Qass C---1 5 T 
 
 Book. 
 
 ~P V- e; 
 
EULOGY 
 
 ON 
 
 ^Irraltam Sintoln, 
 
 BY 
 
 / ^^ *< 
 
 ^^4^1 
 
 GEORGE W, BRIGGS, D. D. 
 
 JUNE I , 1865 
 
 WITH THE I'ROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL 
 ON THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 S A L E .M . M ASS. 
 1865. 
 
EULOG- Y 
 
 ON 
 
 g^braliam liEtjrlit, 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE W. BRIGGS, D. D. 
 
 JUNE f, 1865. 
 
 WITH THE TROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL 
 ON THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 S A L E M . M A S S 
 
 i><or). 
 

 GEOKGE \V. I'KASE, I'lintcr. 
 
CITY OF SALEM. 
 
 At a special meeting- ol" tlie City (\)nncil, called for 
 the purpose, April ITtli, iSGa, the Ma^'or comnmnicated 
 the decease of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the 
 United States, to the two branches in convention, as 
 follows : 
 
 (lEXTLEMEN OF THE CiTV CoUNCIL : 
 
 I have convened the City Council that you may manifest your sense of 
 the severe liereavement whioh has so suddenly fallen upon the couutrj-. 
 
 Amid the jubilant anthems of a loyal people, as the bow of promise and 
 hope was beginning to illumine the clouds that had darkened our country's 
 horizon, even while the dew-drops of pity were tempering to too lenient 
 mercy the policy of its kind hearted victim toward his deluded country- 
 men, the assassin hand that for four long years has been raised against 
 the national life, has stricken down in cruel nuirder tlie cliosen and 
 beloved Chief Magistrate of our land. 
 
 The earthly life of Abr.\ham Linooi.n is finished. The tears of a 
 grateful country are freely flowing to his memory, lie has gained all 
 that life can give. He has won his crown of immortality through that 
 sublime patriotism which gave to his country every throb of his pure and 
 tender heart. This most gigantic crime of modern history could only add 
 the crowning glory of the martyr to the spotless fame of the patriot, as 
 it laid his lifehtss body im his country's altar. lie has left a )>righter 
 
example and a more enduring lame than lias fallen to the lot of any other 
 man to leave since Washington illustrated his own life with those same 
 high moral elements of character, puritj' of purpose, incorruptible 
 honesty, tender humanity, and moral courage, which gave to Abraham 
 Lincoln that hold which he had upon the respect, confidence and affections 
 of the loyal people in all parts ot our land. He early learned and never 
 forgot the principles of the fathers of the Revolution on which they 
 luiilt the temple of liberty. Said he on oJie occasion : 
 
 '■ Now, my countrymen, if you have been inclined to believe that all 
 men are not (U'eated equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our 
 chart of liberty, let me entreat you to look back, — return to the fountain 
 whose waters spring close by the lilood of the Revolution. Think nothing 
 of me, take no thought for the political fate of any man whatsoever, but 
 come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. 
 You may do any thing with me you choose, if you will heed those sacred 
 principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may 
 take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to 
 earthly honors I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something 
 higher than anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and 
 insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing ; I am 
 nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal 
 emhlrni of hv manitij , — thr Drrlnration of Aincrirrni Independence.^' 
 
 Should we not be penetrated witii gratitude to God that these prophetic 
 words were not verified in his violent death until he had lived long enough 
 to interjiret truly that " iiniiiortal emblem of humanity," and to re-enact 
 its first principle by that immortal Proclamation which passed three mil- 
 lions of his ff^llow beings from a state of bondage, to one of unconditional 
 freedom . 
 
 As in the grand crisis of tlie Revolution, Providence raised up from the 
 humble walks of life one who should be the means of securing the blessings 
 of lilierty and independence, so, at a crisis of our country when unholy 
 lust of power and sectional injustice caused the Southern States to 
 forget the memory of the Father of his Country, and trample upon the 
 imperishable lessons of his Farewell Address, Providence from similar 
 humble station in life raised up Aliraham iiincoln as a partieular fnvorite 
 
5 
 
 t(. aHin.i and iv-ass.Tt tlw j»rinciplc8 nf Wahliiriirtoii in tli.' -..odiifhh and 
 .;,M-<-atntw of liis own life, and tu be the mean.suf .,'uidin.ir tlie country from 
 the verge of ruin till in this. His own good time, God has closed the 
 earthly career of the nohle .Man, the Christian Patriot,— the Saviour of 
 his Country. To the imn.<.rtal name of Abraham Lincoln the liomage of 
 every loyal American heart will be jmid. ft will not be forirotten solmtr 
 ns ijberty has a friend. 
 
 ■' All the euds lie aimed at 
 Were his Country's, his God's and Truth's." 
 
 But it is not the occasion nor is it lor me to in.lulge in lengthened 
 eulogy of our late lamented <'Iiief .Magistrate. 
 
 His funeral services are officially announced to take place at Washing- 
 ton at 12 o'clock noon, on AVednesday the 19th inst. The various 
 religious denominations throughout the country are invited by tl)e 
 Honorable Assistant Secretary of State to meet in their respective 
 places of worship at that hour, for the purpose of solemnizing th.- 
 occasion with appropriate ceremcmies. 
 
 Our sorrowing community will heartily co-operate with y..n in what<-ver 
 more formal expression of n-specf for th.- illustrious dead you may be 
 pleased to decide upon. 
 
 Whereupon the two Branches separated, and the Inllow- 
 ing Resolutions were unaninioiisly adopted; 
 
 Resok-ed,— That the City Council of Saleoj shares, wjth unfeigned 
 sensibility, the profound grief of the loyjil jieople of the i:nited States, 
 in view of the sudden death, by the hand of violence, of Abk.ui.vm 
 Lincoln, the honored and beloved < 'hief .Magistrate of our country. An 
 evtmt so impressive in itself, and accompanied by acts of such awful 
 i-rnninality , renders us more than ever .-onscious of the great and desiderate 
 character of the struggle from which our government is now just 
 emerging, and of the value of the precious sacrifices which have been 
 required of our people. We recogni/.e that in this inexpressibly sad and 
 fearful event not only was a patriotic, magnanimous, an.l admirable 
 magistrate stricken down in the hiirbest place of our land, but that the 
 
6 
 
 assassin'b blow was aimed at the country itself. In view of such i)(n-ils. 
 and sucli wickedness, it becomes all loyal people to renew their confidence 
 in the Divine Providence as leading and directing the cause of the nation, 
 and when the exultation of victory is suddenly changed into mourning 
 we may accept it as an admonition that there are still further trials and 
 duties before us, ere the blessings of a free and stable gov(>rnment shall 
 be perfectly secured. 
 
 Resolrrd, That tlie City Council recommends to the citizens that, m 
 accordance witli the suggestions of the Acting Secretary of State, they 
 assemble, on the day of the Funeral of President Lincoln, in their 
 respective houses of worship, for religious exercises, and that the Mayor 
 be reiiuested to cause such further notice to be taken of th<; solemn 
 occasiiin as he may deem suitable. 
 
 Resolved, That we extend our heartfelt sympathy towards Mrs. 
 Lincoln in her appalling sorrow, and to the members of her family. 
 
 Resolved, That the City Council regards the murderous and desperate 
 attack upon the Secretary of State with abh<n-rence and indignation, and 
 rejoices in the assurance that the assassin's blows failed of tlieir deadly 
 pui-pose. 
 
