^* .',ilfe\ \„.^** y^A'^ %.A^ :W^: \..^^^ :'^M& 
 
 \ '-yw.' ^'■'\ --w-" /% °'^^'" ^'■'^■^^ '■ 
 
JP-Tti 
 
 
 O^. ' " .To ' ^^0' ^^^ ' * r , . ' -fr' 
 
 ^.* <.^" o^ •? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^^^ 
 
 
 
 V •^5M?^. '<to t'* *Jt 
 
 \ 'WW.' /% •.^* /\ °'l^^'- ^*'\ -.18 
 
 ;i^ °- ,//:a^;r.\ c°^^^;^>o ./\.^<;\. 
 
 
 
 ^•.0^ V*^-?^,/ V^^'/ \/^^\/ 
 
 
 • .^^ 
 
 .V <^^ *'To^ .^0 
 
 .♦ o 
 
 'oV 
 
 ^AO^ 
 
^^i^^^^^^K^^^^m^i^^^^^^ 
 
 ^^^kJ»m^m^^^m^mm^^^^^* 
 
 Wtttt 
 
 DELIVEREn AT THE 
 
 P 
 
 EDICATION OF THE pTATUE 
 
 ?' 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 ERECTED IN FRONT OF THE CITY HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 nr INVITATIOlJf OF 
 
 IIOX. JIICHAED WALLACII, NOBLE D. LARNER, ESQ. 
 AND ASBUPtY LLOYD, ESQ., 
 
 MANAGERS OF TIIH LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 
 
 BENJAMIN B:'VrENCH. 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY: 
 
 McGILL & WITIIEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 
 
 1868. 
 
 M^^atf^itf^itf^ 
 
 ^m^m^m0m^m 
 
JLDDRESS 
 
 DEI.IVEUED AT THE 
 
 DEDICATION OF THE STATUE 
 
 ABEAHAM LINCOLIST, 
 
 ERECTED IN FRONT OF THE CITY HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 BY INVITATION OF 
 
 HON. EICHAED WALLACH, NOBLE D. LARNER, ESQ. 
 AND ASBUEY LLOYD, ESQ., 
 
 MANAGERS OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT ASSOCIATION. 
 
 RENJAMIN ]V rRENCH. 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY: 
 McGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 
 
 1868. 
 
,8 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr, FiiENCfi, having, as Grand Master of Masons, per- 
 formed the Masonic ceremonies of dedication, said : 
 
 Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens : 
 
 Lest my position be misunderstood, I will state, before 
 commencing the delivery of the address, that I appear here 
 as an old citizen of Washington, npon the invitation of the 
 Lincoln Monument Association, and not as Grand Master of 
 Masons. 
 
 He then proceeded as follows : 
 M'j respected Fellow- Citizens : 
 
 We have met here this day, to dedicate to the people 
 of the United States, here, in the central part of their 
 own capital, the form and semblance of pne whom 
 they dearly loved in life, and whose memory they can never 
 cease to revere ; who, three years ago this day, yielded up 
 his life a martyr to his love of his countrj-, his love of his 
 fellow-men, and his unshaken conlidence in the affection 
 and reverence for his person, of all around him. 
 
 The statue, which we now inaugurate, is emphatically the 
 oftering of the citizens of Washington to the memory of the 
 man whose form and features it represents. 
 
 In Ajiril, 18(35, the Councils of the City, on motion of 
 Nol)le ]). Liirner, Esq., Councihnan from the Third Ward, 
 adopted, unanimously, a resolution, appointing a Committee, 
 to consist of the Mayor, and tiiree Members of each Board, 
 for the purpose of forming a " Washington Lincoln Monument 
 Assodction." 
 
 That Committee, in conformity with the resolution, elected 
 a large number of their most respectable fellow-citizens, 
 who, with the original Committee, formed the Association, 
 with the Hon. Richard Wallach, Mayor, as President, 
 C. S. NoYES, Esq., as Secretary, and (tEo. W. Riggs, Esq., 
 as Treasurer. 
 
Subscriptions were solicited from the citizens ofWasliing- 
 ton, and a sum sufticient to secure tlie erection of the statue 
 was obtained. 
 
