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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/26750-h.zip b/26750-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b69bbf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/26750-h.zip diff --git a/26750-h/26750-h.htm b/26750-h/26750-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..472e5f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/26750-h/26750-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2403 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Memorial Address on the +Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln, +by George Bancroft +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memorial Address on the Life and Character +of Abraham Lincoln, by George Bancroft + +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: Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln + Delivered at the request of both Houses of Congress of America + +Author: George Bancroft + +Release Date: October 2, 2008 [EBook #26750] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL ADDRESS--ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Tomaiuolo, Instruction Librarian at the +Central Connecticut State University Elihu Burritt Library. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<CENTER> +<A HREF="images/img-front.jpg"> +<IMG SRC="images/img-frontt.jpg" ALT="Abraham Lincoln" BORDER="2" WIDTH="407" HEIGHT="629"> +</A> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MEMORIAL ADDRESS +</H3> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +ON THE +</H5> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LIFE AND CHARACTER +</H3> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +OF +</H5> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ABRAHAM LINCOLN +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +DELIVERED, +</H5> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +AT THE REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE +</H5> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONGRESS OF AMERICA, +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +BEFORE THEM, +</H5> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES +</H4> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AT WASHINGTON, +</H4> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ON THE 12TH OF FEBRUARY, 1866. +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BY GEORGE BANCROFT. +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +WASHINGTON: +<BR> +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. +<BR> +1866. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +ORATION. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SENATORS,<BR> + REPRESENTATIVES OF AMERICA:<BR> +</P> + +<P> +That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of +physical science. On the great moving power which is from the beginning +hangs the world of the senses and the world of thought and action. +Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations, working in +patient continuity through the ages, never halting and never abrupt, +encompassing all events in its oversight, and ever effecting its will, +though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings are +lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics flourish and +wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that is told; but nothing is by +chance, though men, in their ignorance of causes, may think so. The +deeds of time are governed, as well as judged, by the decrees of +eternity. The caprice of fleeting existences bends to the immovable +omnipotence, which plants its foot on all the centuries and has neither +change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes, like a messenger through the +thick darkness of night, it steps along mysterious ways; but when the +hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass into a new form of +being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity; an +all-subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming +revolution; those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with +the will of Providence rather than with human devices; and all hearts +and all understandings, most of all the opinions and influences of the +unwilling, are wonderfully attracted and compelled to bear forward the +change, which becomes more an obedience to the law of universal nature +than submission to the arbitrament of man. +</P> + +<P> +In the fulness of time a republic rose up in the wilderness of America. +Thousands of years had passed away before this child of the ages could +be born. From whatever there was of good in the systems of former +centuries she drew her nourishment; the wrecks of the past were her +warnings. With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her inmost +nature, she disenthralled religion from bondage to temporal power, that +her worship might be worship only in spirit and in truth. The wisdom +which had passed from India through Greece, with what Greece had added +of her own; the jurisprudence of Rome; the mediaeval municipalities; +the Teutonic method of representation; the political experience of +England; the benignant wisdom of the expositors of the law of nature +and of nations in France and Holland, all shed on her their selectest +influence. She washed the gold of political wisdom from the sands +wherever it was found; she cleft it from the rocks; she gleaned it +among ruins. Out of all the discoveries of statesmen and sages, out of +all the experience of past human life, she compiled a perennial +political philosophy, the primordial principles of national ethics. The +wise men of Europe sought the best government in a mixture of monarchy, +aristocracy, and democracy; America went behind these names to extract +from them the vital elements of social forms, and blend them +harmoniously in the free commonwealth, which comes nearest to the +illustration of the natural equality of all men. She intrusted the +guardianship of established rights to law, the movements of reform to +the spirit of the people, and drew her force from the happy +reconciliation of both. +</P> + +<P> +Republics had heretofore been limited to small cantons, or cities and +their dependencies; America, doing that of which the like had not +before been known upon the earth, or believed by kings and statesmen to +be possible, extended her republic across a continent. Under her +auspices the vine of liberty took deep root and filled the land; the +hills were covered with its shadow, its boughs were like the goodly +cedars, and reached unto both oceans. The fame of this only daughter of +freedom went out into all the lands of the earth; from her the human +race drew hope. +</P> + +<P> +Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary aristocracy planted itself +on our soil; the only hereditary condition that fastened itself upon us +was servitude. Nature works in sincerity, and is ever true to its law. +The bee hives honey; the viper distils poison; the vine stores its +juices, and so do the poppy and the upas. In like manner every thought +and every action ripens its seed, each according to its kind. In the +individual man, and still more in a nation, a just idea gives life, and +progress, and glory; a false conception portends disaster, shame, and +death. A hundred and twenty years ago a West Jersey Quaker wrote: "This +trade of importing slaves is dark gloominess hanging over the land; the +consequences will be grievous to posterity." At the north the growth of +slavery was arrested by natural causes; in the region nearest the +tropics it throve rankly, and worked itself into the organism of the +rising States. Virginia stood between the two, with soil, and climate, +and resources demanding free labor, yet capable of the profitable +employment of the slave. She was the land of great statesmen, and they +saw the danger of her being whelmed under the rising flood in time to +struggle against the delusions of avarice and pride. Ninety-four years +ago the legislature of Virginia addressed the British king, saying that +the trade in slaves was "of great inhumanity," was opposed to the +"security and happiness" of their constituents, "would in time have the +most destructive influence," and "endanger their very existence." And +the king answered them that, "upon pain of his highest displeasure, the +importation of slaves should not be in any respect obstructed." +"Pharisaical Britain," wrote Franklin in behalf of Virginia, "to pride +thyself in setting free a single slave that happened to land on thy +coasts, while thy laws continue a traffic whereby so many hundreds of +thousands are dragged into a slavery that is entailed on their +posterity." "A serious view of this subject," said Patrick Henry in +1773, "gives a gloomy prospect to future times." In the same year +George Mason wrote to the legislature of Virginia: "The laws of +impartial Providence may avenge our injustice upon our posterity." +Conforming his conduct to his convictions, Jefferson, in Virginia, and +in the Continental Congress, with the approval of Edmund Pendleton, +branded the slave-trade as piracy; and he fixed in the Declaration of +Independence, as the corner-stone of America: "All men are created +equal, with an unalienable right to liberty." On the first organization +of temporary governments for the continental domain, Jefferson, but for +the default of New Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated every part +of that territory to freedom. In the formation of the national +Constitution, Virginia, opposed by a part of New England, vainly +struggled to abolish the slave-trade at once and forever; and when the +ordinance of 1787 was introduced by Nathan Dane without the clause +prohibiting slavery, it was through the favorable disposition of +Virginia and the South that the clause of Jefferson was restored, and +the whole northwestern territory—all the territory that then belonged +to the nation—was reserved for the labor of freemen. +</P> + +<P> +The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition of the slave-trade +would bring with it the gradual abolition of slavery; but the +expectation was doomed to disappointment. In supporting incipient +measures for emancipation, Jefferson encountered difficulties greater +than he could overcome, and, after vain wrestlings, the words that +broke from him, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is +just, that His justice cannot sleep forever," were words of despair. It +was the desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove +slavery by a public act; and as the prospects of a general emancipation +grew more and more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the action of the +State, did all that he could by bequeathing freedom to his own slaves. +Good and true men had, from the days of 1776, suggested the colonizing +of the negro in the home of his ancestors; but the idea of colonization +was thought to increase the difficulty of emancipation, and, in spite +of strong support, while it accomplished much good for Africa, it +proved impracticable as a remedy at home. Madison, who in early life +disliked slavery so much that he wished "to depend as little as +possible on the labor of slaves;" Madison, who held that where slavery +exists "the republican theory becomes fallacious;" Madison, who in the +last years of his life would not consent to the annexation of Texas, +lest his countrymen should fill it with slaves; Madison, who said, +"slavery is the greatest evil under which the nation labors—a +portentous evil—an evil, moral, political, and economical—a sad blot +on our free country"—went mournfully into old age with the cheerless +words: "No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking out the +stain." +</P> + +<P> +The men of the Revolution passed away; a new generation sprang up, +impatient that an institution to which they clung should be condemned +as inhuman, unwise, and unjust. In the throes of discontent at the +self-reproach of their fathers, and blinded by the lustre of wealth to +be acquired by the culture of a new staple, they devised the theory +that slavery, which they would not abolish, was not evil, but good. +They turned on the friends of colonization, and confidently demanded: +"Why take black men from a civilized and Christian country, where their +labor is a source of immense gain, and a power to control the markets +of the world, and send them to a land of ignorance, idolatry, and +indolence, which was the home of their forefathers, but not theirs? +Slavery is a blessing. Were they not in their ancestral land naked, +scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the course of the sun, +controlled by nature? And in their new abode have they not been taught +to know the difference of the seasons, to plough, and plant, and reap, +to drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their scanty dialect for +the richest of all the languages among men, and the stupid adoration of +follies for the purest religion? And since slavery is good for the +blacks, it is good for their masters, bringing opulence and the +opportunity of educating a race. The slavery of the black is good in +itself; he shall serve the white man forever." And nature, which better +understood the quality of fleeting interest and passion, laughed as it +caught the echo, "man" and "forever!" +</P> + +<P> +A regular development of pretensions followed the new declaration with +logical consistency. Under the old declaration every one of the States +had retained, each for itself, the right of manumitting all slaves by +an ordinary act of legislation; now the power of the people over +servitude through their legislatures was curtailed, and the privileged +class was swift in imposing legal and constitutional obstructions on +the people themselves. The power of emancipation was narrowed or taken +away. The slave might not be disquieted by education. There remained an +unconfessed consciousness that the system of bondage was wrong, and a +restless memory that it was at variance with the true American +tradition; its safety was therefore to be secured by political +organization. The generation that made the Constitution took care for +the predominance of freedom in Congress by the ordinance of Jefferson; +the new school aspired to secure for slavery an equality of votes in +the Senate, and, while it hinted at an organic act that should concede +to the collective South a veto power on national legislation, it +assumed that each State separately had the right to revise and nullify +laws of the United States, according to the discretion of its judgment. +</P> + +<P> +The new theory hung as a bias on the foreign relations of the country; +there could be no recognition of Hayti, nor even of the American colony +of Liberia; and the world was given to understand that the +establishment of free labor in Cuba would be a reason for wresting that +island from Spain. Territories were annexed—Louisiana, Florida, Texas, +half of Mexico; slavery must have its share in them all, and it +accepted for a time a dividing line between the unquestioned domain of +free labor and that in which involuntary labor was to be tolerated. A +few years passed away, and the new school, strong and arrogant, +demanded and received an apology for applying the Jefferson proviso to +Oregon. +</P> + +<P> +The application of that proviso was interrupted for three +administrations, but justice moved steadily onward. In the news that +the men of California had chosen freedom, Calhoun heard the knell of +parting slavery, and on his death-bed he counselled secession. +Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison had died despairing of the +abolition of slavery; Calhoun died in despair at the growth of freedom. +His system rushed irresistibly to its natural development. The +death-struggle for California was followed by a short truce; but the +new school of politicians, who said that slavery was not evil, but +good, soon sought to recover the ground they had lost, and, confident +of securing Kansas, they demanded that the established line in the +Territories between freedom and slavery should be blotted out. The +country, believing in the strength and enterprise and expansive energy +of freedom, made answer, though reluctantly: "Be it so; let there be no +strife between brethren; let freedom and slavery compete for the +Territories on equal terms, in a fair field, under an impartial +administration;" and on this theory, if on any, the contest might have +been left to the decision of time. +</P> + +<P> +The South started back in appalment from its victory, for it knew that +a fair competition foreboded its defeat. But where could it now find an +ally to save it from its own mistake? What I have next to say is spoken +with no emotion but regret. Our meeting to-day is, as it were, at the +grave, in the presence of eternity, and the truth must be uttered in +soberness and sincerity. In a great republic, as was observed more than +two thousand years ago, any attempt to overturn the state owes its +strength to aid from some branch of the government. The Chief Justice +of the United States, without any necessity or occasion, volunteered to +come to the rescue of the theory of slavery; and from his court there +lay no appeal but to the bar of humanity and history. Against the +Constitution, against the memory of the nation, against a previous +decision, against a series of enactments, he decided that the slave is +property; that slave property is entitled to no less protection than +any other property; that the Constitution upholds it in every Territory +against any act of a local legislature, and even against Congress +itself; or, as the President for that term tersely promulgated the +saying, "Kansas is as much a slave State as South Carolina or Georgia; +slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in every Territory." The +municipal character of slavery being thus taken away, and slave +property decreed to be "sacred," the authority of the courts was +invoked to introduce it by the comity of law into States where slavery +had been abolished, and in one of the courts of the United States a +judge pronounced the African slave-trade legitimate, and numerous and +powerful advocates demanded its restoration. +</P> + +<P> +Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate opinion, announced what +had never been heard from any magistrate of Greece or Rome; what was +unknown to civil law, and canon law, and feudal law, and common law, +and constitutional law; unknown to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth, and +Marshall—that there are "slave races." The spirit of evil is intensely +logical. Having the authority of this decision, five States swiftly +followed the earlier example of a sixth, and opened the way for +reducing the free negro to bondage; the migrating free negro became a +slave if he but entered within the jurisdiction of a seventh; and an +eighth, from its extent, and soil, and mineral resources, destined to +incalculable greatness, closed its eyes on its coming, prosperity, and +enacted, as by Taney's dictum it had the right to do, that every free +black man who would live within its limits must accept the condition of +slavery for himself and his posterity. +</P> + +<P> +Only one step more remained to be taken. Jefferson and the leading +statesmen of his day held fast to the idea that the enslavement of the +African was socially, morally, and politically wrong. The new school +was founded exactly upon the opposite idea; and they resolved, first, +to distract the democratic party, for which the Supreme Court had now +furnished the means, and then to establish a new government, with negro +slavery for its corner-stone, as socially, morally, and politically +right. +</P> + +<P> +As the Presidential election drew on, one of the great traditional +parties did not make its appearance; the other reeled as it sought to +preserve its old position, and the candidate who most nearly +represented its best opinion, driven by patriotic zeal, roamed the +country from end to end to speak for union, eager, at least, to +confront its enemies, yet not having hope that it would find its +deliverance through him. The storm rose to a whirlwind; who should +allay its wrath? The most experienced statesmen of the country had +failed; there was no hope from those who were great after the flesh: +could relief come from one whose wisdom was like the wisdom of little +children? +</P> + +<P> +The choice of America fell on a man born west of the Alleghanies, in +the cabin of poor people of Hardin county, Kentucky—ABRAHAM LINCOLN. +</P> + +<P> +His mother could read, but not write; his father could do neither; but +his parents sent him, with an old spelling-book, to school, and he +learned in his childhood to do both. +</P> + +<P> +When eight years old he floated down the Ohio with his father on a +raft, which bore the family and all their possessions to the shore of +Indiana; and, child as he was, he gave help as they toiled through +dense forests to the interior of Spencer county. There, in the land of +free labor, he grew up in a log-cabin, with the solemn solitude for his +teacher in his meditative hours. Of Asiatic literature he knew only the +Bible; of Greek, Latin, and mediaeval, no more than the translation of +Aesop's Fables; of English, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The +traditions of George Fox and William Penn passed to him dimly along +the lines of two centuries through his ancestors, who were Quakers. +</P> + +<P> +Otherwise his education was altogether American. The Declaration of +Independence was his compendium of political wisdom, the Life of +Washington his constant study, and something of Jefferson and Madison +reached him through Henry Clay, whom he honored from boyhood. For the +rest, from day to day, he lived the life of the American people, walked +in its light, reasoned with its reason, thought with its power of +thought, felt the beatings of its mighty heart, and so was in every way +a child of nature, a child of the West, a child of America. +</P> + +<P> +At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition to get on in the world, he +engaged himself to go down the Mississippi in a flatboat, receiving ten +dollars a month for his wages, and afterwards he made the trip once +more. At twenty-one he drove his father's cattle, as the family +migrated to Illinois, and split rails to fence in the new homestead in +the wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of volunteers in the Black +Hawk war. He kept a store. He learned something of surveying, but of +English literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shakspeare's plays. +At twenty-five he was elected to the legislature of Illinois, where he +served eight years. At twenty-seven he was admitted to the bar. In 1837 +he chose his home at Springfield, the beautiful centre of the richest +land in the State. In 1847 he was a member of the national Congress, +where he voted about forty times in favor of the principle of the +Jefferson proviso. In 1849 he sought, eagerly but unsuccessfully, the +place of Commissioner of the Land Office, and he refused an appointment +that would have transferred his residence to Oregon. In 1854 he gave +his influence to elect from Illinois, to the American Senate, a +Democrat, who would certainly do justice to Kansas. In 1858, as the +rival of Douglas, he went before the people of the mighty Prairie +State, saying, "This Union cannot permanently endure half slave and +half free; the Union will not be dissolved, but the house will cease to +be divided;" and now, in 1861, with no experience whatever as an +executive officer, while States were madly flying from their orbit, and +wise men knew not where to find counsel, this descendant of Quakers, +this pupil of Bunyan, this offspring of the great West, was elected +President of America. +</P> + +<P> +He measured the difficulty of the duty that devolved upon him, and was +resolved to fulfil