 Resolved, That the present occasion suggests the further duty of 
 acknowledging the lawful authority of Andrew Johnson, now President 
 of the United States, and of recognizing the loyal purpose, the patriotic 
 fidelity, the firm character and the eminent services which he has 
 contributed to the public cause. We pledge to him tlu' prompt, cordial, 
 and unhesitating support of the loyal people of Salem, and ofler him our 
 best wishes for success in the responsible and trying, but noble duty that 
 he has undertaken. 
 
 Resolved, That the two Chambers of the City Council be hung with 
 appropriate mourning drapery, for the space of thirty days ; and that 
 the members of the city government wear the usual badge of mourning 
 for the same period. 
 
 Resolved, That a coi)y of these Resolutions be sent to Mrs. Lincoln, 
 to the President, and to the Secretary of State. 
 
In City Council, April 24, 1865— An order was adopted 
 that a Eulog}' be delivered before the City Council on the 
 life and character of our late beloved Chief Magistrate, 
 Abraham Lincoln, and the Joint Committee appointed to 
 take requisite action invited tlie Rev. George W. Briggs 
 to pronounce the Eulogy at Mechanic Hall, June 1, 1865, 
 that day being designated by the President of the United 
 States as a National Fast Day. 
 
 In City Council, June 12, 1865, the following Resolves 
 were adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks oi tlie City Council be presented to the 
 Rev. George W. Briggs, for the Eulogy delivered on the character of 
 President Lincoln, and a copy of the same be requested for publication. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to the Rev. 
 Edward S. Atwood, for his services as officiating clergyman on the 
 occasion of the Eulogy on the life and services of Abraham Lincoln, late 
 President of the United States, delivered before the City Council of the 
 City of Salem, June 1, 1865: and also to the Arion Musical Club, for 
 the Musical Exercises performed by them on the same occasion. 
 
Salem, June I3ih, 18«5. 
 Ry,v. George W. Briggs, D. D. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 Pursuant to a Ilesolve of the City Council, a copy of 
 the eloquent Eulogy, delivered by you upon our late lamented Chief 
 Magistrate, is requested lor publication. 
 
 ^'ery respectfully yours, 
 
 JOSEPH B. F. OSGOOD. 
 
 Salem, June loth, 1865. 
 
 Hon. J. B. F. Osgood. 
 
 Mayor of Salem : 
 
 My Dear Sir,— In compliance with your re(iuest, 1 
 send you a copy of the Eulogy upon Abraham Lincoln, delivered before 
 the authorities of the City on the National Fast Day. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GEORGE W. BRIGGS. 
 
A D D li i: s s . 
 
 Mr. 3Iayor, and 
 
 Gentlemen, of the City Council: 
 
 It was most natural, and fitting, that tlie first 
 official proclamation of our present Chief Magistrate 
 should set apart a day for the commemoration of the 
 virtues, and the services, of his revered and nuirdercd 
 predecessor. Summoned so suddenly to take his place 
 amidst circumstances so tragic, and so unparalleled, 
 repeating the solemn oath of office by the unlturicd 
 form of this martyr to his country's cause, — sharing 
 in that love for him which thrilled every loyal breast, — 
 such an appointment was no formality, but an irre- 
 pressible impulse of the heart. 
 
 What Inaugural Address, indeed, could Andrew 
 Johnson have pronounced more appropriate, or more 
 significant, than an earnest, henrtfelt request to the 
 whole people to join with him in offering a tribute to 
 Abraham Lincoln's name? It is fitting that the 
 official representatives of tlie people, and the i»eople 
 2 
 
10 
 
 themselves, moved by a common reverence, should 
 meet in public assemblies, or around Christian altars, 
 for such a purpose to-day. We cannot bring back the 
 intense feeling of the first paroxysm of National grief. 
 When the terrible tidings of crime burst upon us, 
 darkening the world, in the words of Emerson, " like 
 the sudden shadow of an uncalculated eclipse," the 
 unknown depth of our love and trust w^as suddenly 
 revealed, and a sense of personal sorrow overwhelmed 
 us, almost as if we were standing by a father's bier. 
 Our previous love and reverence became tenfold more 
 deep and fervent through his martyrdom. For it 
 needed only that to give sacredness to the name which 
 had already become so dear ; and the assassin only 
 doomed himself to eternal infamy, while he enthroned 
 his victim in unfading glory. No truer tribute was 
 ever paid to purity and greatness than that spontaneous 
 outpouring of sorrow and affection on the Sunday after 
 the assassination. Smitten, pierced with anguish, the 
 nation bent at its altars beneath a passion which the 
 consoling, triumphant promises of that Easter morning- 
 had scarcely power to calm. 
 
 No Sabbath stillness ever e(iualled the solemn hush 
 of feeling on the day of the funeral rites. No official 
 request was needed to secure its appropriate observ- 
 ance. Affection outran all official intinuitions, and 
 
11 
 
 young and old, opponents and friends, the citizen 
 everywhere scarcely less than the freedman wlio 
 greeted the fallen President as a savior, hastened to 
 pour out the costly, the priceless offering of their 
 reverence. That was the one day, indeed, without a 
 parallel in all our liistory, — a day divinely appointed, 
 and liallowed, in a people's love. 
 
 We cannot repeat that unecpialled tril)ute. Nor 
 would we revive that all absorbing grief even if we 
 could. We shall honor Abraham Lincoln most, not by 
 idle lamentations at his loss, but by a devotion to our 
 country, generous, self-forgetful as his own. But he 
 cannot be forgotten. While our hands are pledged to 
 his work, our hearts will linger by his grave. Indeed 
 liis character both deserves and bears our closest study. 
 Clothed in such perfect simplicity, challenging no 
 applause, l)oth its majesty and its beauty so uncon- 
 sciously worn, we find it putting on new brightness 
 under our loving, yet careful scrutiny. 
 
 No occasion consecrated to his memory can ev(M- bo 
 a formal service. His name is one of the few, Iho 
 immortal names that were not born to die. His Came 
 is not simply American, but European also, rx.lli 
 Continents are one in words of Eulogy. More than 
 hair a (•(Mitiiry after the dcaih ol' Washington, the 
 
12 
 
 Prince of Wales, with his attendant nobles, stood 
 with uncovered heads at his tomb. To-day the people, 
 the scholars, the legislators, the peers, the Queen of 
 Ensrland herself, hasten in reverence to Abraham 
 Lincoln's new-made grave. Foreign tributes to his 
 qualities as a man and as a magistrate, to his 
 intellectual strength and his moral greatness, to the 
 purity of his purpose, the dignity of his aims, the 
 splendor of his success ; vie with our own offerings of 
 love. Eulogies drop from the most eloquent lips in 
 imperial councils. Not only do these almost universal 
 recognitions of his worth make ample and generous 
 atonement for all the abuse at first heaped upon his 
 name ; but those of us who have loved him longest, 
 and revered, confided in him most, find them true to 
 the deepest cravings of our admiration and our love. 
 " Next to Washington," standing " on a pedestal from 
 which he cannot be taken down," "animated by noble 
 sentiments which make us proud of belonging to 
 human nature;" — these words, and such as these, 
 spoken in Europe's different tongues, have been 
 echoed back across the sea. The country loved and 
 honored him, and all the world learned to give him 
 almost equal love and honor— and had the telegraphic 
 wire been laid beneath the ocean to tremble with the 
 tidings of sorrow on the instant of his murder, England 
 and France, and Russia, and Italy and Switzerland, 
 
13 
 
 empires and kingdoms, — tlir civilized world, — ^.joining 
 with the republic, would have given fitting and 
 simultaneous recognition to his funeral rites. 
 
