ASSASSINATION  OF THE  PRESII)ENT.
-   I I S Cd O T~, S, *
ON I'1 E DEATH OF
AI ABRAHAIM LINCOLN,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
DELIVERED AT ACTON, MASS., APRIL 16TH, 1865.
REPEATED IN THE BAPTIST CHURCH, WEST ACTON, JUNE 1S1T, 1865,
BY REV. GEO. W. COLMAN,
PASTOR CONGREGATIONAL CHURC-I, ACTON.
BOSTON:
S. C ISM,-FR A N K L I N PRINTING    US,
No. 112 CONGRESS STREET.
1865.








ASSASSINATION  OF THiE  PRESIDENT.
A DISCOItURSE
ON THE DEATH OF
ABRAHA  LINCOL N
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
DELIVERED AT ACTON, MiASS., APRIL 16TH, 1865.
REPEATED IN TIIE BAPTIST CHURCIH, WEST ACTON, JUNE 1ST, 1865,
BY REV. GEO. W. COLMAN,
PASTOR CONGREGATIONAL CHIURCH, ACTON.
BOSTON:
S. CHISIM,-FRP ANKLIN PRINTING HTOUSIE,
No. 112 CONGRESS STREET.
1865.




NOTE. —This discourse has been but slightly modified since its first delivery.
What was then immediate and present is now past. The change of tense and
the poem of Wm. Cullen Bryant are all that seemed necessary to adapt it to this
day of National IIumiliation and Prayer appointed by President Andrew Johnson.




...  lnow ye not that there is a Prince and a great man fallell this day?...
The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. - 2 SAM.
iii. 38, 39.
WUTHEN Massillon came to preach the funeral sermon of Louis
the Fourteenth of France, he chose these words of Solomon, "I
communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I have become
great! "'  And, slowly repeating them  over, as if to recollect
himself, "Lo, I have become great! " then fixing his eyes on
the assembly in mourning; next surveying the funeral enclosure, with all its sombre pomp; and lastly, turning  his eyes
on the tomb erected in the midst of the cathedral, -after a solemn pause, he exclaimed, " God alone is GREAT, my brethren!"
The immense assembly was breathless with solemnity and awe.
W\ith such a thought as this, we come to the house of God
to-day.  Such an occurrence as that which we now lament was
never before known in the history of our land.  It belongs to
the incredible tales of the dark ages.  It is out of place in such
a land as ours.  It hardly entered into our hearts to think it
might occur; and this has been the very cause which left our
nation's ruler defenceless, and gave the assassin opportunity to
execute his plans, and yet to effect his escape boldly.
Short, hasty, and unsatisfactory were the details of the blow
which at first reached us, — a blow which filled every true
heart with sadness, deep and solemn, while it nerved it anew to
* " J'ai parle en mon cocer, et jai (lit, Voici, je me suis agrandi." -Eccl. i. 16.




4
a firmer purpose of loyalty and unconditional patriotism.  Bat
scanty as were the items we received, their character was such
as to leave no doubt of the execution of a fearful tragedy, in
the very heart of the nation's capital, among a concourse of
thousands of people.  Yes, it is true, -  the man on whom all
our eyes have been centred for the past five years, - whose
labors for the public welfare were almost crushing, and, but
for the happy power which he possessed of casting them off in
his hours of leisure and amusement, would have crushed him, —
the man who, calm in the consciousness of an unbending integrity, a proverbial honesty, met the gaze of the nation by a look,
not of pride, but of kindly, earnest, faithful devotion to our
welfare, -  the man who had just received, from a grateful people emerging from the clouds of war, the laurel wreath, to wear
most worthily for another term of years, -the man whose openness of heart made him  accessible to all classes, so that every
citizen had the consciousness that he was his personal friend,this man, Abraham  Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United.
States, fell by the hand of the assassin on the evening of April
14th of the present year.
The outline of events that presents itself is the following'
Over-worn by the fatigues of office, and the importunities of
selfish oifce-seekers, the President sought relaxation and relief
in visiting places of public amusement.  Relaxation of some
kind was absolutely essential to a mind so overstrained.  He
was himself conscious of it; for while the great battle of the
Wilderness was yet undecided, he remarked to a friend, who
knew of his intention of going to the opera that evening, ~'"The
people will wonder, if they hear of it; but the truth is, I must
have a change of some sort, or die."  It may well be believed
that these scenes were but little in his mind, always fertile in
thoughts for the welfare of the nation in all its portions, -
whether the Western frontier, the Canada coast, or the status




