Glass. 
 Book. 
 
i"n 
 
 :~> > u 
 
 THE DEATH 
 
 OF 
 
 IU)£ai)am Lincoln. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE 
 
 <Dn tftc Scat!) 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 BY SETS SWEETSER, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CKNT1IAL CHUI:CII. 
 
 (JBorccstcr, fHassadjusctts. 
 
 MDCCCLXV. 
 
E45-] 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, 
 
 Sixteenth President of the United States, 
 
 Died on the 15th of April, A.D. 1805, 
 Aged 5(3. 
 
 £ Ir.it magnattimitg tlr.it neither fr.irrtli greatness of altcv.uioii, nor the bicfos of 
 conspirators, nor the potucr of rncmn, is more than hcroical." 
 
WORCESTER, MAY 8, 1805. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 The Congregation of the Central Church in this city 
 greatly desire to preserve and perpetuate your Discourse in commemoration 
 of the Death of our revered President, Abraham Lincoln. They have, 
 therefore, this clay commissioned us, the undersigned, to request of you a 
 copy for the press. In preferring this request, as we now do, we desire to 
 express, for ourselves and for the congregation, our conviction that the 
 Discourse is eminently entitled to a place among the permanent memorials of 
 our great national bereavement. Trusting that you will grant this request, 
 
 We remain, with great respect, 
 
 Your friends, 
 
 CHAS. E. STEVENS. 
 THOMAS H. GAGE. 
 P. EMORY ALDRICH. 
 C. M. MILES. 
 G. HENRY WHITCOMB. 
 The Rev. Setii Sweetsee, D.D. 
 
 WORCESTER, May 10, 1S65. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 In compliance with your request, I send you the manu- 
 script of my Discourse preached on Sunday, the 28d of April last. 
 
 With acknowledgments of your continued regard, 
 
 Your friend and Pastor, 
 
 S. SWEETSER. 
 
 Messrs. Charles E. Stevens, Thomas n. Gage, P. Emory Aldrich, 
 C. M. Miles, G. Henry Whitcomb. 
 
AND THE KING SAID UNTO DTIS SERVANTS, KNOW YE NOT THAT 
 THERE IS A PRINCE AND A GREAT MAN FALLEN THIS DAY IN 
 
 ISRAEL ? 
 
 2 SAMUEL, III. 38. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 TO keep in memory, and to review with gratitude 
 and honor, the lives of men conspicuous for 
 great services, has the sanction of the universal judg- 
 ment of mankind. In so doing, the goodness which 
 would be ephemeral is embalmed ; the examples 
 worthy of perpetual imitation are kept as ever-burn- 
 ing lights in the darkness of the world. It is thus 
 History adorns her temple with noble statues, and 
 fills her archives with the choicest wisdom of the 
 ages. It is thus that prophets and kings, benefactors 
 and holy men, being dead, speak on from generation 
 to generation, and the righteous are in everlasting 
 remembrance. 
 
 A prince and a great man has fallen, and a grateful 
 people will establish his memorial: they will enrol 
 his name with the illustrious benefactors of the world, 
 and treasure his deeds amongst the worthiest tradi- 
 tions that are handed down to after-times. The 
 
(i 
 
 thrill of horror which shot through the nation on 
 the morning of the fifteenth of April, though some- 
 what abated in its force, still vibrates in the hearts 
 of afflicted millions, and has left an impression which 
 a lifetime will not obliterate. In the stroke which 
 deprived the country of its Chief Magistrate, malice 
 has done its utmost. The malignant spirit of treason 
 and conspiracy culminated in a crime hitherto un- 
 known in our annals. The records of despotic gov- 
 ernments have often been stained with like atrocities ; 
 for despotism is itself a violence and a felony against 
 human nature ; and the atmosphere of tyranny breeds 
 the malicious passions which revel in murders. This 
 awful instance of insane depravity is but another 
 crime, born of the same mother whose hideous 
 offspring have filled the land. Treason, rebellion, 
 and war, the unnamed and unnumbered inhumanities 
 which have transcended all the supposed horrors of 
 war, are not the growth of free institutions, but 
 of that disregard of human rights which claimed 
 slavery as essential to the highest social condition. 
 The same spirit, which, for its own ends, assailed the 
 life of the Ilepublic, has now struck by the hand of 
 the assassin the chief and the leader of the nation. 
 The magnitude of the crime excites us with feelings 
 of the utmost horror: the bereavement afflicts us 
 with the deepest grief. A nation mourns as nations 
 have seldom had occasion to mourn : a whole people 
 
