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 THE CRIME 
 
 AGAINST THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 A. SERMON, 
 
 By REV. WM. M. BLACKBURN. 
 
THE CEIME 
 
 AGAINST THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 A. SERMOISr, 
 
 DELIVERED SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 1865, 
 
 FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 TRENTON, N. J., 
 
 BY THE PASTOR, 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM M. BLACKBURK 
 
 TEENTON, N. J.: 
 MURPHY k BECHTEL, PRINTERS, OPPOSITE THE CITY HALL. 
 
 1865. 
 

 /#' 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The pressure of the awful grief, under which this sermon was 
 prepared, will be readily understood by those who were almost 
 bewildered with sorrow during the very hours when it was written 
 by a rapid hand. The decision for its publication has turned, not 
 upon the author's judgment, but upon the urgent demand of many 
 friends, into whose hands the manuscripts are now committed. 
 
 W, M. B. 
 
 Trenton, N. J., April 18, 1865. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land.'' — 
 Jeremiah v. 30. 
 
 "The land of trouble and anguish, from whence came the young 
 and old lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent." — Isaiah xxx. 6. 
 
 " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of 
 Jesus Christ, my Lord," and you know that in the pulpit 
 my chief aim has been to point you to that cross, the 
 standard of our holy Christianity. .But now the Chris- 
 tian patriot's eye sees beside it the standard of his coun- 
 try, and the flag is draped, for the land is in tears, and 
 would you have me to be silent ? You know that I have 
 avoided the mention of the character, the mission, the 
 measures of the Chief Magistrate, and you knew not 
 what I thought of him. But now a desperate murderer 
 has taken away the veil of reserve. Can I touch upon 
 the crime against this government, w^ithout pointing to 
 him whom God and the people had a second time placed 
 at the head ? 
 
 The man, Abraham Lincoln, has been murdered by 
 one who came up from "the land of trouble and anguish, 
 whence come the viper and the fiery flying serpent" — 
 the land of the dagger and the duel, where the tragedian 
 was an insignificant player compared with the numerous 
 actors in real tragedies of blood. After weeks of lying 
 in wait, and after plotting a widely extended murder, he 
 has slain the man for whom a nation mourns. What if 
 he were the most insignificant man that walked those 
 streets, the report of it is worthy of solemnity, tears, 
 and the trumpet-tone of rebuke upon all who have ever 
 
6 
 
 felt any malice against liim, or any sympathy for the 
 class of desperadoes that have incited this deed, and led 
 the invasion of death into his Cabinet. His blood would 
 cry unto God and unto this nation for justice upon this 
 crime against humanity. 
 
 Do not suppose that war has produced this disregard 
 for human life. Nay, it produced the war. It existed 
 long before the war. It showed itself in the delight 
 taken in the lashing of theTslave, and the lynching of 
 their "Northern brethren" on suspicion, or the striking 
 down of Senators in the National Halls. This reckless- 
 ness of life has revealed itself also in the free States, for 
 it was encouraged by the decay of justice, and by that 
 sentimental sort of mercy which would pull down the 
 lawful gallows and make the murderer's dungeon soft 
 and inviting, or, on the plea of temporary insanity, set 
 him at large in society. AVliat court does not have, 
 almost every term, some one on trial for the assassina- 
 tion of a man? How accustomed have we grown to 
 this greatest crinae of one human being against another ! 
 A few years ago, if the most prominent lawyer of Spring- 
 field, 111., had been shot dead, it would have been the 
 slaying of only a man ! 
 
 But now it is more. It is not the murder of Abraham 
 Lincoln, it is the deliberate murder of the President of 
 the United States. You and I had no other President. 
 If you voted for another — if you preferred another — you 
 acknowledged him as your Chief Magistrate for the next 
 four years. You read in your Bible, "Let every soul be 
 subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but 
 of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. Who- 
 soever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the 
 ordinance of God." You might not all endorse every 
 policy that he put forth, but you were ready to give your 
 support to him as the President. And now our President 
 lies dead, and we realize what an enormous crime it is to 
 slay the ruler of a people. Oh ! if our rightful and 
 
righteous rulers are not safe, then who is ? It is not a 
 crime against a man, but against the office of Chief 
 Magistrate. 
 
