The front page is dominated by a powerful funeral oration delivered just days after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Rev. J.M. Carruthers spoke before Portland's mayor, city council, and citizens on April 19th, 1865, calling Lincoln's death on April 14th 'more dreadful than any ever represented in the mimicry of the dramatic stage' and declaring it sent 'a thrill of unmitigated horror through the land.' The lengthy eulogy traces Lincoln's journey from his Kentucky birthplace through his Indiana childhood in 'dense forests' where he gained 'daily vigor' from hard labor, to his rise as the 'second Father of his country—second, only because he was not the first.' Carruthers praised Lincoln's constitutional approach to slavery, noting how he waited for 'military necessity' to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and suggested that Lincoln's work was complete—that his merciful heart 'was not to be trusted with the work of dealing with the authors and abettors of gigantic treason' in the harsh reconstruction ahead.

This page captures America in its rawest moment of grief, just a week after Lincoln's assassination shattered a nation finally tasting victory. The Civil War had essentially ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9th, making Lincoln's murder five days later all the more tragic—killed in triumph rather than crisis. Carruthers' sermon reveals the profound questions facing Americans: how do you rebuild a shattered union? His suggestion that Lincoln's 'heart of love' wasn't suited for the harsh justice ahead proved prophetic, as the upcoming Reconstruction era would indeed require a harder hand than Lincoln might have provided.

• The newspaper cost $8.00 per year in advance, which would be roughly $150 today, making it quite expensive for working-class families
• A 'square' advertisement (one inch of column space) cost $1.50 per week, with special rates for 'Amusements' at $2.00 per square
• Rev. Carruthers described Lincoln's Bible as 'that volume which, beyond all others, yields the most nutritious intellectual aliment'—revealing how central biblical literacy was to 19th-century education
• The preacher noted that Lincoln moved from Indiana to Illinois 'in his seventh year' but later describes his 'twentieth' year in Indiana, showing the careful attention paid to Lincoln's biographical details even in 1865

• Carruthers called Lincoln 'immortal till his work was done'—a phrase that became prophetic, as Lincoln was shot just five days after the war's effective end at Appomattox
• The reference to Lincoln being drawn 'from the bulrushes of the Nile' like Moses reflects how quickly Americans began mythologizing Lincoln as a biblical deliverer figure
• This Portland, Maine newspaper was published the same day Lincoln's funeral train began its epic 1,654-mile journey from Washington to Springfield, Illinois—a procession that would take 13 days and be witnessed by over 7 million Americans
• The preacher's mention of Lincoln's recent Richmond visit refers to the president's bold decision to walk through the fallen Confederate capital on April 4th, where freed slaves knelt before him—just 10 days before his assassination
• Carruthers' prediction that Lincoln's 'heart of love' couldn't handle Reconstruction proved accurate: his successor Andrew Johnson's harsh approach led to his impeachment and the era's bitter divisions