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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18540.txt b/18540.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de39203 --- /dev/null +++ b/18540.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1163 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by Rev. T. M. Eddy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Abraham Lincoln + A Memorial Discourse + +Author: Rev. T. M. Eddy + +Release Date: June 9, 2006 [EBook #18540] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by The University of Michigan's Making of America +online book collection (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moa/). + + + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +A + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE, + + + +By Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D., + + + +Delivered at a + +Union Meeting, held in the Presbyterian Church, + + +Waukegan Illinois, + + +Wednesday, April 19, 1865, + + + +The day upon which the funeral services of the president were +conducted in Washington, and observed throughout the loyal states as +one of mourning. + + + + +Published by request. + + + +Chicago: + +Printed at the Methodist Book Depository. + + + +Charles Philbrick, Printer. + +1865. + + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE. + + +Waukegan, April 19, 1865. + + +Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D.: + + + +The undersigned having listened with much interest and profit to +your eloquent eulogy this day spoken before the citizens of this +town, upon the Life and Death of President Lincoln, unite in +requesting a copy for publication. We feel that much good would come +to the community from a calm perusal of the thoughts so fitly uttered +on the occasion. + + +H. W. Blodgett, +D. Brewster, +C. W. Upton, +W. H. P. Wright, +W. J. Lucas, +C. L. Wright, +C. G. Buell, +M. M. Biddlecew, +P. W. Edwards, +A. P. Yard, +B. S. Kennicott, +Wm. C. Tiffany, +S. S. Greenleaf, +R. Douglas, +Joseph Mallon, +James Y. Cory. + + + +Editorial Rooms, Northwestern Christian Advocate, 66 Washington +Street, Chicago, April 24, 1865. + + + +Messrs. Blodgett, Upton and Others: + + + Gentlemen--Your note is before me. You know the time for the +preparation of that discourse was very brief. You are also aware, +doubtless, that though spoken from copious notes, much of it was +extemporized, and that I cannot reproduce those passages. But such as +it is, I place it in your hands, as my humble tribute to the name and +the virtues of our murdered President. + + With much respect, gentlemen, + + Yours truly, + + T. M. Eddy. + + + + + +MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. + + + +"In the day of adversity consider." + + + +It _is_ the day of adversity. A great grief throws its shadow over +heart and hearth and home. There is such a sorrow as this land never +knew before; agony such as never until now wrung the heart of the +nation. In mansion and cottage, alike, do the people bow themselves. + +We have been through the Red Sea of war, and across the weary, +desert marches of griefs and bereavements, but heretofore we have +felt that _our leader_ was with us, and believed that surely as Moses +was led by the pillar of cloud and of fire, so did God lead him. + +But now that leader is not. Slain, slain by the hand of the +assassin, murdered beside his wife! The costliest blood has been +shed, the clearest eye is closed, the strongest arm is nerveless--the +Chief Magistrate is no more. "The mighty man cries bitterly; the day +is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness +and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and +thick darkness." + +It is no mere official mourning which hangs its sad drapery +everywhere. It is not alone that a President of the Republic is, for +the first time, assassinated. No; there is a tender grief that +characterizes the bereavement of a loved friend, which shows there +was something in this man which grappled him to men's hearts as with +hooks of steel. + +But mourning the death of the Chief Magistrate, it becomes us to +review the elements of his career as a ruler, which have so endeared +him to loyal hearts. + +If I were to sketch the model statesman, I would say he must have +mental breadth and clearness, incorruptible integrity, strength of +will, tireless patience, humanity, preserved from demoralizing +weakness by conscientious reverence for law, ardent love of country, +and, regulating all, a commanding sense of responsibility to God, the +Judge of all. These, though wrapped in seeming rustic garb, were +found in Abraham Lincoln. He had mental breadth and clearness. In +spite of a defective early education, he became a self-taught +thinker, and later in life he read widely and meditated profoundly, +until he acquired a thorough mental discipline. He possessed the +power to comprehend a subject at once in the aggregate and in its +details. His eye swept a wide horizon and descried clearly all within +its circumference. He was a keen logician, whose apt manner of +"putting things" made him more than a match for practiced +diplomatists and wily marplots. These were men of might about his +council-board, scholars and statesmen, but none arose to his +altitude, much less was either his master. + +That very facetiousness sometimes critcised, kept him from becoming +morbid, and gave healthfulness to his opinions, free alike from fever +and paralysis. That his was incorruptible integrity, no man dare +question. He was not merely above reproach, but eminently above +suspicion. Purity is receptive. