Qass. 
 Book. 
 
 
THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 rnEAorrED in the 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BINGHAMTON, 
 
 .SABT5ATII MORNING, APRIL Ifi, 1865, 
 
 GEORGE N. BOARDMAN 
 
 Published by Roc[uost. 
 
 BINGHAMTON, N. Y.: 
 
 F N. CHASE, PRINTER AND TUBLISnEB, STANPARO OFFICE. 
 
 1 8 fi 5 . 
 
 ^ £^i 
 
THE DEATH OF PKEfcSlDENT LIiNCOLN. 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 PEEACUED IN THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BINGHAMTON, 
 
 SABBxiTH MORNING, APRIL 16, 1865, 
 
 GEOEGE N. BOARDMAN. 
 
 Publislied by Request. 
 
 BINGUAMTON, N. Y.: 
 
 F. N. CHASE, PRINTER AND PUBLISHEE, STANDARD OFFICE. 
 
 1865. 
 

DISCOUESE. 
 
 II. KINGS 2: 12. 
 "My father, ray fiither, tlio chariot of Israel aud the horsemen tliereof !" 
 
 The fatlicr of this nation lies dead. In the President's 
 mansion, at Washington, liis lifeless form rests in the sleep 
 that knows no waking : hi has ceased from his cares and 
 anxieties; ho is at peace, while a weeping people bows be- 
 fore God in the bitterness of grief. From the breathless 
 stillness of the nation, watching the current of events ; from 
 the shout of victory, now and then interrupting the silence ; 
 from the agony of suspense over the question, whether the 
 transition from war to peace can be successfully made, he 
 has taken his departure. — the foremost man in interest and 
 in responsibility, — he has laid down his office, he has gone 
 to give his account at the bar above ; he has gone, we may 
 hope, to sit down with tliat Jesus whom, he has said, 'he 
 loved.' 
 
When Elisba saw his master, — Israel's greatest prophet, 
 Elijah, — snatched from his side and carried to heaven, 
 he felt that all hope had gone. His father was ta- 
 ken away ; the man whom God loved was talcen away ; 
 the best defense of the nation was taken away. The de- 
 stroyer of Baal's prophets was worth more to Israel than 
 armed chariots and trained bands of soldiers ; and the grief 
 of his heart gushed out in the tender words of the text : 
 " My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horse- 
 men thereof." 
 
 A later day, and maturer reflection, may lead us to dwell 
 upon the more recondite lessons which the calamity that 
 has just befallen us should suggest : but on this occasion it 
 is best to bow the head in awe, to let fall the tears of afflic- 
 tion, to pray that the mantle of the departed may fall upon 
 his successor, and to speak only the simple words of sorrow. 
 
 The emotion which naturally rises first in ihis hour of our 
 bereavement, is that of tender regard for the one so ruth- 
 lessly taken from us. Abraham Lincoln was a good man. 
 He was summoned by the people to take the helm of the 
 government, at a time when storms were rising; he ac- 
 cepted the call modestly, he undertook his work feelinn-- 
 it to be a solemn duty, he invoked a nation's prayers that 
 he might be able to do it well. He never entered on any 
 work ostentatiously, he never pursued his own way obsti- 
 nately, he ever submitted deferentially to the wishes of 
 those who appointed him, and in every position he has 
 
5 
 
 borne'[_lnmself with so mnch meekness, so much kindness 
 and so h'ttle vanity, that tlie people have learned to love 
 him. They were not, indeed, always pleased with his 
 deeds ; at times he seemed to be favoring one party, at 
 times another; but all rested quietly in the assurance that 
 he would do the best he could, for they knew he was an 
 honest man. 
 
 But he was not simply a good man, — he was a great 
 man. The storm which had already risen when he took 
 the oath of office, which swept with fitful but foreboding 
 gusts about him, as he laid his hand upon the helm, be- 
 came soon the dark night of a howling tempest. It was 
 early found, however, that the pilot's hand was steady, 
 and that his eye peered into the darkness. He first de- 
 scried the harbor, and though driven and tossed, still he 
 ever neared the port. At each hour he cried, "All is 
 well ;" at 10 o'clock the cry wa? heard, at 11 also, — at 
 midnight, a^ain the same cry, "All is well ;" as the dawn 
 approached, again the same cheerful utterance. But now 
 when the light appeared, and the sun seemed about to 
 lift itself above the horizon, when the voice of our pilot 
 was about to be uttered again, and that in the dulcet 
 sounds of peace and good-will to men, suddenly it is 
 hushed in death. One of those miscreants, that God al- 
 lows to live on earth to give us occasional living ex- 
 amples of the malignities ot hell, took the life of our 
 chief- magistrate by assassination. The air has for weeks 
 been vocal with the shouts ot victory. The armies of the 
 Union are marching on, — one stronghold after another 
 
