NEW YORK TIMES, July 17, 1865  

* Post Abraham Lincoln assassination
* Owner of Ford's Theater letter signed

Page 5 has one-third of a column headed: "Ford's Theatre--Letter from the Proprietor to a Clergyman" which is a letter signed by John T. Ford concerning a minister's opinion on reopening the theater. It is very rare to find in newspapers letters signed by the proprietor of Ford's Theater, particuarly in his defense of attempting to reopen his theater after the assassination.
Page 5 also has: "Base Ball" with a nice account of a game between the Excelsior and Union with box score, and the back page has: "The Homeward March" on the returning soldiers from the field of battle.
Eight pages, some damp staining, minor spine wear, generally good.

Background: The fierce battle over the reopening of Ford’s Theatre, punctuated by John T. Ford’s desperate public appeals, signifies a profound moment of national trauma where a devastated public sought to define the boundaries of sacred space in the wake of the American Civil War. Ford’s arguments represented a pragmatic, secular view that an entire industry and innocent livelihoods should not be destroyed by the rogue act of a political assassin. However, the overwhelming religious and governmental backlash proved that for a grieving populace, the theater had ceased to be a mere commercial venue; it had transformed into a secular martyr's shrine where the resumption of frivolous entertainment was viewed as an act of desecration. By forcing the permanent closure of the theater, the federal government and the public effectively chose to memorialize the tragedy by institutionalizing the space, demonstrating how deeply intertwined the assassination was with the moral and spiritual psyche of a transforming nation.