 Nor is this alL It was not only a crime 'against the 
 Presidency, but it was intended as a death-blow to the 
 policies which were adopted by the Administration, and 
 sanctioned by the overwhelming majority of loyal men, 
 as the best measures for restoring a divided country and 
 securing a permanent peace in righteousness and hu- 
 manity. It was an effort to subvert the sound demo- 
 cratic principle of this Republic, that the majority of 
 rio-htful voters shall rule. The aim was to murder the 
 President and his policy. 
 
 1 do not stand here to express any admiration or dis- 
 approbation of the slain President. History will call up 
 all that deserves a record for that future which will not 
 fail to do justice to his memory. It is not my place to 
 attempt the shaping of your politics ; but I have one 
 simple method of settling my own. And this determines 
 my relation to the man we called President. It is to 
 keep myself clear of all party spirit and strifes. I cannot 
 afford to distract myself with partizan questions, nor can 
 I enter very deeply into the writings upon Constitutional 
 law. 
 
 My plan is this : — First, to see what principles God 
 lays down in his inspired word to guide the moral sub- 
 ject and the patriotic Christian in their duties to the 
 Government which protects them. Secondly, to look 
 where the Christian Church is going, and, at least, to 
 move on in her wake. For the Church is expected to 
 follow Christ, who cheerfully paid his tax to the Govern- 
 ment and raised up an Apostle who declared disobedience 
 to rulers a ruinous crime. And if any large class of men 
 are about right in their views of political sins, dangers, 
 and measures, they are the Christians of these loyal States. 
 Let me be with them, for were I among immoral, in- 
 temperate, disobedient, violent and hypocritical men, 
 
8 
 
 who scoff at the gospel, "despise dominion and speak 
 evil of dignities," it is generally, though not quite always, 
 seen that I am among those who sympathize with treason, 
 uphold rebellion, sneer at loyalty, threaten and curse 
 their rulers, and who, to-day, as far as they dare, are re- 
 joicing in the deed that has robbed the nation of her 
 Chief Magistrate. It is not congenial company. It is 
 not safe company, for "he that is glad at calamities shall 
 not be unpunished." 
 
 ]!:^ow I took these rules for my guidance early in 1861, 
 when my mind was as nearly a blank in regard to na- 
 tional measures as a cautious conservatism could make 
 it. I confess that I had no predilections in favor of Mr. 
 Lincoln. And what did I see ? The President elect 
 leaving Springfield, and honestly, feelingly, asking the 
 Christian people of the land to pray for him — and, as he 
 entered upon his office, taking first the Book of God, 
 and next to it the Constitution of the United States. 
 That Bible shaped his convictions of right, and that Con- 
 stitution directed him in his public measures. To him, 
 God was the great Father — how often he thus called 
 Him in his proclamations — whose purposes would be 
 fulfilled, and the President was but an agent in His 
 hands. What the Divine Word made to be sin and in- 
 humanity, he believed must be put away, as God had 
 declared, and he at length saw that this nation must 
 "loose the bands of wickedness, and let the oppressed 
 go free." He seemed raised up by God, not only to de- 
 stroy the vipeVy rebellion, but also slavery, that fery ser- 
 pent that was poisoning the nation's life. That was his 
 mission. It seemed plainer to me every day that he 
 ruled. 
 
 And where were the Christian Churches of the land? 
 In opposition? In league with rebellion and human 
 oppression? Never was there such a unanimous move- 
 ment of the moral and Christian forces of this nation in 
 one direction, as during the last Administration. They 
 
9 
 
 said to the President — We meddle not with politics ; we 
 did not all vote for you ; we tamper not with questions 
 of the State ; but we bring up the Church that it may 
 co-operate with the army in putting down treason and 
 casting the great cause of these curses out of the land. 
 We pray for you ; we uphold you ; we preach the cross, 
 which gives a moral power to the tiag of the nation ; in 
 the name of our God we lift up our banners; go on, and 
 the Lord be with you, and prosper those measures which 
 every honest conscience will approve as righteous in the 
 judgment day. For, though this be not the only great 
 national sin, yet we have "the manifest tokens thai the 
 time has at length come, in the Providence of God, ivhen it is 
 His loill that every vestige of human slavery among us should 
 be effaced, and that every Christian man should address him- 
 self with industry and earnestness to his approjmate jmrt in 
 the performwice of this great daty:'—\_3Iinutes General As- 
 sembly Presbyterian Church, 1864, p. 298.] 
 