weeps as they only weep who have loved. How deep 
 and strong the love, no one knew until it was told in 
 the wailing and lamentation which sounded through 
 the land, from one end of it to the other. And yet, 
 as the violence of sorrow subsides, we find the sharp- 
 ness of the affliction modified by rare satisfactions. 
 God has added an exalted name to the roll of the 
 honored dead in our country's history, and enlarged 
 our annals with a new chapter crowded with great 
 events, and deeds of lasting renown. The man who 
 has fixed our attention and inspired all our hopes 
 more than any other, and into whose hands the 
 destiny of the future seemed to be given, has in a 
 moment passed away. Who will say that his life- 
 work was left incomplete ] Who will say that he 
 had not done for himself, for his country, and for 
 mankind, all that was given him to do \ He had 
 reached a height of power, a security of public con- 
 fidence, a depth and universality of affection, seldom 
 gained by rulers. He had seen the dawn of an era 
 towards which, with a single eye and an intense gaze, 
 he had been looking, — for which, with almost super- 
 human persistency and courage, he had been strug- 
 gling. He ascended the mount where he could see 
 the fair fields and the smiling vineyards of the prom- 
 ised land. But, like the great leader of Israel, he 
 was not permitted to come to the possession. His 
 vigor was not diminished. His natural strength was 
 
8 
 
 not abated. His sun never declined. His day knew 
 no evening. He departed at the noontide hour, in 
 the zenith and full blaze of his glory. The beautiful 
 language in which the Senate of the United States 
 communicated to John Adams the death of Wash- 
 ington, may with propriety be applied here : " The 
 scene is closed, and we are no longer anxious lest 
 misfortune should sully his glory : he has travelled to 
 the end of his journey, and carried with him an 
 increasing weight of honor : he has deposited it safely 
 where misfortune cannot tarnish it, where malice can- 
 not blast it." 
 
 An accomplished life is a great thing. There is, 
 indeed, a charm in a life rounded out with its full 
 term of years, and closing with the serene light of 
 a quiet evening. But life is estimated by its pur- 
 poses and their fulfilment. And when a man's day 
 has been crowded with great events, and God has 
 given him the post and the honor of directing the 
 currents of destiny to beneficent ends, and that has 
 been done, what higher idea can we have' of life ? 
 It is true, our hopes are disappointed. We walk 
 and are sad, as were the unenlightened disciples on 
 their way to Emmaus. We trusted that it had been 
 he which should have redeemed Israel. May not the 
 revelations of the future satisfy us as the disciples 
 were satisfied? May we not find yet, that all our 
 loftiest and most cherished expectations arc realized I 
 
It is not unnatural for us to be filled with dread, 
 when the swift revolution of the great wheel sud- 
 denly takes out of our sight the objects on which our 
 eyes have dwelt with fondest desire. We never see 
 much at a time. The chain which binds in fixed 
 succession all events, exhibits to us but a few links. 
 We see neither the beginning nor the end. The 
 chain is not broken because we lose sight of the con- 
 nection. The great procession goes on under the eye 
 of the Lord of the whole earth. All down the cen- 
 turies of time, and on through coming generations, 
 not a break occurs. Steadily onward, not by a blind 
 necessity, but under the control of an omnipotent 
 will, goes forward the march of events with unerring 
 certainty, till all is finished. And, as at the begin- 
 ning, so in the end, the Creator will look upon his 
 work ; and, behold, it is very good. And, when the 
 problem which now perplexes us shall have been 
 worked out in all its parts, the whole troubled scene 
 will present to the comprehension of the human 
 mind an orderly and beneficent arrangement, fully 
 justifying the ways of God. 
 
 The elevation of Mr. Lincoln to the chief magis- 
 tracy was a pregnant event. It opened a new era. It 
 was the first distinct and effective utterance of the reviv- 
 ing life of the nation. Whatever were the judgments 
 of the hour, — and they were various, — whatever 
 its hope or its fears, the result has demonstrated that 
 
10 
 
 it was the hinge on which the destiny of the country 
 was turning. The malice with which the change was 
 met has been one and the same in quality and tone 
 until now. The menace of the beginning has shaped 
 and charged all the violence and outrage which have 
 filled the intervening period with the darkest atroci- 
 ties, and which have at length reached the limit of 
 our conception of crime against the State. Such a 
 series of years, like all revolutionary epochs, cannot 
 but be crowded with momentous events. The chief 
 actors are invested with extraordinary responsibilities, 
 with the high privilege of controlling the mighty 
 issues at stake, and determining the welfare to be 
 secured in the struggle. 
 