 A contract was entered into witii Mr. Lot Fhannery, of 
 Washington, to furnish the statue, and it now stands before 
 yon, the work of his hands. 
 
 AVho can ever forget that night of horror when the awful 
 
 intelligence was borne by the telegraphic wires all through 
 
 the land that Abraham Lincoln had been struck down by 
 
 the hands of an assassin? 
 
 " Oh night of woe, 
 How are ye joined witii iiell in triple knot." 
 
 And that day of grief which followed, when the messenger 
 of death went forth with the sad tidings that our good Presi- 
 dent was no longer of earth-^can it be forgotten ? 
 
 There is not one within the reach of my voice — and I 
 think I may truly add, there is not one in this broad land — 
 to whom it is not a wonder and a mystery how the people 
 bore up as they did under so terrible, so appalling, a 
 calamity! But they did bear up ; and although the Presi- 
 dent, whom they almost adored, was dead, the nation 
 lived! 
 
 And let me say here, that I believe nothing save the final 
 disruption of "the great globe itself" can destroy this 
 nation. 'J'he providence of God watches over us, sustains 
 us through all our trials, and will preserve us as a free and 
 independent people through all time. 
 
 It does not require any monument nor any v^'ords to per- 
 petuate the memory of that,great, and good, and pure man. 
 Monumental marble may crund)le into dust; bronze may 
 melt away ; granite may ^lerisli from the earth ; but the 
 memory of Abraham Lincoln shall live in human bosoms, 
 and be perpetuated on the living pages of history, as long as 
 aw/ nation or people shall exist on earth. 
 
 But it is a satisfaction and a pleasure, tinged with melan- 
 choly, to look upon that venerated form, and to view those 
 features, which, wliatcver else they may indicate, if true to 
 the life, will glow with goodness, kindness, and love, and 
 whereon never rested for a moment a single characteristic 
 other thini such as gave outward proof of a good and loving 
 heart, a conscience void of pttence, and charity towards all 
 mankind. 
 
 Oh, Heaven ! that such a man should have died, at such a 
 time, and in such a manner! 
 
 I hai'dly know, my fellow-citizens, where to begin on an 
 
occasion like tliis. Although the field is ample, it has bcoii 
 thoroughly gleaned by the pen of the historian, and the 
 harvest has been garnered in the bosoms of a loving people. 
 Still I am aware of your aftection for his memory, and tliat 
 you never tire in listening to a rehearsal of his virtues. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was unlike any other man. He seemed 
 to be born to fill the very station he occupied for the last 
 five years of his life, and the faith that was in us stands firm 
 to this day, that he alone could have carried the country 
 safely through the awful perils that beset it while he filled 
 the responsible and daniijeroas position of Chief Magistrate 
 We can say of him, with as much truth as it was said of 
 one of the greatest and best of English statesmen, he av.i>, 
 indeed, 
 
 "Tlie pilot that weathered the storm." 
 
 Let us attempt to analyze the man. 
 
 He was possessed of a heart as pure as the snow-flake as 
 it falls from above. Although of great simplicity of niiixl 
 and manner, there was in that mind a penetration wliicii 
 seemed to read the very thoughts of others, and which spake 
 through the eye, in language more powerful than could be 
 uttered in words, a defiance to any one who sought to 
 deceive him. 
 
 I have heard it called "shrewdness." It was more than 
 shrewdness; and I hardly know how otherwise tocharacterize 
 it, but in the strong language of the Apostle, as "the sword 
 of the spirit"; for as I have myself seen the searching, 
 powerful, inquisitive expression of that remarkable eye, 
 when turned upon one whose statement the President had 
 cause to doubt, it has seemed to me to pierce the buckler of 
 deception through and through, and that the wearer Avas 
 conscious of his discornflture before a word was uttered I 
 
 With a disposition as genial as a bright May morning; 
 with a temper that could hardl}- be ruffled by the most 
 untowai'd circumstances; with a soul absolutely beaming 
 through the eyes; with an aflection that captivated every 
 one, he was possessed of a firmness of pui'pose, in his deter- 
 mination to do right, that could not be overcome. 
 