 CoLikl I refuse to move on with the great bodies of the 
 Christian Church, when they thus recognized the mission 
 Oil which God had sent the President? And when, one 
 week ago this coming midnight, the bells were ringing, 
 and our own silent spire listening to the stars, was 
 there not some proof that neither the President, nor the 
 Christian Church, nor the intrepid army, nor the great 
 generals uf this age, had been mistaken in their measures 
 for accomplishing the two vast objects before them — the 
 crushing of the rebellion and the emancipation of the 
 slaves ? It was for these two purposes, it seems to me, 
 that this great and good man was raised up. The world 
 will know and history will tell that Abraham Lincoln 
 was President when these two magnificent achievements 
 were gained; and if I am so happy as to have my name 
 recalled in some little circle that meets in the next cen- 
 tury to talk over the deeds of their fathers, I want it to 
 be understood that no hand nor voice of mine was ever 
 lifted against the man who was shot the very week that 
 
10 
 
 victory was making music for a people rejoicing in the 
 beginning of their freedom from treason and from inhu- 
 man oppression. 
 
 Dead, dead, dead, is he — our President, whose heart 
 ■was full of tenderness even to the guiltiest — whose pen 
 was almost in the ink to write some proclamation of 
 amnesty — whose invitation was soon coming to the glad 
 people, who have given their wealth, their sons and their 
 prayers to the nation, to assemble and give thanks to 
 Almighty God, "whose right hand and holy arm hath 
 gotten us the victory" — the President, whose last smiles 
 were in thinking that the sad conscripts might be re- 
 leased, and the weary soldier soon discharged, and the 
 wounded patriot soon on his own couch at home, telling 
 his neighbors, over and over again, how he had bravely 
 fought, and always believed that the righteous cause 
 would conquer — whose honesty and fearlessness ren- 
 dered him so unsuspecting that he could have taken in 
 his forgiving bosom that viper from the land of trouble | 
 and anguish, which inflicted upon him the last revenge of f" 
 the treason and slavery which had nursed it and imparted * 
 to it the revenge of their expiring life. Yes, our Presi- k 
 dent is dead ! 
 
 And who slew him ? Not that actor, who, by playing 
 tragedies, had hardened himself to enact one of his own; 
 not the wretch alone who flred the shot, sprang upon 
 the stage, flourished his dagger, and shouted "ifc semper 
 tyranniSy" the motto of Virginia perverted into the text 
 of treason. lie is not the real author ; he is only the 
 agent of those who stinmlated him to the deed by their 
 cries of "down with the tyrant." It is a class hard to 
 define. No party name will apply to them. No polities 
 will describe their creed. Men, who honeatly disapproved 
 of the President's measures, could stand up manly and 
 dignified and oppose his course with argument and with- 
 out detraction. They were men of unquestionable loy- 
 alty and devotion to the government, and if they disliked 
 
11 
 
 the present administration they acted like patriots, and 
 waited with patience for a chfinge. If these men had 
 risen, like Cromwell, solemnly before God and the 
 world, carrying with them the Christian prayer and 
 piety that he did, and proved that the ruler was a tyrant, 
 and impeached him before the high courts, and then, 
 slowly, and sternly applied death to him as the last 
 remedy for the national evils, we should pause before 
 the event and ask whether the act was reall}^ a^ crime. 
 No such course was dreamed of by the honest and honora- 
 ble opponents of the President. I^ay, they spurned the 
 idea that there was tyranny in that Chief Magistrate 
 whose every letter, every message, every speech, every 
 grasp of the hand, proved that he loved the whole people, 
 and did not claim to be unerring in his judgment. And 
 they weep to-day over the horrible thing that is done in 
 the land. 
 
 But these men who incited the assassins — they could 
 hold no just rank with reasonable opponents — they had 
 no creed, except such as they could glean from the Rich- 
 mond papers and their echoes at home, and therefore 
 only curses fell from their lips. No matter what plans 
 the administration adopted, in obedience to the people's 
 voice, they were always on the other side. Now one 
 thing, now another, but always full of tenderness for 
 treason and malice against the President. Perhaps some 
 of them repented when they found that his measures 
 were becoming eiFective and national. Some of them 
 may have such a horror of murder that they deeply 
 lament this endangering crime against the Presidency. 
 They perceive that they never felt any tyranny, and they 
 have a terror of anarchy. I do not refer then to them. 
 