 Such were the circumstances and such the position 
 in which the President was called to discharge the 
 duties of his office. That he had a singular fitness 
 for it is now the universal judgment, notwithstanding 
 many suspected or perceived deficiencies. Indiscrimi- 
 nate eulogy and indiscriminate censure are alike dis- 
 tasteful and unjust ; but we should be ungrateful to 
 God not to acknowledge his goodness in appointing 
 and qualifying such a man for the burdens and perils 
 of this service. His honesty of purpose amid abound- 
 ing dishonesty was a lustrous virtue. His self-for- 
 getf ulncss, at a period when selfish ambition had 
 shamed patriotism into obscurity, was a rare jewel. 
 His childlike simplicity, which exposed him to many 
 
11 
 
 a jeer, was a fresh illumination in the surrounding 
 darkness of intrigue and policy. His very ignorance 
 of state-craft and artifice was as charming as the 
 frankness and ingenuousness of youth in the crowd 
 of hardened and deceitful men of the world. His 
 acknowledgment of God was a gleam of hope in the 
 days of unreasoning trust in material prosperity. 
 With such qualities of heart he could not be a patriot, 
 without being a sincere one ; he could not bend his 
 energies to subserve the interests of his country, with- 
 out a firm hand and a single eye. Many doubted, 
 many feared: some were utterly faithless and hope- 
 less. And for such feelings, it may be, there were 
 grounds not altogether unreasonable ; for he was a 
 new man, girding himself to a new enterprise. He 
 had yet to demonstrate his capacity, and to show, in 
 the hardest conflict of the most tempestuous times, 
 his competency and quality. The faint outlines and 
 foreshadowings which in the outset inspired hope 
 have been deeply drawn and filled in to the admira- 
 tion of his countrymen, and so as to secure, we doubt 
 not, the approving judgment of a dispassionate pos- 
 terity. 
 
 Napoleon was fond of calling himself the child of 
 Destiny. Abraham Lincoln was the child of Provi- 
 dence. An undevout philosophy might say that he 
 was the pupil of events, sagaciously detecting the 
 clew, and then implicitly following the thread. We 
 
12 
 
 had rather say, that he sat a learner under the teach- 
 ings of God, in his providence and his word, and 
 waited patiently to learn God's will and the path of 
 duty ; and, when that will was known, and the path 
 opened, no man was more prompt to do the one or 
 enter the other. This, if I mistake not, was one of 
 the distinctive features of his character. For he was 
 not a man, as I apprehend, of remarkable intuitions, of 
 comprehensiveness of view, and penetrating forecast. 
 He did not stand amongst statesmen where Lord 
 Bacon stood amongst philosophers, detecting great 
 principles in their germs, and jotting down the 
 synopsis of the world's thought ages beforehand. 
 He did not stand in public affairs where Newton stood 
 in the realm of nature, seizing, with an almost pro- 
 phetic insight, the great laws which determine the 
 vast cycles of celestial movements in their absolute 
 harmony. In the combined qualities of the states- 
 man and general, he can hardly rise to the eminence 
 of William the Silent, whom he so much resembled, 
 in the life-work he performed as a national deliverer, 
 in the nobleness of his character, in the piety of his 
 sentiments, in the tenderness of his heart, and, more 
 than all, in the cruel death he suffered. He seems 
 not to have been gifted with that keenness of sight 
 which outruns observation, and with a glance detects 
 and follows out the certain connection between pres- 
 ent causes and future consequences. His mind was 
 