 I think of no parallel to this sudden and almost 
 nnivei-sal reverence. If language now is tasked 
 abroad and at home to speak his eulogy, only a brief 
 time ago it was exhausted to invent terms of obloquy 
 and of derision. What has wrung respect from 
 Europe, and conquered the world's ojnnion, and 
 prompted nu'U to recognize him as a peer with kings? 
 What is the enduring basis of his fame ? What is his 
 place in our history, and in the world's history, the 
 place which he will hold by that noble manhood which 
 shames all imperial titles, not only in the judgment of 
 to-day, but of coming time '/ 
 
 Here are questions which cannot be fully answered 
 even by the wisest of his cotemporaries. Indeed, 
 unaffected, transparent as he was, the absolute 
 embodiment of true simplicity, it is not easy to sketch 
 the character of Abraham Lincoln, or nnviMJ the 
 hidings of his power. Thrown upon his own resources, 
 compelled to work his own way in boyhood and in 
 manhood, educated l)y no human teachers, bnl 
 unfolding his own native endowments alike of mind 
 and heart amidst tiie rudest privations of tlie 
 
14 
 
 Western pioneer, while he swung his axe studying as 
 a faithful scholar in the great school of God, he 
 developed into a new type of greatness alike as a man 
 and as a magistrate. He presents an original 
 character in the list of rulers, in the drama of history, 
 as little to be measured by our common standards as 
 that of Washington. 
 
 It is easy in the first glance at his life to discover 
 beautiful and attractive qualities. His good nature 
 was unaffected and boundless. He was genial as the 
 sunshine. When he spoke, his plain features became 
 illuminated by his native kindness of heart, and his 
 eye beamed with love. He was absolutely void of all 
 assumption ; as simple at the height of power as in 
 the depth of early poverty. Still higher traits were 
 natural to his heart. His honesty and fairness were 
 proverbial. His manliness and courage, his heroism 
 to admit his own mistakes, or accept his just responsi- 
 bility ; his conscientious loyalty to his own convictions 
 of right and duty, were undisputed. His patience 
 increased under difficulties ; his toleration amidst 
 opposition. He seemed incapal^le of passion, or 
 resentment. Jefterson Davis spoke of him only with 
 reviling and abuse ; yet it was a frcrpient practice 
 with Mr. Lincoln to attempt to put himself in Davis's 
 point of view, in order to understand, and if possil)le, 
 
15 
 
 to palliate, what he iiiiist inexorably comleiiin. No 
 words are adequate to describe his freedom I'roni 
 vindictiveness. Amidst uiii)aralleled provocations he 
 displayed an unsurpassed, if not unequalled magna- 
 nimity. No more forgiving s})irit has ever lived since 
 the divine prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do," — first fell upon human ears ; 
 and with words of kindness even for the rebel leaders 
 upon his lips at the meeting of the Cabinet a few 
 hours before his nmrder, — with the spirit of that 
 divine prayer glowing in his heart, he went from that 
 Council to his martyrdom. 
 
 God endowed him Avith a nature as broad as the 
 prairies of his own adopted State, spontaneously 
 blossoming with all kindly graces, even as those 
 prairies bloom with the beauty of countless flowers. 
 And the stern tests to which his character was exposed 
 addcil to every native gift a new strength and clianii. 
 The moral heroism which made him refuse to follow 
 the pernicious custom of treating his constituents when 
 elected to the Legislature of Illinois in 18o4, inspired 
 him to say in 18G1, that he could not " count the 
 chances of his own life" in attemi)ting to preserve 
 the institutions of his country, — and that "-he would 
 rather be assassinated on the spot than surrender the 
 priiicii»les of liberty;" and lo declare, in 18(»o, 
 
16 
 
 " While I remain in my present position, I shall not 
 attempt to retract, or modify the Emancipation 
 Proclamation ; nor shall I return to slavery any person 
 who is free by the terms of that Proclamation, or by 
 any of the Acts of Congress." 
 
 The honesty which won for him confidence at first, 
 inspired the nation with ever-deepening trust, and gave 
 to his words " the authority of a vote." The gentle- 
 ness and kindness native to his heart developed into a 
 humanity alive to every phase of suffering, compas- 
 sionate to every form of guilt, — immortalizing itself 
 at last by sundering the fetters of the slave. Few 
 men have displayed such winning qualities, — more 
 rarely still have they been blended together with 
 such completeness and harmony. Absolute sincerity 
 and a surpassing shrewdness, the deepest love of 
 humor and the profoundest earnestness, simplicity and 
 strength ; an unmatched gentleness, and a martyr's 
 firmness, mingled together, not to moderate but rather 
 to enhance each other,— to make each separate gem 
 seem still more beautiful ;— while the whole Ijecame 
 a diadem such as it has seldom been given to men to 
 wear. 
 
 It was inevitable that the people of his State, 
 amona; whom he moved in such cliildlike simplicity, 
 
17 
 
 should recognise his genuine manhood, and make him 
 a Captain in their brief Indian war, a representative 
 in tlie Legislature, and in the National Congress ; the 
 standard bearer of his party in that great t-unass for 
 the Senate between himself and Mr. Douglas which 
 first gave him national fame. It was not strange that 
 one who knew him should have said in the Presidential 
 Convention, "I Avould give ten thousand dollars if I 
 could speak ten minutes in favor of Abraham Lincoln. " 
 The nation hardly knew his name until he was 
 nominated as its chief magistrate. The enthusiaslic 
 acclamations of his friends wakened feeble echoes. 
 But the nation soon divined his worth when he stood 
 before them so patient, yet so persistent, " so un- 
 dismayed by disaster, so sober in success, so moderate 
 in provocation, so merciful in victory," so heroic in 
 devotion and in heart, — and bore him triumphantly a 
 second time into the Presidential chair. The people 
 honored him in liis life, and followed in one long 
 procession, with gratitude and tears, as he was liorne 
 (roui city to city, far across imperial states, to liis 
 forever honored grave. 
 
 We must hasten to other thoughts. The leading 
 ([ualities of his intellect shone out as clearly as the 
 winning traits of his character. He had the niosl 
 perfect common sense ; a remarkable sagacity and 
 
18 
 
 clear-sightedness. He was eminently logical, grasping- 
 principles, and following them with most honest and 
 courageous thought to their legitimate conclusions. 
 His views were broad and comprehensive, as well as 
 clear. Ho had a wonderful ability in separating the 
 vital point at issue from all extraneous questions, and 
 presenting it in absolute simplicity of speech or with 
 a homely aptness of illustration, more irresistible than 
 the most labored argument. Out of his boundless 
 resources of story and of anecdote he would bring the 
 unanswerable illustration to solve the great questions 
 of statesmanship, and to overwhelm ingenious 
 sophistries, with a skill as unerring as that b}^ which 
 Grant moves a division to the exact point to pierce 
 the enemy's line and turn the tide of battle, or Farragut 
 conquers the difficulty of the hour by the inspiration 
 of his courage and liis genius. Whatever might be 
 liis theme he spoke in the people's native tongue, and 
 great questions became as clear to their understanding 
 as his sincerity was persuasive to their heart. What 
 we call genius may be more brilliant, but nothing is 
 really greater than this. Only a strong mind can 
 gain such perfect mastery of its theme both in thought 
 and speech. Mr. Lincoln often manifested a mental 
 insight which seemed like intuition ; an insight 
 almost akin to genius, to which indeed an English 
 critic has unhesitatingly given that noble name. 
 
19 
 
 Here was one great source of his power in that long 
 debate with Mr. Doughis, — and it enabled him so 
 triumphantly to bear his lance against his trained and 
 skilful adversary, that Mr. Douglas's immediate 
 Senatorial success ensured his future defeat, and his 
 own temporary defeat secured his final victory. 
 