5
of the Freedmen and the interests of Louisiana and other States
about to return to their allegiance, In company with the Lieutenant-General, he had announced his intention. of being thus
present on the fatal evening,  Circumstances called Gen. Grant
away, and with his usual complaisance, unwilling to disappoint
any who might wish this opportunity of seeing' the leader for
whom they had cast their votes, he went with his family to the
place designated.  At about half-past nine o'clock, during a
slight pause in the entertainment, the report of a pistol was
heard.  It roused but little attention, many supposing it had
accidentally been fired behind the scenes.  In the interval of
suspense a man is seen to lea-p upon the stage, to flourish a dagger, and exclaim,'~ $iC sCmlpei tyrsazpis!  then, darting away,
is beyond reach, before the audience can recover from their
surprise or guess his meaning,  But soon cries of anguish from
his famnilv attract attention to the President, who is found dangerously wounded and insensible.  Thenceforward all is confusion.  The best medical help is summoned, but in vain; and in
a few short hours the end of earth is reached.  Meanwhile a
murderous attack is made upon the Secretary of State, already
in feeble health, and utterly helpless,- and which, but for the
ltaste of the assassin, must have resulted fatally, if indeed it do
not yet.
For this act; in all its atrocity, n1o p7crso01na, motive seems possible.  There was no wrong' to be avenged, no wealth to be
clutched, nothing to be gained. It does not appear (so far as I
am. aware) that the murderer had ever so much as spoken with
the man he sought to slay.  The only clew to his motives is
found in his outcry, "' Thus let tyrants always perish  " It was
the simple act of wanton rebellion -  one act -  showing us its
full enormity, and the spirit which actuates it.
I shall enter on no elaborate disproval of the assassin's charge.
It needs to be stated only, to evince its falsity when applied to




6
the late head of the nation.  A TYRANT,  we are told, is "a
ruler who uses his power to oppress his subjects."  Too great
leniency is never the markl of such a man.  But this was the
most serious fault alleged against the President's personal acts,
— that he was too fond of pardoninrg.  It was his very leniency
that permitted open traitors, known to be in favor of secession
-and among them  this very assassin -to walk the streets of
Washington unharmed. This leniency has terminated in a way
we shall not soon forget, - has proved itself unsafe, and full of
danger: let us hope its days are numbered and finished.  Wre
have heard much of the injustice of arbitrary arrests: to-day the
nation suffers because the open, avowed, and rabid treason of
one man through all our conflict wras suffered to be unmolested.
The name of tyrant, then, will never rest with the memory of
that brave heart now low in dust,  The voice of the nation in
freely intrusting  its af.fsirs again so recently to one who had
never abused them, effectually dispels the stigma —a shot of
malice which fell harmless from the mail of honesty in which
Abraham Lincoln was clad.  5Would that he had only been as
invulnerable to the wound over which this day a nation weeps!
In this act, then, not dictated by any personal motive, but by
the misguided theories and passions by which this rebellion has
been engendered, God has permitted the nation to feel the woe
and wickedness of treason. Treason has stood ready for the
commission of this act whenever it should find an advocate sufficiently bold.  It has aimed its blows at the innocent and unsuspecting before, in its late attempt to fire our cities.  It has
revealed the merciless ch.aracter of its brutality in that ferocity
which broke through the barriers which surrounded the bedside
of the painful sufferer to inflict on one of the chief lights of
statesmanship deep and murderous wounds.  It is the same
spirit which has made possible the barbarities of Southern pris