 But there are two tests by which you may know whom 
 I impeach before the public, as the stimulators of this 
 murder. One is, who wished it to be committed ? None 
 will now dare acknowledge such a desire ; and yet they 
 may be known by the other test — who are rejoicing over 
 
12 
 
 this crime? The perpetrators knew what certain sjm- 
 pathizers with treason wished to be done. Thej knew 
 there were treasonable and desperate people mingling 
 with the loyal citizens of our country, for only under 
 the loyal President could they be safe and free, and 
 putting forward their pretensions to loyalty on every 
 hand. And these people have wislied the Richmond 
 Government to succeed ; they have gone about, in their 
 utter ignorance of Scripture, with "Bible arguments" 
 for slavery and rebellion ; they have insulted the Most 
 High by saying that " God has nothing to do in this 
 war;" they have reviled the Christian Church by assert- 
 ing that she was the author of the national troubles; 
 they have shouted "violation of the Constitution" with 
 lusty lung, while violating it themselves, and trampling 
 down human and divine laws ; they have revelled in 
 their shame, and gained impudence enough to curse the 
 President and the government on the streets ; they have 
 despised every national song and put contempt on the 
 flag of the brave ; they have shouted their cheers for the 
 arch-rebel, and sung " up with the traitors and down with 
 the stars ;" they have scoffed at patriotism and sneered 
 at the soldier returning, a mere skeleton, from the 
 prisons of a barbarous foe ; they have only wanted an 
 Absalom to raise the standard of a new revolt, in which 
 not a moral or a godly man could be found, and they 
 were ready to flock to it ; they have had their " circles " 
 and conspiracies in the Northwest, and some of their 
 number have shot down ofiicers of the government; 
 and when the dreadful tidings of our occasional defeat 
 put you all into lamentation, they have crept out of their 
 holes and rejoiced, but an awfully sad countenance hung 
 on th'em when the land was full of shouts for victory. 
 These were the men, yes, — and shall I say it? — the 
 women, who wished to see done just what the tragedian 
 (bolder than they) has accomplished. Oh ! it is their 
 victory, and some, upon these streets, yesterday, were 
 
13 
 
 wining to claim it. These are the people whom the 
 deadly viper represented and whose venom he embodied. 
 Let us know with whom we are living, and let the power 
 of a righteous indignation be publicly felt. 
 
 Let there be no violence against such persons, but let 
 them know, quietly, that there is a sense of justice in 
 the popular heart, and a law in the Commonwealth that 
 will not brook such insults to humanity, to civilization, 
 to Christianity and to God, and you will find that Daniel 
 Webster's remark will be proved : "There is no greater 
 human power on earth than the tremendous indignation 
 of the people." Let justice be restored to her place, for 
 without her principles all mercy is but meaningless pre- 
 tension. Let them understand Paul's words, "they that 
 resist (their lawful rulers) shall receive to themselves 
 damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, 
 but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the 
 power (the ruler) ? ... For he is the minister of God 
 to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be 
 afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is 
 the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon 
 him that doeth evil." Educate men up to this point of 
 orthodox faith and conduct, and no more Presidents will 
 be murdered. 
 
 There are deeds which reveal themselves as only the 
 concentration of many influences— the climax of a long 
 series of general evils. This is one of them. The mur- 
 der of a President is a horrible thing in the land, but it 
 is more horrible still to be compelled to believe that this deed is 
 only the evidence of a somewhat extended malice and a deep 
 rooted ^ dejjravity of the serpent. That crime is but the 
 cropping out of a more general wickedness that under- 
 lies it. The three chief sources of that crime are slavery, 
 rebellion, and a sympathy among us for both of them. 
 And there are times when a murder must be charged 
 home upon a certain class of men, who under the cry of 
 
14 
 
 tyranny soiigM anarchy, and not merely upon tlie agents 
 of their desires, 
 
 "What did Peter say to the Jewish people ? That Judas 
 was the author of the great crime on Calvary? That the 
 men who actually pierced the Lord, were the assassins ? 
 iN'ay ; he remembered how, for long months, the cry had 
 been raised against Jesus ; how curses had been pro- 
 nounced and threats uttered ; how the general voice had 
 rang in the streets, "Kot this man, but Barabbas " — quite 
 in the same spirit that some have said, "iSTot the loyal 
 President, but the arch-traitor." Peter boldly declared 
 in the face of those who had nursed up the greatest crime 
 that ever had been committed against that nation and 
 against God, "Ye are the betrayers and murderers." 
 That preaching brought repentance, and we now need 
 more of the same sbrt History has given her verdict 
 against that people, though they "did it ignorantly in 
 unbelief." "Had they known it, they would not have 
 crucified the Lord of Glory." 
 