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for +they shall _see God_," is as profound in philosophy as comprehensive +in theology. Purity in the realm of moral decision and motive, is a +skylight to the soul, through which truth comes direct. Abraham +Lincoln was so pure in motive and purpose, looked so intensely after +the right that he might pursue it, that he saw clearly where many +walked in mist. + +Without developing the characteristics of the ideal statesman +analytically, let us see how they were manifest in his administration. + +It began amid the rockings of rebellion. A servile predecessor, +deplorably weak, if not criminal, had permitted treason to be freely +mouthed in the national capitol, treasonable action to be taken by +State authorities, and armed treason to resist and defy federal +authority, and environ with bristling works the forts and flag of the +Union. At such a juncture, Mr. Lincoln, then barely escaping +assassination, was inaugurated. As was right, he made all proper +efforts for conciliation, tendered the olive-branch, proposed such +changes as existing laws, and even of the Constitution, as should +secure Southern rights from the adverse legislation of a sectional +majority. All was refused, and traitors said, "We will not live with +you. Though you sign a blank sheet and leave us to fill it with our +own conditions, we will not abide with you." + +Refusing peace, war was commenced, not by the President, but by +secessionists. War has been waged on a scale of astounding vastness +for four years, and Mr. Lincoln falls as the day of victory dawns. + +His claim to the character of a great statesman is to be estimated +in view of the fiery ordeal which tried him, and not by the gauge of +peaceful days. In addition to the most powerful armed rebellion ever +organized, he was confronted by a skillful, able, persistent, well +compacted partisan opposition. He was to harmonize sectional feelings +as antagonistic as Massachusetts and Kentucky, and to rally to one +flag generals as widely apart in sentiment and policy as Phelps and +Fitz John Porter. That under such difficulties he sometimes erred in +judgment and occasionally failed in execution, is not strange, for he +was a man, but that he erred so seldom, and that he so admirably +retrieved his mistakes, shows that he was more by far than an +ordinary man; more by far than an average statesman. Standing where +we do today, we feel that he was divinely appointed for the crisis; +that he was chosen to be the Moses of our pilgrimage, albeit, he was +to die at Pisgah and be buried against Beth-Peor, while a Joshua +should be commissioned to lead us into the land of promise. + +In studying the administration of these four eventful years, it +seems to me there were four grand landmarks of principle governing +him, ever visible to the eye of the President, by which he steadily +made his way. + + +I. THE UNION IS INCAPABLE OF DIVISION. + +In his first Inaugural, he said: "I hold that in contemplation of +universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is +perpetual." In his reply to Fernando Wood, then Mayor of New York, he +said, "There is nothing that could ever bring me willingly to consent +to the destruction of the Union." By this rule he walked. The Union +was one for all time, and there was no authority for its division +lodged anywhere. He would use no force, would exercise no authority +not needed for this purpose. But what force _was_ needed, whether +moral or physical, should be employed. Hence the call for troops. +Hence the marching armies of the Republic, and the thunder of cannon +at the gates of Vicksburg, Charleston and Richmond. Hence the +suspension of the _habeas corpus_, the seizure and occasional +imprisonment of treason-shriekers and sympathizers, for which he has +been denounced as a tyrant by journals, which, slandering him while +living, have the effrontery to put on the semblance of grief and +throw lying emblems of mourning to the wind! For the exercise of that +authority, he went for trial to the American people, and they +triumphantly sustained him. + + +II. The second grand regulating idea of his administration may be +best stated in his own words: "GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE BY THE +PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE." He conceded the people _to be the +Government_. Their will was above the opinion of secretaries and +generals. He recognized their right to dictate the policy of the +administration. Their majesty was ever before him as an actual +presence. On the 11th of February, 1861, he said, in Indianapolis, +"Of the people when they rise in mass in behalf of the Union and the +liberties of their country, it may be said, 'The gates of hell shall +not prevail against them,'" and again, "I appeal to you to constantly +bear in mind that with you, and not with politicians, not with the +President, not with office-seekers, but _with you_ rests the +question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be +preserved to the latest generation?" Again, on that memorable journey +to Washington, he said, "It is with you, the people, to advance the +great cause of the Union and the Constitution." "I am sure I bring a +true heart to the work. For the ability to perform it, I must trust +in that Supreme Being who has never foresaken this favored land, +through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people." In +his first Inaugural he said: "This country, with its institutions, +belongs to the people who inhabit it." "The Chief Magistrate derives +all his authority from the people." "Why should there not be a +patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there +any better or any equal hope in the world?" + +These sentences were utterances of a faith within him. In the people +he had faith. He saw them only lower than the King of kings, and they +were to be trusted and obeyed. + +Yet this man who thus trusted and honored the people, who so +reverenced their authority, and bowed before their majesty, has been +called "tyrant," "usurper," by men who now would make the world +forget their infamy by putting on badges of woe, and who seek to wash +out the record of their slander by such tears as crocodiles shed! Out +upon the miserable dissemblers! + +When the people had spoken, he bowed to their mandate. When it +became necessary to anticipate their decision, he did so, calmly +trusting their integrity and intelligence. He considered their wishes +in the constitution of his cabinet, in the choice of military +commanders, in the appointment of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court +of the United States, and in the measures he recommended to Congress. + +The people proved worthy of the trust. They promptly took every loan +asked for the relief of the treasury and sustained the national +credit. They answered all his calls for men. They sprang into the +ranks, shouting + + "We are coming, Father Abraham." + +They cheerfully laid down life at his word. So far from this +conflict proving a republic unfit to make war, or that for its +prosecution there must be intensely centralized authority, it has +demonstrated that a democracy trusted, is mightier than a +dictatorship. + + +III. His third towering landmark was THE RIGHT OF ALL MEN TO +FREEDOM. And here with his practical sense and acute vision he rose +to a higher, and I think a healthier, elevation than that of many +heroic antislavery leaders. They _were_ anti-slavery. Their lives +were spent in attack. They sought to destroy a system; they told its +wrongs and categoried its iniquities. + +He knew that light, let in, will cast out darkness, and that kindled +warmth will drive out cold. He knew that freedom was better than +slavery, and that when men see that it is so, they will decree +freedom instead of slavery. He therefore entered the lists FOR +FREEDOM. He spoke of its inestimable blessings, and then unrolling +the immortal Declaration of Independence claimed that, with all its +dignity and all its endowments, liberty is the birthright of ALL MEN. +He taught the American people that the inalienable right of all men +to liberty was the first utterance of the young Republic, and that +her voice must be stifled so long as slavery lives. In his Ottawa +speech he said: "Henry Clay--my beau-ideal of a statesman--the man +for whom I fought all my humble life, once said of a class of men who +would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, +that they must, if they would do this, go back to the era of our +independence and muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous +return; they must blow out the moral lights around us, they must +penetrate the human soul and eradicate there the love of liberty, and +then, and not till then, could they perpetuate slavery in this +country." + +He laid his spear in rest and went forth with armor on, the champion +of freedom. He claimed she should walk the world everywhere, +untrammeled and free to bless the lowest as well as the highest. It +was not right and never could be made right, to forbid working +lawfully that all men might be free. Slavery debased--freedom lifted +up. Slavery corrupted, freedom purified. Freedom might be abused, but +slavery was itself a colossal abuse. + +He was no dreaming visionary, but stated with commanding clearness +the doctrine of equality before the law, or political equality, +distinguishing it from social equality. In old Independence Hall, in +1861, he said of the Colonies: "I have often enquired of myself what +great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long +together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the +Colonies from the mother land, but the sentiment in the Declaration +of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this +country, but I hope to the world for all future time. It was that +which gave promise that in due time the weight should be lifted from +the shoulders of all men." He held that instrument to teach that +"nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the +world to be trodden on, degraded and imbruted by its fellows." + +We search vainly for a clearer and terser statement of the true +theory of equality than he gave last autumn in an address to a +Western regiment. "We have, as all will agree, a free government, +where _every man has a right to be equal with every other man_." Has +a _right to be!