6 
 
 falls. Eacli morning wo are eager for the report Irom 
 tlie seat of war ; the days of disaster ecein ])ast and for- 
 gotten, we hardlj fear anotlicr defeat ; we do not know 
 how evil ti':^ings are possible. We hear from Savannah, 
 from Wihnington, from Charleston, from Richmond, but 
 all is victory ; we hear from Jettersville, Berksville, Farm- 
 ville, and at last the wcrd victory changes to capture, 
 the voice of tlie redoubtable Loo mingles in the din, our 
 general has dictated tl^c conditions of surrender, and the 
 reply is, "they are accepted." "What can mar the joy of 
 such a time? But hark! there is a groan of agony that 
 fills the air, there is a wailing from all over the land, 
 keener and more piercing than that of households be- 
 reaved of sons and brothers fallen in the battle, — a wail- 
 ing more sad than that of Rachel weeping for her chil- 
 dren : the nation has lost her noble leader, who guided 
 her through the storm, on whom she rested confidently for 
 the further work of settling the affairs of peace. Strong 
 men bow themselves and cannot utter the words whicli 
 the telegraph reports: with sobs and broken accents thiv 
 but half say the words — "President Lincoln is dead." 
 
 Never, since the report went through the land, in 
 1804, that Hamilton was dead, has such tender grief taken 
 possession of the heart of the people, and then it was only 
 the party which he led that felt the keenness of the an- 
 guish ; but now the words of Simeon to the mother of 
 Jesus might be uttered to the nation: "A sword is passing 
 through thy soul !" IIow the generous soul of our Presi- 
 dent would have entered into the joys of ])eace ! The 
 man who wept gushing tears over the brave Ellsworth, 
 the man who took by the hand the rebel prisoners of 
 Antietam, the man who was in haste to be generous to a 
 
lalleri foe, — the man who, in the press of cares unknown 
 bv auj other person on earth, could pause to write notes 
 of grateful kindness to mourning fathers and mothers, — 
 the man whose name enters into every prayer which the 
 slave addresses to the throne of grace, — how would such 
 a man have enjoyed the days of peace ! They would have 
 borne healing in their wings, — his depressed spirit would 
 have revived as by the breath of spring. O it was hard 
 for the good man to die at such an hour. Our tears 
 flow for thee, thou protector of tiie nation ! thou father of 
 the people! There are times when it is sad to depart 
 from the scenes of earth. We do not love to re- 
 tire from them when everything is bright with hope, 
 when the winter is past, and the glorious summer 
 ia approaching. But the hour strikes, and the man must 
 go. God appoints the time of departure, as the time of 
 birth, and the time of labor. Moses died upon Piegah, in 
 sight of the Promised Land ; and another than he, who 
 has led us through the wilderness, is ow to go before 
 us, and establish ub in our peaceful homes. 
 
 Ner is the loss of President Lincoln the only bereave- 
 ment which we mourn.* One week ago we could say, — 
 we did say — that the nation lies down to rest at night in 
 security, because our chief magistrate is a man whom the 
 people do not wish to change, and our chief of the Cab- 
 inet is a man who knows what nations ought to do. Sec- 
 retary Seward has shown himself a most able diplomatist, 
 — cool, sagacious, ready, just and firm, he has parried all 
 attempts to involve us in a foreign war ; more than any 
 man of the North he i^ hated by traitors for his success 
 
 * When tliib sennuu was \\ritLeu, iLu lulegrapLie leport wao. tliat lliere 
 was no hope of i?ecretary Seward's reco\ eiy. 
 
8 
 
 iQ foiling their attempts to secure foreign recognition. It 
 is his praise that he has done the most difficult of all 
 works so well, that no one can wish another had under- 
 taken it. lie has sustained himself through an adminis- 
 tration the most tried our country has known ; he has held 
 his position as leader in an executive council which has, 
 perhaps, had no equal for ability since the nation had an 
 existence. But the Secretary of State lies prostrate; his 
 life, it is said, ebbing away, — he, too, the victim of the 
 murderer's knife. Tiie President and his prime secretary ! 
 in their fate they were not divided. The wailing of David 
 for the fall of the princes of Israel, 3,000 years ago, 
 might be repeated in our Christian age. Our heroes did 
 not indeed win their honors on the field of battle, but 
 ''they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than 
 lions." They turned not back empty from their contests, 
 and unlike the fallen of Israel, they die on the achievement 
 of victory. Ye daughters of the land, weep for them, — 
 for they were the protectors of your homes in the days of 
 trouble ; they kept back the foe in the dark hour of danger. 
 