it. As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he left +Springfield, which for a quarter of a century had been his happy home, +to the crowd of his friends and neighbors, whom he was never more to +meet, he spoke a solemn farewell: "I know not how soon I shall see you +again. A duty has devolved upon me, greater than that which has +devolved upon any other man since Washington. He never would have +succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at +all times relied. On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray +that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot +succeed, but with which success is certain." To the men of Indiana he +said: "I am but an accidental, temporary instrument; it is your +business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty." At the capital +of Ohio he said: "Without a name, without a reason why I should have a +name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even upon +the Father of his country." At various places in New York, especially +at Albany, before the legislature, which tendered him the united +support of the great Empire State, he said: "While I hold myself the +humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elevated to the +Presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any of them. I +bring a true heart to the work. I must rely upon the people of the +whole country for support, and with their sustaining aid even I, humble +as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship of state safely through the +storm." To the assembly of New Jersey, at Trenton, he explained: "I +shall take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the +West, the South, and the whole country, in good temper, certainly with +no malice to any section. I am devoted to peace, but it may be +necessary to put the foot down firmly." In the old Independence Hall, +of Philadelphia, he said: "I have never had a feeling politically that +did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence, which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this +country, but to the world in all future time. If the country cannot be +saved without giving up that principle, I would rather be assassinated +on the spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am +willing to live and die by." +</P> + +<P> +Travelling in the dead of night to escape assassination, LINCOLN +arrived at Washington nine days before his inauguration. The outgoing +President, at the opening of the session of Congress, had still kept as +the majority of his advisers men engaged in treason; had declared that +in case of even an "imaginary" apprehension of danger from notions of +freedom among the slaves, "disunion would become inevitable." LINCOLN +and others had questioned the opinion of Taney; such impugning he +ascribed to the "factious temper of the times." The favorite doctrine +of the majority of the Democratic party on the power of a territorial +legislature over slavery he condemned as an attack on "the sacred +rights of property." The State legislatures, he insisted, must repeal +what he called "their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments," and +which, if such, were "null and void," or "it would be impossible for +any human power to save the Union." Nay! if these unimportant acts were +not repealed, "the injured States would be justified in revolutionary +resistance to the government of the Union." He maintained that no State +might secede at its sovereign will and pleasure; that the Union was +meant for perpetuity, and that Congress might attempt to preserve it, +but only by conciliation; that "the sword was not placed in their hands +to preserve it by force;" that "the last desperate remedy of a +despairing people" would be "an explanatory amendment recognising the +decision of the Supreme Court of the United States." The American Union +he called "a confederacy" of States, and he thought it a duty to make +the appeal for the amendment "before any of these States should +separate themselves from the Union." The views of the Lieutenant +General, containing some patriotic advice, "conceded the right of +secession," pronounced a quadruple rupture of the Union "a smaller evil +than the reuniting of the fragments by the sword," and "eschewed the +idea of invading a seceded State." After changes in the Cabinet, the +President informed Congress that "matters were still worse;" that "the +South suffered serious grievances," which should be redressed "in +peace." The day after this message the flag of the Union was fired upon +from Fort Morris, and the insult was not revenged or noticed. Senators +in Congress telegraphed to their constituents to seize the national +forts, and they were not arrested. The finances of the country were +grievously embarrassed. Its little army was not within reach; the part +of it in Texas, with all its stores, was made over by its commander to +rebels. One State after another voted in convention to secede. A peace +congress, so called, met at the request of Virginia, to concert the +terms of a capitulation which should secure permission for the +continuance of the Union. Congress, in both branches, sought to devise +conciliatory expedients; the Territories of the country were organized +in a manner not to conflict with any pretensions of the South, or any +decision of the Supreme Court; and, nevertheless, the representatives +of the rebellion formed at Montgomery a provisional government, and +pursued their relentless purpose with such success that the Lieutenant +General feared the city of Washington might find itself "included in a +foreign country," and proposed, among the options for the consideration +of LINCOLN, to bid the wayward States "depart in peace." The great +republic appeared to have its emblem in the vast unfinished Capitol, at +that moment surrounded by masses of stone and prostrate columns never +yet lifted into their places, seemingly the monument of high but +delusive aspirations, the confused wreck of inchoate magnificence, +sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or Athens. +</P> + +<P> +The fourth of March came. With instinctive wisdom the new President, +speaking to the people on taking the oath of office, put aside every +question that divided the country, and gained a right to universal +support by planting himself on the single idea of Union. The Union he +declared to be unbroken and perpetual, and he announced his +determination to fulfil "the simple duty of taking care that the laws +be faithfully executed in all the States." Seven days later, the +convention of Confederate States unanimously adopted a constitution of +their own, and the new government was authoritatively announced to be +founded on the idea that the negro race is a slave race; that slavery +is its natural and normal condition. The issue was made up, whether the +great republic was to maintain its providential place in the history of +mankind, or a rebellion founded on negro slavery gain a recognition of +its principle throughout the civilized world. To the disaffected +LINCOLN had said, "You can have no conflict without being yourselves +the aggressors." To fire the passions of the southern portion of the +people, the confederate government chose to become aggressors, and, on +the morning of the twelfth of April, began the bombardment of Fort +Sumter, and compelled its evacuation. +</P> + +<P> +It is the glory of the late President that he had perfect faith in the +perpetuity of the Union. Supported in advance by Douglas, who spoke as +with the voice of a million, he instantly called a meeting of Congress, +and summoned the people to come up and repossess the forts, places, and +property which had been seized from the Union. The men of the north +were trained in schools; industrious and frugal; many of them +delicately bred, their minds teeming with ideas and fertile in plans of +enterprise; given to the culture of the arts; eager in the pursuit of +wealth, yet employing wealth less for ostentation than for developing +the resources of their country; seeking happiness in the calm of +domestic life; and such lovers of peace, that for generations they had +been reputed unwarlike. Now, at the cry of their country in its +distress, they rose up with unappeasable patriotism; not hirelings—the +purest and of the best blood in the land. Sons of a pious ancestry, +with a clear perception of duty, unclouded faith and fixed resolve to +succeed, they thronged around the President, to support the wronged, +the beautiful flag of the nation. The halls of theological seminaries +sent forth their young men, whose lips were touched with eloquence, +whose hearts kindled with devotion, to serve in the ranks, and make +their way to command only as they learned the art of war. Striplings in +the colleges, as well the most gentle and the most studious, those of +sweetest temper and loveliest character and brightest genius, passed +from their classes to the camp. The lumbermen from the forests, the +mechanics from their benches, where they had been trained, by the +exercise of political rights, to share the life and hope of the +republic, to feel their responsibility to their forefathers, their +posterity and mankind, went to the front, resolved that their dignity, +as a constituent part of this republic, should not be impaired. Farmers +and sons of farmers left the land but half ploughed, the grain but half +planted, and, taking up the musket, learned to face without fear the +presence of peril and the corning of death in the shocks of war, while +their hearts were still attracted to their herds and fields, and all +the tender affections of home. Whatever there was of truth and faith +and public love in the common heart, broke out with one expression. The +mighty winds blew from every quarter, to fan the flame of the sacred +and unquenchable fire. +</P> + +<P> +For a time the war was thought to be confined to our own domestic +affairs, but it was soon seen that it involved the destinies of +mankind; its principles and causes shook the politics of Europe to the +centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the governments of the world. +</P> + +<P> +There was a kingdom whose people had in an eminent degree attained to +freedom of industry and the security of person and property. Its middle +class rose to greatness. Out of that class sprung the noblest poets and +philosophers, whose words built up the intellect of its people; skilful +navigators, to find out for its merchants the many paths of the oceans; +discoverers in natural science, whose inventions guided its industry to +wealth, till it equalled any nation of the world in letters, and +excelled all in trade and commerce. But its government was become a +government of land, and not of men; every blade of grass was +represented, but only a small minority of the people. In the transition +from the feudal forms the heads of the social organization freed +themselves from the military services which were the conditions of +their tenure, and, throwing the burden on the industrial classes, kept +all the soil to themselves. Vast estates that had been managed by +monasteries as endowments for religion and charity were impropriated to +swell the wealth of courtiers and favorites; and the commons, where the +poor man once had his right of pasture, were taken away, and, under +forms of law, enclosed distributively within the domains of the +adjacent landholders. Although no law forbade any inhabitant from +purchasing land, the costliness of the transfer constituted a +prohibition; so that it was the rule of the country that the plough +should not be in the hands of its owner. The church was rested on a +contradiction; claiming to be an embodiment of absolute truth, it was a +creature of the statute-book. +</P> + +<P> +The progress of time increased the terrible contrast between wealth and +poverty. In their years of strength the laboring people, cut off from +all share in governing the state, derived a scant support from the +severest toil, and had no hope for old age but in public charity or +death. A grasping ambition had dotted the world with military posts, +kept watch over our borders on the northeast, at the Bermudas, in the +West Indies, appropriated the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern and +of the Indian ocean, hovered on our northwest at Vancouver, held the +whole of the newest continent, and the entrances to the old +Mediterranean and Red Sea, and garrisoned forts all the way from Madras +to China. That aristocracy had gazed with terror on the growth of a +commonwealth where freeholders existed by the million, and religion was +not in bondage to the state, and now they could not repress their joy +at its perils. They had not one word of sympathy for the kind-hearted +poor man's son whom America had chosen for her chief; they jeered at +his large hands, and long feet, and ungainly stature; and the British +secretary of state for foreign affairs made haste to send word through +the palaces of Europe that the great republic was in its agony; that +the republic was no more; that a headstone was all that remained due by +the law of nations to "the late Union." But it is written, "Let the +dead bury their dead;" they may not bury the living. Let the dead bury +their dead; let a bill of reform remove the worn-out government of a +class, and infuse new life into the British constitution by confiding +rightful power to the people. +</P> + +<P> +But while the vitality of America is indestructible, the British +government hurried to do what never before had been done by Christian +powers; what was in direct conflict with its own exposition of public +law in the time of our struggle for independence. Though the insurgent +States had not a ship in an open harbor, it invested them with all the +rights of a belligerent, even on the ocean; and this, too, when the +rebellion was not only directed against the gentlest and most +beneficent government on earth, without a shadow of justifiable cause, +but when the rebellion was directed against human nature itself for the +perpetual enslavement of a race. And the effect of this recognition +was, that acts in themselves piratical found shelter in British courts +of law. The resources of British capitalists, their workshops, their +armories, their private arsenals, their ship-yards, were in league with +the insurgents, and every British harbor in the wide world became a +safe port for British ships, manned by British sailors, and armed with +British guns, to prey on our peaceful commerce; even on our ships +coming from British ports, freighted with British products, or that had +carried gifts of grain to the English poor. The prime minister, in the +House of Commons, sustained by cheers, scoffed at the thought that +their laws could be amended at our request, so as to preserve real +neutrality; and to remonstrances, now owned to have been just, their +secretary of state answered that they could not change their laws <I>ad +infinitum</I>. +</P> + +<P> +The people of America then wished, as they always have wished, as they +still wish, friendly relations with England, and no man in England or +America can desire it more strongly than I. This country has always +yearned for good relations with England. Thrice only in all its history +has that yearning been fairly met: in the days of Hampden and Cromwell, +again in the first ministry of the elder Pitt, and once again in the +ministry of Shelburne. Not that there have not at all times been just +men among the peers of Britain—like Halifax in the days of James the +Second, or a Granville, an Argyll, or a Houghton in ours; and we cannot +be indifferent to a country that produces statesmen like Cobden and +Bright; but the best bower anchor of peace was the working class of +England, who suffered most from our civil war, but who, while they +broke their diminished bread in sorrow, always encouraged us to +persevere. +</P> + +<P> +The act of recognising the rebel belligerents was concerted with +France—France, so beloved in America, on which she had conferred the +greatest benefits that one people ever conferred on another; France, +which stands foremost on the continent of Europe for the solidity of +her culture, as well as for the bravery and generous impulses of her +sons; France, which for centuries had been moving steadily in her own +way towards intellectual and political freedom. The policy regarding +further colonization of America by European powers, known commonly as +the doctrine of Monroe, had its origin in France, and if it takes any +man's name, should bear the name of Turgot. It was adopted by Louis the +Sixteenth, in the cabinet of which Vergennes was the most important +member. It is emphatically the policy of France, to which, with +transient deviations, the Bourbons, the First Napoleon, the House of +Orleans have adhered. +</P> + +<P> +The late President was perpetually harassed by rumors that the Emperor +Napoleon the Third desired formally to recognise the States in +rebellion as an independent power, and that England held him back by +her reluctance, or France by her traditions of freedom, or he himself +by his own better judgment and clear perception of events. But the +republic of Mexico, on our borders, was, like ourselves, distracted by +a rebellion, and from a similar cause. The monarchy of England had +fastened upon us slavery which did not disappear with independence; in +like manner, the ecclesiastical policy established by the Spanish +council of the Indies, in the days of Charles the Fifth and Philip the +Second, retained its vigor in the Mexican republic. The fifty years of +civil war under which she had languished was due to the bigoted system +which was the legacy of monarchy, just as here the inheritance of +slavery kept alive political strife, and culminated in civil war. As +with us there could be no quiet but through the end of slavery, so in +Mexico there could be no prosperity until the crushing tyranny of +intolerance should cease. The party of slavery in the United States +sent their emissaries to Europe to solicit aid; and so did the party of +the church in Mexico, as organized by the old Spanish council of the +Indies, but with a different result. Just as the Republican party had +made an end of the rebellion, and was establishing the best government +ever known in that region, and giving promise to the nation of order, +peace, and prosperity, word was brought us, in the moment of our +deepest affliction, that the French Emperor, moved by a desire to erect +in North America a buttress for imperialism, would transform the +republic of Mexico into a secundo-geniture for the house of Hapsburg. +America might complain; she could not then interpose, and delay seemed +justifiable. It was seen that Mexico could not, with all its wealth of +land, compete in cereal products with our northwest, nor in tropical +products with Cuba, nor could it, under a disputed dynasty, attract +capital, or create public works, or develop mines, or borrow money; so +that the imperial system of Mexico, which was forced at once to +recognise the wisdom of the policy of the republic by adopting it, +could prove only an unremunerating drain on the French treasury for the +support of an Austrian adventurer. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime a new series of momentous questions grows up, and forces +itself on the consideration of the thoughtful. Republicanism has +learned how to introduce into its constitution every element of order, +as well as every element of freedom; but thus far the continuity of its +government has seemed to depend on the continuity of elections. It is +now to be considered how perpetuity is to be secured against foreign +occupation. The successor of Charles the First of England dated his +reign from the death of his father; the Bourbons, coming back after a +long series of revolutions, claimed that the Louis who became king was +the eighteenth of that name. The present Emperor of the French, +disdaining a title from election alone, calls himself Napoleon the +Third. Shall a republic have less power of continuance when invading +armies prevent a peaceful resort to the ballot-box? What force shall it +attach to intervening legislation? What validity to debts contracted +for its overthrow? These momentous questions are, by the invasion of +Mexico, thrown up for solution. A free state once truly constituted +should be as undying as its people: the republic of Mexico must rise +again. +</P> + +<P> +It was the condition of affairs in Mexico that involved the Pope of +Rome in our difficulties so far that he alone among sovereigns +recognised the chief of the Confederate States as a president, and his +supporters as a people; and in letters to two great prelates of the +Catholic church in the United States gave counsels for peace at a time +when peace meant the victory of secession. Yet events move as they are +ordered. The blessing of the Pope at Rome on the head of Duke +Maximilian could not revive in the nineteenth century the +ecclesiastical policy of the sixteenth, and the result is only a new +proof that there can be no prosperity in the state without religious +freedom. +</P> + +<P> +When it came home to the consciousness of the Americans that the war +which they were waging was a war for the liberty of all the nations of +the world, for freedom itself, they thanked God for giving them +strength to endure the severity of the trial to which He put their +sincerity, and nerved themselves for their duty with an inexorable +will. The President was led along by the greatness of their +self-sacrificing example; and as a child, in a dark night, on a rugged +way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guidance and support, +he clung fast to the hand of the people, and moved calmly through the +gloom. While the statesmanship of Europe was mocking at the hopeless +vanity of their efforts, they put forth such miracles of energy as the +history of the world had never known. The contributions to the popular +loans amounted in four years to twenty-seven and a half hundred +millions of dollars; the revenue of the country from taxation was +increased seven-fold. The navy of the United States, drawing into the +public service the willing militia of the seas, doubled its tonnage in +eight months, and established an actual blockade from Cape Hatteras to +the Rio Grande; in the course of the war it was increased five-fold in +men and in tonnage, while the inventive genius of the country devised +more effective kinds of ordnance, and new forms of naval architecture +in wood and iron. There went into the field, for various terms of +enlistment, about two million men, and in March last the men in the +army exceeded a million: that is to say, nine of every twenty +able-bodied men in the free Territories and States took some part in +the war; and at one time every fifth of their able-bodied men was in +service. In one single month one hundred and sixty-five thousand men +were recruited into service. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized +and placed in the field forty-two regiments of infantry—nearly +thirty-six thousand men; and Ohio was like other States in the east and +in the west. The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four thousand; of +horses and mules there were bought, from first to last, two-thirds of a +million. In the movements of troops science came in aid of patriotism, +so that, to choose a single instance out of many, an army twenty-three +thousand strong, with its artillery, trains, baggage, and animals, were +moved by rail from the Potomac to the Tennessee, twelve hundred miles, +in seven days. On the long marches, wonders of military construction +bridged the rivers, and wherever an army halted, ample supplies awaited +them at their ever-changing base. The vile thought that life is the +greatest of blessings did not rise up. In six hundred and twenty-five +battles and severe skirmishes blood flowed like water. It streamed over +the grassy plains; it stained the rocks; the undergrowth of the forests +was red with it; and the armies marched on with majestic courage from +one conflict to another, knowing that they were fighting for God and +liberty. The organization of the medical department met its infinitely +multiplied duties with exactness and despatch. At the news of a battle; +the best surgeons of our cities hastened to the field, to offer the +untiring aid of the greatest experience and skill. The gentlest and +most refined of women left homes of luxury and ease to build hospital +tents near the armies, and serve as nurses to the sick and dying. +Beside the large supply of religious teachers by the public, the +congregations spared to their brothers in the field the ablest +ministers. The Christian Commission, which expended more than six and a +quarter millions, sent nearly five thousand clergymen, chosen out of +the best, to keep unsoiled the religious character of the men, and made +gifts of clothes and food and medicine. The organization of private +charity assumed unheard-of dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, which +had seven thousand societies, distributed, under the direction of an +unpaid board, spontaneous contributions to the amount of fifteen +millions in supplies or money—a million and a half in money from +California alone—and dotted the scene of war, from Paducah to Port +Royal, from Belle Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes +and lodges. +</P> + +<P> +The country had for its allies the river Mississippi, which would not +be divided, and the range of mountains which carried the stronghold of +the free through Western Virginia and Kentucky and Tennessee to the +highlands of Alabama. But it invoked the still higher power of immortal +justice. In ancient Greece, where servitude was the universal custom, +it was held that if a child were to strike its parent, the slave should +defend the parent, and by that act recover his freedom. After vain +resistance, LINCOLN, who had tried to solve the question by gradual +emancipation, by colonization, and by compensation, at last saw that +slavery must be abolished, or the republic must die; and on the first +day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the banners of the armies. +When this proclamation, which struck the fetters from three millions of +slaves, reached Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of Milton and +Wilberforce, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in the name of +mankind, saying: "It is of a very strange nature;" "a measure of war of +a very questionable kind;" an act "of vengeance on the slave owner," +that does no more than "profess to emancipate slaves where the United +States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality." Now there was +no part of the country embraced in the proclamation where the United +States could not and did not make emancipation a reality. +</P> + +<P> +Those who saw LINCOLN most frequently had never before heard him speak +with bitterness of any human being, but he did not conceal how keenly +he felt that he had been wronged by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in +reply to other cavils: "The emancipation policy and the use of colored +troops were the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion; the job was +a great national one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable +part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; then will +there be some black men who can remember that they have helped mankind +to this great consummation." +</P> + +<P> +The proclamation accomplished its end, for, during the war, our armies +came into military possession of every State in rebellion. Then, too, +was called forth the new power that comes from the simultaneous +diffusion of thought and feeling among the nations of mankind. The +mysterious sympathy of the millions throughout the world was given +spontaneously. The best writers of Europe waked the conscience of the +thoughtful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old World was +drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. Russia, +whose emperor had just accomplished one of the grandest acts in the +course of time, by raising twenty millions of bondmen into freeholders, +and thus assuring the growth and culture of a Russian people, remained +our unwavering friend. From the oldest abode of civilization, which +gave the first example of an imperial government with equality among +the people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, +remembered the saying of Confucius, that we should not do to others +what we would not that others should do to us, and, in the name of his +emperor, read a lesson to European diplomatists by closing the ports of +China against the war-ships and privateers of "the seditious." +</P> + +<P> +The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for anxious +spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on LINCOLN, and his face was +ploughed with the furrows of thought and sadness. With malice towards +none, free from the spirit of revenge, victory made him importunate for +peace, and his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his +abounding clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but +not unless the freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand +battles of Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, Malvern Hill, Antietam, +Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia, Winchester, Nashville, the +capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher, the march from +Atlanta, and the capture of Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the +issue. Still more, the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the +continent; of Maryland, whose sons never heard the midnight bells chime +so sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by the voice +of her own people, she took her place among the free; of Tennessee, +which passed through fire and blood, through sorrows and the shadow of +death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the faithfulness of her +own sons to renew her youth like the eagle—proved that victory was +deserved, and would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy, +uttered as they were by LINCOLN on the waters of Virginia, were +defiantly repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will, +went as the arrow to its mark, and, without a feeling of revenge, +struck a deathblow at rebellion. +</P> + +<P> +Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief Magistrate possessed more +sources of consolation and joy than LINCOLN? His countrymen had shown +their love by choosing him to a second term of service. The raging war +that had divided the country had lulled, and private grief was hushed +by the grandeur of the result. The nation had its new birth of freedom, +soon to be secured forever by an amendment of the Constitution. His +persistent gentleness had conquered for him a kindlier feeling on the +part of the South. His scoffers among the grandees of Europe began to +do him honor. The laboring classes everywhere saw in his advancement +their own. All peoples sent him their benedictions. And at this moment +of the height of his fame, to which his humility and modesty added +charms, he fell by the hand of the assassin, and the only triumph +awarded him was the march to the grave. +</P> + +<P> +This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and ashes; that we +mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a +thing were man if there were not that within him which is higher than +himself; if he could not master the illusions of sense, and discern the +connexions of events by a superior light which comes from God! He so +shares the divine impulses that he has power to subject interested +passions to love of country, and personal ambition to the ennoblement +of his kind. Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has helped to make +this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of +humanity. The heroes who led our armies and ships into battle and fell +in the service—Lyon, McPherson, Reynolds, Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Foote, +Ward, with their compeers—did not die in vain; they and the myriads of +nameless martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, gave up their lives +willingly "that government of the people, by the people, and for the +people, shall not perish from the earth." +</P> + +<P> +The assassination of LINCOLN, who was so free from malice, has, by some +mysterious influence, struck the country with solemn awe, and hushed, +instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. It seems as if the just +had died for the unjust. When I think of the friends I have lost in +this war—and every one who hears me has, like myself, lost some of +those whom he most loved—there is no consolation to be derived from +victims on the scaffold, or from anything but the established union of +the regenerated nation. +</P> + +<P> +In his character LINCOLN was through and through an American. He is the +first native of the region west of the Alleghanies to attain to the +highest station; and how happy it is that the man who was brought +forward as the natural outgrowth and first fruits of that region should +have been of unblemished purity in private life, a good son, a kind +husband, a most affectionate father, and, as a man, so gentle to all. +As to integrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him: "Lincoln is the +honestest man I ever knew." +</P> + +<P> +The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward thought, +rather than of action. He delighted to express his opinions by an +apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by a story. +He was skilful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea +on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it +by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would be +intelligible to all. He excelled in logical statement more than in +executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judgment was +good, and his purposes were fixed; but, like the Hamlet of his only +poet, his will was tardy in action, and, for this reason, and not from +humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty +which devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of another. +</P> + +<P> +LINCOLN gained a name by discussing questions which, of all others, +most easily lead to fanaticism; but he was never carried away by +enthusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant language, never +hurried to support extreme measures, never allowed himself to be +controlled by sudden impulses. During the progress of the election at +which he was chosen President he expressed no opinion that went beyond +the Jefferson proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had +faith in the intuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with +rare sagacity. He knew how to bide time, and was less apt to run ahead +of public thought than to lag behind. He never sought to electrify the +community by taking an advanced position with a banner of opinion, but +rather studied to move forward compactly, exposing no detachment in +front or rear; so that the course of his administration might have been +explained as the calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful +politician, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle +which from the first determined his purpose, and grew more intense with +every year, consuming his life by its energy. Yet his sensibilities +were not acute; he had no vividness of imagination to picture to his +mind the horrors of the battle-field or the sufferings in hospitals; +his conscience was more tender than his feelings. +</P> + +<P> +LINCOLN was one of the most unassuming of men. In time of success, he +gave credit for it to those whom he employed, to the people, and to the +Providence of God. He did not know what ostentation is; when he became +President he was rather saddened than elated, and his conduct and +manners showed more than ever his belief that all men are born equal. +He was no respecter of persons, and neither rank, nor reputation, nor +services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in +discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but he readily +deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the head of the armies he +followed the manifest preference of Congress. +</P> + +<P> +A good President will secure unity to his administration by his own +supervision of the various departments. LINCOLN, who accepted advice +readily, was never governed by any member of his cabinet, and could not +be moved from a purpose deliberately formed; but his supervision of +affairs was unsteady and incomplete, and sometimes, by a sudden +interference transcending the usual forms, he rather confused than +advanced the public business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous +regard due to the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently +without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be +established. Truth he would receive from any one, but when impressed by +others, he did not use their opinions till, by reflection, he had made +them thoroughly his own. +</P> + +<P> +It was the nature of LINCOLN to forgive. When hostilities ceased, he, +who had always sent forth the flag with every one of its stars in the +field, was eager to receive back his returning countrymen, and +meditated "some new announcement to the South." The amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery had his most earnest and unwearied +support. During the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from his +privately suggesting to Louisiana, that "in defining the franchise some +of the colored people might be let in," saying: "They would probably +help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the +family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed himself "not in favor of" what he +improperly called "negro citizenship," for the Constitution +discriminates between citizens and electors. Three days before his +death he declared his preference that "the elective franchise were now +conferred on the very intelligent of the colored men, and on those of +them who served our cause as soldiers;" but he wished it done by the +States themselves, and he never harbored the thought of exacting it +from a new government, as a condition of its recognition. +</P> + +<P> +The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent, by the +Speaker of this House, his friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky +mountains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the return of +hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruitful industry; as he welcomed +in advance hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his eye +kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the nation. And so, +with these thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and +temptations of this life, and was at peace. +</P> + +<P> +Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave when the +prime minister of England died, full of years and honors. Palmerston +traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LINCOLN went back only +to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the best +scholars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge; LINCOLN'S early teachers +were the silent forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars. +Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; LINCOLN for but a tenth +of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established +aristocracy; LINCOLN a leader, or rather a companion, of the people. +Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the +House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth; +LINCOLN thought always of mankind, as well as his own country, and +served human nature itself. Palmerston, from his narrowness as an +Englishman, did not endear his country to any one court or to any one +nation, but rather caused general uneasiness and dislike; LINCOLN left +America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston +was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the conflicting factions +of the aristocracy; LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise +himself on the ever-moving opinions of the masses. Palmerston was +capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the sense of honor, not +heedful of right; +</P> + +<P> +LINCOLN rejected counsel given only as a matter of policy, and was not +capable of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial, +delighted in banter, and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful +levity; LINCOLN was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest +earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the +aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the +conscience of humanity, but the House of Commons; LINCOLN took to heart +the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of +Providence, and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity. +Palmerston did nothing that will endure; LINCOLN finished a work which +all time cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the +ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of +institutions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the +great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in +Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was attended by the +British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a few years, will hardly +be noticed by the side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; LINCOLN was +followed by tho sorrow of his country across the continent to his +resting place in the heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered +through all time by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world. +</P> + +<P> +As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised the flag; the American +people was the hero of the war; and, therefore, the result is a new era +of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of +anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system +of hereditary wrong; and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens +to the renovated nation a career of unthought-of dignity and glory. +Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor. The +party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and are +merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would have +left us are not brought back as subjugated States, for then we should +hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained; they come +to their rightful place under the Constitution as original, necessary, +and inseparable members of the Union. +</P> + +<P> +We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We respect +the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, raised +emblems of triumph. And our generals are not to be classed in the herd +of vulgar warriors, but are of the school of Timoleon, and William of +Nassau, and Washington. They have used the sword only to give peace to +their country and restore her to her place in the great assembly of the +nations. +</P> + +<P> +SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of America: as I bid you farewell, my last +words shall be words of hope and confidence; for now slavery is no +more, the Union is restored, a people begins to live according to the +laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +APPENDIX. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<P> +ABRAHAM LINCOLN was assassinated at 10.30 p.m. on the 14th of April, +1865, and died at 7.20 a.m. the next day. Congress was not in session, +but a large number of members hastened to the Capitol on the receipt of +the startling intelligence, and on the 17th a card was published by +Senator Foot, inviting those Senators and Representatives who might be +in the city the next day to meet at the Capitol, to consider what +action they would take in relation to the funeral ceremonies. +</P> + +<P> +The members of the 39th Congress then in Washington met in the Senate +reception room, at the Capitol, on the 17th of April, 1865, at noon. +Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER of Connecticut, President <I>pro tem.</I> of the +Senate, was called to the chair, and the Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX of +Indiana, Speaker of the House in the 38th Congress, was chosen +secretary. +</P> + +<P> +Senator FOOT, of Vermont, who was visibly affected, stated that the +object of the meeting was to make arrangements relative to the funeral +of the deceased President of the United States. +</P> + +<P> +On motion of Senator SUMNER, of Massachusetts, a committee of four +members from each house was ordered to report at 4 p.m., what action +would be fitting for the meeting to take. The Chairman appointed +Senators Sumner of Massachusetts, Harris of New York, Johnson of +Maryland, Ramsey of Minnesota, and Conness of California, and +Representatives Washburne of Illinois, Smith of Kentucky, Schenck of +Ohio, Pike of Maine, and Coffroth of Pennsylvania; and on motion of Mr. +Schenck, the Chairman and Secretary of the meeting were added to the +Committee, and then the meeting adjourned until 4 p.m. +</P> + +<P> +The meeting re-assembled at 4 p.m., pursuant to adjournment. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. SUMNER, from the Committee heretofore appointed, reported that they +had selected as pall-bearers on the part of the Senate: Mr. Foster of +Connecticut; Mr. Morgan of New York; Mr. Johnson of Maryland; Mr. Yates +of Illinois; Mr. Wade of Ohio, and Mr. Conness of California. On the +part of the House: Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts; Mr. Coffroth of +Pennsylvania; Mr. Smith of Kentucky; Mr. Colfax of Indiana; Mr. +Worthington of Nevada, and Mr. Washburne of Illinois. They also +recommended the appointment of one member of Congress from each State +and Territory to act as a Congressional Committee to accompany the +remains of the late President to Illinois, and presented the following +names as such Committee, the Chairman of the meeting to have the +authority of appointing hereafter for the States and Territories not +represented to-day from which members may be present at the Capitol by +the day of the funeral: +</P> + +<P> +Maine, Mr. Pike; New Hampshire, Mr. E. H. Rollins; Vermont, Mr. Foot; +Massachusetts, Mr. Sumner; Rhode Island, Mr. Anthony; Connecticut, Mr. +Dixon; New York, Mr. Harris Pennsylvania, Mr. Cowan; Ohio, Mr. +Schenck; Kentucky, Mr. Smith; Indiana, Mr. Julian; Illinois, the +delegation; Michigan, Mr. Chandler; Iowa, Mr. Harlan; California, Mr. +Shannon; Minnesota, Mr. Ramsey; Oregon, Mr. Williams; Kansas, Mr. S. +Clarke; West Virginia, Mr. Whaley; Nevada, Mr. Nye; Nebraska, Mr. +Hitchcock; Colorado, Mr. Bradford; Dakota, Mr. Todd; Idaho, Mr. Wallace. +</P> + +<P> +The Committee also recommended the adoption of the following resolution: +</P> + +<P> +<I>Resolved,</I> That the Sergeants-at-Arms of the Senate and House +with their necessary assistants be requested to attend the Committee +accompanying the remains of the late President, and to make all the +necessary arrangements. +</P> + +<P> +All of which was concurred in unanimously. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. SUMNER from the same Committee also reported the following, which +was unanimously agreed to: +</P> + +<P> +The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in +Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God who +rules all that is done for human good, make haste, at this informal +meeting, to express the emotions with which they have been filled by +the appalling tragedy which has deprived the Nation of its head and +covered the land with mourning; and in further declaration of their +sentiments unanimously resolve: +</P> + +<P> +1. That in testimony of their veneration and affection for the +illustrious dead, who has been permitted under Providence to do so much +for his country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral +services, and by an appropriate Committee will accompany his remains to +their place of burial in the State from which he was taken for the +national service. +</P> + +<P> +2. That in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who, by the benignant favor of +Republican institutions, rose from humble beginnings to the heights of +power and fame, they recognize an example of purity, simplicity and +virtue, which should be a lesson, to mankind; while in his death they +recognize a martyr, whose memory will become more precious as men learn +to prize those principles of constitutional order and those rights, +civil, political, and human, for which he was made a sacrifice. +</P> + +<P> +3. That they invite the President of the United States, by solemn +proclamation, to recommend to the people of the United States to +assemble on a day to be appointed by him, publicly to testify their +grief, and to dwell on the good which has been done on earth by him +whom we now mourn. +</P> + +<P> +4. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to the President of +the United States; and also, that a copy be communicated to the +afflicted widow of the late President, as an expression of sympathy in +her great bereavement. +</P> + +<P> +The meeting then adjourned. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="20%"> + +<P> +The funeral ceremonies took place in the East room of the Executive +Mansion, at noon, on the 19th of April, and the remains were then +escorted to the Capitol, where they lay in state in the rotundo. +</P> + +<P> +On the morning of April 21, the remains were taken from the Capitol and +placed in a funeral car, in which they were taken to Springfield, +Illinois, accompanied by the Congressional Committee. Halting at the +principal cities along the route, that appropriate honors might be paid +to the deceased, the funeral cortege arrived on the 3d of May at +Springfield, Illinois, and the next day the remains were deposited in +Oak Ridge cemetery near that city. +</P> + +<P> +President JOHNSON, in his annual message to Congress at the +commencement of the session of 1865-'66, thus announced the death of +his predecessor: +</P> + +<P> +"To express gratitude to God, in the name of the people, for the +preservation of the United States, is my first duty in addressing you. +Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act +of parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh; it finds +some solace in the consideration that-he lived to enjoy the highest +proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief +Magistracy to which he had been elected that he brought the civil war +substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of +the Union; and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his +memory." +</P> + +<P> +Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, immediately after the President's +message had been read in the House of Representatives, offered the +following wing joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted: +</P> + +<P> +<I>Resolved,</I> That a committee of one member from each State represented +in this House be appointed on the part of this House, to join such +committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider +and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for +the Congress of the United States to express tho deep sensibility of +the nation to the event of the decease of their late President, Abraham +Lincoln, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to +that melancholy event be referred to said committee. +</P> + +<P> +On motion of Hon. SOLOMON FOOT, the Senate unanimously concurred in the +passage of the resolution, and the following joint committee was +appointed—thirteen on the part of the Senate and one for every State +represented (twenty-four) on the part of the House of Representatives: +</P> + + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="50%"> +SENATE. +<BR><BR> + Hon. Solomon Foot, Vt.<BR> + Hon. Richard Yates, Ill.<BR> + Hon. Benj. F. Wade, Ohio.<BR> + Hon. Wm. Pitt Fessenden, Me.<BR> + Hon. Henry Wilson, Mass.<BR> + Hon. James R. Doolittle, Wis.<BR> + Hon. Jas. H. Lane, Ka.<BR> + Hon. Ira Harris, N.Y.<BR> + Hon. Jas. W. Nesmith, Oregon.<BR> + Hon. Henry S. Lane, Ind.<BR> + Hon. Waitman T. Willey, W. Va.<BR> + Hon. Chas. R. Buckalew, Pa.<BR> + Hon. John B. Henderson, Mo.<BR> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="50%"> +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. +<BR><BR> + Hon. Ellihu B. Washburne, Ill.<BR> + Hon. James G. Blaine, Me.<BR> + Hon. James W. Patterson, N. H.<BR> + Hon. Justin S. Morrill, Vt.<BR> + Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Mass.<BR> + Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, R. I.<BR> + Hon. Henry C. Deming, Ct.<BR> + Hon. John A. Griswold, N.Y.<BR> + Hon. Edwin R. V. Wright, N.J.<BR> + Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Pa.<BR> + Hon. John A. Nicholson, Del.<BR> + Hon. Francis Thomas, Md.<BR> + Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Ohio.<BR> + Hon. George S. Shanklin, Ky.<BR> + Hon. Godlove S. Orth, Ind.<BR> + Hon. Joseph W. McClurg, Mo.<BR> + Hon. Fernando C. Beaman, Mich.<BR> + Hon. John A. Kasson, Iowa.<BR> + Hon. Ithamar C. Sloan, Wis.<BR> + Hon. William Higby, Cal.<BR> + Hon. William Windom, Minn.<BR> + Hon. J. H. D. Henderson, Oregon.<BR> + Hon. Sidney Clarke, Kansas.<BR> + Hon. Kellian V. Whaley, W. Va.<BR> +</TD> +</TR> +</TABLE> + +<P> +That committee, by Hon. Mr. FOOT, made the following report, which was +concurred in by both Houses <I>nem. con.</I> +</P> + +<P> +Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of Abraham +Lincoln, late President of the United States, having occurred during +the recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief +and desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of the +public bereavement: Therefore, +</P> + +<P> +<I>Be it resolved by the Senate,</I> (the House of Representatives +concurring,) That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the Hall +of the House of Representatives, on Monday, the 12th day of February +next, that being his anniversary birthday, at the hour of twelve +meridian, and that, in the presence of the two Houses there assembled, +an address upon the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, late +President of the United States, be pronounced by Hon. Edwin M. Stanton; +and that the President of the Senate <I>pro tempore</I> and the Speaker of +the House of Representatives be requested to invite the President of +the United States, the heads of the several Departments, the judges of +the Supreme Court, the representatives of the foreign governments near +this Government, and such officers of the army and navy as have +received the thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of +Government, to be present on the occasion. +</P> + +<P> +<I>And be it further resolved,</I> That the President of the United States +be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Lincoln, +and to assure her of the profound sympathy of the two Houses of +Congress for her deep personal affliction, and of their sincere +condolence for the late national bereavement. +</P> + +<P> +The Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT of New York, in response to an invitation from +the joint committee, consented to deliver the address, (Mr. Stanton +having previously declined.) +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="20%"> + +<P> +On the morning of the 12th of February, 1865, the Capitol was closed to +all except the members of Congress. At ten o'clock the doors leading to +the rotundo were opened to those to whom tickets of admission had been +extended, and the spacious galleries of the House of Representatives +were soon crowded. The Speaker's desk was draped in mourning, and +chairs were placed upon the floor for the invited guests. +</P> + +<P> +At 12.30 p.m., the members of the Senate, following their President +<I>pro tempore</I> and their Secretary, and preceded by their +Sergeant-at-Arms, entered the Hall of the House of Representatives and +occupied the seats reserved for them on the right and left of the main +aisle. +</P> + +<P> +The President <I>pro tempore</I> occupied the Speaker's chair, the Speaker +of the House sitting at his left. The Chaplains of the Senate and of +the House were seated on the right and left of the Presiding Officers +of their respective Houses. +</P> + +<P> +Shortly afterward the President of the United States, with the members +of his Cabinet, entered the Hall and occupied seats, the President in +front of the Speaker's table, and his Cabinet immediately on his right. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately after the entrance of the President, the Chief Justice and +the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States +entered the Hall and occupied seats next to the President, on the right +of the Speaker's table. +</P> + +<P> +The others present were seated as follows: +</P> + +<P> +The Heads of Departments, with the Diplomatic Corps, next to the +President, on the left of the Speaker's table; +</P> + +<P> +Officers of the Army and Navy, who, by name, have received the thanks +of Congress, next to the Supreme Court, on the right of the Speaker's +table; +</P> + +<P> +Assistant Heads of Departments, Governors of States and Territories, +and the Mayors of Washington and Georgetown, directly in the rear of +the Heads of Departments; +</P> + +<P> +The Chief Justice and Judges of the Court of Claims, and the Chief +Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the District of +Columbia, directly in the rear of the Supreme Court; +</P> + +<P> +The Heads of Bureaus in the Departments, directly in the rear of the +officers of the Army and Navy; +</P> + +<P> +Representatives on either side of the Hall, in the rear of those +invited, four rows of seats on either side of the main aisles being +reserved for Senators; +</P> + +<P> +The Orator of the day, Hon. George Bancroft, at the table of the Clerk +of the House; +</P> + +<P> +The Chairmen of the Joint Committee of Arrangements, at the right and +left of the orator, and next to them the Secretary of the Senate and +the Clerk of the House; +</P> + +<P> +The other officers of the Senate and of the House, on the floor at the +right and the left of the Speaker's platform. +</P> + +<P> +When order was restored, at twelve o'clock and twenty minutes p.m., the +Marine band, stationed in the vestibule, played appropriate dirges. +</P> + +<P> +Hon. LAFAYETE S. FOSTER, President <I>pro tempore</I> of the Senate, called +the two Houses of Congress to order at 12.30. +</P> + +<P> +Rev. DR. BOYNTON, Chaplain of the House, offered the following prayer: +</P> + +<P> +Almighty God, who dost inhabit eternity, while we appear but for a +little moment and then vanish away, we adore The Eternal Name. Infinite +in power and majesty, and greatly to be feared art Thou. All earthly +distinctions disappear in Thy presence, and we come before Thy throne +simply as men, fallen men, condemned alike by Thy law, and justly cut +off through sin from communion with Thee. But through Thy infinite +mercy, a new way of access has been opened through Thy Son, and +consecrated by His blood. We come, in that all-worthy Name, and plead +the promise of pardon and acceptance through Him. By the imposing +solemnities of this scene we are carried back to the hour when the +nation heard, and shuddered at the hearing, that Abraham Lincoln was +dead—was murdered. We would bow ourselves submissively to Him by whom +that awful hour was appointed. We bow to the stroke that fell on the +country in the very hour of its triumph, and hushed all its shouts of +victory to one voiceless sorrow. "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken +away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." The shadow of that death has +not yet passed from the heart of the nation, as this national +testimonial bears witness to-day. The gloom thrown from these +surrounding emblems of death is fringed, we know, with the glory of a +great triumph, and the light of a great and good man's memory. Still, O +Lord, may this hour bring to us the proper warning! "Be ye also ready; +for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." Any one of +us may be called as suddenly as he whom we mourn. +</P> + +<P> +We worship Thee as the God of our fathers. Thou didst trace for them a +path over the trackless sea, and bring them to these shores, bearing +with them the seed of a great dominion. We thank Thee that the +life-power of the young nation they planted, received from Thee such +energy, guidance, and protection, that it spread rapidly over the +breadth of the continent, carrying with it Christian liberty, churches, +schools, and all the blessings of a Christian civilization. We thank +Thee that the progress of the true American life has been irresistible, +because sustained by Thy eternal counsels and Thy almighty power, and +because the might of God was in this national life. We have seen it +sweeping all opposition away, grinding great systems and parties to +powder, and breaking in pieces the devices of men; and Thou hast raised +up for it heroic defenders in every hour of peril. We thank Thee, O +Strong Defender! And when treason was hatching its plot and massing its +armies, then, O God of Israel, who didst bring David from the +sheepfold, Thou gavest one reared in the humble cabin to become the +hope and stay of this great people in their most perilous hour, to +shield them in disaster and lead them to final victory. +</P> + +<P> +We thank Thee that Thou gavest us an honest man, simple-hearted and +loving as a child, but with a rugged strength that needed only culture +and discipline. Thanks be to God that this discipline was granted him +through stern public trial, domestic sorrow, and Thy solemn +providences, till the mere politician was overshadowed by the nobler +growth of his moral and spiritual nature, till he came, as we believe, +into sympathy with Christ, and saw that we could succeed only by doing +justice. Then, inspired by Thee, he uttered those words of power which +changed three millions of slaves into men—the great act which has +rendered his name forever illustrious and secured the triumph of our +cause. We think of him almost as the prophet of his era. Thou didst +make that honest, great-hearted man the central figure of his age, +setting upon goodness, upon moral grandeur, the seal of Thine approval +and the crown of victory. We bless Thee that he did not die until +assured of victory, until he knew that his great work was done, and he +had received all the honor that earth could bestow, and then we believe +Thou didst give him a martyr's crown. We thank Thee that we have this +hope for the illustrious dead. +</P> + +<P> +Great reason have we also to thank Thee that such was the enduring +strength of our institutions that they received no perceptible shock +from the death of even such a man and in such an hour, and that Thou +didst provide for that perilous moment one whose strength was +sufficient to receive and bear the weight of government, and who, we +trust, will work out the great problem of Christian freedom to its +final solution, and by equal law and equal rights bind this great +people into one inseparable whole. +</P> + +<P> +We thank Thee that the representatives of the nation have come to sit +to-day in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln's tomb, to express once more +their now chastened sorrow. May they all reconsecrate themselves to +those principles which made him worthy to be remembered thus, and then +a redeemed and transfigured land will be a fitting monument for him and +for them. +</P> + +<P> +Endow the President with wisdom equal to his great responsibilities, +that the blessings of a whole nation may also be given to him. May his +advisers, our judges, and our legislators, be constantly instructed by +Thee. +</P> + +<P> +May Thy blessing rest on the officers of the army and navy, by whose +skill and courage our triumph was won; upon our soldiers and sailors; +upon our people, and on those who are struggling on toward a perfect +manhood. +</P> + +<P> +Bless these eminent men the honored representatives of Foreign Powers. +Remember the sovereigns and people they represent. We thank Thee that +peace reigns with them as with us. May it continue until the nations +shall learn war no more. +</P> + +<P> +Remember Abraham Lincoln's widow and family. Comfort them in their sore +bereavement. May they be consoled to know how much the father and +husband is loved and honored still. +</P> + +<P> +Give Divine support to the distinguished orator of the day. May he so +speak as to impress the whole nation's mind. Prepare us to live as men +in this age should, that we may be received into Thy Heavenly Kingdom, +and to Thy name shall be the praise and the glory forevermore. Amen. +</P> + +<P> +Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, President <I>pro tempore</I> of the Senate, in +introducing the orator of the day, said: +</P> + +<P> +No ordinary occasion could have convened this august assemblage. For +four weary years, the storm of war, of civil war, raged fiercely over +our country. The blood of the best and bravest of her sons was freely +shed to preserve her name and place among the nations of the earth. In +April last, the dark clouds which had so long hung heavily and gloomily +over our heads, were all dispersed, and the light of peace, more +welcome even than the vernal sunshine, gladdened the eyes and the +hearts of our people. Shouts of joy and songs of triumph echoed through +the land. The hearts of the devout poured themselves in orisons and +thanksgivings to the God of battles and of nations that the most wicked +and most formidable rebellion ever known in human history had been +effectually crashed, and our country saved. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of all this abounding joy, suddenly and swiftly as the +lightning's flash came the fearful tidings that the Chief Magistrate of +the Republic—our President—loved and honored as few men ever were—so +honest, so faithful, so true to his duty and his country, had been +foully murdered—had fallen by the bullet of an assassin. All hearts +were stricken with horror. The transition from extreme joy to profound +sorrow was never more sudden and universal. Had it been possible for a +stranger, ignorant of the truth, to look over our land, he would have +supposed that there had come upon us some visitation of the Almighty +not less dreadful than that which once fell on ancient Egypt on that +fearful night when there was not a house where there was not one dead. +</P> + +<P> +The nation wept for him. +</P> + +<P> +After being gazed upon by myriads of loving eyes, under the dome of +this magnificent Capitol, the remains of our President were borne in +solemn procession through our cities, towns, and villages, all draped +in the habilaments of sorrow, the symbols and tokens of profound and +heartfelt grief, to their final resting-place in the capital of his own +State. There he sleeps, peacefully, embalmed in his country's tears. +</P> + +<P> +The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have +deemed it proper to commemorate this tragic event by appropriate +services. This day, the birth-day of him whom we mourn, has properly +been selected. An eminent citizen, distinguished by his labors and +services in high and responsible public positions at home and +abroad—whose pen has instructed the present age in the history of his +country, and done much to transmit the fame and renown of that country +to future ages—Hon. George Bancroft—will now deliver a discourse. +</P> + +<P> +Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT (who on coming forward to the Clerk's desk was +greeted with warm demonstrations of applause) then proceeded to deliver +the Memorial Address. +</P> + +<P> +The exercises of the day were closed by the following prayer and +benediction by the Rev. Dr. GRAY, Chaplain of the Senate: +</P> + +<P> +God of a bereaved nation, from Thy high and holy Habitation look down +upon us and suitably impress us to-day, with a sense that God only is +great. Kings and Presidents die; but Thou, the Universal Ruler, livest +to roll on thine undisturbed affairs forever, from Thy Throne. A wail +has gone up from the heart of the nation to heaven—O, hear, and pity, +and assuage, and save. We pray that Thou wilt command thy blessing now, +which is life forevermore, upon the family of the President dead; upon +the President living upon the Ministers of state; upon the united +Houses of Congress; upon the Judges of our Courts; upon the officers of +the Army and the Navy; upon the broken families and desolated homes all +over the laud; and especially upon the nation. And grant that grace and +peace and mercy from the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the +Father, and the fellowship of God the Spirit, may rest upon and abide +with us all, forever and ever. Amen. +</P> + +<P> +The Senators then returned to the Senate Chamber, and the President of +the United States, the orator of the day, and the invited guests +withdrew, the Marine Band, stationed in the amphitheater, performing +national airs. +</P> + +<P> +Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, after the House had resumed the +transaction of business, by unanimous consent, introduced the following +concurrent resolutions; which were read, considered, and agreed to: +</P> + +<P> +<I>Resolved,</I> (the Senate concurring,) That the thanks of Congress be +presented to Hon. George Bancroft for the appropriate memorial address +delivered by him on the life and services of Abraham Lincoln, late +President of the United States, in the Representatives Hall before both +Houses of Congress and their invited guests, on the 12th day of +February, 1866, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for +publication. +</P> + +<P> +<I>Resolved,</I> That the chairmen of the joint committee appointed to make +the necessary arrangements to carry into effect the resolution of this +Congress in relation to the memorial exercises in honor of Abraham +Lincoln be requested to communicate to Mr. Bancroft the aforegoing +resolution, receive his answer thereto, and present the same to both +Houses of Congress. +</P> + +<P> +These resolutions were transmitted to the Senate, where, on motion of +the Hon. Solomon Foot, of Vermont, they were considered by unanimous +consent, and concurred in. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="20%"> + +<P> +In the Senate, on the 16th of February, Hon. Mr. FOOT stated that in +pursuance of the concurrent resolutions of the two Houses of Congress +adopted on the 12th instant, the chairmen of the joint committee of +arrangements on the memorial exercises of the late President of the +United States, Abraham Lincoln, had placed a certified copy of said +concurrent resolutions in the hands of Hon. George Bancroft, and had +requested of him a copy of his address on the occasion referred to for +publication, as would appear from the following correspondence, which +he moved be read, laid upon the table, and printed. +</P> + +<P> +As no objection was made, the Secretary read as follows: +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON,<BR> + <I>February</I> 13, 1866.