 "What shall be the verdict of just history in this case? 
 That the perpetrators and sympathizers did it ignorantly? 
 Far be it from me to say that all who have stimulated 
 others to this crime, really intended that it should be 
 committed. Many of them did not mean what they said, 
 when they shouted, "Down with the tyrant," and others 
 had no intellectual or moral perception of crime. Or will 
 history involve us all in this deed, because certain men 
 have made themselves vile with treasonable sympathies, 
 and we restrained them not. You cannot — I cannot — 
 feel that wc had any individual part in this crime. But 
 a part of this nation is involved in it, as much as a part 
 of the Netherland Republic was identified with the man 
 who fatally stabbed the Prince of Orange — that part 
 which to-day love the treason, though they hate the 
 traitor ; love the murder, though they, perhaps, would 
 not dare to hide the murderer. And it seems as if God 
 were saying to this nation, "You have not checked the 
 
15 
 
 malice tliat led to this crime ; you did not spoil the pow- 
 der that sent that deadly ball through the brain of your 
 President ; you have winked at the public sins that have 
 intensified into one great assassination ; your garments 
 will be somewhat stained, unless you shake ofi' the viper 
 from your own hand, by giving more power to the public 
 sentiment of respect for your rulers and for the ordi- 
 nances of God." 
 
 0, let us confess before God the sins of those, who 
 have provoked Jehovah by their malicious sympathies 
 with treason and their utter want of patriotic devotion. 
 Let us confess that law has been dishonored for long 
 years, and justice has been slain in the streets. Let us 
 confess that we bowed and cringed too lowly to that 
 political power which was, for thirty years, laying its 
 foundations in slavery, and at length endeavored to crown 
 the edifice with rebellion. The leaders of that scheme 
 demanded that we acknowledge it, foster it, set up on 
 high, and receive it as the best form of civilization — that 
 all the free States crouch down before it, and in the face 
 of our superior social and moral culture, and our intel- 
 lectual and Christian elevation, confess our inferiority — 
 confess that we were a drivelling class of mammon- 
 seekers and craven-hearted hirelings — and that all chiv- 
 alry, all aristocracy, all sacred nobility were among them. 
 We must go back there to find the original causes of the 
 President's death. Yes, we went too for astray from the 
 rectitude of the men in whose blood the charters of our 
 liberties were written, and more blood was requisite from 
 our people, and even from our President, to give us a 
 full conviction of the tremendous magnitude of those 
 national sins which were destroying the nation. 
 
 Nor have we yet reached the limit of this tragic deed. 
 It is a crime against the gentleness and generosity of the 
 President. He set aside the long established political 
 doctrine that to the "victors belong the spoils." Did 
 he show any partiality to the party that elected him, for 
 
16 
 
 one hour after the war was opened upon us ? Did he 
 select his generals from that party alone ? If he, after 
 great pressure from all quarters, set aside any officers, it 
 was not that he might place men who were originally of 
 his political views in their stead. No man more thor- 
 oughly ignored politics, rose above party, and recognized 
 enlightened patriotism in Avhomsoever he found it. 
 Look at his Cabinet; look at the army; look at the 
 appointments in all military positions ; and you see this 
 carried so far that he ofiended certain men who claimed 
 his consideration simply because they had voted for him. 
 What if they had? The country had other men quite 
 as capable, and he would satisfy all parties, if largeness 
 of views, and generosity of soul, could possibly affect 
 them. And how can you account for the fact that most 
 of the men appointed from other parties, worked with 
 him so harmoniously, gradually became convinced that 
 his measures were best, and became among his warmest 
 friends ? And how account for the fact that hundreds 
 of other prominent men were won to his views, and 
 voluntarily, and without any hope of position under him, 
 sustained him to the last ? Only by taking these ^acts 
 as evidences that they perceived the justice and nation- 
 ality of his policy, the nobleness of his nature, the purity 
 of his motives, the single aim of his eye, and the right- 
 eousness of the great cause which ought to know no 
 party, and make the love of country second only to the 
 love of the Redeemer. And how generous was he in all 
 his proposals to conquered foes, to subdued States, and 
 to surrendering armies! And I verily believe that the 
 kindness of the amnesty he was about to proclaim would 
 have astonished the civilized world. No other such 
 smile could have gone like a genial spring-time over all 
 the South, as that of the cheerful, hopeful, gentle, gen- 
 erous, winning man, who stood looking southward as a 
 father, to welcome the repentant prodigals returning 
 home. Seeing them yet a great way off, he would have 
 
