Let The Servants Go

From the Diary of a Union Lady 1861 - 1865 edited by Harold Earl Hammond.

This is the diary of Maria Lydig Daly , wife of a justice of the Court of Common Pleas in New York City. She and her husband were acquainted with many politicians and lawmakers.

April 25, 1865 diary entry

Today President Lincoln's funeral procession passes through the city.  The body lies in state in City Hall and some three hundred thousand people, they say, have visited it.  I shall not go out to see the show, as the Judge is not at home.  I will let the servants go instead; I am sick of pageants.  Both yesterday and today all business has been suspended and I read that the 25th of May is to be another fast day.  Poor Mrs. Lincoln!  Circumstances, verily, make the man.  A house  a few doors nearer Fifth Avenue opposite to us, having not been put in mourning, was tarred and for two days men have been at work at it.  Tomorrow the theaters reopen and then, I suppose all will be over.

Lincoln's funeral - removal of the body from the City Hall to the funeral car, New York
From Harper's Weekly, 1865, from Library of Congress Collection