ons.  No talents, no station, no condition, not even that of suffering, could appeal to its mercy; for it had none. No tie of
honor, no tie of religion, binds it; for honor and piety were dead
names in its heart long ago.  If any have been disposed to treat
it lightly, to be lenient towards it, look at this example, and
decide now what it merits from you!
It is this spirit of treason and rebellion which we judge and
condemn. For the unhappy criminal we have no severer doom
than that which is given for a far less aggravated crime. We
cannot more than execute the death penalty. We cannot descend
to the penalties of pagan Rome or even unenlightened Europe
of the middle ages. We have no rack, no wheel, no crown of
red-hot iron, no quadruplicate team of horses to tear him limb
from limb, as was done at Paris to Ravillac, the assassin of the
King. Wve are above the infliction of such barbarities, which,
after all, only add notoriety to the criminal, and even excite for
him the sympathy of the weak-minded  We have but the death
penalty, pure and simple, which even the Governor of this State
must in this case approve, sanctioned as it is by Jehovah's command to Noah, the world's second great progenitor, "6 Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in
the image of God made he man." (Gen. ix. 6.) The vengeance,
hot and furious, which every one sees due, - for which this
innocent blood calls, — is not ours to inflict.'Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  (Rom. xii. 19.)  " The
Lord shall reward the evil-doer according to his wickedness" -
a measure which we cannot understand, but which He shall fill
to its uttermost.  And let us, rather than desire this work, be
glad that it does not rest with us to perform.
In the shadow of this great sorrow - a gloom which makes
the very heart heavy — a loss which seems the most severe
which in the person of one man the nation could receive, —




there are yet considerations which we shall do well to remember, lest our hands be weak at the very time when our Government needs the greatest support both of hand and heart.
Happily, indeed, for us, God has made our dependence in this
land to rest not on the life of one man, nor of ten men. There
is no royal line made extinct; there is no usurper ready to
mount a throne by a coup d'etat, like that of Napoleon the
Third; there is no military leader, wishing that all things may
yield to arms; but in the midst of war we have chosen that a
man of peaceful, not of military training, should be our Chief
Magistrate; and none have been more ready in the choice than
our soldiers, attached far more to native land than to any military idol.  Above all, our dependence is not in man nor government, but in God.  Many are the faithful hearts who have
reversed the foolish action of the Israelites, who rejected God,
and demanded a king, - who have long since left off to trust in
princes or in man, and put their trust in GoD. They have
asked him to be the Ruler of this nation, whoever might preside
in its councils, - whether an administration of imbecility or one
of wisdom and growing strength. And just in accordance with
their faith in such a prayer will be their tranquillity, and the
answer of God in accepting this election. So that, to every one
who asks, c "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man
fallen this day?" we may reply, Yea, I know it; hold ye
your peace! "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in princes." (Ps. cxviii. 8, 9.) And here is a steadfast source of consolation, if we are willing God shall rule our
nation, as well as rule in our hearts.
Let it console us, also, that this most terrible blow did not
come at a time when, as a nation, our very existence was trembling in the balance. It would then have been hailed with




fiendish joy by every State in rebellion. Now, however, they
are so reduced that they can take no encouragement from our
severe affliction.  Then, also, many things were undecided,
which now will cause no perplexity.  Then much more power
was centred in the Executive, which has at last found a faithful
repository in the person of the Lieutenant-General. Mluch has
been wisely, cautiously, firmly decided, which left inchoate
might have involved us in far'more serious economic difficulties. And when we consider the ease with which this act might
before this have been perpetrated, the preservation of our ruler's
life amid the tides of party passion, and against the will of
hostile and disappointed politicians, may well seem to us a gift
from the hand of One who is wonderful in working- though
for wise reasons now showing us that only his power has stayed
this national calamity from long ago coming upon us.
Could his removal have been anticipated by himself, it must
have been a source of gratitude to our late President that he has
been permitted to accomplish so much.  In no portion of our
nation's history has progress been so rapid as.in the years of his
administration.  And as no one has been more worn downnot even the generals upon the battle-field -  by the evils of all
kinds which this rebellion has caused, so no one was more
ready to welcome the signs of returning reason in those territories where anarchy has ruled, -   ore ready to rejoice in the
victories of our arms,- to give honor to whom honor is due,or to hail the quiet of retirement when all should have been
firmly reestablished.  Sad it seems that this might not be: but
though the voice of the people might call him to his place, it
was powerless to preserve his life; no majority that rules or
governs can say how long its chosen chief shall abide.  There is
the will of God above the voice of the people.
Sadly are we reminded by this event that even so death first
2