 Pride of place was unknown to his character. To him, 
 that spark of the Eternal Avhich gleamed in the bosom of 
 the most humble, shone as bright as if it animated the 
 breast of the proudest and highest in the land; and the 
 widow and the fatherless ever found him a ready listener to 
 the tale of distress, and never left him witluMit words of 
 consolation, and acts which spoke louder than words! 
 
6 
 
 Even the Iniignage that he used was as peculiar to him as 
 was any other peculiarity of his nature. Terse, pointed, 
 plain ; never wandering among the mazes of rhetoric after 
 adornment, but simple as the man himself, and going as 
 straight to the mark at which he aimed as an arrow from the 
 bow of Tell. Solomon, in all the glory of his proverbs, 
 might have envied him, had he lived in these days of diffusive 
 writing, and still more diflusive speaking! 
 
 That single sentence in his last inaugural, coming up, 
 undefiled, from the pure well of his noble heart — 
 
 " With malice toward 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 "• — • 
 
 spoke the character of the man, and will live among the 
 sayings of great and good ^iien, as long as human lips can 
 speak, or types can print ; and, as we read it now, we can 
 scarcely repi-ess a tear as we reflect how soon after it was 
 said, the voice that said it ,was silenced forever, and the 
 iccrk that he was in was finished ! 
 
 The first we know of Abraham Lincoln as a national 
 man, is that he came into tb^ House of Representatives of 
 the United States, as a member from Illinois, at the first 
 session of the 30th Congress, on the first Monday of Decem- 
 ber, 1847. He served through that Congress, without any 
 particular distinction, except that he was regarded as an 
 lionest, kind-hearted, genial, niirth-loving man, popular with 
 all who knew him, and, as the few speeches he then made 
 indicated, a man of no inconsiderable talent. But no one, 
 as I think, mistrusted the hidden mine of ability which 
 existed under that unpretending exterior. 
 
 In the spirited canvass between him and the lamented 
 Douglas, in 1858, he so conducted his part in the contro- 
 versy as to convince his eloquent and talented competitor 
 that he had 
 
 " A foernan worthy of his steel ;" 
 
 and the eyes of the whole people were turned upon him as 
 "the rising man." 
 
 Whenever the people begin really to love a man, when he 
 has fairly stolen away their; hearts, they invariably l)estow 
 upon him a pet name. I believe I may say that the home- 
 lier the name, the better the^individual is beloved. So we 
 find in the annals of those days that "Honest Old Abe," as 
 a synonym for Abraham Lincoln, began to be a household 
 pbrase. There is probably no better indication of the loves 
 of Iho people — the real, genuine aftection of the masses — for 
 
men, than in tliis pet nomenclature that they give. We can 
 readily call to mind, " The Father of his Country," " The 
 Mill-Boy of the Slashes," " Old Hickory," " The Defender of 
 the Constitution," " Old Zack," with his " little more grape, 
 Captain Bragg," " Old Ironsides," and many more. 
 
 But we must return to the subject of our remarks. 
 
 In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Repub- 
 lican candidate for President of the United States, and the 
 nomination was hailed throughout the loyal portion of the 
 Union with an enthusiasm that gave assurance that he was 
 truly the candidate of the friends of the Federal Govern- 
 ment. He was triumphantly elected; and his election was, 
 as we all know, the signal for the commencement of that 
 dreadful effort to dissolve the Union, that ended in four 
 years of disastrous war, and the final triumph of the old flag 
 — but at a terrible sacrifice of human life, and an immense 
 expenditure of national treasure! 
 
 Through this fratricidal war, Abraham Lincoln stood at 
 the head of the Government, calm, cool, firm and deter- 
 mined. Ever hopeful in the darkest hours of the struggle, 
 and never for a moment ceasittg to place his trust in that — 
 
 " Divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will." 
 
 But the history of those dreadful years has been so many 
 times written, and is so familiar to you all, that it wouhl be 
 a trespass upon 3'our time and patience to repeat it here. I 
 shall, therefore, content myself by saying that President 
 Lincoln was found grandly equal to the great trust reposed 
 in him, and performed every duty with a heroic firmness 
 which met the admiration of all his friends. 
 