 But we must turn froin, the mere expression of grief to 
 some other thoughts adapted to the occasion. The events 
 which now call us to mourning should lead us to deep 
 humiliation before God. The wonderful successes that 
 have crowned our arms since last September were, per- 
 haps, begetting a pride that was offensive to the Giver of 
 victories. We had, in our distress, often called upon the 
 Ruler of the nations to interpose, to judge between us and 
 our enemies, to turn back the tide of war upon the foe, 
 and to deliver us from the treason that threatened life. 
 But we had come to have confidence in an arm of flesh. 
 We thought that if Sherman ordered the battle there 
 

 
 must be victory; we thonglit if Thomas movel, tlie foe 
 would be scattered before iiiin lilce chaff; we thought if 
 Sheridan rode into the conflict, his legions would trample 
 down the enemy ; we thought if Grant should hurl his 
 relentless battalions on the enemy, that parapet and en- 
 trenchment and abattis and artillery and lines of living 
 men, would all yield to the stubborn warrior. Had we 
 not forgotten, that it is God who giveth us the victory ? 
 Did we not pride ourselves on the great work we had 
 done, and forget Him on whom we called when the 
 report from Bull-Run and Fredericksburg bowed us in the 
 dust? I tliink I hear in the announcement of this hour, 
 "the President is dead," "the Secretary of State has been 
 assassinated," these words : "Be still and know that I am 
 God." I feel that we are not even allowed to mourn 
 with exclusive reference to the lost ones ; but are sum- 
 moned to go forth and gird up our lo'ns like men, and 
 hear what God will say to us. 
 
 And as now the nation stand;3 appalled, and a solemn 
 silence rests upon us, we may, if we listen, hear issuing 
 from the throne of God himself, the words, "Warriors 
 are but the rod in my hand, and war is but the overturning 
 which is to bring forward the reign of the Prince of Peace. 
 Rulers may be able, sagacious, unwearied, successful, 'but 
 by me kings reign and princes d scree justice.' You 
 hope for rest from war, but I make peace. I assuage 
 the angry passion of war, I eradicate from the hearts of the 
 conquered the thirst for revenge ; I alone can make the 
 bed of disease a safe retreat from the assassin's bludoreon. 
 — can make home a home of security and quiet rest." 
 Let us remember that victory in the field is but half the 
 victory,— that now wo must rule our own spirits. Other- 
 
10 
 
 wise the defeated demon war, that rose up against us, 
 retiring, may be followed by a thousand demons quite as 
 malignant, warring with each other, sowing suspicions, 
 dividing the counsels of patriots, setting ajar our states- 
 men and electors ; and the foe who is worsted before Pe- 
 tersburg, may sip his sweet revenge in the public gather- 
 ing, in the bed-chamber, at the fireside. Let us be warned, 
 and remember, against this insidious enemy that walketh 
 in darkness, God is our security. Stand still and listen to 
 the voice of God, "Without me ye can do nothing." 
 
 The solemn event over which we mourn to-day teaches 
 us the importance of the crisis through which we are pass- 
 ing. We have not yet, as a nation, comprehended the 
 dignity of the struggle in which we are engaged. Great 
 occurrences do not sound a trumpet before them when 
 they come to pass ; rather they fall upon men un- 
 awares. Yet we should not be blind to the times 
 in which we live. We should, as far as we are 
 able, take 'knowledge of the great events which we wit- 
 ness, and rise, if it be possible, to a comprehension of 
 the occurrences in which we take part. We ought to 
 understand that the civil war which has been waged for 
 the last four years is not simply an insurrection^ — it is 
 a revolution ; the rebels are not merely insurgents, to 
 be put back into the place they formerly occupied, but 
 they are traitors, to be crushed under the heel of lawful 
 authority. We would indeed return, as nearly as pos- 
 sible, to what we seemed to be, and professed to be, in 
 the days that are now called those of prosperity ; but 
 our enemies will not allow us, the progress of the world 
 will not allow us, God will not allow us, to return to 
 a state exactly the same with that which we held be- 
 fore. We must cast out evils, we must establish virtues 
 
11 
 
 ill the struggle ; and a small advance in national mo- 
 rality costs, as is well known, vast sacrifices, canses great 
 revolutions. 
 