_ Take the fetters from his limbs, take the load of +disability from his shoulders, give him room in the arena, and then +if he cannot succeed with others, the failure is his. _But he has the +right_ TO TRY. You have no right to forbid the trial. If he will try +for wealth, fame, political position, he has the right. Let him +exercise it and enjoy what he lawfully wins. + +With such views he came to the presidency. Here he was an executive +officer, bound by the Constitution, and charged with its maintenance +and defense. He was to take the nation as the people placed it in his +hands, rule it under the Constitution and surrender it unbroken to +his successor. Accordingly he made to the Southern States all +conceivable propositions for peace. Slavery should be left without +federal interference. They madly rejected all. War came. He saw at +the outset that slavery was our bane. It confronted each regiment, +perplexed each commander. It was the Southern commisariat, dug +Southern trenches and piled Southern breastworks. + +But certain Border States maintained a quasi loyalty and clung to +slavery. They were in sympathy with rebellion, but wore the semblance +of allegiance and with consequential airs assumed to dictate the +policy of the President. He was greatly embarrassed. He made them +every kind and conciliatory offer, but all was refused. Slavery on +the gulf and on the border, in Charleston and in Louisville, was the +same intolerant, incurable enemy of the Union. He struck it at last. +The Proclamation of Emancipation came, followed in due time by the +recommendation that the Constitution be so amended as forever to +render slavery impossible in State or Territory. For these acts, he +was arraigned before the American people on the 8th of last November, +and received their emphatic approval. + +In a letter written to a citizen of Kentucky, the President gave an +exposition of his policy so transparent, that I reproduce it in this +place. It is his sufficient explanation and vindication. + + + +Executive Mansion, Washington, +April 4, 1864. + +A. G. Hodges, Esq., Frankfort, Ky. + + + "My Dear Sir:--You ask me to put in writing the substance of what +I verbally stated the other day, in your presence, to Governor +Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: + + "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong nothing is +wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel; and yet I +have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an +unrestricted right to act officially in this judgment and feeling. It +was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability +preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I +could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it in my +view that I might take the oath to get power, and break the oath in +using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil +administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my +primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had +publicly declared this many times and in many ways; and I aver that, +to this day I have done no official act in mere deference to my +abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, however, +that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability +imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, +that government, that nation, of which that Constitution was the +organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the +Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected; yet +often a limb must be amputated to save a life, but a life is never +wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise +unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable to +the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the +nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I +could not feel that to the best of my ability I had even tried to +preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, +I should permit the wreck of government, country, and Constitution +altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted +military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it +an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, +then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I +objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. +When, still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I +forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity +had come. When, in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and +successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated +emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military +emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that +measure. They declined the proposition; and I was, in my best +judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, +and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the +colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for +greater gain than loss; but of this I was not entirely confident. +More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign +relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white +military force--no loss by it anyhow or anywhere. On the contrary, it +shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, +and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there +can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have had them +without the measure. + + "And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test +himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the +rebellion by force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking +three [one?] hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and +placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If +he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot face +the truth. + + "I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling +this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to +have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have +controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's +condition is not what either party or any man desired or expected. +God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now +wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the +North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our +complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new +causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. + + "Yours truly, + + A. Lincoln." + + + +He struck slavery because slavery had clutched the throat of the +Republic, and one of the twain must die! Mr. Lincoln said, LET IT BE +SLAVERY! + +Christianity, declaring the brotherhood of race, redemption and +retribution answered, _So be it!_ The Bible, sealed by slave-codes to +four millions for whom its truths were designed, answered _Amen!_ The +gospel long fettered by the slave-master's will, and instead of an +evangel of freedom made to proclaim a message of bondage, lifted up +its voice in thanksgiving. Marriage, long dishonored, put on its +robes of purity, and its ring of perpetual covenant, and answered +_Amen,_ and from above, God's strong angels and six-winged cherubim, +bending earthward, shouted their response to the edict of the Great +Emancipator! + + +IV. The next controlling idea was + + PROFOUND RELIGIOUS DEPENDENCE. + +As a public man, he set God before his eyes, and did reverence to +the Most High. It was deeply a touching scene as he stood upon the +platform of the car which was to carry him from his Springfield home, +and tearfully asked his neighbors and old friends that they should +remember him in their prayers. Amid tears and sobs they answered "We +will pray for you." Again and again has he publicly invoked Divine +aid, and asked to be remembered in the prayers of the people. His +second Inaugural seems rather the tender pastoral of a white-haired +bishop than a political manifesto. + +What were his person relations to his God, I know not. We are not in +all things able to judge him by our personal standard. How much +etiquette may be demanded, how much may have been yielded to the +tyranny of custom we cannot tell. In public life he was spotless in +integrity and dependent upon Divine aid. He had made no public +consecration to God in church covenant, but we may not enter the +sanctuary of his inner life. He constantly read the holy oracles, and +recognized their claim to be the inspired Scriptures. + +He felt that religious responsibility when he set forth the +Proclamation of Emancipation closing with the sublime sentence: "And +upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted +by the Constitution, on military necessity, I invoke the considerable +judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." + +In one of the gloomy hours of the struggle he said to a delegation +of clergymen: "My hope of success in this great and terrible struggle +rests on that immutable foundation, the justice and goodness of God. +And when events are very threatening, and prospects very dark, I +still hope, in some way which men cannot see, all will be well in the +end, because our cause is just and God is on our side." + +If, as the executive officer of the nation he erred, it was in +excessive tenderness in dealing with criminals. Unsuspecting and +pure, he could not credit unmixed guilt in others, and with +difficulty could he bring himself to suffer condign punishment to be +inflicted. There were times when he was inflexible. In vain did +wealth and position plead for Gardner, the slave-captain. As vainly +did they for Beall and Johnson. If he was lenient it was the error of +amiableness. + +In reviewing the administration of Abraham Lincoln, we see in him +another of those Providentially called and directed leaders who have +been raised up in great crises. His name stands on the roll with +those of Moses and Joshua, and William of Orange, and Washington. Not +only did Providence raise him up, but it divinely vindicated his +dealings with slavery. As emancipation was honored, did the pillar of +flame light our hosts on to victory! + +In the dawning morn of peace and Union has this leader been slain. +When the nation thought it most needed him, has he been basely +butchered! As the ship which had been rocking in the waves and bowing +before the storm was reaching the harbor, a