 The leading qualities of his intellect might indeed 
 be readily seen ; but its depth, its real superiority 
 were seldom recognized. He was criticised as slow iu 
 thought. Impatient men heaped abuse upon hiiu 
 because he did not keep pace w^ith them. Tiiis 
 apparent slowness of his intellect came from liis 
 perfect fairness. He must examine and weigh every 
 possible objection, scrutinize every argument on either 
 side, undermine, if possible, the foundation of every 
 doubt, before he gave an absolute decision, lie was 
 not the advocate to give himself without reserve to his 
 favorite theory, but the judge, to decide according to 
 the sovereign necessity of the hour ; according to 
 imunitablc and eternal justice. He listened to otliers' 
 opinions with a readiness, a deference, that often made 
 men question his mental decision. l>ut tlioui^h he 
 seemed to kindle his torcli from every man's caudle, it 
 burned with no borrowed light. He was thoroughly 
 real ; thinking out every solution for himself; as truly 
 original in his conceptions and his statements as in 
 
20 
 
 his character. Advisers suggested and counselled, 
 but his conclusions and his measures were his own. 
 With no assumption of power he had his own way, 
 and no President was ever more truly the head of 
 his own Administration, alike in the country and the 
 cabinet. He was neither moulded nor overshadowed 
 by the master intellects around him. His clear pene- 
 tration, his f^uaint and homely wisdom, matched their 
 diplomacy and statesmanship, compelling respect 
 where opinions differed, and constraining them to 
 recognize him as their peer. 
 
 But we can speak of his intellect only in connection 
 with his moral nature. The root of his greatness is 
 found in his honesty and single-heartedness, his 
 unselfishness, and his religious trust. Here were the 
 reasons why the truth shone into his mind without a 
 cloud. The purity of his purpose illuminated, 
 inspired his intellect. The single eye was full of 
 light. It was not strange that his mind had a 
 judicial character. No sinister aims, no personal 
 ambitions or resentments biased his decisions, or 
 dimmed his mental sight. Little as we think so, the 
 first law of mental soundness is purity of heart. 
 Truth mirrors itself in the open and guileless soul, as 
 the sky reflects itself in the still and crystal lake. 
 The fear of the Lord is not only the beginning, but 
 
21 
 
 the end of liuuian wisdom. That spirit wliich encom- 
 passes all human hearts Hows into tlie souls that seek 
 its light, and give it free admission, to counsel and to 
 guide in the great hours of duty, in the solemn 
 exigencies of earthly states. Here seems to me the 
 only true solution of the fact that Mr. Lincoln so 
 wondrously divined his way to the ends which others 
 sought by the arts of statesmanship. 
 
 If there is a Providence in history, compelling man 
 to execute its purposes, there is a Providence in the 
 conclusions and the deeds of those who only seek to be 
 the servants of its will I trace his mental greatness 
 and his moral grandeur alike to this. Thus it was 
 that he gained a sagacity and soundness of judgment 
 even in respect to military matters that will give to 
 some of his letters to successive Generals a lasting 
 interest and fame. The wisdom of his modest sug- 
 gestions, and deferential criticisms, in the course of 
 the peninsular campaign, has l)een vindicated by 
 events. The magnanimity of his lett(>r to Grant 
 after the capture of Vicksburg will give it immorlal 
 honor. Brothers indeed do they seem, ))ound together 
 in simplicity of purpose, in magnanimous recognition 
 of every noble service, as well as joined together 
 for all coming centuries as the great leaders in thf 
 nation's hour of victory. Here was the foundation of 
 
22 
 
 his loyalty to great convictions of right and duty. 
 Single-hearted in his devotion to duty, moral dis- 
 loyalty was an impossibility. This loyalty indeed 
 scarcely seemed a special resolve, or even a conscious 
 purpose, but rather the accustomed garb, the habit of 
 his noble nature. His earnestness sprang from the 
 same inspiration. For he Avas a profoundly earnest 
 man. His sportiveness was only the relaxing of the 
 bow which was tightly strung. " I must have recre- 
 ation or I die," were his touching words ; and he was 
 right. That cry of his burdened spirit might well 
 move us both to admiration and to tears. God fitted 
 him to bear his majestic work by giving him this love 
 of humor which refreshed and reinvigorated his worn 
 and jaded thought. The truest humor is often found 
 in connection with the deepest seriousness in the 
 history of literature and genius ; and those who moved 
 men at one hour to laughter, at the next could melt 
 them to tears. His sportiveness was on the surface, 
 seen even by those who could see little else. The 
 artist who painted his portrait in the picture of the 
 Signing of the Proclamation, tells us of the habitual 
 seriousness worn upon his features. We may imagine 
 the pathos of those furrows which responsibility Jind 
 care ploughed into his face. But no man imagines, no 
 one beneath the heavens knows the agony of earnestness 
 with which he asked himself at times whether he could 
 
23 
 
 lie iiuleed responsible for the uwiul bloodshed ol" these 
 terrific battles, as he nerved anew his s[>irit, senile 
 as a woman's, to its stern ;ind Pr<nidential task. 
 
 This conscientious earnestness made him invincibly 
 liriii. If he seemed to decide with difficulty, it was 
 <»idy the natural and noble hesitation of one who knew 
 that he should never turn back. Superficial decisions 
 may be lightly and quickly made. The immutable 
 purpose is born in the patience, even the agony of 
 thought. Mr. Lincoln's earnestness and firnniess 
 were full of moral beauty. Jackson said, " The 
 Union must be preserved, and treason must be 
 crushed;" Lincoln said, "I have an oath registered 
 in heaven to delend and maintain this Government." 
 One was the outburst of patriotism joined with an 
 imperious will. The other was the true heroic utter- 
 ance of the martyr spirit. 
 
 The foundation of Mr. Lincoln's greatness was in his 
 moral nature. Here is an explanation of his policy, 
 as well as the solution of his life. Recognizing a 
 Providential guidance which it was his single aim lo 
 follow, what could he do but shape his course by the 
 logic of events ? Seeking to serve, not himself, bnl 
 his country, humanity, God, — it was for him to keep 
 his ear intently open to the teacliings of that Provi- 
 
24 
 
 clenco, to interpret, and if possible to execute its 
 divine decrees. It was this that kept him so hopeful 
 amidst defeats, and so humble in victory. Defeat 
 was only a transient check to principles whose final 
 victory w\as sure. Success was not the triumph of 
 his wisdom, Ijut of God's truth and cause. And here, 
 once more, is the reason why he became truly great 
 amidst the exigencies of the time. It is no dis- 
 paragement to him to say that his opinions became 
 modified and ennobled in the terrible experience of this 
 national strife. That is historic fact. Instead of 
 detracting from his superiority, it redounds to his 
 honor. Power enlarged his views, and brought out 
 all the graces of his nature. He made mistakes. 
 Perhaps his kindness sometimes overcame the de- 
 mands of justice. But mistakes were redeemed by 
 his honest purpose, outgrown by his advancing 
 thought. He was placed amidst difficulties and 
 responsibilities unsurpassed in history, and he was 
 capable of learning the solemn lessons of this crisis 
 in the fortunes of the race. He rose to the full 
 demands of the grand hours of Providence. A man 
 of selfish theories, of will, of passion, would have 
 been blind alike to their vital issues, and their 
 sublime instructions. The receptive spirit, the 
 simple, believing, heroic heart, put on dignity and 
 strength for its majestic work. 
 