13 
 
 of another order, not perhaps of a lower order ; for 
 all true greatness is not of one quality. He was 
 prone to watch the currents as they were passing ; to 
 eye the development as God opened it in his provi- 
 dence ; to trust the hand which guided events, and 
 wait till it beckoned him onward ; to learn his lesson 
 day by day, and to be satisfied, as Cromwell was, to 
 do in the day the duty of the day. Such a course 
 exposed him to the charge of hesitation and waver- 
 ing. He sometimes seemed to be the victim of igno- 
 rance and indecision. He was not rapid enough for 
 an impatient people. He was not rash enough 
 for enthusiastic partisans. But this very hesitation, 
 this holding back till the way opened and the duty 
 was ascertained, was his insurance against fatal errors. 
 It would be presumptuous to say that he committed 
 no faults. It would be unjust not to say, that, in 
 view of the fearful complexity of affairs, the untried 
 scenes of his action, the lack of precedents, and his 
 own inexperience of the burdens of government, 
 his mistakes were as few and as venial as could 
 reasonably be expected from a short-sighted mortal. 
 That he was ever betrayed by malice, blinded by 
 passion, or instigated to doubtful measures by self- 
 seeking or personal ambition, his enemies would 
 scarcely be willing to affirm. 
 
 In the letter addressed to Congress by the conven- 
 tion which framed the constitution of the United 
 
14 
 
 States, submitting the constitution to the considera- 
 tion of that body, and bearing the signature of Wash- 
 ington, are these words : "In all our deliberations . . . 
 we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us 
 the greatest interest of every true American, — the 
 consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our 
 prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national exist- 
 ence." 
 
 One could hardly select more appropriate language 
 in which to describe the avowed aim of the adminis- 
 tration which has so suddenly terminated. It is the 
 leading idea in the entire series of the President's 
 efforts. Whether or not he was too exclusively 
 devoted to this purpose, and whether or not he was 
 wise in all the measures he adopted in attaining it, it 
 was, beyond any question, his great aim. He looked 
 upon the Union with an ardor and sincerity of affec- 
 tion, with a self-denying patriotism, and with a single- 
 hearted devotion, which would not have dishonored 
 the chief heroes of the Revolution. To the consoli- 
 dation and perpetuity of the Union, and the resulting 
 welfare, he made every thing subservient. He did 
 not at once see all that was necessary. And this is 
 one of the brightest features in his career, that, as 
 the elements essential to unity and prosperity were 
 evolved from the confused and conflicting mass of 
 judgments, opinions, and political dicta, he fearlessly 
 accepted them, and firmly applied them. Upon the 
 
15 
 
 all-important question of emancipation, he seemed at 
 first to be unsettled, — not from a deficiency of kind 
 and humane feelings, — but from the lack of a clear 
 discernment as to right and duty under the constitu- 
 tion. But he was a willing learner. He was a sure 
 learner. He studied. He observed. He pondered. 
 He weighed the great question as a ruler, with the 
 solemn responsibilities of the high trust upon him ; as 
 a man, with all the moving instincts of a loving and 
 tender heart : and as a ruler, sure of his duty, he 
 spoke the disinthralling edict, when multitudes still 
 doubted : as a man he rejoiced in the glorious prospect 
 of a race emancipated from a bondage more cruel 
 than the grave, and elevated to the privileges of man- 
 hood and the opportunity of respect and honor. This 
 progressive enlargement of view was characteristic of 
 him. He rose with the tide of events. He was never 
 before his day ; perhaps it is just to say he was never 
 behind it. He kept well up with the line of time ; and, 
 when the emergency came, he was ready. No man, in 
 the opening of the conflict, understood it. No mind 
 conceived of the magnitude and strength of the occa- 
 sion. The rapid developments of the war have kept 
 all thoughts upon the stretch. Whoever was ham- 
 pered by precedents, and confined to the old measures 
 of things, was necessarily left far in the rear of the 
 advancing column. Under a pressure" so resistless, 
 and exposed, almost of necessity, to be pushed onward, 
 
16 
 
 it indicates no ordinary firmness and discipline to 
 have been able to advance, step by step, under the 
 guiding force of internal conviction and intelligent 
 determinations. Such I believe to be the measure of 
 praise due to Mr. Lincoln. If any man was exposed 
 to the utmost rush of the current, he was. If any 
 man was liable to be forced out of course by the 
 whirls and eddies of the boisterous stream, he was. 
 Amid the tumultuous feelings of the hour, and under 
 the disparaging influence of nearness to the chief 
 events, we may be unable to discern the full credit 
 he deserves, in so manfully persisting in duty, and 
 so gloriously leading the country through the fierce 
 ordeal of civil war. When history shall be written 
 calmly and impartially, the strong features will come 
 out in bold relief. Then the wisdom, the firmness, 
 the humanity, the faith, of our lamented President will 
 furnish the portrait of a ruler which will not lose 
 lustre in the presence of Aurelius, Alfred, Orange, or 
 even of Washington. If the statue of George Wash- 
 ington fills, by unanimous consent, the first niche in 
 the Pantheon of illustrious worthies, will not that of 
 Abraham Lincoln fill the second 1 
 