pirate, who sailed with +the passengers, basely stole on deck and shot the pilot at the wheel! + +The assassin has been held in abhorrence among all people and in all +ages. Here was a foul plot to destroy at one swoop the President, the +officers eligible to the succession, the Cabinet, the Lieutenant- +General, and no doubt the loyal Governors of the States. That the +scheme was successful only in part, God be praised. Never has an +assassination produced so terrible a shock. For-- + + + "He had borne his faculties so meek, had been + So clear in his great office, that his virtues + Do plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against + The deep damnation of his taking off." + + +He fell, and the whole land mourns. Secession smote him in her +impotent death-rage, but the State lives on! The reins which dropped +from his nerveless hand another grasped, and the nation lives. No +revolution comes. No war of rival dynasties! The constitutional +successor is in the chief seat of power, and how much secession has +taken by this new crime remains to be seen. + +Fellow-citizens, there are some duties which press upon us in this +hour. + + + 1. We must anew commit ourselves to the work of suppressing +rebellion and re-enthroning the majesty of the Union and +Constitution. Mr. Lincoln lived until the nation's flag had waved in +triumph over every important Southern city; until the proud Southern +aristocracy had thrown itself at the feet of its slaves, and with +frantic outcries implored salvation at their hands; had lived to walk +through Richmond, and be hailed by its dusky freedmen as their +deliverer; had lived until he received the report of the surrender of +Lee's grand army, and then he was slain. We must complete the work. +Onward, until it be wrought. We believe it will be soon, but were it +a hundred years it must be accomplished! + + 2. We must complete the destruction of slavery. Added to its long +catalogue of crimes, it has now slain the Lord's Anointed, the man +whom he made strong! Now as THE ETERNAL liveth, it must die! By the +agonies it has caused, by the uncoffined graves it has filled, by the +tears it has wrung from pure women and little children, by our sons +and brothers starved to death in its mined prisons, by our beloved +Chief Magistrate murdered, by all these do we this day swear unto the +LORD that slavery SHALL DIE and that he would save it shall +politically die with it! + + 3. This day, as funeral rites are being said, and sobs are coming +up from a smitten household and bereaved people, before the Lord do +we solemnly demand that justice be done in the land upon evil-doers, +that blood-guiltiness may be taken away, and that men shall not dare +repeat such crimes. + + +_When treason slew Abraham Lincoln, it slew the pardoning power,_ +and by its own act placed authority in the hands of one of sterner +mold and fiery soul--one deeply wronged by its atrocities. Now let it +receive the reward of its own hands! This is the demand of mercy as +well as justice, that after generations may see the expiation of +treason is too costly for its commission. Mercy to the many demands +the punishment of the guilty. + +The assassin of the Chief Magistrate must be found. Though all seas +must be crossed, all mountains ascended, all valleys traversed, he +_must_ be found! If he hide him under the mane of the British lion, +beneath the paw of the Russian bear or among the lilies of France, he +must be found and plucked thence for punishment! If there be no +extradition treaty, then the strong hands of our power must make one. +He was a tragedian. Had he never read-- + + + "If the assassination + Could trammel up the consequences and catch + With this surcease, success; that but this blow + Might be the be-all and the end-all _here,_ + + * * * * * * * * * * + + "We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases + _We still have judgment here._ We but teach + Bloody inventions, which, being taught, return + To plague the inventors. Thus even-handed justice + Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice + To our own lips." + + +We are told that he excelled in the part of Richard III. Did he not +remember the tent scene-- + + + "My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, + And every tongue brings in a several tale, + And every tale condemns me for a villain-- + Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree, + Murder, stern murder, in the darkest degree; + All several sins, all used in each degree, + Throng to the bar, crying all--Guilty! guilty! + I shall despair. There is no creature loves me; + And, if I die, no soul will pity me." + + +He has murdered the Lord's Anointed, and vengeance shall pursue him. +Tell me not, in deprecation of this sentiment "Vengeance is mine, I +will repay saith the Lord." Human justice has its work and must +follow the assassin, if need be, to the very gates of hell! It is +God's edict that he who causelessly takes any human life, "By men +shall his blood be shed"--how much more when it is such a life! [FN#1] + + + [FN#1] Since the MS. of this discourse was given the printer, the +assassin has met his retribution. Hunted like a wild beast to his +lair, he was surrounded by his pursuers, forsaken by his accomplice, +the barn to