was a cruel, cruel hand, that dark hand of the assassin, which smote our honored, wise, and noble President, and filled the land with sorrow." 13 Long before the East Room funeral concluded at 2 pm, thousands of Washingtonians and out-of-towners gathered along the funeral's processional route (fig. 2), spanning the 1.6 mile distance between the White House and the Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue. Bolstered by the beautiful, sunny weather, the "whole city thronged upon the streets." "e side- walks were densely lined" and the "roofs, porticos, windows and all elevated points were occupied by interested spectators." Premium locations came with a price, though, ranging from twenty-five cents for a tree-top perch to ten dollars for a win- dow view. Meanwhile, at street level, "boys pressed through the mass selling crape, and found many purchasers. Everybody wore crape; everybody was silent, grave, solemn; everybody stood and patiently awaited for hours; there was no disorder, no disquiet—all were chief mourners." Perhaps the African American population, or "colored" as was the term of the day, expressed a deeper despondency; "they talked in low tones of him that was gone as the savior of their race, their liberator." All the spectators, though, whites and blacks together, seemed Fig. 2. Crowds view the funeral procession on Pennsylvania Avenue, April 19, 1865. Flags and black crepe can be seen on some of the build- ings along the avenue. BR ADY-HANDY COL L EC T ION, L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 21

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