 But, while I refrain from recapitulating to you the public 
 history that marked the momentous era of his term of office, 
 I will endeavor to interest you by relations touching his 
 more private life and character, some of which, in conse- 
 quence of the official relations which for nearly his entire 
 occu[)ancy of the Presidential chair, existed between us, are, 
 probably, known to no other person. No week passed that 
 I did not see him, and I was often with him many times a 
 week. This, of course, with a man bke him, led to numer- 
 ous conversations between us, and enabled me, with no 
 particular intention of doing so, to observe the peculiar 
 characteristics of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 I will take the liberty, however, before eommencing that 
 part of my address, to give yon a brief r.ceount of the 
 inaiii2;uration ceremonies of March 4tli, 18(11, as written 
 
8 
 
 down by myself at the time — I having been honored with 
 the Chief Marshalship for the occasion. 
 
 "At a few minutes after eleven, the procession, being 
 formed in line in front of the City Hall, wheeled out into 
 column of march and moved towards Willard's. In front 
 of Willard's it again formed in line, and so remained until 
 ten minutes past twelve, when President Buchanan, who 
 had been detained at the Capitol by otiicial duty, arrived. 
 He, with President Lincoln, Col. Baker, and Mr. Pearce, of 
 the Senate, then took their seats in an open carriage, which 
 was received into the column of march with a proper salute 
 from the military, music, and the cheering of the populace. 
 The column then moved toward the Capitol. No more im- 
 posing or more orderly pageant ever passed along Pennsyl- 
 vania Avenue. At the north door of the Capitol the 
 President and President elect were received and escorted 
 in. In a few minutes, they, with their attendants, appeared 
 on the platform of the eastei-n portico, where Mr. Lincoln 
 delivered his inaugural, and was sworn into office." * * 
 
 " The inauguration ceremonies over, we escorted the new 
 President to the White House, where he received all comers 
 with that cordial welcome that so strongly marks the sin- 
 cerity of the man. 
 
 "In the procession was a triumphal car, splendidly trimmed, 
 ornamented, and arranged, iu which rode thirt3'-four young 
 girls. On our return the girls all alighted, and I conducted 
 them in and introduced them to the President. He asked 
 to be allowed to kiss them all, and did so. It was a very 
 interesting scene, and elicited much applause. The kisses 
 bestowed b^^ that good man oii those young lips will only 
 be forgotten when death has set his seal up^n them.'' 
 
 Such was the peaceful inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 
 which so many had prophesied could never be accomplished 
 without the shedding of human blood ! 
 
 What I shall now say is from memoranda made at the 
 time. 
 
 In August, 1862, just before the second battle of Bull 
 Ptui, in a conversation with the President, he asked me my 
 age, I gave it to him ; when he remarked, with much 
 emphasis, " Ten years older than I am, and ten years 
 younger." I replied that he must not view his own years 
 so disparagingly. When he repeated, "Yes, Mr. French, I 
 am actually ten years older than you are; the cares aiid 
 troubles that are upon me are ageing me rapidly; I feel it; 
 and you will live to seo nie in my coffin." This was said 
 
9 
 
 with deep solemnity, so much so that I felt sad, and tried to 
 speak cheering words. 
 
 Never, in all my intercourse with Mr. Lincoln, except on 
 this occasion, and upon the death of his son William, did I 
 witness any manifestation, in words, of despondency or 
 grief. 
 
 "When Willie died, although he bore liimsclf like a man 
 and a Christian, his affections would assume their control 
 over his sterner self, at times, and nature have her way. 
 
 As an evidence of Mr. Lincoln's power over his feelings, 
 I will mention that on arriving at the Executive mansion on 
 Monday evening, March 2, 1863, to attend the reception 
 then to take place, the President informed me that he had 
 just received the news of the capture of our steam ram 
 Indianola; " but," said he, " it is known to no one else here, 
 and as I do not wish it known until the reception is over, 
 please not to mention it." He made some further remarks 
 as to the misfortunes that were befalling us. The visitors 
 commenced arriving, and he stood there shaking hands, and 
 conversing in his usual cordial and pleasant manner, until 
 the reception was over, when he turned to me and said, " I 
 am glad this reception is over; I have been assuming a 
 cheerfulness that I could not feel, for I could not forget that 
 we have lost the Lidianoln." 
 