 It would be enough for the largest desire, and for 
 fame, to have administered well the affairs of the 
 nation under the ordinary reign of peace and pros- 
 perity. But to have achieved success amid dismem- 
 bering revolutionary struggles, and the convulsive 
 
17 
 
 agitations of a ruthless and gigantic rebellion, pressed 
 with all the ferocity of unscrupulous war, is the high- 
 est renown. The world will admire the measure of 
 wisdom which marked his decisions in council, when 
 the profoundest minds were held in suspense, or divided 
 in judgment. We take an enthusiastic pleasure in 
 the heroism which gallantly pursues the path of speedy 
 victory, and is always elate with triumph. But there 
 is a deeper tone of gratification in witnessing such 
 persistent endurance as we have seen in our leader, 
 which did not falter under defeat, or grow faint in 
 the hour of disaster, or despond when trusted agents 
 proved inefficient, and selfish loyalty threatened to 
 withdraw its support. With the accumulated obsta- 
 cles which beset so vast an enterprise, with the vary- 
 ing fortunes attending it, amidst the willing doubts 
 and disparaging coldness of foreign powers, under all 
 the intense provocations with which a merciless cruelty 
 in the enemies of the Government provoked him, to 
 have maintained a firm and steady course, uniformly 
 considerate, undeviatingly humane, unfalteringly ener- 
 getic, and rising ever and always to higher views and 
 more distinct results, and pressing onward with in- 
 creasing and resistless strength to the hour when 
 victory crowned the whole with its cheering light, is 
 an achievement to be ranked with the most illustrious 
 deeds of the brightest names in the world's record. 
 But this is drawing faintly, and only in outline, the 
 
18 
 
 character and the renown which future history will 
 portray in fulness of detail, and with a depth and 
 harmony of coloring demanded by so extraordinary a 
 subject. 
 
 It should not be presumed, that the process by 
 which the higher character to which I have alluded 
 was attained, depended merely on a clearer intel- 
 lectual understanding, or was carried forward by the 
 ordinary steps of experimental and instructive effort. 
 Mr. Lincoln was pre-eminently a practical man. His 
 upward progress, from an humble and unprivileged 
 early position, had been accomplished by a settled 
 determination to comprehend what he assumed to 
 know, and to understand what he attempted to mas- 
 ter. He had no mind for abstractions and theories ; 
 but, studying in order to gain the power to do, and at 
 once applying the principles he settled, his life was a 
 perpetual augmentation of strength, and an enlarge- 
 ment of capacity to discharge incumbent duty. 
 Nevertheless, in the manifest elevation of feeling and 
 thought which he exhibited in his public career, other 
 elements were developed. Very evidently, there was 
 all along an education and an exaltation of the senti- 
 ments of the heart. There was more in his thought- 
 fulness than was demanded by the solution of a per- 
 plexity. There was a higher restraint in the caution 
 of his utterances than is due to prudence in affairs. 
 A deeper feeling moved him than the instincts of 
 
19 
 
 a humane and generous disposition. He gained a 
 richer endowment than a simple-hearted, ingenuous 
 kindness. No one can have watched his course as a 
 man and a ruler without detecting in him an increas- 
 ing religious seriousness; a tone and simplicity of 
 faith in God and his providence ; an evident seeking 
 after a knowledge of the will and counsel of the 
 Most High. All this was added to a frankness and 
 ingenuousness and rare kindliness of nature, a sort of 
 " inflexible gentleness," which spread a veil over 
 rougher features ; and this unaffected piety gave a 
 tone to his measures and to his utterances everywhere 
 perceptible. This religious conscientiousness inspired 
 him with courage to attempt, and decision in execut- 
 ing, the requirements of duty. Will any one say that 
 he did not find something of a practical force control- 
 ling him, in the *law of love, from the teachings and 
 example of Christ ? Will any one say, that, when his 
 mind turned to the exercise of mercy, he had no 
 inward promptings, gathered from the voice of mercy 
 to which he himself listened in the promises of the 
 Redeemer'? His late addresses indicate a depth of 
 serious feeling which has now a significance, unreal- 
 ized till death added its emphasis. Can any man read 
 the solemn utterances of the fourth of March last, 
 without the conviction that they are the profound re- 
 flections of a heart which looked into the ways of God 
 with trembling reverence, rather than the conventional 
 
