The cover sheet in the Library of Congress of composer Joseph W. Turner’s “The Assassin’s Vision” cites an illustration as his inspiration: “This ballad was suggested on seeing the representation of the assassin Booth wildly fleeing through the forest on his horse, startled by the apparition of his victim appearing in the trees & around him.”
Turner (1818-1894) did not name the creator. But it is very likely this collage of John Wilkes Booth and President Abraham Lincoln motivated him. The photographer who mass-produced this photo-illustration in the carte de visite format, Francis Hacker (1827-1904), operated a gallery out of Providence, R.I. Hacker’s name is imprinted on other carte collages of Confederate President Jefferson Davis fleeing Richmond and his capture by Union soldiers. The lyrics of Turner’s ballad speak to a wrathful God haunting Booth:
The Assassin rode on his fiery steed,
His murd’rous work was done—
In the darksome night with fleeting speed,
Through woods his courser run!
As he hurried away from the scene of death,
On his brow were looks of despair;
Before him! around him! The evening’s breath
Told him God’s vengeance was there!
The pale moon beamed as onward he fled,
The stars looked down from on high,
The hills and valleys were crimson red,
As blood to the murd’rer’s eye!
He shuddered! he trembled! And oft looked around,
And dreary seemed each passing breeze,
And lo! the assassin at ev’ry bound,
Saw a vision appear in the trees.
Heaven had witnessed! He could not escape!
The assassin’s fate was sealed—
“Vengeance is mine!” saith God in His might,
As the vision that night revealed.
The assassin rode on with trembling and fear,
And mournfully murmur’d the breeze;
Before him! around him! All vivid and drear,
The vision appeared in the trees.
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