 We have desired to belittle our present contention ; 
 we would make it but the outburst of an hour, after 
 which, parties may be expected to fall back to their old 
 position ; we have not wished to call it a crisis in which 
 a nation passes from one stage to another; but the event 
 of Friday night allies our struggle with the great events 
 of history ; it now stands out with few companions on 
 the stage of the world. Occasionally events strike the 
 mind so as to seem akin to each other, — to tower 
 above all minor affairs, and to stand, like the loftiest 
 mountain tops, compeers, though widely separated. The 
 emotions of yesterday have not been felt since the war 
 began. Only two days can be compared with that on 
 which the President's death was announced— one, the day 
 when, four years ago, it was reported that Fort Sumter 
 had been fired upon. What we hardly believed could 
 occur, had begun, — for that night the sun went down out 
 of a sullen, dismal sky, but was in a clear atmosphere far 
 in the west, while his teams gave the low, lowering 
 clouds about us the bloody hue of a warrior's raiment 
 dripping with gore. Blood was flowing, and thoughtful 
 men lay down that night, not to sleep, but to think over 
 the astounding fact — war, civil war is upon us. 
 
 Again,, a few months later, when the story of Bull 
 Run was told, the nation's heart sunk. The war was a 
 serious one, — there was bitterness and wo in our cujj ; 
 already were wo dri;.king the wormwood and the gall. 
 These days have no ally — as the heart judges them — till 
 yesterday. And as these events stand out alone, so our 
 
12 
 
 war, with this crowning event — the assassination at the 
 Capital — now stands out among the few great wars that 
 have changed the destinies of nations. Just before the 
 Christian era, Julius Ci^sar, the champion of the people 
 of Rome, took up arms against a tyrannical and haughty 
 aristocracy ; his legions swept the foe before them, en- 
 countered them in their hiding places, and overthrew 
 them in all their resorts. But the mild Ctesar admitted 
 his enemies to his councils ; and fanatical, though perhaps 
 well-meaning, conspirators slew him in the Senate-house. 
 The aristocracy of Rome, however, was not thus rescued. 
 The champion of the people left a successor, who met 
 Caesar's murderers at Phillipi, and the victory was still 
 with the army that had learned to conquer ; while the 
 foe found the little finger of Augustus thicker than the 
 loins of Julius. Again, persecuting Spain,] long baffled 
 in subduing the Netherlands, finally resorted to the as- 
 sassin's dirk. "William, of Orange, the founder of the 
 Dutch Republic, a man who has few compeers in history, 
 fell by the hand of a hired murderer, — a minion of Philip 
 IT : Gerard found his way to the great prince in his pri- 
 vate apartments, and shot him in the presence of his 
 family. That 10th of July, 1584, was a dark day for 
 the new Republic, but the cause did not fail. God was 
 for it; who could be against it? And France lost her 
 greatest monarch by the dagger ot Ravaillac. Henry 
 lY., the most chivalrous, the most generous of her rulers, 
 died, and the gloomy night of the inquisition followed. 
 In the providence ot God the cause of despotism here 
 triuniphed, and France was doomed to prepare herself 
 for the saddest fate which has yet befallen a nation. The 
 death of Henry lY., at the instigation of Romanism, led 
 to the death of Louis XVL, who gave his life an expiation 
 
13" 
 
 to justice. It is worthy of note, that these marked cases 
 of assassination, like that which we now mourn, have 
 all been prompted by despotism professing opposition to 
 tyranny. It is too early now to decide whether despotism 
 or popular rights are to triumph, when history repeats 
 herself in the violent death ot a ruler in our day : doubt 
 as to the result seems hardly possible, however, for this 
 murder, like the rebellion which preceded it, is the most 
 causeless, aimless and desperate that has found a place in 
 the annals of the world. But it is not too early now to judge 
 of the fame of the victim. Mr. Lincoln has been placed by 
 his assassin by the side of Caesar, Henry lY., aud William of 
 Orange ; ttie most blameless of all, he does not aspire to the 
 fame of a warrior, but he stands as a brother to the Deliv- 
 erer of Holland, — nor will his name in coming ages 
 be less revered. His murderer has effected his apotheosis. 
 Our beloved chief magistrate was removed at the height 
 of his fame, his reputation unsullied, the equal of "Wash- 
 ington, and beyond "Washington, a martyr to the cause 
 of Constitutional liberty. The name of Abraham Lincoln 
 has entered into history, almost the only one without a 
 spot. 
 