20 
 
 language proper to an established ceremony of State 1 
 " If we suppose American slavery is one of those 
 offences which, in the providence of God, must needs 
 come, but which, having continued through his ap- 
 pointed time, he now wills to remove ; and that he 
 gives to both North and South this terrible war as the 
 woe due to those by whom the offence came, — shall 
 we discern therein any departure from those divine 
 attributes which the believers in a living God always 
 ascribe to him \ Fondly do we hope, fervently do Ave 
 pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass 
 away. Yet, if God wills that it continue till all the 
 wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty 
 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
 drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by 
 another drawn by the sword, as was said three thou- 
 sand years ago, so still it must be said, ' The judg- 
 ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " 
 These words are spoken with the solemnity of the old 
 prophets who declared the judgments of God. Was 
 the President the friend of the slave for mere pur- 
 poses of state necessity? Was he earnest to carry 
 on the work of emancipation as a war policy only'? 
 Was he moved in his generous act only by tender 
 sympathy for sufferers'? His words come out with 
 the clear tone of a heart subdued to a sense of guilt 
 under the law of God, trembling with the conscious- 
 ness of the terrors of divine justice, and humbly 
 
21 
 
 resigned to the work of that justice in its fearful 
 threatenings. Without a sincere and exalting faith, 
 such an elevation of sentiment could hardly be possi- 
 ble. If, when the responsibility was at first laid upon 
 him, he was unprepared ; if, when the question first 
 demanded his attention, he did not see the solution, 
 — must we not admit, that he rose to the full level 
 of the emergency, and with all the strength of his 
 understanding, and with the undeviating firmness of 
 a heart certain of duty and of God's approbation, 
 gave himself to the resolved and settled purpose of 
 establishing freedom throughout the land in all the 
 borders of if? And this will be the consummate 
 flower in the chaplct of his renown. To him God 
 has given the honor of writing the decree which 
 spoke liberty to the captive, and opened the prison- 
 doors to them that were bound. A redeemed race 
 have lifted up their humble voices to honor his name. 
 In their simple prayers they have invoked benedic- 
 tions upon him. Their tears have flowed over his 
 bier with a fulness and spontaneousness known only 
 to grateful and broken hearts ; and, if it were possible 
 for all other voices to be dumb, there is one people, 
 whose future life will always be devoted to the 
 bestowment of honor upon the name of him who was 
 God's hand in lifting the yoke and breaking the chain 
 of their long oppression. 
 
 An administration has closed with results such as 
 
22 
 
 the most sanguine would have held to be Utopian, 
 if they had been predicted at its commencement. It 
 is sufficient for one man to have made such progress ; 
 to have led so far in the onward march of a mighty 
 nation ; to have done so much to have trained a peo- 
 ple for the coming blessings of liberty, union, and 
 republican government. Our honored, revered, and 
 now lamented President has ceased from earth. His 
 last hour found him at a height of power more than 
 kingly, and in the enjoyment of an affection which 
 kings might envy. From the obscurity of his origin 
 to the dignity of his ultimate position, the range is 
 immense. This may be the sport of fortune, the 
 eddies and currents of life burying one in oblivion, 
 and lifting another to a casual but envied distinction. 
 But here we behold greatness achieved without the 
 aid of accident, and glory won in the straight and 
 luminous path of single-hearted patriotism and single- 
 eyed fidelity. Events have a power to bear men 
 onward and upward to unexpected posts of honor. 
 But he is the hero, whose inward energies rise with 
 the tide, and expand with the swelling current ; and 
 who becomes strong in the violence of commotion, so 
 as ever to be not only master of himself, but also mas- 
 ter of events, by knowing their interpretation, receiv- 
 ing the lesson, and with a clear eye and firm hand 
 holding all things steady in the course of destiny. 
 Such a life is an unfolding and a growth of its own 
 