 That President Lincoln was beloved by every loyal heart 
 we all know, but I cannot refrain from copying, from my 
 own description of the dedication of the Xational Cemetery 
 at Gettysburg, the following : 
 
 "As soon as the hymn (the consecration hymn) was sung, 
 Marshal Lamon introduced the. President of the United 
 States, who, in a few brief but most apjiropriate words, dedi- 
 cated the cemetery. 
 
 " Abraham Lincoln is the idol of the American people at 
 this moment. Any one who saw and heard, as I did, the 
 hurricane of applause that met his every movement at Get- 
 tysburg would know that he lived in every heart. It was no 
 cold, iaint shadow of a kind reception, it was a tnrnultiious 
 outpouring of exultation from true and loving hearts at the 
 sight of a man whom everyone knew to be honest, atid true, 
 and sincere, in everv act of his life, and every pulsation of his 
 lieart. It was the spontaneous outburst of the heart-felt con- 
 lidence of the people in their ow% President ! " . 
 
 Perhajts no man living ever had a keener relish ibr the 
 ludicrous tlian Mr. Lincoln, and his {lOwer of illustration by 
 storv and anecdote was l)evond tliat of anv one with whom 
 
10 
 
 I was ever acquainted ; and such was the tendency of his 
 mind to mirth, tliat I have known him, when a grave question 
 was propounded to him, to reply to it by relating some story 
 perfectly illustrative of the answer required, but of such a 
 nature that no one could resist an audible expression of 
 merriment, in which he was certain most heartily to join; 
 and although the surplus electricity of his nature seemed 
 ever ready to pass off in a manner to make all around 
 him innocently happ}-, he was ever careful to guard against 
 injury to the feelings of any human being. And I think I 
 can give the assurance that not one in a hundred of the 
 gross stories that are now imputed to him, were ever even 
 heard of, by him. 
 
 To recall any of the illustrations that I have heard from 
 his lips would be out of place here ; but I cannot refrain 
 from stating one of his quaint and humorous pieces of advice 
 to me, which you will all ajipreciate. 
 
 The basement of the Executive mansion was at one time 
 so infested with rats as to render it almost uninhabitable. 
 I called the President's attention to the fact, and he said to 
 me, with that inimitable twinkle of the eye, and expression 
 of the countenance so remarkable in him, "Can 30U not 
 procure a ferret — one of those little fellows that drive away 
 the rats ? And while you are about it, perhaps it would be 
 well to get several, and distribute them about the Depart- 
 ments, /or there are rats everywhere .'" 
 
 And the good President was so pleased with the idea, that 
 he asked me afterwards, if I had got those ferrets. 
 
 The kindness of his disposition, ami his readiness to 
 indulge his children, may be illustrated by two occurrences 
 that fell under my own observ.ation. 
 
 The preparations had all been made for the family to leave 
 the city house, and establish themselves for the summer at 
 the Soldiers' Home. The carriage was at the door, and 
 Mrs. Lincoln and Tad were in it. The President came out 
 to join them, when Tad said, " I have not got my cat." The 
 President replied, "You shall have your cat," and he went 
 into the house and returned in a few minutes with Tad's 
 cat in his arms. 
 
 At another time, when I was with him in his ofhce, con- 
 versing on official business, one of the servants came in and 
 spoke to him. lie at once turned to me and asked me to 
 excuse him for a short time, as he must go and give Tad his 
 nu'diciiie, which he would take from no^:)ne else. 
 
 Such acts as these do Inuior to human natnre, no matter 
 
11 
 
 whether done by Presidents or peasants ; ever}- one who 
 has a soul will appreciate and applaud them, and I have 
 thought a thousand times, as I have seen the evidences of 
 the minute attention given by the great and good Washing- 
 ton, to the smallest matters that concerned his household, and 
 his home, while leading the armies of the United States, or 
 exercising the high functions of President of the infant 
 Republic, how like, in many particulars, were these two 
 truly great Presidents! 
 
 Although President Lincoln was always ready to assume 
 any official responsibility that his position required, his 
 innate sense of propriety was such that he never knowingly 
 encroached on the prerogatives of his subordinates, no mat- 
 ter what their position might be, 
 
 A somewhat curious instance of the delicacy of the Presi- 
 dent in this particular, occurred in November, 1864. 
 