17 
 
 ran to meet them, that, falling into each other's arms, 
 they might weep together, and forgive and be reconciled. 
 If this were not enough to melt the heart of that trage- 
 dian, who was permitted to walk so freely the streets of 
 the capital, then he must have let the malice of his abet- 
 tors stultify every sentiment of gratitude, and been 
 moved with spite at the signal mercies of the very man 
 who held out to him a gracious pardon. 
 
 Moreover, this crime against the Presidency, and 
 against the national measures, is also a crime against the 
 'patriotism of the loyal people. In order to bring out this 
 patriotism, rising infinitely above all partizanship, God 
 has introduced three crises of trial, thus separating those 
 who truly love their country from those who would 
 betray it. 
 
 One crisis was brought in that proclamation, just four 
 years ago, calling for seventy-five thousand men. The 
 boom from Fort Sumpter prepared the way for the 
 answer to the telegram, and we had a united North. 
 Just four years ago to-day it was read on street corners 
 and from pulpits, and men began to organize on the 
 spot," Men then thanked God that the plot to murder 
 this same President had failed. Politics ceased to be ; 
 patriotism reigned supreme. Everybody vowed before 
 God to sustain the Chief Magistrate. That crisis passed, 
 and all felt that the rebellion must go down, if it laid 
 low every interest of the conspirators. The President 
 felt sure that all hearts were loyal, and that, with the 
 combined help of the people, God would turn to us the 
 victory. 
 
 The second crisis was in the fall of 1862. The rebels 
 thought they would succeed, and their hopes found sym- 
 pathizers among certain men who were too cowardly to 
 join their army, but remained here to hiss their treason. 
 There was no need, they thought, of an assassination. 
 Loyal men looked to heaven, but a great cloud hung 
 dark in the sky. The President saw just where to strike 
 
18 
 
 the one fatal blow to the rebellion and its cause. From 
 his pen came the test to all men, even his best friends. 
 I shall never forget how it tried my soul. "We were 
 entering 'New York bay, when we got a paper from a 
 pilot-boat. For months we had heard men in England 
 and on the Continent saying to us, " You will never put 
 down that rebellion. History and Providence are against 
 you." When we left Liverpool we knew not what was 
 the result at Antietam. During twelve long sick days 
 at sea, this Continent might have sunk and we not have 
 known it. And the paper was full of the proclamation. 
 Three months more of rebellion and slavery must be 
 destroyed. iN'ot a man said. Amen. But one Virginia 
 lady, an exile from that state for loyalty, had the courage 
 to say, "It will destroy the rebellion — the cause and the 
 curse will go down together." The results are proving 
 her a true pophetess. 
 
 I do not pretend to read the secret counsels of my 
 sovereign God. But when Providence so manifests His 
 purposes that they are written in public events, it is no 
 arrogance to read the interpretation. It seems to me 
 that in the year 1862, He said to this nation : " This war 
 shall go on until my victories are accomplished. It shall 
 go on until party politics shall give way to eternal prin- 
 ciples of righteousness. Ye shall have defeats and diffi- 
 culties until your aim is to seek a Union which shall not 
 have in it again the elements of inevitable disunion. Ye 
 shall be humiliated until ye put away the accursed thing, 
 and break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. 
 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and 
 God shall be rear-ward. Then, with every fleet and 
 every moving column you shall have victories, and great 
 surrenders will be the order of events." And has it not 
 been so? No one seenu'd to hear (Jod's voice two years 
 ago last autumn so clearly as the President. His pro- 
 clamation made that time a crisis. 
 
 That crisis passed — but there were revived sympathies 
 
19 
 
 with the politics of Southern treason, which vented their 
 fiendish spite on the night of the Last Good Friday, and 
 despairing traitors murdered the best friend they ever 
 had ! Oh, does it mean anything, that our President was 
 murdered on the anniversary of the same day on which 
 our Lord was crucified? I carefully guard against any 
 comparison between the two persons, but in one point 
 the two crimes were alike — they were both the deeds of 
 a class, who hated a great movement for the good of 
 humanity, and entertained a secret malice against its 
 author. Almost the entire people, at that crisis, finally 
 poured themselves forth upon the side of the Chief 
 Magistrate, but the dregs of dead parties remained to 
 bring into reality this great crime of their secret souls. 
 