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +SIR: We have the honor to present to you an official copy of the two +concurrent resolutions adopted by the Senate and House of +Representatives on the 12th instant, expressing the thanks of Congress +for the appropriate memorial address delivered by you on the life and +services of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and +instructing us to request from you a copy of the address for +publication. +</P> + +<P> +Having shared the high gratification of hearing the address, we take +pleasure, in accordance with the second of the concurrent resolutions, +in requesting you to furnish a copy of the address for publication. +</P> + +<P> +We have the honor to be, with very great respect, your obedient +servants, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SOLOMON FOOT,<BR> + <I>Chairman on the part of the Senate</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +E B. WASHBURNE,<BR> + <I>Chairman on the part of the House.</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +WASHINGTON, D. C., <I>February</I> 14, 1866. +</P> + +<P> +GENTLEMEN: I have received your letter of yesterday and a copy of the +two concurrent resolutions of Congress to which you refer. The thanks +of the Senate and House of Representatives, for the performance of the +duty assigned me, I value as a very distinguished honor, and I shall +cheerfully furnish a copy of the address for publication. +</P> + +<P> +I remain, gentlemen, very sincerely yours, +<BR> +GEORGE BANCROFT. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hon. SOLOMON FOOT,<BR> + <I>Chairman on the part of the Senate.</I><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Hon. E B. WASHBURNE,<BR> + <I>Chairman on the part of the House.</I><BR> +</P> + +<P> +In the House of Representatives, Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, +made the same statement, and, after the correspondence submitted had +been read, the House ordered an edition of twenty thousand extra copies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memorial Address on the Life and +Character of Abraham Lincoln, by George Bancroft + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL ADDRESS--ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 26750-h.htm or 26750-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/7/5/26750/ + +Produced by Nick Tomaiuolo, Instruction Librarian at the +Central Connecticut State University Elihu Burritt Library. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln + Delivered at the request of both Houses of Congress of America + +Author: George Bancroft + +Release Date: October 2, 2008 [EBook #26750] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL ADDRESS--ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Tomaiuolo, Instruction Librarian at the +Central Connecticut State University Elihu Burritt Library. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Abraham Lincoln] + + + + +MEMORIAL ADDRESS + +ON THE + +LIFE AND CHARACTER + +OF + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + +DELIVERED, + +AT THE REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE + +CONGRESS OF AMERICA, + + +BEFORE THEM, + +IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES + +AT WASHINGTON, + + +ON THE 12TH OF FEBRUARY, 1866. + + + +BY GEORGE BANCROFT. + + + +WASHINGTON: + +GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. + +1866. + + + + +ORATION. + + +SENATORS, + REPRESENTATIVES OF AMERICA: + +That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of +physical science. On the great moving power which is from the beginning +hangs the world of the senses and the world of thought and action. +Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations, working in +patient continuity through the ages, never halting and never abrupt, +encompassing all events in its oversight, and ever effecting its will, +though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings are +lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, republics flourish and +wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that is told; but nothing is by +chance, though men, in their ignorance of causes, may think so. The +deeds of time are governed, as well as judged, by the decrees of +eternity. The caprice of fleeting existences bends to the immovable +omnipotence, which plants its foot on all the centuries and has neither +change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes, like a messenger through the +thick darkness of night, it steps along mysterious ways; but when the +hour strikes for a people, or for mankind, to pass into a new form of +being, unseen hands draw the bolts from the gates of futurity; an +all-subduing influence prepares the minds of men for the coming +revolution; those who plan resistance find themselves in conflict with +the will of Providence rather than with human devices; and all hearts +and all understandings, most of all the opinions and influences of the +unwilling, are wonderfully attracted and compelled to bear forward the +change, which becomes more an obedience to the law of universal nature +than submission to the arbitrament of man. + +In the fulness of time a republic rose up in the wilderness of America. +Thousands of years had passed away before this child of the ages could +be born. From whatever there was of good in the systems of former +centuries she drew her nourishment; the wrecks of the past were her +warnings. With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her inmost +nature, she disenthralled religion from bondage to temporal power, that +her worship might be worship only in spirit and in truth. The wisdom +which had passed from India through Greece, with what Greece had added +of her own; the jurisprudence of Rome; the mediaeval municipalities; +the Teutonic method of representation; the political experience of +England; the benignant wisdom of the expositors of the law of nature +and of nations in France and Holland, all shed on her their selectest +influence. She washed the gold of political wisdom from the sands +wherever it was found; she cleft it from the rocks; she gleaned it +among ruins. Out of all the discoveries of statesmen and sages, out of +all the experience of past human life, she compiled a perennial +political philosophy, the primordial principles of national ethics. The +wise men of Europe sought the best government in a mixture of monarchy, +aristocracy, and democracy; America went behind these names to extract +from them the vital elements of social forms, and blend them +harmoniously in the free commonwealth, which comes nearest to the +illustration of the natural equality of all men. She intrusted the +guardianship of established rights to law, the movements of reform to +the spirit of the people, and drew her force from the happy +reconciliation of both. + +Republics had heretofore been limited to small cantons, or cities and +their dependencies; America, doing that of which the like had not +before been known upon the earth, or believed by kings and statesmen to +be possible, extended her republic across a continent. Under her +auspices the vine of liberty took deep root and filled the land; the +hills were covered with its shadow, its boughs were like the goodly +cedars, and reached unto both oceans. The fame of this only daughter of +freedom went out into all the lands of the earth; from her the human +race drew hope. + +Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary aristocracy planted itself +on our soil; the only hereditary condition that fastened itself upon us +was servitude. Nature works in sincerity, and is ever true to its law. +The bee hives honey; the viper distils poison; the vine stores its +juices, and so do the poppy and the upas. In like manner every thought +and every action ripens its seed, each according to its kind. In the +individual man, and still more in a nation, a just idea gives life, and +progress, and glory; a false conception portends disaster, shame, and +death. A hundred and twenty years ago a West Jersey Quaker wrote: "This +trade of importing slaves is dark gloominess hanging over the land; the +consequences will be grievous to posterity." At the north the growth of +slavery was arrested by natural causes; in the region nearest the +tropics it throve rankly, and worked itself into the organism of the +rising States. Virginia stood between the two, with soil, and climate, +and resources demanding free labor, yet capable of the profitable +employment of the slave. She was the land of great statesmen, and they +saw the danger of her being whelmed under the rising flood in time to +struggle against the delusions of avarice and pride. Ninety-four years +ago the legislature of Virginia addressed the British king, saying that +the trade in slaves was "of great inhumanity," was opposed to the +"security and happiness" of their constituents, "would in time have the +most destructive influence," and "endanger their very existence." And +the king answered them that, "upon pain of his highest displeasure, the +importation of slaves should not be in any respect obstructed." +"Pharisaical Britain," wrote Franklin in behalf of Virginia, "to pride +thyself in setting free a single slave that happened to land on thy +coasts, while thy laws continue a traffic whereby so many hundreds of +thousands are dragged into a slavery that is entailed on their +posterity." "A serious view of this subject," said Patrick Henry in +1773, "gives a gloomy prospect to future times." In the same year +George Mason wrote to the legislature of Virginia: "The laws of +impartial Providence may avenge our injustice upon our posterity." +Conforming his conduct to his convictions, Jefferson, in Virginia, and +in the Continental Congress, with the approval of Edmund Pendleton, +branded the slave-trade as piracy; and he fixed in the Declaration of +Independence, as the corner-stone of America: "All men are created +equal, with an unalienable right to liberty." On the first organization +of temporary governments for the continental domain, Jefferson, but for +the default of New Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated every part +of that territory to freedom. In the formation of the national +Constitution, Virginia, opposed by a part of New England, vainly +struggled to abolish the slave-trade at once and forever; and when the +ordinance of 1787 was introduced by Nathan Dane without the clause +prohibiting slavery, it was through the favorable disposition of +Virginia and the South that the clause of Jefferson was restored, and +the whole northwestern territory--all the territory that then belonged +to the nation--was reserved for the labor of freemen. + +The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition of the slave-trade +would bring with it the gradual abolition of slavery; but the +expectation was doomed to disappointment. In supporting incipient +measures for emancipation, Jefferson encountered difficulties greater +than he could overcome, and, after vain wrestlings, the words that +broke from him, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is +just, that His justice cannot sleep forever," were words of despair. It +was the desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove +slavery by a public act; and as the prospects of a general emancipation +grew more and more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the action of the +State, did all that he could by bequeathing freedom to his own slaves. +Good and true men had, from the days of 1776, suggested the colonizing +of the negro in the home of his ancestors; but the idea of colonization +was thought to increase the difficulty of emancipation, and, in spite +of strong support, while it accomplished much good for Africa, it +proved impracticable as a remedy at home. Madison, who in early life +disliked slavery so much that he wished "to depend as little as +possible on the labor of slaves;" Madison, who held that where slavery +exists "the republican theory becomes fallacious;" Madison, who in the +last years of his life would not consent to the annexation of Texas, +lest his countrymen should fill it with slaves; Madison, who said, +"slavery is the greatest evil under which the nation labors--a +portentous evil--an evil, moral, political, and economical--a sad blot +on our free country"--went mournfully into old age with the cheerless +words: "No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking out the +stain." + +The men of the Revolution passed away; a new generation sprang up, +impatient that an institution to which they clung should be condemned +as inhuman, unwise, and unjust. In the throes of discontent at the +self-reproach of their fathers, and blinded by the lustre of wealth to +be acquired by the culture of a new staple, they devised the theory +that slavery, which they would not abolish, was not evil, but good. +They turned on the friends of colonization, and confidently demanded: +"Why take black men from a civilized and Christian country, where their +labor is a source of immense gain, and a power to control the markets +of the world, and send them to a land of ignorance, idolatry, and +indolence, which was the home of their forefathers, but not theirs? +Slavery is a blessing. Were they not in their ancestral land naked, +scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the course of the sun, +controlled by nature? And in their new abode have they not been taught +to know the difference of the seasons, to plough, and plant, and reap, +to drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their scanty dialect for +the richest of all the languages among men, and the stupid adoration of +follies for the purest religion? And since slavery is good for the +blacks, it is good for their masters, bringing opulence and the +opportunity of educating a race. The slavery of the black is good in +itself; he shall serve the white man forever." And nature, which better +understood the quality of fleeting interest and passion, laughed as it +caught the echo, "man" and "forever!" + +A regular development of pretensions followed the new declaration with +logical consistency. Under the old declaration every one of the States +had retained, each for itself, the right of manumitting all slaves by +an ordinary act of legislation; now the power of the people over +servitude through their legislatures was curtailed, and the privileged +class was swift in imposing legal and constitutional obstructions on +the people themselves. The power of emancipation was narrowed or taken +away. The slave might not be disquieted by education. There remained an +unconfessed consciousness that the system of bondage was wrong, and a +restless memory that it was at variance with the true American +tradition; its safety was therefore to be secured by political +organization. The generation that made the Constitution took care for +the predominance of freedom in Congress by the ordinance of Jefferson; +the new school aspired to secure for slavery an equality of votes in +the Senate, and, while it hinted at an organic act that should concede +to the collective South a veto power on national legislation, it +assumed that each State separately had the right to revise and nullify +laws of the United States, according to the discretion of its judgment. + +The new theory hung as a bias on the foreign relations of the country; +there could be no recognition of Hayti, nor even of the American colony +of Liberia; and the world was given to understand that the +establishment of free labor in Cuba would be a reason for wresting that +island from Spain. Territories were annexed--Louisiana, Florida, Texas, +half of Mexico; slavery must have its share in them all, and it +accepted for a time a dividing line between the unquestioned domain of +free labor and that in which involuntary labor was to be tolerated. A +few years passed away, and the new school, strong and arrogant, +demanded and received an apology for applying the Jefferson proviso to +Oregon. + +The application of that proviso was interrupted for three +administrations, but justice moved steadily onward. In the news that +the men of California had chosen freedom, Calhoun heard the knell of +parting slavery, and on his death-bed he counselled secession. +Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison had died despairing of the +abolition of slavery; Calhoun died in despair at the growth of freedom. +His system rushed irresistibly to its natural development. The +death-struggle for California was followed by a short truce; but the +new school of politicians, who said that slavery was not evil, but +good, soon sought to recover the ground they had lost, and, confident +of securing Kansas, they demanded that the established line in the +Territories between freedom and slavery should be blotted out. The +country, believing in the strength and enterprise and expansive energy +of freedom, made answer, though reluctantly: "Be it so; let there be no +strife between brethren; let freedom and slavery compete for the +Territories on equal terms, in a fair field, under an impartial +administration;" and on this theory, if on any, the contest might have +been left to the decision of time. + +The South started back in appalment from its victory, for it knew that +a fair competition foreboded its defeat. But where could it now find an +ally to save it from its own mistake? What I have next to say is spoken +with no emotion but regret. Our meeting to-day is, as it were, at the +grave, in the presence of eternity, and the truth must be uttered in +soberness and sincerity. In a great republic, as was observed more than +two thousand years ago, any attempt to overturn the state owes its +strength to aid from some branch of the government. The Chief Justice +of the United States, without any necessity or occasion, volunteered to +come to the rescue of the theory of slavery; and from his court there +lay no appeal but to the bar of humanity and history. Against the +Constitution, against the memory of the nation, against a previous +decision, against a series of enactments, he decided that the slave is +property; that slave property is entitled to no less protection than +any other property; that the Constitution upholds it in every Territory +against any act of a local legislature, and even against Congress +itself; or, as the President for that term tersely promulgated the +saying, "Kansas is as much a slave State as South Carolina or Georgia; +slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in every Territory." The +municipal character of slavery being thus taken away, and slave +property decreed to be "sacred," the authority of the courts was +invoked to introduce it by the comity of law into States where slavery +had been abolished, and in one of the courts of the United States a +judge pronounced the African slave-trade legitimate, and numerous and +powerful advocates demanded its restoration. + +Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate opinion, announced what +had never been heard from any magistrate of Greece or Rome; what was +unknown to civil law, and canon law, and feudal law, and common law, +and constitutional law; unknown to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth, and +Marshall--that there are "slave races." The spirit of evil is intensely +logical. Having the authority of this decision, five States swiftly +followed the earlier example of a sixth, and opened the way for +reducing the free negro to bondage; the migrating free negro became a +slave if he but entered within the jurisdiction of a seventh; and an +eighth, from its extent, and soil, and mineral resources, destined to +incalculable greatness, closed its eyes on its coming, prosperity, and +enacted, as by Taney's dictum it had the right to do, that every free +black man who would live within its limits must accept the condition of +slavery for himself and his posterity. + +Only one step more remained to be taken. Jefferson and the leading +statesmen of his day held fast to the idea that the enslavement of the +African was socially, morally, and politically wrong. The new school +was founded exactly upon the opposite idea; and they resolved, first, +to distract the democratic party, for which the Supreme Court had now +furnished the means, and then to establish a new government, with negro +slavery for its corner-stone, as socially, morally, and politically +right. + +As the Presidential election drew on, one of the great traditional +parties did not make its appearance; the other reeled as it sought to +preserve its old position, and the candidate who most nearly +represented its best opinion, driven by patriotic zeal, roamed the +country from end to end to speak for union, eager, at least, to +confront its enemies, yet not having hope that it would find its +deliverance through him. The storm rose to a whirlwind; who should +allay its wrath? The most experienced statesmen of the country had +failed; there was no hope from those who were great after the flesh: +could relief come from one whose wisdom was like the wisdom of little +children? + +The choice of America fell on a man born west of the Alleghanies, in +the cabin of poor people of Hardin county, Kentucky--ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +His mother could read, but not write; his father could do neither; but +his parents sent him, with an old spelling-book, to school, and he +learned in his childhood to do both. + +When eight years old he floated down the Ohio with his father on a +raft, which bore the family and all their possessions to the shore of +Indiana; and, child as he was, he gave help as they toiled through +dense forests to the interior of Spencer county. There, in the land of +free labor, he grew up in a log-cabin, with the solemn solitude for his +teacher in his meditative hours. Of Asiatic literature he knew only the +Bible; of Greek, Latin, and mediaeval, no more than the translation of +Aesop's Fables; of English, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The +traditions of George Fox and William Penn passed to him dimly along +the lines of two centuries through his ancestors, who were Quakers. + +Otherwise his education was altogether American. The Declaration of +Independence was his compendium of political wisdom, the Life of +Washington his constant study, and something of Jefferson and Madison +reached him through Henry Clay, whom he honored from boyhood. For the +rest, from day to day, he lived the life of the American people, walked +in its light, reasoned with its reason, thought with its power of +thought, felt the beatings of its mighty heart, and so was in every way +a child of nature, a child of the West, a child of America. + +At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition to get on in the world, he +engaged himself to go down the Mississippi in a flatboat, receiving ten +dollars a month for his wages, and afterwards he made the trip once +more. At twenty-one he drove his father's cattle, as the family +migrated to Illinois, and split rails to fence in the new homestead in +the wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of volunteers in the Black +Hawk war. He kept a store. He learned something of surveying, but of +English literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shakspeare's plays. +At twenty-five he was elected to the legislature of Illinois, where he +served eight years. At twenty-seven he was admitted to the bar. In 1837 +he chose his home at Springfield, the beautiful centre of the richest +land in the State. In 1847 he was a member of the national Congress, +where he voted about forty times in favor of the principle of the +Jefferson proviso. In 1849 he sought, eagerly but unsuccessfully, the +place of Commissioner of the Land Office, and he refused an appointment +that would have transferred his residence to Oregon. In 1854 he gave +his influence to elect from Illinois, to the American Senate, a +Democrat, who would certainly do justice to Kansas. In 1858, as the +rival of Douglas, he went before the people of the mighty Prairie +State, saying, "This Union cannot permanently endure half slave and +half free; the Union will not be dissolved, but the house will cease to +be divided;" and now, in 1861, with no experience whatever as an +executive officer, while States were madly flying from their orbit, and +wise men knew not where to find counsel, this descendant of Quakers, +this pupil of Bunyan, this offspring of the great West, was elected +President of America. + +He measured