 The day after the certain information of Mr, Lincoln's re- 
 election reached this city, it occurred to him that the laborers 
 at the Executive mansion ought to be granted a holiday. 
 Almost any other man, being President of the United State's, 
 and possessing the power to command, would have issued 
 an order giving them a holiday. 
 
 President Lincoln did no such thing, and what was my 
 surprise at receiving a card from him, on which was written, 
 in his well-known hand, and which I now have — 
 
 "If Commipsioner of Public Buildings cliooses to give laborers at White 
 House a holiday, I have no objection. 
 " Nov. 9, 1864. A. Lincoln." 
 
 Of course, the Commissioner did. choose, and the holiday 
 was given. 
 
 The autogra|)hs of tlic beloved President are eagerly 
 sought for, and higlily valued; and as an evidence of this, I 
 may say that I have seen a simple card, similar to the one 
 above alluded to, on which some request was written bv Mr. 
 Lincoln, elegantly framed, and suspended in the library of a 
 gentleman in Massachusetts, and considered so precious a 
 memorial that no money can purchase it. 
 
 And the last manuscript he ever wrote Avith a pen, on the 
 evening of his assas.^ination, is sacredly preserved, in like 
 manner, in this city, by the gentleman for whom it was 
 written. 
 
 I do not know how I can more a}»propi lately close this, 
 perhaps already too long address, than l)y reading an article 
 prepared by mvself for one of the city newspa[tcrs, on the 
 25]d of April, VsGo. It is as follows: 
 
12 
 
 " On Friday morning last, at seven o'clock, all that was 
 mortal of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of these 
 United States, was borne from the Capitol, taking their 
 departure for his home in Illinois, where tliey are to rest 
 until the final resurrection. 
 
 " The past week has been a sad one to the whole nation ; it 
 has been particularly sad for Washington ; for here the un- 
 paralleled atrocity that deprived a people of a President 
 whom they dearly loved and almost worshipped, and came 
 near snatching fi-om them a Secretary of State particularly 
 eminent for a head and a heart that gave him an exalted 
 place in the affections of all who knew him, was committed; 
 and as the awful news spread abroad on the wings of the 
 lightning, it carried with it sadness to every heart that beat 
 responsive to the great principles of humanity which were 
 so stronglv implanted in the bosom of our beloved Chief 
 Magistrate. 
 
 " At half past ten o'clock on Friday evening, the 14th 
 inst., the bullet of the assassin sped through the brain of his 
 illustrious victim, and from that instant he was as if he were 
 dead, although he continued to breathe until the next morn- 
 ing at twenty-two minutes past seven. 
 
 " That Friday niglit was an awful one for Washington. 
 The theatre where the horrid event occurred, was filled with 
 people, and the appalling news spread, as it were in a mo- 
 ment, to all parts of the city. There was no sleep that night. 
 The long roll — that startling call to all military men, and to 
 all civilians who understand it — was beat in the various 
 camps within and about the city, and the troops were speedily 
 under arms. 
 
 " ' Ah, then and there was liurrying to and fro, 
 And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
 And cheeks all pale, which, but an hour ago, 
 Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness.' 
 * ***** 
 
 " ' And there was mounting in hot liaste ; the steed, 
 Tlie mustering squadron, and the clattering car. 
 Went poui'ing forward with impetuous speed, 
 And swiftly foi'ming in the ranks of war.' 
 
 " Many knew not for a time what it all meant, but every 
 one knew that some terrible calamity was upon us; and 
 ere long the dread reality, that our President had been 
 assassinated, and our Secretary of State stricken down by 
 the dagger of some fiend in human shape, came to be known, 
 and a cordon of ti'oops was soon posted all around the city, 
 
13 
 
 to prevent, if possible, any egress from it, and be prepared 
 for any emergency that an extended conspiracy might render 
 necessary. 
 
 " There was a general rush of our citizens to Tenth street, 
 wliere, in a dwelling opposite the theatre, lay the dying 
 form of Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by his almost distracted 
 wife, his weeping son, his cabinet ministers, generals, emi- 
 nent physicians, and many others whose positions gained 
 them ready admittance to the side of the dying President. 
 