 The third crisis came in the victories of the last twelve 
 days. The President was spared long enough to stand 
 safe in Richmond and telegraph the victory. "Would not 
 all men shout the triumph, shake hands, and pour out 
 their gratitude to God ? Would not the lovers of treason 
 give up their sympathies, and their malice against the 
 President ? Everybody seemed to throw out the banner, 
 and wear a joyful countenance, and would not the very 
 last remnant of dissatisfaction and depravity repent, and 
 flock as doves to render thanks to Almighty God ? ISTo: 
 two accomplices in Washington knew it. They knew 
 their deed would be hailed with secret delight among 
 certain ones, who owe more to that slain President than 
 to any man Avho will be buried for years to come. This 
 crisis will bring them out to public view. It will sepa- 
 rate between the nationally righteous and the wicked. 
 The whole Church and all who are in the habit of truly 
 worshipping God will lament, saying, " How are the 
 mighty fallen !" The immoral, the disloyal, and the un- 
 godly and hypocrites, whom our Lord would have called 
 a "generation of vipers," will gather in dark corners, 
 and hiss their exultation, not only because the President 
 is dead, but because the Secretary of State even while 
 
20 
 
 despatching to Europe the victories of our arms, has been 
 stabbed, and while bleeding away his life, must also 
 weep it away over a brave son, who seems a dying victim 
 to the gasping powers of rebellion and slavery. J'hank 
 God, General Grant was not within their reach, and 
 thank God, too, that He says to us, "Cease ye from man 
 whose breath is in his nostrils." " The Lord is our Judge, 
 the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He will 
 save us." 
 
 This great crime will fall like a holy baptism upon all 
 loyal men, but it will sweep like an avenging fire through 
 the land to purify it. It will be seen that it was not a 
 blow at the man but at the Government. It is the malice 
 begun at Sumpter, ending at Washington, and one of 
 the providences will he that it will again give us a united 
 North. It is the dying scorpion stinging itself as the 
 final display of its power. And perhaps this mysterious 
 providence may be interpreted. I may venture upon the 
 interpretation that first arose in the minds of patriotic 
 men. It is, that there may have been danger from the 
 admirable moderation and fatherly spirit of the President. 
 He might have been too lenient toward the leaders of 
 treason who brought war upon us, slaughtered thousands 
 of patriots, and by a back stroke have now taken the 
 life of the man who pitied them most. And God seems 
 to be saying by this event, " Hang your traitors! Take 
 your justice from David, and your mercy from Christ ; 
 for the mercy of the cross is founded u}»on the justice of 
 God in the atonement." Another must take his place, 
 and may God give Andrew Johnson sufiieient grace to 
 execute justice upon all who have said by their sympa- 
 thies and their crimes, "Let us kill the Prosidout that 
 the government may be ours." 
 
 My friends, I would not be vindictive. It has been a 
 struggle with me, ever since yesterday morning, to get 
 from Mount Sinai to Cavalry, and even there the dying 
 Jesus, the Lord of all, is revealing to us the Divine 
 
21 
 
 Majesty of Law. He endures the justice of the Infinite 
 Law, that he may purchase for us the mercy of the Gos- 
 pel. He sees two malefactors enduring the death pen- 
 alty, one on each side of liis own cross, yet he does not 
 release them by miracle, or by command. The law 
 must have its course, and of their sufferings one of 
 them declares, "We indeed justly, for we receive the 
 due reward of our deeds." This guilty man seems 
 to be brought to repentance by the justice he endures 
 and by his own sin, in contrast with the innocence of 
 the Holy One, who "hath done nothing amiss," as well 
 as by the gracious power of the Spirit of God. He prays 
 for Christ's remembrance of him, and Jesus assures him 
 of being that very day in Paradise. Would that this 
 Spirit of Jesus, this "gentleness of Christ," might be in 
 the public mind, if the assassins in this present tragedy 
 be arrested. And may their punishment lead them to 
 repentance, and to the Lamb of God who taketh away 
 the sins of the world. May no degree of calm justice be 
 withheld from them, but may they not be denied our 
 prayers, nor the saving power of their God. My prayer 
 is for their arrest, their punishment, and their salvation 
 in death. The law has no forgiveness for them, but if 
 Jesus purchased a pardon for them, may they behold 
 "the severity and goodness of God," and even at this 
 late day, open their hearts to Omnipotent mercy. And 
 let each of us be sure that we appreciate the justice 
 which He suffered on our behalf, and accept the mercy 
 which results from His atonement. Since our nature 
 had a guilty part in the crucifixion of Christ, may our 
 souls have a saving part in that " blood which cleanses 
 from all sin." 
 