the difficulty of the duty that devolved upon him, and was +resolved to fulfil it. As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he left +Springfield, which for a quarter of a century had been his happy home, +to the crowd of his friends and neighbors, whom he was never more to +meet, he spoke a solemn farewell: "I know not how soon I shall see you +again. A duty has devolved upon me, greater than that which has +devolved upon any other man since Washington. He never would have +succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at +all times relied. On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray +that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot +succeed, but with which success is certain." To the men of Indiana he +said: "I am but an accidental, temporary instrument; it is your +business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty." At the capital +of Ohio he said: "Without a name, without a reason why I should have a +name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not rest even upon +the Father of his country." At various places in New York, especially +at Albany, before the legislature, which tendered him the united +support of the great Empire State, he said: "While I hold myself the +humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elevated to the +Presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any of them. I +bring a true heart to the work. I must rely upon the people of the +whole country for support, and with their sustaining aid even I, humble +as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship of state safely through the +storm." To the assembly of New Jersey, at Trenton, he explained: "I +shall take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the +West, the South, and the whole country, in good temper, certainly with +no malice to any section. I am devoted to peace, but it may be +necessary to put the foot down firmly." In the old Independence Hall, +of Philadelphia, he said: "I have never had a feeling politically that +did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence, which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this +country, but to the world in all future time. If the country cannot be +saved without giving up that principle, I would rather be assassinated +on the spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am +willing to live and die by." + +Travelling in the dead of night to escape assassination, LINCOLN +arrived at Washington nine days before his inauguration. The outgoing +President, at the opening of the session of Congress, had still kept as +the majority of his advisers men engaged in treason; had declared that +in case of even an "imaginary" apprehension of danger from notions of +freedom among the slaves, "disunion would become inevitable." LINCOLN +and others had questioned the opinion of Taney; such impugning he +ascribed to the "factious temper of the times." The favorite doctrine +of the majority of the Democratic party on the power of a territorial +legislature over slavery he condemned as an attack on "the sacred +rights of property." The State legislatures, he insisted, must repeal +what he called "their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments," and +which, if such, were "null and void," or "it would be impossible for +any human power to save the Union." Nay! if these unimportant acts were +not repealed, "the injured States would be justified in revolutionary +resistance to the government of the Union." He maintained that no State +might secede at its sovereign will and pleasure; that the Union was +meant for perpetuity, and that Congress might attempt to preserve it, +but only by conciliation; that "the sword was not placed in their hands +to preserve it by force;" that "the last desperate remedy of a +despairing people" would be "an explanatory amendment recognising the +decision of the Supreme Court of the United States." The American Union +he called "a confederacy" of States, and he thought it a duty to make +the appeal for the amendment "before any of these States should +separate themselves from the Union." The views of the Lieutenant +General, containing some patriotic advice, "conceded the right of +secession," pronounced a quadruple rupture of the Union "a smaller evil +than the reuniting of the fragments by the sword," and "eschewed the +idea of invading a seceded State." After changes in the Cabinet, the +President informed Congress that "matters were still worse;" that "the +South suffered serious grievances," which should be redressed "in +peace." The day after this message the flag of the Union was fired upon +from Fort Morris, and the insult was not revenged or noticed. Senators +in Congress telegraphed to their constituents to seize the national +forts, and they were not arrested. The finances of the country were +grievously embarrassed. Its little army was not within reach; the part +of it in Texas, with all its stores, was made over by its commander to +rebels. One State after another voted in convention to secede. A peace +congress, so called, met at the request of Virginia, to concert the +terms of a capitulation which should secure permission for the +continuance of the Union. Congress, in both branches, sought to devise +conciliatory expedients; the Territories of the country were organized +in a manner not to conflict with any pretensions of the South, or any +decision of the Supreme Court; and, nevertheless, the representatives +of the rebellion formed at Montgomery a provisional government, and +pursued their relentless purpose with such success that the Lieutenant +General feared the city of Washington might find itself "included in a +foreign country," and proposed, among the options for the consideration +of LINCOLN, to bid the wayward States "depart in peace." The great +republic appeared to have its emblem in the vast unfinished Capitol, at +that moment surrounded by masses of stone and prostrate columns never +yet lifted into their places, seemingly the monument of high but +delusive aspirations, the confused wreck of inchoate magnificence, +sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or Athens. + +The fourth of March came. With instinctive wisdom the new President, +speaking to the people on taking the oath of office, put aside every +question that divided the country, and gained a right to universal +support by planting himself on the single idea of Union. The Union he +declared to be unbroken and perpetual, and he announced his +determination to fulfil "the simple duty of taking care that the laws +be faithfully executed in all the States." Seven days later, the +convention of Confederate States unanimously adopted a constitution of +their own, and the new government was authoritatively announced to be +founded on the idea that the negro race is a slave race; that slavery +is its natural and normal condition. The issue was made up, whether the +great republic was to maintain its providential place in the history of +mankind, or a rebellion founded on negro slavery gain a recognition of +its principle throughout the civilized world. To the disaffected +LINCOLN had said, "You can have no conflict without being yourselves +the aggressors." To fire the passions of the southern portion of the +people, the confederate government chose to become aggressors, and, on +the morning of the twelfth of April, began the bombardment of Fort +Sumter, and compelled its evacuation. + +It is the glory of the late President that he had perfect faith in the +perpetuity of the Union. Supported in advance by Douglas, who spoke as +with the voice of a million, he instantly called a meeting of Congress, +and summoned the people to come up and repossess the forts, places, and +property which had been seized from the Union. The men of the north +were trained in schools; industrious and frugal; many of them +delicately bred, their minds teeming with ideas and fertile in plans of +enterprise; given to the culture of the arts; eager in the pursuit of +wealth, yet employing wealth less for ostentation than for developing +the resources of their country; seeking happiness in the calm of +domestic life; and such lovers of peace, that for generations they had +been reputed unwarlike. Now, at the cry of their country in its +distress, they rose up with unappeasable patriotism; not hirelings--the +purest and of the best blood in the land. Sons of a pious ancestry, +with a clear perception of duty, unclouded faith and fixed resolve to +succeed, they thronged around the President, to support the wronged, +the beautiful flag of the nation. The halls of theological seminaries +sent forth their young men, whose lips were touched with eloquence, +whose hearts kindled with devotion, to serve in the ranks, and make +their way to command only as they learned the art of war. Striplings in +the colleges, as well the most gentle and the most studious, those of +sweetest temper and loveliest character and brightest genius, passed +from their classes to the camp. The lumbermen from the forests, the +mechanics from their benches, where they had been trained, by the +exercise of political rights, to share the life and hope of the +republic, to feel their responsibility to their forefathers, their +posterity and mankind, went to the front, resolved that their dignity, +as a constituent part of this republic, should not be impaired. Farmers +and sons of farmers left the land but half ploughed, the grain but half +planted, and, taking up the musket, learned to face without fear the +presence of peril and the corning of death in the shocks of war, while +their hearts were still attracted to their herds and fields, and all +the tender affections of home. Whatever there was of truth and faith +and public love in the common heart, broke out with one expression. The +mighty winds blew from every quarter, to fan the flame of the sacred +and unquenchable fire. + +For a time the war was thought to be confined to our own domestic +affairs, but it was soon seen that it involved the destinies of +mankind; its principles and causes shook the politics of Europe to the +centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the governments of the world. + +There was a kingdom whose people had in an eminent degree attained to +freedom of industry and the security of person and property. Its middle +class rose to greatness. Out of that class sprung the noblest poets and +philosophers, whose words built up the intellect of its people; skilful +navigators, to find out for its merchants the many paths of the oceans; +discoverers in natural science, whose inventions guided its industry to +wealth, till it equalled any nation of the world in letters, and +excelled all in trade and commerce. But its government was become a +government of land, and not of men; every blade of grass was +represented, but only a small minority of the people. In the transition +from the feudal forms the heads of the social organization freed +themselves from the military services which were the conditions of +their tenure, and, throwing the burden on the industrial classes, kept +all the soil to themselves. Vast estates that had been managed by +monasteries as endowments for religion and charity were impropriated to +swell the wealth of courtiers and favorites; and the commons, where the +poor man once had his right of pasture, were taken away, and, under +forms of law, enclosed distributively within the domains of the +adjacent landholders. Although no law forbade any inhabitant from +purchasing land, the costliness of the transfer constituted a +prohibition; so that it was the rule of the country that the plough +should not be in the hands of its owner. The church was rested on a +contradiction; claiming to be an embodiment of absolute truth, it was a +creature of the statute-book. + +The progress of time increased the terrible contrast between wealth and +poverty. In their years of strength the laboring people, cut off from +all share in governing the state, derived a scant support from the +severest toil, and had no hope for old age but in public charity or +death. A grasping ambition had dotted the world with military posts, +kept watch over our borders on the northeast, at the Bermudas, in the +West Indies, appropriated the gates of the Pacific, of the Southern and +of the Indian ocean, hovered on our northwest at Vancouver, held the +whole of the newest continent, and the entrances to the old +Mediterranean and Red Sea, and garrisoned forts all the way from Madras +to China. That aristocracy had gazed with terror on the growth of a +commonwealth where freeholders existed by the million, and religion was +not in bondage to the state, and now they could not repress their joy +at its perils. They had not one word of sympathy for the kind-hearted +poor man's son whom America had chosen for her chief; they jeered at +his large hands, and long feet, and ungainly stature; and the British +secretary of state for foreign affairs made haste to send word through +the palaces of Europe that the great republic was in its agony; that +the republic was no more; that a headstone was all that remained due by +the law of nations to "the late Union." But it is written, "Let the +dead bury their dead;" they may not bury the living. Let the dead bury +their dead; let a bill of reform remove the worn-out government of a +class, and infuse new life into the British constitution by confiding +rightful power to the people. + +But while the vitality of America is indestructible, the British +government hurried to do what never before had been done by Christian +powers; what was in direct conflict with its own exposition of public +law in the time of our struggle for independence. Though the insurgent +States had not a ship in an open harbor, it invested them with all the +rights of a belligerent, even on the ocean; and this, too, when the +rebellion was not only directed against the gentlest and most +beneficent government on earth, without a shadow of justifiable cause, +but when the rebellion was directed against human nature itself for the +perpetual enslavement of a race. And the effect of this recognition +was, that acts in themselves piratical found shelter in British courts +of law. The resources of British capitalists, their workshops, their +armories, their private arsenals, their ship-yards, were in league with +the insurgents, and every British harbor in the wide world became a +safe port for British ships, manned by British sailors, and armed with +British guns, to prey on our peaceful commerce; even on our ships +coming from British ports, freighted with British products, or that had +carried gifts of grain to the English poor. The prime minister, in the +House of Commons, sustained by cheers, scoffed at the thought that +their laws could be amended at our request, so as to preserve real +neutrality; and to remonstrances, now owned to have been just, their +secretary of state answered that they could not change their laws _ad +infinitum_. + +The people of America then wished, as they always have wished, as they +still wish, friendly relations with England, and no man in England or +America can desire it more strongly than I. This country has always +yearned for good relations with England. Thrice only in all its history +has that yearning been fairly met: in the days of Hampden and Cromwell, +again in the first ministry of the elder Pitt, and once again in the +ministry of Shelburne. Not that there have not at all times been just +men among the peers of Britain--like Halifax in the days of James the +Second, or a Granville, an Argyll, or a Houghton in ours; and we cannot +be indifferent to a country that produces statesmen like Cobden and +Bright; but the best bower anchor of peace was the working class of +England, who suffered most from our civil war, but who, while they +broke their diminished bread in sorrow, always encouraged us to +persevere. + +The act of recognising the rebel belligerents was concerted with +France--France, so beloved in America, on which she had conferred the +greatest benefits that one people ever conferred on another; France, +which stands foremost on the continent of Europe for the solidity of +her culture, as well as for the bravery and generous impulses of her +sons; France, which for centuries had been moving steadily in her own +way towards intellectual and political freedom. The policy regarding +further colonization of America by European powers, known commonly as +the doctrine of Monroe, had its origin in France, and if it takes any +man's name, should bear the name of Turgot. It was adopted by Louis the +Sixteenth, in the cabinet of which Vergennes was the most important +member. It is emphatically the policy of France, to which, with +transient deviations, the Bourbons, the First Napoleon, the House of +Orleans have adhered. + +The late President was perpetually harassed by rumors that the Emperor +Napoleon the Third desired formally to recognise the States in +rebellion as an independent power, and that England held him back by +her reluctance, or France by her traditions of freedom, or he himself +by his own better judgment and clear perception of events. But the +republic of Mexico, on our borders, was, like ourselves, distracted by +a rebellion, and from a similar cause. The monarchy of England had +fastened upon us slavery which did not disappear with independence; in +like manner, the ecclesiastical policy established by the Spanish +council of the Indies, in the days of Charles the Fifth and Philip the +Second, retained its vigor in the Mexican republic. The fifty years of +civil war under which she had languished was due to the bigoted system +which was the legacy of monarchy, just as here the inheritance of +slavery kept alive political strife, and culminated in civil war. As +with us there could be no quiet but through the end of slavery, so in +Mexico there could be no prosperity until the crushing tyranny of +intolerance should cease. The party of slavery in the United States +sent their emissaries to Europe to solicit aid; and so did the party of +the church in Mexico, as organized by the old Spanish council of the +Indies, but with a different result. Just as the Republican party had +made an end of the rebellion, and was establishing the best government +ever known in that region, and giving promise to the nation of order, +peace, and prosperity, word was brought us, in the moment of our +deepest affliction, that the French Emperor, moved by a desire to erect +in North America a buttress for imperialism, would transform the +republic of Mexico into a secundo-geniture for the house of Hapsburg. +America might complain; she could not then interpose, and delay seemed +justifiable. It was seen that Mexico could not, with all its wealth of +land, compete in cereal products with our northwest, nor in tropical +products with Cuba, nor could it, under a disputed dynasty, attract +capital, or create public works, or develop mines, or borrow money; so +that the imperial system of Mexico, which was forced at once to +recognise the wisdom of the policy of the republic by adopting it, +could prove only an unremunerating drain on the French treasury for the +support of an Austrian adventurer. + +Meantime a new series of momentous questions grows up, and forces +itself on the consideration of the thoughtful. Republicanism has +learned how to introduce into its constitution every element of order, +as well as every element of freedom; but thus far the continuity of its +government has seemed to depend on the continuity of elections. It is +now to be considered how perpetuity is to be secured against foreign +occupation. The successor of Charles the First of England dated his +reign from the death of his father; the Bourbons, coming back after a +long series of revolutions, claimed that the Louis who became king was +the eighteenth of that name. The present Emperor of the French, +disdaining a title from election alone, calls himself Napoleon the +Third. Shall a republic have less power of continuance when invading +armies prevent a peaceful resort to the ballot-box? What force shall it +attach to intervening legislation? What validity to debts contracted +for its overthrow? These momentous questions are, by the invasion of +Mexico, thrown up for solution. A free state once truly constituted +should be as undying as its people: the republic of Mexico must rise +again. + +It was the condition of affairs in Mexico that involved the Pope of +Rome in our difficulties so far that he alone among sovereigns +recognised the chief of the Confederate States as a president, and his +supporters as a people; and in letters to two great prelates of the +Catholic church in the United States gave counsels for peace at a time +when peace meant the victory of secession. Yet events move as they are +ordered. The blessing of the Pope at Rome on the head of Duke +Maximilian could not revive in the nineteenth century the +ecclesiastical policy of the sixteenth, and the result is only a new +proof that there can be no prosperity in the state without religious +freedom. + +When it came home to the consciousness of the Americans that the war +which they were waging was a war for the liberty of all the nations of +the world, for freedom itself, they thanked God for giving them +strength to endure the severity of the trial to which He put their +sincerity, and nerved themselves for their duty with an inexorable +will. The President was led along by the greatness of their +self-sacrificing example; and as a child, in a dark night, on a rugged +way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guidance and support, +he clung fast to the hand of the people, and moved calmly through the +gloom. While the statesmanship of Europe was mocking at the hopeless +vanity of their efforts, they put forth such miracles of energy as the +history of the world had never known. The contributions to the popular +loans amounted in four years to twenty-seven and a half hundred +millions of dollars; the revenue of the country from taxation was +increased seven-fold. The navy of the United States, drawing into the +public service the willing militia of the seas, doubled its tonnage in +eight months, and established an actual blockade from Cape Hatteras to +the Rio Grande; in the course of the war it was increased five-fold in +men and in tonnage, while the inventive genius of the country devised +more effective kinds of ordnance, and new forms of naval architecture +in wood and iron. There went into the field, for various terms of +enlistment, about two million men, and in March last the men in the +army exceeded a million: that is to say, nine of every twenty +able-bodied men in the free Territories and States took some part in +the war; and at one time every fifth of their able-bodied men was in +service. In one single month one hundred and sixty-five thousand men +were recruited into service. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized +and placed in the field forty-two regiments of infantry--nearly +thirty-six thousand men; and Ohio was like other States in the east and +in the west. The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four thousand; of +horses and mules there were bought, from first to last, two-thirds of a +million. In the movements of troops science came in aid of patriotism, +so that, to choose a single instance out of many, an army twenty-three +thousand strong, with its artillery, trains, baggage, and animals, were +moved by rail from the Potomac to the Tennessee, twelve hundred miles, +in seven days. On the long marches, wonders of military construction +bridged the rivers, and wherever an army halted, ample supplies awaited +them at their ever-changing base. The vile thought that life is the +greatest of blessings did not rise up. In six hundred and twenty-five +battles and severe skirmishes blood flowed like water. It streamed over +the grassy plains; it stained the rocks; the undergrowth of the forests +was red with it; and the armies marched on with majestic courage from +one conflict to another, knowing that they were fighting for God and +liberty. The organization of the medical department met its infinitely +multiplied duties with exactness and despatch. At the news of a battle; +the best surgeons of our cities hastened to the field, to offer the +untiring aid of the greatest experience and skill. The gentlest and +most refined of women left homes of luxury and ease to build hospital +tents near the armies, and serve as nurses to the sick and dying. +Beside the large supply of religious teachers by the public, the +congregations spared to their brothers in the field the ablest +ministers. The Christian Commission, which expended more than six and a +quarter millions, sent nearly five thousand clergymen, chosen out of +the best, to keep unsoiled the religious character of the men, and made +gifts of clothes and food and medicine. The organization of private +charity assumed unheard-of dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, which +had seven thousand societies, distributed, under the direction of an +unpaid board, spontaneous contributions to the amount of fifteen +millions in supplies or money--a million and a half in money from +California alone--and dotted the scene of war, from Paducah to Port +Royal, from Belle Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes +and lodges. + +The country had for its allies the river Mississippi, which would not +be divided, and the range of mountains which carried the stronghold of +the free through Western Virginia and Kentucky and Tennessee to the +highlands of Alabama. But it invoked the still higher power of immortal +justice. In ancient Greece, where servitude was the universal custom, +it was held that if a child were to strike its parent, the slave should +defend the parent, and by that act recover his freedom. After vain +resistance, LINCOLN, who had tried to solve the question by gradual +emancipation, by colonization, and by compensation, at last saw that +slavery must be abolished, or the republic must die; and on the first +day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the banners of the armies. +When this proclamation, which struck the fetters from three millions of +slaves, reached Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of Milton and +Wilberforce, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in the name of +mankind, saying: "It is of a very strange nature;" "a measure of war of +a very questionable kind;" an act "of vengeance on the slave owner," +that does no more than "profess to emancipate slaves where the United +States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality." Now there was +no part of the country embraced in the proclamation where the United +States could not and did not make emancipation a reality. + +Those who saw LINCOLN most frequently had never before heard him speak +with bitterness of any human being, but he did not conceal how keenly +he felt that he had been wronged by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in +reply to other cavils: "The emancipation policy and the use of colored +troops were the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion; the job was +a great national one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable +part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; then will +there be some black men who can remember that they have helped mankind +to this great consummation." + +The proclamation accomplished its end, for, during the war, our armies +came into military possession of every State in rebellion. Then, too, +was called forth the new power that comes from the simultaneous +diffusion of thought and feeling among the nations of mankind. The +mysterious sympathy of the millions throughout the world was given +spontaneously. The best writers of Europe waked the conscience of the +thoughtful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old World was +drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. Russia, +whose emperor had just accomplished one of the grandest acts in the +course of time, by raising twenty millions of bondmen into freeholders, +and thus assuring the growth and culture of a Russian people, remained +our unwavering friend. From the oldest abode of civilization, which +gave the first example of an imperial government with equality among +the people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, +remembered the saying of Confucius, that we should not do to others +what we would not that others should do to us, and, in the name of his +emperor, read a lesson to European diplomatists by closing the ports of +China against the war-ships and privateers of "the seditious." + +The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for anxious +spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on LINCOLN, and his face was +ploughed with the furrows of thought and sadness. With malice towards +none, free from the spirit of revenge, victory made him importunate for +peace, and his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his +abounding clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but +not unless the freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand +battles of Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, Malvern Hill, Antietam, +Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia, Winchester, Nashville, the +capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher, the march from +Atlanta, and the capture of Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the +issue. Still more, the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the +continent; of Maryland, whose sons never heard the midnight bells chime +so sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by the voice +of her own people, she took her place among the free; of Tennessee, +which passed through fire and blood, through sorrows and the shadow of +death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the faithfulness of her +own sons to renew her youth like the eagle--proved that victory was +deserved, and would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy, +uttered as they were by LINCOLN on the waters of Virginia, were +defiantly repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will, +went as the arrow to its mark, and, without a feeling of revenge, +struck a deathblow at rebellion. + +Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief Magistrate possessed more +sources of consolation and joy than LINCOLN? His countrymen had shown +their love by choosing him to a second term of service. The raging war +that had divided the country had lulled, and private grief was hushed +by the grandeur of the result. The nation had its new birth of freedom, +soon to be secured forever by an amendment of the Constitution. His +persistent gentleness had conquered for him a kindlier feeling on the +part of the South. His scoffers among the grandees of Europe began to +do him honor. The laboring classes everywhere saw in his advancement +their own. All peoples sent him their benedictions. And at this moment +of the height of his fame, to which his humility and modesty added +charms, he fell by the hand of the assassin, and the only triumph +awarded him was the march to the grave. + +This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and ashes; that we +mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a +thing were man if there were not that within him which is higher than +himself; if he could not master the illusions of sense, and discern the +connexions of events by a superior light which comes from God! He so +shares the divine impulses that he has power to subject interested +passions to love of country, and personal ambition to the ennoblement +of his kind. Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has helped to make +this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of +humanity. The heroes who led our armies and ships into battle and fell +in the service--Lyon, McPherson, Reynolds, Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Foote, +Ward, with their compeers--did not die in vain; they and the myriads of +nameless martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, gave up their lives +willingly "that government of the people, by the people, and for the +people, shall not perish from the earth." + +The assassination of LINCOLN, who was so free from malice, has, by some +mysterious influence, struck the country with solemn awe, and hushed, +instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. It seems as if the just +had died for the unjust. When I think of the friends I have lost in +this war--and every one who hears me has, like myself, lost some of +those whom he most loved--there is no consolation to be derived from +victims on the scaffold, or from anything but the established union of +the regenerated nation. + +In his character LINCOLN was through and through an American. He is the +first native of the region west of the Alleghanies to attain to the +highest station; and how happy it is that the man who was brought +forward as the natural outgrowth and first fruits of that region should +have been of unblemished purity in private life, a good son, a kind +husband, a most affectionate father, and, as a man, so gentle to all. +As to integrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him: "Lincoln is the +honestest man I ever knew." + +The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward thought, +rather than of action. He delighted to express his opinions by an +apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by a story. +He was skilful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea +on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it +by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would be +intelligible to all. He excelled in logical statement more than in +executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judgment was +good, and his purposes were fixed; but, like the Hamlet of his only +poet, his will was tardy in action, and, for this reason, and not from +humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty +which devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of another. + +LINCOLN gained a name by discussing questions which, of all others, +most easily lead to fanaticism; but he was never carried away by +enthusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant language, never +hurried to support extreme measures, never allowed himself to be +controlled by sudden impulses. During the progress of the election at +which he was chosen President he expressed no opinion that went beyond +the Jefferson proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had +faith in the intuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with +rare sagacity. He knew how to bide time, and was less apt to run ahead +of public thought than to lag behind. He never sought to electrify the +community by taking an advanced position with a banner of opinion, but +rather studied to move forward compactly, exposing no detachment in +front or rear; so that the course of his administration might have been +explained as the calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful +politician, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle +which from the first determined his purpose, and grew more intense with +every year, consuming his life by its energy. Yet his sensibilities +were not acute; he had no vividness of imagination to picture to his +mind the horrors of the battle-field or the sufferings in hospitals; +his conscience was more tender than his feelings. + +LINCOLN was one of the most unassuming of men. In time of success, he +gave credit for it to those whom he employed, to the people, and to the +Providence of God. He did not know what ostentation is; when he became +President he was rather saddened than elated, and his conduct and +manners showed more than ever his belief that all men are born equal. +He was no respecter of persons, and neither rank, nor reputation, nor +services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in +discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but he readily +deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the head of the armies he +followed the manifest preference of Congress. + +A good President will secure unity to his administration by his own +supervision of the various departments. LINCOLN, who accepted advice +readily, was never governed by any member of his cabinet, and could not +be moved from a purpose deliberately formed; but his supervision of +affairs was unsteady and incomplete, and sometimes, by a sudden +interference transcending the usual forms, he rather confused than +advanced the public business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous +regard due to the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently +without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be +established. Truth he would receive from any one, but when impressed by +others, he did not use their opinions till, by reflection, he had made +them thoroughly his own. + +It was the nature of LINCOLN to forgive. When hostilities ceased, he, +who had always sent forth the flag with every one of its stars in the +field, was eager to receive back his returning countrymen, and +meditated "some new announcement to the South." The amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery had his most earnest and unwearied +support. During the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from his +privately suggesting to Louisiana, that "in defining the franchise some +of the colored people might be let in," saying: "They would probably +help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the +family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed himself "not in favor of" what he +improperly called "negro citizenship," for the Constitution +discriminates between citizens and electors. Three days before his +death he declared his preference that "the elective franchise were now +conferred on the very intelligent of the colored men, and on those of +them who served our cause as soldiers;" but he wished it done by the +States themselves, and he never harbored the thought of exacting it +from a new government, as a condition of its recognition. + +The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent, by the +Speaker of this House, his friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky +mountains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the return of +hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruitful industry; as he welcomed +in advance hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his eye +kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the nation. And so, +with these thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and +temptations of this life, and was at peace. + +Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave when the +prime minister of England died, full of years and honors. Palmerston +traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LINCOLN went back only +to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the best +scholars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge; LINCOLN'S early teachers +were the silent forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars. +Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; LINCOLN for but a tenth +of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established +aristocracy; LINCOLN a leader, or rather a companion, of the people. +Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the +House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth; +LINCOLN thought always of mankind, as well as his own country, and +served human nature itself. Palmerston, from his narrowness as an +Englishman, did not endear his country to any one court or to any one +nation, but rather caused general uneasiness and dislike; LINCOLN left +America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston +was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the conflicting factions +of the aristocracy; LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise +himself on the ever-moving opinions of the masses. Palmerston was +capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the sense of honor, not +heedful of right; + +LINCOLN rejected counsel given only as a matter of policy, and was not +capable of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial, +delighted in banter, and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful +levity; LINCOLN was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest +earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the +aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the +conscience of humanity, but the House of Commons; LINCOLN took to heart +the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of +Providence, and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity. +Palmerston did nothing that will endure; LINCOLN finished a work which +all time cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the +ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of +institutions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the +great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in +Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was attended by the +British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a few years, will hardly +be noticed by the side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; LINCOLN was +followed by tho sorrow of his country across the continent to his +resting place in the heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered +through all time by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world. + +As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised the flag; the American +people was the hero of the war; and, therefore, the result is a new era +of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of +anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system +of hereditary wrong; and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens +to the renovated nation a career of unthought-of dignity and glory. +Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor. The +party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and are +merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would have +left us are not brought back as subjugated States, for then we should +hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained; they come +to their rightful place under the Constitution as original, necessary, +and inseparable members of the Union. + +We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We respect +the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, raised +emblems of triumph. And our generals are not to be classed in the herd +of vulgar warriors, but are of the school of Timoleon, and William of +Nassau, and Washington. They have used the sword only to give peace to +their country and restore her to her place in the great assembly of the +nations. + +SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of America: as I bid you farewell, my last +words shall be words of hope and confidence; for now slavery is no +more, the Union is restored, a people begins to live according to the +laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN was assassinated at 10.30 p.m. on the 14th of April, +1865, and died at 7.20 a.m. the next day. Congress was not in session, +but a large number of members hastened to the Capitol on the receipt of +the startling intelligence, and on the 17th a card was published by +Senator Foot, inviting those Senators and Representatives who might be +in the city the next day to meet at the Capitol, to consider what +action they would take in relation to the funeral ceremonies. + +The members of the 39th Congress then in Washington met in the Senate +reception room, at the Capitol, on the 17th of April, 1865, at noon. +Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER of Connecticut, President _pro tem._ of the +Senate, was called to the chair, and the Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX of +Indiana, Speaker of the House in the 38th Congress, was chosen +secretary. + +Senator FOOT, of Vermont, who was visibly affected, stated that the +object of the meeting was to make arrangements relative to the funeral +of the deceased President of the United States. + +On motion of Senator SUMNER, of Massachusetts, a committee of four +members from each house was ordered to report at 4 p.m., what action +would be fitting for the meeting to take. The Chairman appointed +Senators Sumner of Massachusetts, Harris of New York, Johnson of +Maryland, Ramsey of Minnesota, and Conness of California, and +Representatives Washburne of Illinois, Smith of Kentucky, Schenck of +Ohio, Pike of Maine, and Coffroth of Pennsylvania; and on motion of Mr. +Schenck, the Chairman and Secretary of the meeting were added to the +Committee, and then the meeting adjourned until 4 p.m. + +The meeting re-assembled at 4 p.m., pursuant to adjournment. + +Mr. SUMNER, from the Committee heretofore appointed, reported that they +had selected as pall-bearers on the part of the Senate: Mr. Foster of +Connecticut; Mr. Morgan of New York; Mr. Johnson of Maryland; Mr. Yates +of Illinois; Mr. Wade of Ohio, and Mr. Conness of California. On the +part of the House: Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts; Mr. Coffroth of +Pennsylvania; Mr. Smith of Kentucky; Mr. Colfax of Indiana; Mr. +Worthington of Nevada, and Mr. Washburne of Illinois. They also +recommended the appointment of one member of Congress from each State +and Territory to act as a Congressional Committee to accompany the +remains of the late President to Illinois, and presented the following +names as such Committee, the Chairman of the meeting to have the +authority of appointing hereafter for the States and Territories not +represented to-day from which members may be present at the Capitol by +the day of the funeral: + +Maine, Mr. Pike; New Hampshire, Mr. E. H. Rollins; Vermont, Mr. Foot; +Massachusetts, Mr. Sumner; Rhode Island, Mr. Anthony; Connecticut, Mr. +Dixon; New York, Mr. Harris Pennsylvania, Mr. Cowan; Ohio, Mr. +Schenck; Kentucky, Mr. Smith; Indiana, Mr. Julian; Illinois, the +delegation; Michigan, Mr. Chandler; Iowa, Mr. Harlan; California, Mr. +Shannon; Minnesota, Mr. Ramsey; Oregon, Mr. Williams; Kansas, Mr. S. +Clarke; West Virginia, Mr. Whaley; Nevada, Mr. Nye; Nebraska, Mr. +Hitchcock; Colorado, Mr. Bradford; Dakota, Mr. Todd; Idaho, Mr. Wallace. + +The Committee also recommended the adoption of the following resolution: + +_Resolved,_ That the Sergeants-at-Arms of the Senate and House +with their necessary assistants be requested to attend the Committee +accompanying the remains of the late President, and to make all the +necessary arrangements. + +All of which was concurred in unanimously. + +Mr. SUMNER from the same Committee also reported the following, which +was unanimously agreed to: + +The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in +Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God who +rules all that is done for human good, make haste, at this informal +meeting, to express the emotions with which they have been filled by +the appalling tragedy which has deprived the Nation of its head and +covered the land with mourning; and in further declaration of their +sentiments unanimously resolve: + +1. That in testimony of their veneration and affection for the +illustrious dead, who has been permitted under Providence to do so much +for his country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral +services, and by an appropriate Committee will accompany his remains to +their place of burial in the State from which he was taken for the +national service. + +2. That in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who, by the benignant favor of +Republican institutions, rose from humble beginnings to the heights of +power and fame, they recognize an example of purity, simplicity and +virtue, which should be a lesson, to mankind; while in his death they +recognize a martyr, whose memory will become more precious as men learn +to prize those principles of constitutional order and those rights, +civil, political, and human, for which he was made a sacrifice. + +3. That they invite the President of the United States, by solemn +proclamation, to recommend to the people of the United States to +assemble on a day to be appointed by him, publicly to testify their +grief, and to dwell on the good which has been done on earth by him +whom we now mourn. + +4. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to the President of +the United States; and also, that a copy be communicated to the +afflicted widow of the late President, as an expression of sympathy in +her great bereavement. + +The meeting then adjourned. + + * * * + +The funeral ceremonies took place in the East room of the Executive +Mansion, at noon, on the 19th of April, and the remains were then +escorted to the Capitol, where they lay in state in the rotundo. + +On the morning of April 21, the remains were taken from the Capitol and +placed in a funeral car, in which they were taken to Springfield, +Illinois, accompanied by the Congressional Committee. Halting at the +principal cities along the route, that appropriate honors might be paid +to the deceased, the funeral cortege arrived on the 3d of May at +Springfield, Illinois, and the next day the remains were deposited in +Oak Ridge cemetery near that city. + +President JOHNSON, in his annual message to Congress at the +commencement of the session of 1865-'66, thus announced the death of +his predecessor: + +"To express gratitude to God, in the name of the people, for the +preservation of the United States, is my first duty in addressing you. +Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act +of parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh; it finds +some solace in the consideration that-he lived to enjoy the highest +proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief +Magistracy to which he had been elected that he brought the civil war +substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of +the Union; and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his +memory." + +Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, immediately after the President's +message had been read in the House of Representatives, offered the +following wing joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted: + +_Resolved,_ That a committee of one member from each State represented +in this House be appointed on the part of this House, to join such +committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider +and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for +the Congress of the United States to express tho deep sensibility of +the nation to the event of the decease of their late President, Abraham +Lincoln, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to +that melancholy event be referred to said committee. + +On motion of Hon. SOLOMON FOOT, the Senate unanimously concurred in the +passage of the resolution, and the following joint committee was +appointed--thirteen on the part of the Senate and one for every State +represented (twenty-four) on the part of the House of Representatives: + +SENATE. + + Hon. Solomon Foot, Vt. + Hon. Richard Yates, Ill. + Hon. Benj. F. Wade, Ohio. + Hon. Wm. Pitt Fessenden, Me. + Hon. Henry Wilson, Mass. + Hon. James R. Doolittle, Wis. + Hon. Jas. H. Lane, Ka. + Hon. Ira Harris, N.Y. + Hon. Jas. W. Nesmith, Oregon. + Hon. Henry S. Lane, Ind. + Hon. Waitman T. Willey, W. Va. + Hon. Chas. R. Buckalew, Pa. + Hon. John B. Henderson, Mo. + +HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. + + Hon. Ellihu B. Washburne, Ill. + Hon. James G. Blaine, Me. + Hon. James W. Patterson, N. H. + Hon. Justin S. Morrill, Vt. + Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Mass. + Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, R. I. + Hon. Henry C. Deming, Ct. + Hon. John A. Griswold, N.Y. + Hon. Edwin R. V. Wright, N.J. + Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Pa. + Hon. John A. Nicholson, Del. + Hon. Francis Thomas, Md. + Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Ohio. + Hon. George S. Shanklin, Ky. + Hon. Godlove S. Orth, Ind. + Hon. Joseph W. McClurg, Mo. + Hon. Fernando C. Beaman, Mich. + Hon. John A. Kasson, Iowa. + Hon. Ithamar C. Sloan, Wis. + Hon. William Higby, Cal. + Hon. William Windom, Minn. + Hon. J. H. D. Henderson, Oregon. + Hon. Sidney Clarke, Kansas. + Hon. Kellian V. Whaley, W. Va. + +That committee, by Hon. Mr. FOOT, made the following report, which was +concurred in by both Houses _nem. con._ + +Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of Abraham +Lincoln, late President of the United States, having occurred during +the recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief +and desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of the +public bereavement: Therefore, + +_Be it resolved by the Senate,_ (the House of Representatives +concurring,) That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the Hall +of the House of Representatives, on Monday, the 12th day of February +next, that being his anniversary birthday, at the hour of twelve +meridian, and that, in the presence of the two Houses there assembled, +an address upon the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, late +President of the United States, be pronounced by Hon. Edwin M. Stanton; +and that the President of the Senate _pro tempore_ and the Speaker of +the House of Representatives be requested to invite the President of +the United States, the heads of the several Departments, the judges of +the Supreme Court, the representatives of the foreign governments near +this Government, and such officers of the army and navy as have +received the thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of +Government, to be present on the occasion. + +_And be it further resolved,_ That the President of the United States +be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Lincoln, +and to assure her of the profound sympathy of the two Houses of +Congress for her deep personal affliction, and of their sincere +condolence for the late national bereavement. + +The Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT of New York, in response to an invitation from +the joint committee, consented to deliver the address, (Mr. Stanton +having previously declined.) + + * * * + +On the morning of the 12th of February, 1865, the Capitol was closed to +all except the members of Congress. At ten o'clock the doors leading to +the rotundo were opened to those to whom tickets of admission had been +extended, and the spacious galleries of the House of Representatives +were soon crowded. The Speaker's desk was draped in mourning, and +chairs were placed upon the floor for the invited guests. + +At 12.30 p.m., the members of the Senate, following their President +_pro tempore_ and their Secretary, and preceded by their +Sergeant-at-Arms, entered the Hall of the House of Representatives and +occupied the seats reserved for them on the right and left of the main +aisle. + +The President _pro tempore_ occupied the Speaker's chair, the Speaker +of the House sitting at his left. The Chaplains of the Senate and of +the House were seated on the right and left of the Presiding Officers +of their respective Houses. + +Shortly afterward the President of the United States, with the members +of his Cabinet, entered the Hall and occupied seats, the President in +front of the Speaker's table, and his Cabinet immediately on his right. + +Immediately after the entrance of the President, the Chief Justice and +the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States +entered the Hall and occupied seats next to the President, on the right +of the Speaker's table. + +The others present were seated as follows: + +The Heads of Departments, with the Diplomatic Corps, next to the +President, on the left of the Speaker's table; + +Officers of the Army and Navy, who, by name, have received the thanks +of Congress, next to the Supreme Court, on the right of the Speaker's +table; + +Assistant Heads of Departments, Governors of States and Territories, +and the Mayors of Washington and Georgetown, directly in the rear of +the Heads of Departments; + +The Chief Justice and Judges of the Court of Claims, and the Chief +Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the District of +Columbia, directly in the rear of the Supreme Court; + +The Heads of Bureaus in the Departments, directly in the rear of the +officers of the Army and Navy; + +Representatives on either side of the Hall, in the rear of those +invited, four rows of seats on either side of the main aisles being +reserved for Senators; + +The Orator of the day, Hon. George Bancroft, at the table of the Clerk +of the House; + +The Chairmen of the Joint Committee of Arrangements, at the right and +left of the orator, and next to them the Secretary of the Senate and +the Clerk of the House; + +The other officers of the Senate and of the House, on the floor at the +right and the left of the Speaker's platform. + +When order was restored, at twelve o'clock and twenty minutes p.m., the +Marine band, stationed in the vestibule, played appropriate dirges. + +Hon. LAFAYETE S. FOSTER, President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, called +the two Houses of Congress to order at 12.30. + +Rev. DR. BOYNTON, Chaplain of the House, offered the following prayer: + +Almighty God, who dost inhabit eternity, while we appear but for a +little moment and then vanish away, we adore The Eternal Name. Infinite +in power and majesty, and greatly to be feared art Thou. All earthly +distinctions disappear in Thy presence, and we come before Thy throne +simply as men, fallen men, condemned alike by Thy law, and justly cut +off through sin from communion with Thee. But through Thy infinite +mercy, a new way of access has been opened through Thy Son, and +consecrated by His blood. We come, in that all-worthy Name, and plead +the promise of pardon and acceptance through Him. By the imposing +solemnities of this scene we are carried back to the hour when the +nation heard, and shuddered at the hearing, that Abraham Lincoln was +dead--was murdered. We would bow ourselves submissively to Him by whom +that awful hour was appointed. We bow to the stroke that fell on the +country in the very hour of its triumph, and hushed all its shouts of +victory to one voiceless sorrow. "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken +away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." The shadow of that death has +not yet passed from the heart of the nation, as this national +testimonial bears witness to-day. The gloom thrown from these +surrounding emblems of death is fringed, we know, with the glory of a +great triumph, and the light of a great and good man's memory. Still, O +Lord, may this hour bring to us the proper warning! "Be ye also ready; +for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." Any one of +us may be called as suddenly as he whom we mourn. + +We worship Thee as the God of our fathers. Thou didst trace for them a +path over the trackless sea, and bring them to these shores, bearing +with them the seed of a great dominion. We thank Thee that the +life-power of the young nation they planted, received from Thee such +energy, guidance, and protection, that it spread rapidly over the +breadth of the continent, carrying with it Christian liberty, churches, +schools, and all the blessings of a Christian civilization. We thank +Thee that the progress of the true American life has been irresistible, +because sustained by Thy eternal counsels and Thy almighty power, and +because the might of God was in this national life. We have seen it +sweeping all opposition away, grinding great systems and parties to +powder, and breaking in pieces the devices of men; and Thou hast raised +up for it heroic defenders in every hour of peril. We thank Thee, O +Strong Defender! And when treason was hatching its plot and massing its +armies, then, O God of Israel, who didst bring David from the +sheepfold, Thou gavest one reared in the humble cabin to become the +hope and stay of this great people in their most perilous hour, to +shield them in disaster and lead them to final victory. + +We thank Thee that Thou gavest us an honest man, simple-hearted and +loving as a child, but with a rugged strength that needed only culture +and discipline. Thanks be to God that this discipline was granted him +through stern public trial, domestic sorrow, and Thy solemn +providences, till the mere politician was overshadowed by the nobler +growth of his moral and spiritual nature, till he came, as we believe, +into sympathy with Christ, and saw that we could succeed only by doing +justice. Then, inspired by Thee, he uttered those words of power which +changed three millions of slaves into men--the great act which has +rendered his name forever illustrious and secured the triumph of our +cause. We think of him almost as the prophet of his era. Thou didst +make that honest, great-hearted man the central figure of his age, +setting upon goodness, upon moral grandeur, the seal of Thine approval +and the crown of victory. We bless Thee that he did not die until +assured of victory, until he knew that his great work was done, and he +had received all the honor that earth could bestow, and then we believe +Thou didst give him a martyr's crown. We thank Thee that we have this +hope for the illustrious dead. + +Great reason have we also to thank Thee that such was the enduring +strength of our institutions that they received no perceptible shock +from the death of even such a man and in such an hour, and that Thou +didst provide for that perilous moment one whose strength was +sufficient to receive and bear the weight of government, and who, we +trust, will work out the great problem of Christian freedom to its +final solution, and by equal law and equal rights bind this great +people into one inseparable whole. + +We thank Thee that the representatives of the nation have come to sit +to-day in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln's tomb, to express once more +their now chastened sorrow. May they all reconsecrate themselves to +those principles which made him worthy to be remembered thus, and then +a redeemed and transfigured land will be a fitting monument for him and +for them. + +Endow the President with wisdom equal to his great responsibilities, +that the blessings of a whole nation may also be given to him. May his +advisers, our judges, and our legislators, be constantly instructed by +Thee. + +May Thy blessing rest on the officers of the army and navy, by whose +skill and courage our triumph was won; upon our soldiers and sailors; +upon our people, and on those who are struggling on toward a perfect +manhood. + +Bless these eminent men the honored representatives of Foreign Powers. +Remember the sovereigns and people they represent. We thank Thee that +peace reigns with them as with us. May it continue until the nations +shall learn war no more. + +Remember Abraham Lincoln's widow and family. Comfort them in their sore +bereavement. May they be consoled to know how much the father and +husband is loved and honored still. + +Give Divine support to the distinguished orator of the day. May he so +speak as to impress the whole nation's mind. Prepare us to live as men +in this age should, that we may be received into Thy Heavenly Kingdom, +and to Thy name shall be the praise and the glory forevermore. Amen. + +Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, President _pro tempore_ of the Senate, in +introducing the orator of the day, said: + +No ordinary occasion could have convened this august assemblage. For +four weary years, the storm of war, of civil war, raged fiercely over +our country. The blood of the best and bravest of her sons was freely +shed to preserve her name and place among the nations of the earth. In +April last, the dark clouds which had so long hung heavily and gloomily +over our heads, were all dispersed, and the light of peace, more +welcome even than the vernal sunshine, gladdened the eyes and the +hearts of our people. Shouts of joy and songs of triumph echoed through +the land. The hearts of the devout poured themselves in orisons and +thanksgivings to the God of battles and of nations that the most wicked +and most formidable rebellion ever known in human history had been +effectually crashed, and our country saved. + +In the midst of all this abounding joy, suddenly and swiftly as the +lightning's flash came the fearful tidings that the Chief Magistrate of +the Republic--our President--loved and honored as few men ever were--so +honest, so faithful, so true to his duty and his country, had been +foully murdered--had fallen by the bullet of an assassin. All hearts +were stricken with horror. The transition from extreme joy to profound +sorrow was never more sudden and universal. Had it been possible for a +stranger, ignorant of the truth, to look over our land, he would have +supposed that there had come upon us some visitation of the Almighty +not less dreadful than that which once fell on ancient Egypt on that +fearful night when there was not a house where there was not one dead. + +The nation wept for him. + +After being gazed upon by myriads of loving eyes, under the dome of +this magnificent Capitol, the remains of our President were borne in +solemn procession through our cities, towns, and villages, all draped +in the habilaments of sorrow, the symbols and tokens of profound and +heartfelt grief, to their final resting-place in the capital of his own +State. There he sleeps, peacefully, embalmed in his country's tears. + +The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have +deemed it proper to commemorate this tragic event by appropriate +services. This day, the birth-day of him whom we mourn, has properly +been selected. An eminent citizen, distinguished by his labors and +services in high and responsible public positions at home and +abroad--whose pen has instructed the present age in the history of his +country, and done much to transmit the fame and renown of that country +to future ages--Hon. George Bancroft--will now deliver a discourse. + +Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT (who on coming forward to the Clerk's desk was +greeted with warm demonstrations of applause) then proceeded to deliver +the Memorial Address. + +The exercises of the day were closed by the following prayer and +benediction by the Rev. Dr. GRAY, Chaplain of the Senate: + +God of a bereaved nation, from Thy high and holy Habitation look down +upon us and suitably impress us to-day, with a sense that God only is +great. Kings and Presidents die; but Thou, the Universal Ruler, livest +to roll on thine undisturbed affairs forever, from Thy Throne. A wail +has gone up from the heart of the nation to heaven--O, hear, and pity, +and assuage, and save. We pray that Thou wilt command thy blessing now, +which is life forevermore, upon the family of the President dead; upon +the President living upon the Ministers of state; upon the united +Houses of Congress; upon the Judges of our Courts; upon the officers of +the Army and the Navy; upon the broken families and desolated homes all +over the laud; and especially upon the nation. And grant that grace and +peace and mercy from the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the +Father, and the fellowship of God the Spirit, may rest upon and abide +with us all, forever and ever. Amen. + +The Senators then returned to the Senate Chamber, and the President of +the United States, the orator of the day, and the invited guests +withdrew, the Marine Band, stationed in the amphitheater, performing +national airs. + +Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, after the House had resumed the +transaction of business, by unanimous consent, introduced the following +concurrent resolutions; which were read, considered, and agreed to: + +_Resolved,_ (the Senate concurring,) That the thanks of Congress be +presented to Hon. George Bancroft for the appropriate memorial address +delivered by him on the life and services of Abraham Lincoln, late +President of the United States, in the Representatives Hall before both +Houses of Congress and their invited guests, on the 12th day of +February, 1866, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for +publication. + +_Resolved,_ That the chairmen of the joint committee appointed to make +the necessary arrangements to carry into effect the resolution of this +Congress in relation to the memorial exercises in honor of Abraham +Lincoln be requested to communicate to Mr. Bancroft the aforegoing +resolution, receive his answer thereto, and present the same to both +Houses of Congress. + +These resolutions were transmitted to the Senate, where, on motion of +the Hon. Solomon Foot, of Vermont, they were considered by unanimous +consent, and concurred in. + + * * * + +In the Senate, on the 16th of February, Hon. Mr. FOOT stated that in +pursuance of the concurrent resolutions of the two Houses of Congress +adopted on the 12th instant, the chairmen of the joint committee of +arrangements on the memorial exercises of the late President of the +United States, Abraham Lincoln, had placed a certified copy of said +concurrent resolutions in the hands of Hon. George Bancroft, and had +requested of him a copy of his address on the occasion referred to for +publication, as would appear from the following correspondence, which +he moved be read, laid upon the table, and printed. + +As no objection was made, the Secretary read as follows: + +THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, + _February_ 13, 1866. + +SIR: We have the honor to present to you an official copy of the two +concurrent resolutions adopted by the Senate and House of +Representatives on the 12th instant, expressing the thanks of Congress +for the appropriate memorial address delivered by you on the life and +services of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and +instructing us to request from you a copy of the address for +publication. + +Having shared the high gratification of hearing the address, we take +pleasure, in accordance with the second of the concurrent resolutions, +in requesting you to furnish a copy of the address for publication. + +We have the honor to be, with very great respect, your obedient +servants, + +SOLOMON FOOT, + _Chairman on the part of the Senate_ + +E B. WASHBURNE, + _Chairman on the part of the House._ + +Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT. + + + +WASHINGTON, D. C., _February_ 14, 1866. + +GENTLEMEN: I have received your letter of yesterday and a copy of the +two concurrent resolutions of Congress to which you refer. The thanks +of the Senate and House of Representatives, for the performance of the +duty assigned me, I value as a very distinguished honor, and I shall +cheerfully furnish a copy of the address for publication. + +I remain, gentlemen, very sincerely yours, + +GEORGE BANCROFT. + +Hon. SOLOMON FOOT, + _Chairman on the part of the Senate._ + +Hon. E B. WASHBURNE, + _Chairman on the part of the House._ + +In the House of Representatives, Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, +made the same statement, and, after the correspondence submitted had +been read, the House ordered an edition of twenty thousand extra copies. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Memorial Address on the Life and +Character of Abraham Lincoln, by George Bancroft + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMORIAL ADDRESS--ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 26750.txt or 26750.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/7/5/26750/ + +Produced by Nick Tomaiuolo, Instruction Librarian at the +Central Connecticut State University Elihu Burritt Library. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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