23 
 
 germ, the shooting upward of its stem, the out-spread- 
 ing of its branches, by the stimulation and nutri- 
 tion which its own vitality gathers in from the soil 
 in which it is set. Such a life pre-eminently was that 
 which has just now reached the fulness of its matu- 
 rity. The period of its activity which has been so 
 turbulent and distracted has been a period of disci- 
 pline and development. Every month was marked by 
 progress, in character and comprehension. Every 
 year added its increment and expansion. Without a 
 stain from surrounding corruption, he gained in purity 
 as he rose in power. Never losing the genuine sim- 
 plicity of his nature, the more exalted he was in the 
 estimation of men, the more humble was he, and 
 the more reverent his spirit in the sight of God. His 
 intellect, as well as his heart, acquired vigor and force 
 under the perpetual exertion of his powers; so that 
 his highest efficiency and his most illustrious worth 
 crowned together his meridian glory. He left the 
 burdens of office and the conflict of life with a name 
 unsullied by any unworthy deed ; with a record of 
 success as full as ambition itself could covet ; with a 
 reputation as substantial as it was widely spread ; 
 and with the universal consent, that in character and 
 action he had proved equal to the demand of his high 
 stewardship, and established a fame as ample as the 
 affection he had inspired. He whom God raised up, 
 and has allowed to do so much, cannot be said to have 
 
24 
 
 lived in vain. Can he be said to have died too soon 1 
 We will embalm his memory in our hearts. We will 
 record his worth and write his name with the heroes 
 and the nobles of our republic. We will transmit his 
 deeds as an inheritance to our children. We will ele- 
 vate his life to the gaze of the nations. W r e will 
 present his career as an example to all men, of integ- 
 rity, firmness, fidelity to duty, and kindliness of heart; 
 and his public character to all rulers as a pattern of 
 wisdom and moderation, and an illustration of the 
 solemn sense of responsibility which becometh those 
 who are put in authority of God. By the will of God 
 he has fallen on sleep. He rests from his labors. 
 He has passed away. But we remain. The coun- 
 try remains. The Government remains. There are 
 lessons to be learned ; there are duties to be done, 
 and a future to be provided for. Let us remember, 
 that to confide in our rulers is, as ever, and now 
 pre-eminently, our imperative duty ; to stand by and 
 sustain the Government of our country, our high 
 concern. The life of the nation is continuous ; and 
 that life is not yet delivered from peril. We have 
 only reached the banks of the Jordan. Under another 
 leader, we are to be conducted into the promised land. 
 We are to give to him our allegiance, and with an earn- 
 est co-operation encourage and strengthen his heart. 
 He will need all the support of our prayers, and the 
 guiding hand of God. Do we need any other argu- 
 
25 
 
 ment to fix this fact upon our consciences than the 
 scenes which have closed around us with a record so 
 full of God's deliverance'? Can we hesitate to trust and 
 go forward, to gird ourselves to the conflict in faith 
 and cheerful hope ? We miss the great lesson, if we 
 are not firmer, truer, and more faithful henceforth. 
 One of the conspicuous and impressive features of 
 our national struggle has been the distinct manifes- 
 tations of God's interposition. Events are God's 
 teachers ; " the logic of events " is the line of God's 
 argument. And have not the events of providence 
 been the sharp points in the controversy which have 
 pierced our torpid hearts to the quick ? Was not the 
 actual insult upon the flag necessary to arouse us to 
 a consciousness of existing treason? Was not defeat 
 necessary to reduce the inflation of our pride, and 
 humble us to a sense of our weakness ? Were not 
 the rivers of blood which have flowed, and the agony 
 of thousands of hearts, the testimony required to con- 
 vince us of the deep guilt of the nation, which God 
 was about to wipe out ? The judgments of God are 
 a great deep: who can fathom them? If it was 
 necessary, in order to stimulate a too sensual race to 
 the severe duties before them, that savage barbarities 
 should be added to the horrors of war, and that thou- 
 sands of lives should be wasted by the slow cruelties 
 of starvation, may there not have been a necessity in 
 the last act of fatal wickedness to nerve the people to 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 a yet deeper trial of fidelity, in duty? If, to quicken 
 the pulsations of a paralyzed patriotism, it was neces- 
 sary that blood should be drawn on the nineteenth of 
 April, 1861, may it not have been necessary, in like 
 manner, in order to fuse all hearts into one great pur- 
 pose, that on the nineteenth of April, 1865, the whole 
 prostrate nation should with weeping and bitter lamen- 
 tation follow to the grave the man of all men most 
 deeply beloved, the ruler of all rulers most affec- 
 tionately confided in? Shall we say, that the hand of 
 the assassin, which struck at so noble a life, did it for 
 any fault of his 1 or shall we say, that God permitted 
 for a greater good to us, to our country, to posterity, 
 that the sword, with a sharper edge than ever, should 
 cut to the very core of our hearts 1 Let us remember 
 the words of Holy Writ which he himself repeated in 
 view of the deserved chastisements of the Almighty: 
 "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
 altogether." Justice and mercy, though unlike, are 
 harmonious. They are both the attributes of God, who 
 is love. They both subserve the great ends of benev- 
 olence. It is as necessary to be just, as to be merci- 
 ful. It is justice in God that makes him terrible. 
 It is justice in God that renders him worthy to be 
 trusted. Justice and love unite in the highest mani- 
 festation of God. Justice smote the afflicted Saviour 
 upon the cross. The majesty of law, outraged by sin, 
 demanded the sacrifice. Love moved the dying lips 
 