To10
struck down the human family, - that the first instance of his
comiing was one of violence, a murder, actuated by the same
spirit of hatred to goodness as this base massacre.  Sadly also
do we remember the death which on that very day, eighteen
centuries ago, the great deliverer of man suffered on the cross of
Calvary, because a wicked earth could no longer endure the
presence of such excellence. And now he to whom an enfranchised race have looked up to as their liberator, their earthly
savior, next to Him who died for all mankind, has also fallen.
The brain that planned, the hand that wrote, the Emancipation
Proclamation, are silent in death.  This act of freedom  was
never the thought of a despot, but of a wise lover of liberty;
and in the beneficent results which it has already produced, he
might well have rested satisfied, had this one work been the
sole result of his life-long labors and his public administration.
For so long as the world shall last shall the name of Abraham.
Lincoln be dear to a people who remember their two hundred
and fifty years of bondage in a land of liberty, and whose hand
it was struck off from them their fetters, and whose voice it was
proclaimed them free.
Personally —and our President was so eminently a man of
the people, so genial, so approachable, so social, and kind toward the afflicted and needy, that we all seem to have lost a
personal friend, whether we have met him or not - personally,
it is a matter over which every one will feel consolation, that,
in view of his sudden death, we have the most acceptable assurance of his Christian preparation.  It is not often, even in
this Christian nation, that our rulers are Christian men. A lack
of courage, and a most fierce opposition around them, combine
to frighten such away from  the toils of political life.  Many
there are, who, like our own Webster, sacrifice their once firm
hold on heaven to gain some delusive earthly popularity or ad



vantage.  Many, like Jackson and Clay, hide their candle carefully under a bushel, suffering only a flicker of its rays to light
up their death-bed.  But such was not the case with him.  I
am relating nothing new when I call to mind his testimony of a
change, of which, since he had been elevated to his office, he
had been the subject.  We all remember the unusual request
with which he left his Western home. And yet many a man
may desire, as he did, the prayers of Christians, without himself
being one. HIis religious experience has been placed on record,
and in his own words.  A man, a few months since, who lad
some business with him, in closing said to him  plainly, 6" Before I left my honme an aged neighbor said to me, 6 You are going
to Washington; you will see President Lincoln.  Now I want
to ask you to ask him one question for mne.  Ask him if he is a
Christian -if he loves Jesus.' And this question, sit, I would
earnestly and affectionately now  make you."  The President
was touched to the heart, buried his head in his handkerchief a
few moments, and wept. HIe then said, "C I will answer it.
When I left home to take this place, I requested my countrymen to pray for me; but I was not a Christian then.  When
my son died -the severest trial of my life — I was not a
Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and looked upon
the graves of our dead heroes who had fallen in defence of their
country, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.  I DO
LOVE JESUS."  Noble profession of faith! Shall we doubt that
Christ failed to recognize the allegiance of that great heart?
Nor is a practice conformable to this confession to be sought
for vainly. Rev. Mr. Adams, a clergyman of Philadelphia, stated
in his discourse on last Thanksgiving Day, that, having an appointment to meet the President at five o'clock in the morning, he
went some fifteen minutes before that hour.  While waiting in
the ante-room he heard a voice near by, and asked the servant,