26 
 
 It is not strange that the world did nut recognize 
 his greatness at first. It was the discipline of events 
 that nnfolded the golden capabilities of his natnre, 
 and displayed its rich resources, its hidden wealth. 
 Thus it was that the unpractised writer, widcninu in 
 thought as he grew more reverential in s[iirit, 
 penned a brief speech at Gettysburg, which, in the 
 words of one of our Ibreniost thinkers, " will not 
 easily be surpassed by words on any rcciu'ded 
 occasion," — and bequeathed to us his last Inaugural 
 Address, which has been pronounced in Kngliind — "a 
 state paper, that for political weight, moral dignity, 
 and unaffected solemnity, has had no e(|ii:il in our 
 time." Noble as he certainly was when he Id't his 
 home in Springfield, asking in such simplicity for 
 the prayers of his friends that he might be di^ inely 
 assisted in his work ; — he was nobler still on his 
 martyr day, ripened for the reverence of centuries. 
 Neither he nor any othci- man could at first foresee how 
 great his work would be, nor what measures of [tolicy 
 would be demanded lor its fulfilment. His greatness 
 lay in the fact that ho kept so true and \)uro tlial 
 those prayers for which he asked could be rcalh 
 answered ; so true and pure that he gained wisdom 
 and strength to perform the work, and fulfd the trusts, 
 of his own place and hour. History is full oi' lailunv-^. 
 Only the royal few^ wear an unfading crowu. A 
 
26 
 
 new name is now placed in that royal company — the 
 name of one " weighed in the balances and not found 
 wanting," — to be hailed, in the coming time, alike 
 for the mental greatness and the moral grandeur 
 which it represents, with a truer, deeper homage than 
 it wins to day. 
 
 We must leave the picture of Abraham Lincoln's 
 character, although so incomplete, to glance at his 
 public service. Measure him by the qualities of his 
 mind and heart, by the singleness of his life, and he 
 wins our admiration. Measure him by the simple 
 grandeur of his aims in the administration of the 
 Government, and by the splendor of his success, and 
 admiration deepens to reverence, and breaks out into 
 thanksgiving. I think that by preeminence he had a 
 Statesman's aim, and did a Statesman's work. It has 
 often been said that he was not a leader, — that he 
 had no distinct political policy, no clearly defined 
 political ideas. He was not a leader in the sense in 
 which that word is usually applied to the chiefs of 
 parties. But he had a political creed, — simple, clear, 
 American ; a creed which was itself an inspiration. 
 He stated it in Independence Hall, when he said, " I 
 never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring 
 from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of 
 Independence. It was not the mere matter of the 
 
27 
 
 separation of the Colonies from the mother huul that 
 kept this Confederacy so long together, but that 
 sentiment in the Declaration which gave liberty not 
 alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the 
 world, for all future time ; which gave promise, that 
 in due time, the weight would be lifted from the 
 shoulders of all men." 
 
 Grasping the vital idea of the nation with such 
 distinctness, re-incarnating in himself the original 
 genius of the Government, he saw that the existence 
 of slavery was a solecism ; and that its extension, and 
 consecration, its nationalization by congressional legis- 
 lation, and judicial decrees, were absolute apostacy and 
 profanation. How nobly he kept that political laith ! 
 When in Congress in 1849, he asked for Emancipation 
 in the District of Columbia, and voted forty-two times 
 for the Wilmot proviso. In the canvas with Mr. 
 Douglas in 1858, he said, "A house divided against 
 itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot 
 endure permanently, half slave, and half free. It 
 will become all one thing, or all the other." When 
 he went to Washington in 1861, he proposed to save 
 the country on this basis of its original principle of 
 liberty. 
 
 I said he had a statesman's aim. What is states- 
 
28 
 
 manship for America but a cumpreheiisiuu oi', and 
 fidelity to, the fundamental principles of American 
 nationality, and American life ? Abraham Lincoln 
 was statesmanlike in his aims, and statesmanlike in 
 their execution. He was as wise in action, as he was 
 noble in theory. He desired never to transcend his 
 own power, or to violate the liberty of the States, in 
 his attempt to preserve, protect, and defend the 
 Government, and to bring it back, if possible, to its 
 original principles. He could not take the oath of 
 ofhce to get power, and break the oath in using the 
 power — even to indulge his primary, abstract judgment 
 on the moral (juestion of slavery. But when it 
 became a military necessity in the judgment of the 
 loyal men of the country, and of his own conscience, 
 he struck it down by Executive power. Sublimely 
 he bore himself while he patiently waited for what 
 would seem to him God's chosen hour. He never 
 wavered in his loyalty to liberty. He took no 
 backward step. 
 
 Orators, statesmen, in less dangerous days, in the 
 Senate, and in the country, one by one, had (juailed 
 before the rising arrogance of the slave power. In 
 the crisis of the country's agony he said respecting 
 it, "Broken by it ? I may be asked to bow to it. 
 I never will. The prol)ability that we may fail in 
 
20 
 
 this struggle is not to deter us from supporting a cause 
 which we deem to be just. It shall not deter me. 
 If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to 
 those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty 
 Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my 
 country deserted by all beside, and I standing up 
 boldly and alone, hurling defiance at her oppressors. 
 Here, without contemplating consequences, before 
 high heaven, and in the lace of the world, I swear 
 eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the 
 land, of my life, my liberty, my love." Noble words ; 
 nobly spoken, and still more nobly kept. Slavery 
 could murder him, but it could not bend him. 
 
 Steadily he watched the necessities and indications 
 of the hour, with his ear intent to catch the accents of 
 Providence, and his hand upon the public heart, till 
 God's time, man's true opportunity, clearly came, and 
 he issued his Proclamation of Emancipation. It has 
 been said that he came to it reluctantly. The 
 reluctance did not arise from a feeble love of liberty, 
 but from his conscientious questionings respecting his 
 own official power. The Proclamation itself was the 
 embodiment of his life-long faith. The spirit of the 
 signers of the Declaration, living within liiiii always, 
 moved him (o take his pen and write words iuiiiKulal as 
 their own. Never was he so manifestly an instrument 
 
30 
 
 in the Almighty's hand as then. The Prochimation 
 was one of the great acts of statesmanship. It 
 paralyzed European hostility, and made foreign 
 intervention impossible. It made the millions of the 
 colored race loyal even to death. More truly than 
 Vicksburg, or Gettysburg, or Atlanta, it decided the 
 issue of the war. But it was more than statesmanship. 
 It was one grand step towards the Christianization of 
 human government, and the civilization of the race. 
 Fitly has it been said that it gives its author a place 
 in universal history. That " Brutumfulmen^'' as it 
 was termed in contempt, was a thunderbolt of God, 
 striking down the most gigantic wrong, purifying 
 the world's atmosphere, heralding serener skies for all 
 lands, and the most distant time. 
 
 i 
 
 Abraham Lincoln mastered the problem committed 
 to his hands. He felt that he was acting not merely 
 for a single hour, but for all time. The question for 
 decision was, — " Whether this nation, or any nation, 
 conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
 that all men are created equal, can long endure." 
 "Must a government," he perpetually asked himself, 
 " be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or 
 too weak to maintain its own existence?" He 
 summoned the slumbering war powers of the Consti- 
 tution to defend its existence, and establish its 
 
31 
 
 sovereignty. He used them so manifestly with ;i 
 single eye to this supreme necessity, that he did not 
 infringe on the people's liberties. 
 
 We have passed through no revolution during this 
 tremendous strife, ))ut repelled one. The outbreak of 
 civil war was only the last act of a drama which 
 opened half a century ago in the demoralization of 
 the public mind in respect to slavery ; whose 
 development has gone on through every shifting 
 scene of parties, carried forward as truly by the 
 connivance and concessions of the North as by the 
 increasing arrogance of the South, till the Institution 
 which was once condemned as evil, was exalted as 
 divine ; and the idea of human equality, which gave 
 the nation birth, was scouted by judicial decree ; and 
 treason to national traditions and national ideas, 
 became treason in arms, to deluge the land in a sea 
 of l)lood. 
 