27 
 
 of tlie Son of God in that prayer which will sound 
 through all time, — an anthem of sweetest tone : 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do." And yet God punishes. God sits upon the 
 judgment-seat. Therefore the whole earth stands in 
 awe of him. Is it needful for us to separate justice 
 and mercy"? Without justice and judgment, the ma- 
 jesty of law cannot be vindicated. Without justice 
 upon offenders, the peace of the community cannot 
 be secured. Without condign punishment upon evil- 
 doers, the wicked will triumph. It is the teaching 
 of God's oracles, that the ruler beareth not the sword 
 in vain. He is set to execute vengeance, not in his 
 own name, but as the instrument appointed of God 
 for this very thing. The land has been suffering 
 judgments through the wickedness of the wicked that 
 were in it. Treason and rebellion and barbarity have 
 done their worst. The spirit which sustained, un- 
 abashed, the horrors of oppression from generation to 
 generation, has yielded the whirlwind of its seed-time. 
 A cry is going up from the nation, that justice may be 
 done ; that felons and traitors, and the instigators of 
 savage cruelty, may have the recompense of their 
 deeds. It is right that justice should have its course 
 upon desperate and incorrigible criminals. If this is 
 the duty to which God calls, shall we hold back ? If 
 the work of justice be more dreadful than the work 
 of mercy, yet it must be done. The work of justice is 
 
28 
 
 stern, the deeds of justice are fearful; but the spirit of 
 justice is not revengeful. It is easy for human nature 
 to pass over the narrow line which separates between 
 justice and vengeance. It is easy to supplant the spirit 
 of justice, by the burning passion of unholy indigna- 
 tion. Let not God's great goodness be thus returned. 
 Let no malignant passion pollute the stream of our 
 gratitude, or mingle in the tide of our sorrow. Let not 
 our hope of mercy be so perilled. Let not the spirit 
 of our lamented chief be so soon forgotten. Let us 
 do our duty in a calm spirit of inflexible integrity, 
 without discarding the heavenly instincts of charity. 
 Let us pray that Government may be sustained in its 
 duty, in its whole, severe duty, true to the demands of 
 justice, without abjuring the sentiments of humanity; 
 that punishment may be righteously meted out to 
 whomsoever deserves it, according to the spirit of the 
 law and the demands of right ; so that salutary fear 
 may seize upon the hearts of evil-doers, and that trai- 
 tors and conspirators may no more infest the land. It 
 is necessary that Government should vindicate its 
 authority and enforce law ; and so secure to itself 
 respect, and command the confidence of the people. 
 It is equally important that we should be purged of 
 all hateful and vindictive passion, and that we should 
 address ourselves to the pressing and momentous 
 duties of the hour in the fear of the Lord. 
 
 We have had a high and noble example. That 
 
29 
 
 benignant spirit which has passed away from earth 
 was ever gentle and yet firm, ever simple and yet 
 wise, ever humble but yet prompt, ever moderate but 
 always true. We can do him no greater honor than 
 to remember and follow the words with which he 
 closed his last address to the American people : — 
 
 " With malice towards none, with charity for 
 all, with firmness in the right as god gives us to 
 see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
 we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ," to care 
 for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 
 
 his widow and his orphans, to do all which may 
 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
 ourselves and with all nations." 
 
BOSTON: 
 
 press of john wilson and son, 
 
 15, Water Street.