 "I stood at his bedside in the early hours of the morning, 
 and there witnessed such a scene of solemnity and grief as 
 I never saw before, and hope never to see again. 
 
 " ' There was silence, deep as death, 
 And the boldest held his breath — ' " 
 
 as if it were almost sacrilege to interrupt the solemn stillness 
 about that dying couch. 
 
 " The stern Secretary of War sat with his head bowed down 
 in grief; the good and kind Secretary of the Navy stood as 
 if transfixed with sorrow ; the ever mild and sunny counte- 
 nances of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the 
 Interior, the Postmaster General, and the Attorney General 
 were now overspread with the clouds of distress and mourn- 
 ing; Major General Halleck, who had naturally assumed 
 the direction of affairs, was quietly moving about, fixing his 
 large, and most expressive, eyes on everything that seemed 
 to require attention, and directing, in whispered tones of 
 sadness, what should be done. The noble form of Sumner, 
 seated ne^.r the head of the bed, was bowed low, and tears 
 flowed fi'om many eyes unused to weep. 
 
 " Not long after sunrise, 1 should think (time could not 
 well be counted, and the heavens were weeping in a gentle 
 rain) at the request of some of the personal friends of Mrs. 
 Lincoln, I went, in the President's carriage, after Mrs. 
 Secretary Welles; and ere I could return the noble martyr 
 had ceased breathing. 
 
 " I witnessed the bearing of the remains to the Presiden- 
 tial mansion ; saw them removed from the temporary coffin 
 in which they were borne there, and from that time until 
 they were placed in the car at the railroad depot for trjins- 
 portation to Illinois, I was much of the time with them. My 
 official duties made me almost one of the President's house- 
 hold, and on all public occasions I stood at his side or near 
 him, and I felt as if, even had duty not demanded my pres- 
 ence, I could not leave the inanimate form of him of whom 
 I had seen so much, and whom I loved so well in life. 
 
14 
 
 " The days of preparation passed by ; the lying in state in 
 the East Room, where thousands stood at the side of their 
 beloved and martyred chief, and paid to his memory the 
 tribute of respect with streaming eyes ; t)ie funeral services, 
 attended by the noble assemblage of all who aided the 
 Executive in the performance of his arduous duties in 
 Washington ; hundreds of the most respectable civilians of 
 the country; the full diplomatic corps, wdiose rich dresses 
 were in marked contrast to their sad, sad countenances — for 
 they all loved Abraham Lincoln ; the mourners, not only of 
 the family, but from his native and his adopted States ; the 
 reverend clergy in full numbers — -I witnessed it all. 
 
 "I listened, with a most melancholy but proud satisfaction, 
 to the religious services, full of submissive piety, but also 
 full of exalted patriotism. I saw the immense concourse of 
 people, civil and militarj^ who crowded Pennsylvania Avenue 
 from Georgetown to the Capitol, as the funeral cortege 
 passed along, marking, by their bowed forms, and their 
 sighs and tears, their deep grief at the loss of one whom 
 they had looked upon as their father. I saw the sacred re- 
 mains deposited on the catafalque in the centre of tlie 
 Rotunda of the Capitol, with the semblages of grief all 
 around it, and heard the pious and eloquent divine, who had 
 been from the first at the side of the departed and his 
 mourning family (Dr. Gurley), repeat with great impressive- 
 ness, earnestness and devotion, so much of the burial service 
 as was appropriate, ending with a prayer. The crowd then 
 departed. The guard of honor, which had been ever present 
 since the sad catastrophe, consisting of at least one Major 
 General and his staff, and often of two, were left in charge 
 of the body. 
 
 " At eight o'clock on Thui'sday morning the coffin was 
 opened and the crowd admitted ; and between that time and 
 ten o'clock in the evening, nearly forty thousand persons 
 looked, in sorrow and in tears, upon that beloved face. 
 
 "At six o'clock, A. M., on Friday, there were assembled in 
 the Rotunda, the cabinet ministers, the committee who were 
 to accompany the remains, the Rev. Dr. Gurle^-, Lieut. Gen. 
 Grant, and many other high officers of the army, the police 
 of the Capitol, and a few prominent citizens. Dr. Gurley 
 addressed, with deep fervor and great impressiveness, the 
 Throne of Grace, and his prayer found a solemn response, I 
 doubt not, in every bosom. 
 