 Julian, the Apostate, a little less than two years 
 upon the throne, attempted to re-establish Paganism in 
 the place of Christianity as the religion of the Roman 
 Empire. Happily the Apostates of to-day, attempting 
 a revolution almost as monstrous, never gained the 
 throne to establish slavery in the place of liberty. 
 Thanks, we sjiy, a thousand fold, that they did not 
 
gain it, when we contrast the Apostate Emperor's 
 virtues with the worse than Pagan cruelty, and bar- 
 baric crimes of slavery. 
 
 Al)raham Lincoln neither inaugurated, nor ac- 
 complished a resolution. That would have justified 
 resistance Ijoth South and North, till resistance became 
 despair. He stood against a causeless attempt at 
 resolution, as became the Chief Magistrate of a State ; 
 doing nothing, even according to the unfriendly 
 judgment of the Lon(k)n Times, "to aggravate the 
 quarrel, and everything to shorten it, or prevent it," 
 but when treason drew the sword, vindicating the 
 original and fundamental ideas of the Republic. 
 
 The only change in our organic law, made not by 
 the sword, but by Constitutional process, is in the 
 adoption of the glorious amendment prohibiting 
 slavery everywhere beneath the flag ; a change which 
 only embodies in positive enactment the purpose and 
 wish of the fathers of the nation ; what they hoped 
 to have seen accomplished before they went to their 
 graves. It is an amendment which at once gives freedom 
 to the slave, and secures freetlom to the free. In the 
 demoralization of national feeling' for almost half a 
 century, it has been with this Government as with 
 those immortal pictures whose matchless beauty was 
 
33 
 
 those immortal pictures whose matchless beauty was 
 covered with figures conceived by a corrupt imagina- 
 tion, and drawn by degenerate hands. To Abraham 
 Lincoln it was given to erase the base and demon 
 shapes, and restore to view the original, divine work 
 of genius. It has been with us as with the old 
 Jewish people, who once buried their original law from 
 sight, until its rediscovery by one of their purest 
 kings seemed a new revelation to the corrupted nation. 
 
 Take away the name of Conservative from those 
 who have usurped it, and give it to this true ruler just 
 laid in his grave, to whom it rightfully and preemi- 
 nently belongs; to him who re-established our original 
 law, and re-united the nation in its glorious covenant 
 of liberty. Every American exults in the wonderful 
 development of military power during these years of 
 strife. These patriot armies have accomplished what 
 old world generals and rulers pronounced impossible. 
 Leaders have been trained for great achievements both 
 upon land and sea, which will enrol their names among 
 those of the great captains ol' liistury. 
 
 But I do not chiefly honor Abraham Lincoln for the 
 
 triumphant military success which gives lustre to his 
 
 administration. I hon^r liiiii wlio brought back our 
 
 original faith, re-awakening tlie spirit, re-enthroning 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 the ideas in which the nation had its birth. Honor to 
 him, who, in old prophetic words, was " the repairer 
 of the breach," — nay, the destroyer of the breach, 
 by compacting us together into a true nationality of 
 liberty, — who was " the restorer of paths to dwell 
 in." Honor to him to whom it was given to realize 
 his own ideal ; to establish the truth which lovers of 
 liberty waited for in expectation, and kings waited for 
 in fear, — that a "government of the people, by the 
 people, for the people," may be as strong, as 
 permanent, as the eternal truth on which it rests. 
 We repeat the phrase wdiich unconsciously drops 
 from all men's lips, and call him "a providential 
 man." We needed a man who never had a feeling, 
 " politically, that did not spring from the sentiments 
 contained in the Declaration of Independence," to 
 come in the spirit and might of our early faith, as the 
 old piophets came in degenerate days, in the spirit of 
 the true and God-given law. We needed a man of 
 the people to vindicate the people's* cause ; a man 
 with intellectual shrewdness and power to master the 
 problem of the time, to match the wit of diplomatists, 
 to compel the respect of princes, but "whose pulse 
 twinned with the people's pulses," and whose hand 
 was linked with theirs at every step. 
 
 Even the traits wliich have been criticised fitted 
 
him to inoct the exigency of the time. His apparent 
 slowness kept liim in sympathy with tin; popular 
 thought. The lenity which seemed mistaken kindness, 
 a Ibrgetl'ulness of justice through the plentitude of 
 love, not only preserved his own name free from stain, 
 but saved us from vindictiveness, and made our record 
 pure before the world's watching eyes. Thank God, 
 there has been one civil war in history in which 
 the Ijarbarity belongs to one side of the strife. His 
 very mistakes, so magnanimously admitted, so soon 
 outgrown, only served to deepen confidence in the 
 thoi-(nigh rectitude of his nature. 
 
 Truly as the character of Washington was tlio Ixmd 
 of Union in Revolutionary times, making it a historic 
 fact that the nation was kept one by his influence, 
 and inhered for a time in his person, so truly has 
 the character of Abraham Lincoln been a bond of 
 Union now. No one else could have so perfectly 
 united the people. He never lost his faitli in tlie 
 nation's cause, and the nation never lost its faith in 
 ///?/? oven in the darkest liour. 
 
 It was sometimes said that we wanted a dictator. 
 We had one. We did not want a dictator a Her iho 
 pattern of a Cicsar. No French Emperor of to-day 
 can re-establish Ciicsarism in public opinion, citlier l»y 
 
36 
 
 his sword or pen. That phase of dictatorship is fast 
 becoming obsolete. We did not want a Cromwell 
 who should drive a refractory Parliament out of their 
 seats. We wanted a man whose spirit should embody 
 all the gentleness of the highest Christian civilization, 
 but who still had an oath registered in heaven to 
 uphold, at whatever cost, the sacred cause of liberty ; 
 a man who should exercise a practical dictatorship by 
 the simple majesty of truth and character. Was ever 
 man more truly every inch a President ? He had a 
 purpose as fixed as the soul of Hampden or of Crom- 
 well. He had an influence in the Cabinet, and in 
 the nation, working often noiselessly, unseen as the 
 forces of nature, yet like them causing the public 
 heart to gravitate towards the single noble end he 
 perpetually served. 
 
 Honor every noble service on the field. Honor 
 every faithful soldier of our patriot armies. But 
 while you look here, or there, to eulogize brilliant 
 deeds, honor also the silent power of this rare mind 
 and life, steadily, patiently working, to compact us 
 into a nationality of liberty. The younger Hallam 
 said, " I believe the Bible to be God's book, because 
 it is man's book, and fits into every fold of the human 
 heart." I believe Abraham Lincoln to have been a 
 providential man, because he fitted into all the needs 
 
37 
 
 oi* this national exigency witli an adaptation in»t 
 otherwise explained. So true was he to his trust, 
 that we give to him the praise. So suited was he to 
 his work, that we give to God the glory. 
 
 With a character so rich, and a service so grand, 
 what is his place in history ? Shall we compare him 
 with others in order to make his greatness manifest f 
 Look at him for a moment in contrast with Davis, the 
 Cataline of modern days, leaving the Senate stung by 
 denunciations from Andrew Johnson as patriotic and 
 indignant, if not as classic, as those by which Cicero 
 drove Cataline from the Senate of Rome. Contrast 
 the spirit of the two just before the beginning of 
 the war. Abraham Lincoln says, " Li my view of 
 the present aspect of alfairs, there need be no 
 bloodshed or war. There is no necessity for it. I 
 am not in favor of such a course ; and I may say in 
 advance, that there will be no bloodshed unless it be 
 forced upon the government, — and then it will be 
 compelled to act in self-defence." Jeiferson Davis 
 exclaims, — " The time for compromise is past, and 
 we are now determined to maintain our position, and 
 make all who oppose us smell Southern gunpowder, and 
 feel Southern steel." The words of one are those of 
 the Christian patriot, as gentle as he was undismayed 
 and true. Tlmse of tlic other are the fiery spccdi ol" 
 
38 
 
 the traitor, already ripening into the baseness which 
 would consider nothing dishonorable that " struck at 
 the heart's blood of his enemies." 
 