 The event which we now bewail teaches us a lesson 
 upon the majesty of law. The highest crime known 
 among men is that against government. It is called 
 treason, and in former times was called leze -majesty, 
 i. e., the wounding of the majesty of the State. This 
 crime rises above any other, — the murder of an indi- 
 vidual is of minor consequence ; default, robbery, theft, 
 are all subordinate, for the power that adjusts wrongs 
 and protects society still remains. But when the State 
 is assailed and its life threatened by th3se who enjoy its 
 protection, then the acme of crime is attained, ingratitude 
 
14 
 
 has readied its highest point, order, protection and the 
 well-being of society are assaulted at the very source of 
 their being. This is a crime which God and humanity 
 demand should not be slightly passed over. But we 
 were in danger at this point. Our public men had be- 
 come wearied with the war ; tliey intensely longed for 
 peace. There was danger that they would not persist 
 in tracing out crime and punishing it according to 
 its deserts. There was danger that the government 
 would forget that God put the sword into its hand to 
 bo borne not iu vain. There was danger that we should 
 be too lenient towards those who had schooled themselves 
 in cruelty towards their slaves till the earth itself must 
 spew them out ; we were likely to forget that there was 
 no place left for sach fiends. Anderscnville, and Belle- 
 Isle, and Springfield were becoming familiar names, 
 and so names only ; we had been so sickened with the 
 horrors which they had witnessed that we passed by the 
 narratives that told us of them, then tried to forget them. 
 Thus it was beginning to be indolently assumed that our 
 soldiers had not suffered so cruelly, because we were 
 unwilling to know Uow cruelly, and there was danger 
 the demons who were guilty of the barbarities known in 
 southern imprisonment would be received back into the 
 brotherhood of man. Now I cannot believe that the 
 guilt of these things rests on very many individuals, nor 
 is the majesty of law vindicated by the multitude of its 
 victims; but the crime has been awfnl, and the pun- 
 ishment must bear some proportion to it : we must re- 
 member that our maudlin philanthropy, on such an oc- 
 casion as this, is offensive to God. When tenderness to 
 traitors is injustice to honest men, it is a crime next to 
 treason itself. The soft assumption that men mean well, 
 
15 
 
 and will be soriy, and will learn to do better, when 
 they see the evils they cause, is sheer ignorance of human 
 nature. God has made an eternal hell, where he pun- 
 ishea traitors to his government ; he requires of us that 
 we maintain the dignity and honor of the government 
 he has given us in imitation of his own. Governments 
 have a duty to be performed in punishing, even for the 
 sake of protecting. Such men a-i Judas Iscariot, Benedict 
 Arnold, Brooks, Booth and Quantrell subject to a fair test 
 the morals of society. The virtue of the community is seen, 
 not in the kindness with which it attempts to reform the 
 outrageously wicked, so much as in the decisiveness 
 with which it crushes them under the heel of power. 
 Our government has ever been too lenient ; treason in 
 high places has too long been unpunished. Three Yice- 
 Presidents have been spared the gallows — Aaron Burr, 
 John 0. Calhoun, John C. Breckinridge — and now a 
 President loyal to the core has paid the penalfy from 
 which they were exempted. Mistaken tenderness lies at 
 the foundation of our war; let ns have done with it. Let 
 lis abhor private revenge, but the majesty of law must 
 be vindicated, or laws are worthless. 
 
 In conclusion, let me urge you, my hearers, to yield 
 to no despondency in the present hour of mourning. 
 "We are troubled, buc not in fatal distress; we are per- 
 plexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
 cast down, but not destroyed." The same God who has 
 guarded us hitherto will guard us still. He is serenely 
 above the machinations of man's malice, and can make 
 the wraih of man .to praise him. What he does, indeed, 
 we know not now, but wo shall know licreafter. He 
 
16 
 
 will raise up men to go before us ; he lias a Joshua to 
 succeed a Moses ; there was a resurrection to succeed the 
 death of his Son. The anniversary of these events is 
 upon us. Our joys were slain with our murdered ruler, 
 but to-day let them rise from the dead; and while we 
 mourn, let us say of Him who orders events, He doeth 
 all things well; though some of our expectations have 
 perished, still our ho[)e never dies. 
 
 Let us remember the majestic scenes through which 
 we have passed, — stirring elections, but all peaceful ; 
 parties contending in the loyal States, but all under re- 
 straint ; every man loving his country more than his party ; 
 let us recall the courage that continued unfaltering at the 
 national heart, while disaster followed disaster ; remember 
 the firm resolution of all the people at their election in 
 November; — their fearless stand before the nations of the 
 earth, in sustaining men and measures that excited the 
 ridicule and scorn of Europe ; remember the great days 
 of the past four years, — a period for which we should 
 thank God ; remember that the people are true ; arid then 
 let us rise from the sadness of the mourning hour, and gird 
 ourselves for our work and our country's work. The man 
 dies, but the cause lives. Even Jesus died, but his cause 
 survives and prevails ; and ours, so far as it is coincident 
 with his, can never be overthrown. 
 
 S12 
 
II 
 
 I