 " The coffin was then closed, and was borne by twelve ser- 
 geants to the hearse, and being escorted by a battalion of 
 
15 
 
 the Veteran Reserve Corps, was followed by Lieut. Gen. 
 Grant and Brig. Gen. Hardee, arm in arm, and many other 
 officers of the army; the Commissioner of Public Buildings, 
 and Captain of the Capitol Police, all on foot; and by the 
 President and Heads of the Departments, and the Committee, 
 in carriages, to the Baltimore Depot, where it was placed in a 
 car, deeply and most appropriatel}^ draped in mourning, and 
 prepared for the occasion, where the reverend clergyman 
 again oifered up a prayer to the Father of us all ; and at eight 
 o'clock the train moved off, and he whom we all loved so 
 well, and for whom we would have willingly given our own 
 lives, was borne in solemnity and gloom, towards his final 
 resting-place in the bosom of the State which gave him to 
 us." 
 
 " Unveil thy bosom,. faithful tomb, 
 Take this new treasure to thy trust. 
 And give these sacred relics room, 
 To slumber in the silent dust." 
 
 Thus the remains of Abraham Lincoln left us to find a 
 resting place in the capital of his adopted and beloved 
 home. 
 
 It was one grand, solemn, and imposing funeral procession 
 from Washington to Illinois ; and I have been told by a 
 gentleman who accompanied it, that no dwelling was passed 
 in all that distance, whether the palace of the rich, or the 
 humble cottage of the poor, that did not exhibit some out- 
 ward badge of the grief that reigned within. 
 
 And now, my fellow-citizens, we have erected, as I believe, 
 the first public statue to the memory of that President who, 
 more than any other since Washington, lived, and ever will 
 live, in the hearts of the loyal people. Hcre^ where he earned 
 his highest honors; here, where he won from all who knew 
 him — and who is there that did not know him ? — golden 
 opinions; here, where in the midst of his friends, while en- 
 joying a brief respite from the cares and perplexities of his 
 exalted but laborious station, he was struck down in death, 
 by the hand of the foul and cowardly assassin, have we, this 
 day, placed upon its pedestal, the plain, unassuming, but 
 almost speaking semblance of that plain, unassuming, but 
 noble and godlike specimen of human nature. 
 
 We have erected it where the earliest kiss of rosy day, as 
 she approaches from the east, may fall upon it, and where 
 the last gleam of evening's mellow light may salute it, as the 
 twilight darkens into night. 
 
 Here it stands, as it were in the j^laza of the city ; and 
 
16 
 
 here it will stand, we hope, to be seen by generations long 
 hence to come. 
 
 Let the fathers of the city, in times of trouble, gather 
 around it, and acquire inspiration by calling to mind the 
 firmness, patience, fidelity, zeal, and nobleness of character 
 of him whom it represents. 
 
 Let the generations of young men gather around it, and 
 recall, as their example and their guide, the virtue, sobriety, 
 modesty, and uprightness of life and purpose of that great 
 man. 
 
 And let us all bear in mind, and ever profit by the re- 
 membrance, how Abraham Lincoln placed all his trust in 
 God, and implored His blessing upon every act of his ex- 
 emplary life. 
 
 * * * " God called him hence to lay his armor down, 
 To take his more than conqueror's wreath, his martyr's glorious crown. 
 In the great hosts of freedom's sons, our Lincoln leads the van, 
 Himself the greatest, ' noblest work of God, an honest man.' 
 
 " Arise then, oh my country, rise ! be worthy of his fame, 
 Lift high the banner of the right, put all its foes to shame. 
 Follow where Lincoln's footsteps led, his spirit be your own, 
 'Twill lead you on to victory, 'twill lead you to God's throne ! " 
 
I 
 

 
 
 5» ^, o 
 
 
 
 
 ^ ' • • " ,A V ^ O • * - ^ » ^ . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 V-o^ 
 
 
 
 St: '^v^.o^ 
 
 
 '^o^ 
 
 
 
 
 IV- . t . 
 
 v»<=.- 
 
 V-S^ 
 
 ^pC,- 
 
 
 BOOKBINDING i «^ /^ ♦*.