 Contrast the triie gentleman with the Mse, — one, 
 homely in speech, often, perhaps, uncouth in man- 
 ners, but capable of bearing himself with a grace and 
 dignity which prompted Edward Everett to praise, 
 speaking regally at Gettysburg, according to Gold- 
 Avin Smith, and m;untaining always that matchless 
 courtesy that flows from purity and gentleness of 
 heart ; the other, polished in utterance, courtly in 
 bearing, but capable of starving prisoners, — with 
 grace of manner glossing over barbarity of soul. 
 Compare the Puritan and tlie Cavalier as they re- 
 af)pear among the actors of the hour, — the one losing 
 all the sternness of the Puritan, but retaining all his 
 faith and heroism, all that made up his consecrated 
 greatness ; the other, observing all the formalities of 
 liturgies, but imperious in will, scorning, trampling 
 upon the lowly in his indomitable pride. 
 
 Compare them still once more. One walks tlie 
 streets of Richmond, lifting his hat in reverence, in 
 unutterable joy, as he receives the greetings of the 
 freedmen who hail him as their Savior, and hears in their 
 exulting shouts the first outpourings of the unending 
 
39 
 
 benedictions which they will hc;ip upon his name. 
 One is ascended now, already welcomed into everlast- 
 ing habitations by those whom he lifted to the dignity 
 of manhood, or made friends by the noble use of 
 power during their earthly lives, but wdio had passed 
 on before ; by the martyrs to liberty of whom he 
 spoke as so nobly dedicating the field of Gettysburg, 
 and a hundred other scenes of patriotic daring. The 
 other is confined in a dungeon ; his name [i derision ; 
 Avhile, if imagination and conscience fulfil their office, 
 the lusterless faces of those who sank into idiocy, the 
 skeleton forms of those who perished under the fiendish 
 starvation which he suffered the prisoners to endure, 
 will haunt his thoughts in every w^aking hour, and 
 torture him with avenging dreams. Leave the traitor 
 to his memory, and his fate. We wdll not look dowu 
 into hell. We need no such contrast to show Abraham 
 Lincoln's claim to iuimortal honor. No spirit more 
 quickly than his, indeed, would have looked across 
 the gulf between himself and his fiercest foes, and 
 parted with his honors in order to save even the 
 traitor souls. But not even his inexhaustibl(> mag- 
 nanimity can save them from the terrible judgment of 
 history. 
 
 Unrol the list of patriots ior a nutnieiit, and 
 compare him with those who held the same jdace of 
 
40 
 
 power. Will you put him by the side of Jackson, 
 patriotic in every pulse, but imperious ; a democrat 
 in theory, but an autocrat in spirit ? Will you stop 
 at the name of Jefferson, republican in principle, but 
 aristocratic in education and in taste ? Go back to 
 Washington, enthroned above them all by the verdict 
 of the race. You place Lincoln's portrait lower than 
 that of Washington in this hall to-day. In coming 
 days their portraits shall hang side by side, to symbol- 
 ize the equal glory of their names, the kindred 
 fellowship which their spirits have already found. 
 Washington Ave revere. Abraham Lincoln we love. 
 One was the father of his country. The other was its 
 deliverer, with the added glory that belongs to the 
 liberator of the slave. We disparage no other man 
 to enhance his honor. Thanks that America is so 
 rich in unfading names. The world is rich in 
 glorious ones. Scarcely has a single month ever 
 given two nobler names to immortality than those of 
 Abraham Lincoln and Richard Cobden. We commit 
 Abraham Lincoln's fame to the judgment of the future 
 without a question respecting its decision. And if 
 any thing could enhance the lustre of that verdict it 
 would be his martyr death. There was a dramatic 
 fitness, and a dramatic completeness in his life. It 
 was fitting that a child of the people should vindicate 
 and uphold the government of the people in the 
 
41 
 
 decisive trial of its power. He has re-possessed 
 every stolen fort, and precisely finished the work 
 which he first proposed. The anthems of victory 
 were sounding in his ear. He was withdrawn when 
 his star touched the zenith, where it shall remain 
 fixed forever. Among the noblest in aims, he was 
 also among the most successful of men. He had 
 compacted the shattered State so firmly together, that 
 even his own murder, trusted, leaned upon as he was, 
 produced no jar, and the power passed into the hands 
 of another child of the people, competent to meet the 
 work that awaits him, to vindicate the majesty of 
 law, to assure the victory of liberty. 
 
 In this judgment day of the nation, the teudeiicies 
 of systems, — the secrets of the heart have been 
 revealed. As has been truly said, we have learned 
 that a democracy is not fickle, nor vicious, nor cruel, 
 but firm and strong ; and that a people bravo, self- 
 sacrificing and free, is mightier in arms than one 
 equally brave, or equally self sacrificing, but not free. 
 The true character of these clashing civilizations has 
 been exposed. The civilization of justice and liberty 
 has vindicated its humanity, keeping the heart (tf the 
 people kindly and generous, as well as brave, amidsl 
 the unparalleled, and unutterable barbarities of this 
 traitorous war. The civilization wliidi worsjiijis 
 
 
42 
 
 slavery has exposed its vital spirit too. The chivalry 
 that men once honored, " tempered the fierceness of 
 a former age with gentleness. The chivalry of the 
 South infused savage fierceness into this nineteenth 
 century humanity." These were men who have 
 l)lackened their names by unutterable crimes. But 
 the power which they served, beginning with a con- 
 tempt for human right, brutalized both its upholders 
 and its victims, and by its logical results, led on 
 to the adoption of worse than barbaric weapons to 
 secure its ends. A striking picture represents the 
 assassin, with his pistol in his hand, looking upon his 
 unsuspecting victim, while a demon shape stands 
 behind him reaching out his finger to prompt him to 
 fire the murderous shot. Slavery is the fiend which 
 has stood behind its defenders, who more even than 
 the bondmen themselves are its victims, prompting 
 with demon finger to assassinations, to the starving 
 of prisoners, to the butchery of wounded men on 
 the field of battle, to the burning of cities, to the 
 unloosing of the pestilence. By an unerring logic the 
 ideas which men serve finally work out their sublime, 
 or their damning results in character and life. Liberty 
 has vindicated itself to-day. It needs no argument, no 
 plea for its defence. Slavery has unmasked itself. It 
 needs no other indictment to secure for itself eternal 
 infamy. Not alone from fidelity to the principles 
 
43 
 
 which gave the nation birth, not alone from compas- 
 sion for the bondman, but from love for those whose 
 faith in liberty it had blotted out, even when it had 
 not yet accomplished its brutal and barbaric work 
 upon the character, we will expel slavery i'rom 
 every state or territory beneath our flag, that it may 
 never more pollute a single foot of soil, or curse 
 another soul. What the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence declared in immortal words, the banner shall 
 re-announce forever by its glorious and multiplying 
 stars. We will build our martyred President's truest 
 monument, — a nation re-baptized and consecrated by 
 the principles which were his own continual inspiration. 
 States, society itself, must be re-constructed in tlie 
 interest of liberty. The spirit of the Mayflower, not 
 of the slave ship, is to rule this continent. Punishing, 
 disfranchising the few, but pardoning the many, we 
 are ready to welcome back the returning prodigals 
 with a true and unrestricted love. But they must 
 come back in penitence, renouncing the harlot of 
 slavery, swearing unreserved allegiance to the divine 
 law of liberty. We will commit the government of 
 traitorous States to none but loyal hands. Disloyalty 
 shall no longer corrupt our politics, or profane our air. 
 If it shall attempt to accomplish through the ballot 
 box what it has failed to accomplish by the sword, 
 then, alien as it is to our wishes and our purpose, let 
 
