Discourse Occasioned by the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Delivered in the Albany Penitentiary, a Military Prison of the U. S. Wednesday, April 19, 1865
Albany: Edward Leslie, Printer, 1865. First edition. Disbound. Octavo. 20 pages. Remnants of removal from a larger binding along spine, a 1/2" x 2" angular piece missing at bottom inner margin of last leaf with no loss of text. Otherwise clean and near fine overall.
Rev. Dyer was the chaplain at the Albany Penitentiary. His memorial sermon, given in the prison's chapel, coincided with Lincoln's funeral in Washington on April 19th. He finds the circumstances of Lincoln's death to be "of a painfully instructive character" for the nation, and lays out what he believes God "would have us learn from this event."
Only 600 copies of this sermon were printed, according to early Lincolniana collector and bibliographer Daniel Fish.
The Albany Penitentiary at this time housed many inmates from Washington, DC, as the prison there had been taken over for the U. S. Arsenal in 1862. Indeed four convicted Lincoln assassination conspirators--including Dr. Mudd--were sentenced to be imprisoned at Albany but at the last moment were sent to Fort Jefferson off the Florida Keys instead.
Ref. MONAGHAN 495; FISH 293 (notes 600 copies printed).
Item #1285
Price: $225