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Even Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Lee一who was directly descended from Martha Washington, the great-granddaughter, and by marriage to George Washington, she said, "Robert E. Lee is not the Confederacy. Richmond is not the Confederacy." That's how volatile the situation still was.
就连罗伯特·E.李的妻子，玛丽·李（她是美国首位第一夫人玛莎·华盛顿的直系曾孙女）也说李不代表南部邦联，里士满也不是整个南部邦联。”当时的形势就是如此捉摸不定。
How much longer would the war last? Three weeks? Three months? Six months? As Lincoln knew and feared, throughout history such time spans had been enough to start, fight, and win wars, to unseat great dynasties or to complicate the reconciliation to come. And five days later, Lincoln was dead. He was killed on April 14 at 10:14 at night. And William Seward, the Union's Secretary of State, was stabbed five times.
这场战争还能再打多久？三周？三个月？六个月？林肯知道历史上这样一段时间足以发动、进行并赢得一场战争，甚至推翻一个强大的朝代，或是使即将达成的和解难以实现，这也正是他所忧虑的事。五天后，林肯便去世了。他在4月14日晚10点14分遭暗杀。北部联邦的国务卿威廉·苏厄德被捅了五刀。
Only Andrew Johnson escaped unscathed. Had he been assassinated that night, there would have been a complete decapitation of the Union government.
只有安德鲁·约翰逊免遭伤害。如果那晚他也遭暗杀，联邦政府就会群龙无首。
I figured that the transition mechanism was all very simple, the vice president would become the president. In fact the picture was far murkier and far more complex in April 1865. Because, as it turned out, when I went to check this question, the founders did not intend for the vice president to become president. They only intended for him to temporarily act as president until there was an election. So on that fateful evening, Lincoln was shot, and Seward was ailing with five wounds, and Johnson had never been expected to become a president. He was widely written off as a buffoon in Washington circles.
我曾经以为过渡机制很简单，副总统自然会出任总统。但事实上，1865年4月的局势极不明朗，十分复杂。因为当我对这个问题进行研究时，出乎意料地发现，华盛顿的元老们（在立宪时）根本就没有打算让副总统担任总统。他们仅仅打算在大选之前让他临时尽总统之职。因此在那个可怕的夜晚，当林肯被枪杀，苏厄德身中五刀时，没有人期待约翰逊当总统。华盛顿政界不少人视他为小丑。