44 
 
 military power retain its sway till loyalty is secure. 
 Henceforth we are not to have the statesmanship, or 
 rather the apostacy from statesmanship, which com- 
 promises the ideas of liberty. In those undying words 
 at Gettysburg, this nation is " dedicated to the prop- 
 osition that all men are created equal." The earth 
 is the Lord's, and all its kingdoms should be his ; but 
 this Continent, at least, shall politically acknowledge 
 the Golden rule. Asserting the rights of manhood for 
 all men, it shall assure to all men the privileges of 
 manhood. The spirit of caste shall be swept out of our 
 hearts, even as the word slavery is to be swept out of 
 our statute books. The black man, helping us in revo- 
 lutionary times to establish the government, and in 
 these traitorous days to save it — his soul white with 
 loyalty, brave unto the end, shall enjoy the privileges 
 partly purchased by his heroism and his blood. The 
 hand that uses the rifle must cast the ballot for liberty. 
 Whatever limitations there may be in the exercise of 
 suffrage, we shall put away the sacrilege that recognizes 
 the distinction of color, nationality, race. I do not fear 
 these problems of statesmanship. Events will give 
 the nation wisdom and skill to solve the problems of 
 days of peace as of war. The Republic will train up 
 its leaders and statesmen out of its" humblest homes in 
 the future as in the past. Our fathers' God has been, 
 and will be, our God forever. This is no day for poll- 
 
45 
 
 ticians, who, now that doctrines of liberty have boeonic 
 national, hasten to serve them as they once served 
 the behests of slavery, because that is the way to 
 place and power. We want no money-changers in 
 this temple of freedom and of God. We want 
 men consecrated to liberty, as our heroic soldiers 
 consecrated themselves to their country, — as he was 
 consecrated whose name we honor to-day, and shall 
 honor forever. We register our oath in heaven to that 
 self-consecration. We love our country all the more 
 since she has passed through these purifying fires ; 
 since " every drop of blood drawn by the lash has 
 been paid by another drawn by the sword ;" since we 
 can hope for, and have a country still more worthy 
 of undying love and honor. Prosperity, greatness, 
 dominion, will come with justice and with liberty. 
 When, in Abraham Lincoln's golden words, " With 
 malice toward none, with charity for all, with rirui- 
 ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, we 
 strive to finish the work we are in, to bind u[) the 
 nation's wounds, to care for liini who shall have borne 
 the battle, ami lor his widow and his orphans, to do 
 all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
 peace among ourselves and with all nations," — we 
 shall have built his best and grandest monument; one 
 conferring upon ourselves the truest honor, lo stand 
 as the sublimest testimony to his eternal laiiio. 
 
46 
 
 Department uf State, 
 Waskin<jton, May 27, 1865. 
 
 Stephen P. Webb, Esq., 
 
 City Clerk of Salem, Mass., 
 
 Sir : — 1 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
 of" a copy of certain resohitions, adopted by the City Council of" Salem, 
 Mass., on the occasion of the assassination of the late President of the 
 United States, and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State. 
 The sentiments so eloquently expressed in these resolutions, and the 
 testimony they bear to the elevated character of the late Chief Magistrate, 
 are fully and gratefully appreciated. 
 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 W. HUNTER, Acting Secretarv. 
 
47 
 
 (irbcr of (L'vcr rises 
 
 AT MECHANIC HALL, SALEM, JUNE 1, 1865. 
 
 * EULOGY by Kev. Oeokce W. Bbigus, D. D. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SERVICES by Rt-v. Edward S. Atwood. 
 
 MUSICAL EXERCISES by the Ahion Cub, M. Fesollosi, Conductor. 
 
 I. MOTET. 
 
 •• Aliniglity Lord ln-t'on- tliy tlirono," — \V. M. 15vrn-es. 
 
 II. READING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Sei.E( Ti().\.s : — .Joel i. -J, 3. 2 S;iiii. i. I'J. Jor. xlviii. 17.. I 'I'licss. 
 ii. 1— 11. J.)l) xxix. 11—17, 21, t';3. 1 Corinth, iii. 10. -J Tim. 
 iv. 7, 8. Josli. xxiii. 14. SClnoii. xvi. 14. 2 Kings xxiii. 3(1. 
 2 Cliroii. xxxii. 33. 
 
 III. PRAYER. 
 
 IV. HYMN, y>y Kkv. Jone.^ \'erv. 
 
 God I wiio dost the nations lead, 
 Tliougli oft in ways to them nnI<uown ; 
 
 To Thee we look, in this our n(;ed, 
 A suppliant people seek thy throne. 
 
 For he, whom thou ditlst raise to ^uide. 
 
 Has fallen hy the assassin's hand ; 
 In Tliee alone would we confide 
 
 To guard, to guide, to save our land. 
 
 Til rough ])erils groat, fi-oni year to year. 
 
 Thou liasr thus far our natic^n 1)rouglit ; 
 And o-ivon the victory to cheer, 
 
 And, hy our Chief, deliverance wrought. 
 
 Witli earnest jn-ayer he sought thy will. 
 
 In all tlie great events of life ; 
 And nobly did his work fulfil, 
 
 Througli four long years of Moody strife. 
 
 (), lift us u]) in this sad liour, 
 
 Let not our Country's foes prevail; 
 Sustain us Ity thy mighty power, 
 
 lict not to U8 thy promise fail ! 
 
 .May .Justice, Jiilnrty, and Peace, 
 
 For which liis lili' he freely gave. 
 Bless all our land ; and never cease 
 
 Td shed their ^-lurv round liis i^rave. 
 
^ 
 
 « 
 
 48 
 
 V. EULOGY. 
 
 VI. HYMN, by A. C. GooDELL Jk. 
 
 O Thou who givest life 
 
 And takt'st it again ; 
 Who, as a father lovingljs 
 
 O'er all mankind dost reign ; 
 Our refuge and protector when 
 
 The King of kings was slain, — 
 
 In this our time of grief 
 
 And douht we come to Thee ! 
 Thou only eanst assuage our woe ; 
 
 And, from thy throne, we see 
 That, in the things we chiefly doubt, 
 
 There is no mystery. 
 
 If we did never turn 
 
 Away from thy dear face, 
 If we did never faithless grow 
 
 And loosen thy embrace. 
 Then doubt and fear would never find 
 
 In us a dwelling-place. 
 
 Then, through the deepest gloom 
 
 That ever shrouds our way. 
 Our hearts would never faint, — our eyes 
 
 Would never miss the ray 
 Which, like the rising morning-star. 
 
 Heralds the perfect day. 
 
 Trusting thy sovereign will. 
 
 Confiding in thy care, — 
 As knowing that Thou kinder art 
 
 Than earthly parents are. 
 And that Thou lovest whom Thou call'st 
 
 The cruel cross to 1)ear, — 
 
 Then we should cease to mourn 
 
 For them — the good and wise — 
 Whcmi Thou dost set on eartii to be 
 
 A liglit unto our eyes, 
 But whom, in thy good time. Thou tak'st 
 
 To shine in paradise. 
 
 VII. BENEDICTION.