12
"Who  is talking  in the next room?"   "' It is the President,
sir."  i" Is there anybody with him? "   " No, sir: he is reading the Bible."   " Is that his habit.so early in the morning? "
"Yes, sir: he spends every morning, from  four o'clock to five,
in reading the Scriptures and praying."
These testimonies are- dear to the heart of a Christian nation,
called in a moment to bewail the loss of its most cherished son.
So  also  are those manly traits of character, that frankness
which seemed to delight in, saying, as in his letter to Sherman,
"You  were  right, and  I was wrong," -a greatness of soul
unreached  by any in his station  before,  -that tenderness of
heart which, passing the cold, dry, dreary statistics of the Military  Department over,  seized  upon  the  fact that one  poor
woman had sent five sons to fight for freedom and lost them all,
-and sent to her those words of sympathy which are  more
than gold, which are mint-drops of the heart.'  So is that practical wisdom  dear, likewise, which aimed not to  teach  more
advanced centuries so much as to be sure that he brought up
his own to the highest attainable degree.
These qualities have been well commemorated in these lines
of Bryant, read on the occasion of the reception of his remains
in New York. City:
a- PRESIDENT LINTCOLN'S SYIMPATHY. The follo-wing letter from the President
of the United States, Nov. 21, 1864, was received by 3Mrs. Bixby, a poor widow in
Boston: "Dear Madafin, —I have been shown in the files of the War Departme-nt a statement of the Adjutant-General of IMassachusetts, that you are the
mother of five sons who have died gloriously on tie field of battle. I feel how
weak and firuitless must be any Words of mine which should attempt to beguile
you from the grief of a loss so overwhelmilng. But I cannot refrain from tendering
to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they have
died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your
bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and
the solemn pricre that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the
altar of fiee!dom."




13
" O slow to smite, and swift to spare!
Gentle and merciful and just i
AWYho in the fear of God didst bear
The sword of power — a nation's trust —
"In sorrow by thy bier we stand,
Amid the awe that hushes all,
And speak the anguish of a land
That shook with horror at thy fall.
"Thy task is done: the bond are free:
We bear thee to an honored grave,:Whose proudest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
"Pure was thy life - its bloody close
lHath placed thee with the sons of light
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of Right."
But he is fallen this day -and that, too, by the way we least
of all should have desired.  Was, then, this new crime needed
to unite ALL hearts in their hatred of that spirit of treason which
inspired it?  Were other victims also needed to show that it was
the fruit of no personal animosity? And shall not the advocates
of this accursed sedition and conspiracy be held to strict account
for their deeds?  In their mad blindness they have stricken
down the man who would most have given them  leniency and
favor.  Their best advocate has died.  None remains who could
so eloquently plead for mercy to a misled people as the tongue
now silent.  And in that silence all hearts hear with acquiescence
the demand, Let justice now be done. Let all weakness be
thrown away - and they that have taken and drawn the treacherous sword of cruelty -let them perish by the sword!  And
all people shall say Amen!




14
My hearers, one lesson should be taught us as we evermore
think of this occurrence.  The person of our rulers is entitled
to respect and protection.  Senseless and loud would have
been the outcry had this been provided by our late ruler by an
adequate body-guard.  But that spirit which refused him  this
protection is not guiltless of his death. And if the sorrow of
the nation shall provide a guarantee against the possibility of
such an awful ocurrence again —just as in future a standing
army must maintain the nation's plower to punish - and if a suitable degree of reverence,for those in whom the hopes of the
nation are centred is maintained -— then will not this evil and
bitter thing be without fruit of good.
Finally, let us, while we remember that a prince and a great
man is this day fallen —while we sorrow and detest the crime,
andl the deadly spirit of rebellion whence it sprung — let us
still leave thoughts of vengeance to God.  Nothing that man
can do is adequate.  Nor has God put upon man to execute full
vengeance on his brother.  Human justice is fulfilled when our
horror of the crime and approval of the righteous penalty is
made known.  This is but earthly justice, imperfect both in
degrece and in d'uration.  The LORD shall reward the doers of
evil according to their wickedness - and it is his assurance their
damnation slumbereth not!
But while men die, God lives on.  Hie has not intended to
save this nation by men.  One by one, as we have leaned on
rulers and commanders, He has taken them away. He will save
us - of that we are sure - but it will be by his ownlc hand - by
the power of feeble and despised instruments it may be -yet
so that we shall know the blessing is altogether his work.  Let
us unite to ask that a double portion of those excellences which
especially endeared to us our late President may rest on the
head of his successor: may.the prayers of the nation be offered




15
for him; and may the hand of every man be strong in the Lord
to execute justice, to stand by the powers that be, and every
heart invoke the protection of the Great iRuler, whose days and
whose wisdoll shall never know end nor decline.