which he had fled fired, then shot to death, lingering +several hours in intense suffering and his remains consigned to +impenetrable obscurity. Retribution came to him before his victim was +buried. So be it ever! His accomplices are known and _must be_ +punished. + + +A morning journal, which has been somehow retained in the interest +of wrong, of home-traitors, of misrule, has already impliedly put in +the plea of insanity for the assassin. The same journal runs a +parallel between him and John Brown. Well, Virginia executed John +Brown--its own precedent is fatal to its own client! + +Let justice be done on the leaders of rebellion. Have done with the +miserable cant of curing those perjured conspirators with kindness. +Libby Prison mined under Federal captives, the starved skeletons of +our slowly murdered kinsmen, the grave of Lincoln, and the gaping +wounds of Seward are your answer. It must be taught men for all time +that treason is, in this life, unpardonable! It is all crimes in one. +In this case it is without the glitter of seeming chivalry for its +relief. It has had nothing knightly. It has conspired to starve +prisoners, has plotted conflagrations which were to consume, in one +dread holocaust, the venerable matron, the gray-haired sire and the +mother with her babe; has resorted to poison, the knife of the cut- +throat and the pistol of the assassin. No treason was ever so +repulsively foul, so reekingly corrupt. For its great leaders, the +block and the halter; for its chieftains, military and civic, of the +second class, perpetual banishment with confiscation of their goods, +for all who have volunteered to fight against the Union perpetual +disfranchisement--these are the demands of a long-suffering people. + +The case of treason-sympathizers among us is one of grave moment. It +is hard to bear their sneers and patiently to listen to their covert +treason. It is a question whether the limit of toleration has not +been passed. The era of assassination has been commenced. Be sure +that any man who will excuse an assassin, will himself do foul murder +when he can shoot from behind a hedge, or strike a victim in the +back. It is matter of self-defence to cast such from our midst. Let +us have no violence, no lawlessness, _but such persons must be +persuaded to depart from us._ "They are gentlemen." Booth was courtly +in speech and mien. Have they been State officers? So was Walsh, +whose house was a disunion arsenal. The time has come when we cannot +permit men in sympathy with armed rebellion, which employs the +assassin, to dwell in our midst. + +Abraham Lincoln is no more. His work is done. We may not comprehend +the mystery which permitted his removal at such an hour, in such a +way. God hideth himself wondrously, and sometimes seems to stand afar +from His truth and His cause when most needed. + +Our leader is gone. His work is finished, and it may be that his +Providential mission was fully accomplished. His memory is +imperishably fragrant. WASHINGTON--LINCOLN! Who shall say which name +shall shine brighter in the firmament of the historic future! + +He is dead! In the Presidential Mansion are being said words of +solemn admonition and godly counsel. In a few hours his remains will +be on their way to sleep in their Illinois grave! + +Dead! "How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod!" + +Pray devoutly for the smitten widow and fatherless children of our +Chief Magistrate. They are sorely stricken and God alone can heal +them. To them it is not the loss of the Chief Magistrate that makes +this hour so sad, but that they have no more a husband or a father! + +And now that there has been sorrow in all the land, and the death- +angel in all its homes, from the humblest to the highest, is not our +expiation well-nigh wrought, and will not our Father have compassion +upon us? + +Let us devoutly pray the King of nations to guide _our nation_ +through its remaining struggle! It may be He means to show us that He +alone is the Savior! + +Let us implore Divine guidance upon Mr. Lincoln's successor, Andrew +Johnson, President of the United States. He was faithful amid the +faithless. He was true to the Union when few in his section had for +it aught but curses. Pray for him. He comes to power at a critical +time and needs wisdom from above. Confide in him. He will surely rise +above the one error which temporarily drew him down. He is only hated +by traitors, and when they hate, it is safe for loyal men to trust. + +By and by we may understand all this. Now it passes comprehension, +but we have seen so many manifestations of God's supervising agency +when we least looked for it, that we may safely trust Him. He means +to save us. Nay, blessed be His name, He _has_ saved us! + +His grand purposes will go forward. The wrath of man shall praise +Him, and the remainder of wrath will He restrain. Remember, and take +heart as you remember, the ringing line of Whittier. + + + "God's errands never fail." + + +He who rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm, is neither +dead nor sleeping, and He is a God who never compromises with wrong, +and never abdicates His throne. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by Rev. T. M. 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