 No President, since Washington, was so much a man 
 of the people. Washington had most bitter enemies in 
 his day, but justice and history had their revenge in con- 
 signing them to the doom of forgetfulness, and elevating 
 him, whom they were anxious to cast down from his 
 
22 
 
 excellenc}^, to the lofty place as " the Father of his Coun- 
 try." It must be for justice and history to decide 
 whether the friends of Abraham Lincoln are mistaken 
 in thinking that he will be ranked, in future time, as the 
 Father of the people in the restoration of the Republic. 
 These are not the days to judge of him, though every 
 hour will be full of his praise. These are not the cir- 
 cumstances to trust in him. He was immortal till his 
 work was done ; and now, when it is done, and his very 
 death is made the divine seal of approbation of his 
 measures, and the token that they will be carried out 
 with an even sterner hand, until justice, union and free- 
 dom are fully established, he is taken away that we may 
 not put our confidence in man, nor limit our thanks to 
 him whom God had girded for the victory. " The Lord 
 gave, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the 
 Lord." 
 
 This crime has made a martyr at the White House. I 
 do not claim that the President was a saint. Would to 
 God that, if his time had come, he might have died in. 
 another place. I judge him not. But he was a martyr 
 to his honesty, his love for the people, his frankness and 
 singleness of mind, his foresight and discernment, his 
 tenderness, his fatherhood, his broad and deep humanity, 
 his firmness in the conviction of duty and of right, and, 
 may we not hope, to his faith in that Redeemer who died 
 for him on that very same day of the Christian calendar. 
 I liave good reason to believe that he daily read the word 
 of God, that he maintained family prayer, and that he 
 hojic'd tliat a work of grace had been wrought in his 
 soul during the years that he has borne responsibilities 
 greater than any man who ever filled that highest posi- 
 tion to which our countrymen can elevate a "plain man 
 of the people." If he was a Christian, this terrible blow 
 leaves us to weep, not for him, but for ourselves. 
 
 His work was done. His policy was established. The 
 blow aimed at it has not destroyed it, but rather stamped 
 
23 
 
 it with the seal of eternal endurance. Slavery and trea- 
 son ^yill die together, and there will be no resurrection. 
 And how did he regard himself? Only as an agent in 
 God's hand ; a mere pilot under a great commander, a 
 subordinate under the God of nations. The "plain man 
 of the people," as he called himself, is now silent in 
 death, but the Omnipotent Commander lives. 
 
 In him the President would have this nation trust. 
 His inaugural of last March was a most remarkable 
 proof of his faith in the God of our fathers. Said he : 
 
 "The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world 
 because of offences, for it needs be that offences come, but woe to 
 that man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that 
 American slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of 
 God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His 
 appointed time, He now wills to remove, and He now 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 these 
 Divine attributes which the believers in a loving God always ascribe 
 to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
 scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it 
 continue until 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 with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said three throusand years ago, so still it must be 
 said, ' the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 
 
 " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in 
 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 orphan, to do all which may achieve and 
 cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and among all 
 nations." 
 
 Oh ! there is one widow weeping to-night as never 
 widow wept in the Presidential mansion. There is one 
 group of orphans on whose lips the word father will 
 tremble, and its whisper will call up the most horrible 
 tragedy this nation ever knew. May the Great Father 
 bind up their wounded hearts, and the Good Shepherd 
 lead them evermore in the green pastures where their 
 souls may be restored ; and now, while they are in the 
 
24 
 
 valley of the shadow of death, where they parted from 
 him on whom they leaned, may they have the presence 
 of Him who will never leave nor forsake them. 
 
 And when this nation turns away from the grave of 
 Abraham Lincoln, history will sit down there and calmly 
 trace on the monument these words, taken from the 
 chapter which, by inspiration, reveals the President's 
 policy and records its success : " Thou shalt be called 
 the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to 
 dwell in." {Isaiah Iviii.) 
 
 And his successors will " build up the old waste 
 places," and "raise up the foundations of many genera- 
 tions." 
 
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I