{yluavt\rf.3acr\2ori<
LINCOLN
collection

REV. f. F. MUSSEY S DISCOURSE

^mmmtxm af § xm&mt ptwafo.

T^"^ It*, kilt- : rfK**^ ~jr £ff. U^ U ¦.--* ¦ •' ': *"

»j fgigMg gMm.

DISCOURSE

OCCASIONED BT THE

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN,
delivered in the presbyterian church, batavia, n. y.,
Sunday Morning, April 23d, 1865.
BY CHARLES F. MUSSEY,
PASTOR. >
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

BATAVIA.
PRINTED BY DANIEL D. WATTE.
1865.

DISCOURSE.

"how aee the mighty fallen." 2d SAMUEL, I, 19.
This is part of a lamentation of one mighty man over two others.
In the providence of God, David was to come to the throne of Israel.
He had been annointed by the prophet of the Lord. He expected
that God would fulfill his word concerning him, but he had as yet
no assurance, but faith in God, that he would ever be king. Saul
had driven him from his sight, and hunted him from the land. For
safety he had escaped lo Gath, and made alliance with Achish, its
king. This alliance, during its continuance, was honorable to both
parties. It was kept in good faith. But it was not to continue.
The Philistines would make war upon Israel, and the other lords of
the Philistines, from fear of David, insisted that he should not go
up with them to battle. Aehish compelled David and his men to
return to the city of Ziklag, in which he dwelt. After his return,
tlie Philistines joined battle with Israel at Mount Gilboa. Israel was
put to flight, and Saul and Jonathan were slain. When the messen
ger brought the news to Ziklag, instead of rejoicing that the death
of Saul opened the way for him to the throne, David was smitten
with grief. If ever he had felt hostility — there was no evidence that
he had — it was now gone. His great and generous soul forgot all
the injuries that -he had suffered, and was overwhelmed with anguish.
The great love which he felt for Jonathan, reached even to Saul ;
and as the flood-tide covers the smooth and rough places alike within
its limits, and at its height reveals not the inequalities of its bed, but
only the glassy surface of the all-embraeing element, so this love of
David enveloped both father and son in pleasant remembrances:
" Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
their death they were not divided ; they were swifter than eagles ;
they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel weep over
Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and other delights ; who put on
ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen
in the midst of the battle ! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine
high places. I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan ; very
pleasant hast thou been unto me ; thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen and the
weapons of war perished."

In the midst of the conflicting feelings that surge over the nation,
in consequence of the crime and calamity that have fallen upon us
as suddenly as a bolt of heaven from a clear sky, it is hardly possible
for us to contemplate any portion ol the divine word, or to discuss
any human interest which does not lead ns to, or is not associated
with, the engrossing subject of our thoughts. In thetumult of feel
ing which rages in the individual mind and ii the public mind ; in the
midst of grief, of the sense of irreparable loss, of wonder at the
past, of fear for the future, of the stifling of the victorious joys of but
yesterday ; in the awaking of retributive indignation, it may not be
possible for us to think, or to speak of the death of our President,
as we would speak before God and men, when our minds are calmed
by submission to God's will, and our thoughts made clear by insight
into God's developed purpose in the affliction. But think we must,
and speak we must, and perhaps we may not do better now than to
speak and think some thoughts suggested by our text — " How are
the mighty fallen !"
If these thoughts were not in the mind of David when he uttered
his lament over Saul and Jonathan, you will see that they are legiti
mately suggested by his words.
The first thought suggested by the text in connection with the death
of President Lincoln, is that a mighty man is fallen. Thank God,
that instead of saying in our lament, as we feared we must, when
the horrid intelligence of the crime flashed along the wires — how are
the mighty fallen — we are permitted to restrict the language to one,
and say — How is the mighty fallen. Our Secretary of State still
lives, with hopeful prospect of recovery. Our President only is
dead. It has been the lament of many good men, within the lives of
some of us, who have hardly reached onr prime, that the great men
of the Republic were all gone ; that if perilous times should come,
which seemed to be foretokened, there was none with clearer mind,
and broader wisdom, and stronger arm, than other men to be our
pilot, and hold our ship of state on her 'course through the storms
that threatened, and through the deep channel bordered with rocks
and shallows, from the sheltered waters of the arm of the sea on
which she was launched, into the wide ocean of her new career and
manifold, and almost infinite destiny. Men have longed for some of
the great men of a former time ; for a Webster, to announce first
principles of our Government, with the great authority of his con
stitutional wisdom, and massive eloquence ; for a Clay, to pour the
oil of his conciliatory speech upon the troubled waters ; for an Adams,
with his stores of wisdom learned from history and from a training
in the early and growing life of the nation ; for a Hamtlton, with
his clear, broad, and penetrating statesmanship and organizing mind;
for a Jay, with the irresistible discussions of his pen ; for a Franklin,
with his great practical and versatile wisdom ; for a Jackson, with
his ardent patriotism, and prompt and energetic and inflexible will ;

for a Washington, with that temperament of mind and heart, o(
wisdom and of will, of self-poise, and control over others, of physi
cal endurance and mental strength, of that pure patriotism that
always enkindled confidence and enthusiasm in patriotic hearts; fit
to be the Father of a Country, grand in territorial extent, pure and
humane in the principles of its life, selfrcontrolling, and ever increas
ing in power to control the world. When the days of trial came,
and the storm broke upon us, men feared that our nation, freighted
with the hopes of humanity, would go to wreck, not because she had
not men enough to work the ship, but because she had not some
great oollossal man, whose voice should be heard above the roar
of wind and wave, inspiring confidence, directing energy, and caus
ing the ship to wear away from the rocks into the deep channel of
safety. As we see things to-day, we are led not to yearn for the
mighty men of the more distant past, but to thank God that he has
given us men adequate to the great issues at stake and work to be
done, and to mourn that one of these noble men is fallen.
Concerning President Lincoln it need not be said, in order to
assure us that he was a mighty man, that he was the greatest man of
the present time. — Perhaps it may not be best for us to confidently
assert that he was not. — Other men may be too near us, in our per
sonal relations and interests, for us impartially to decide. As one
stands in the vale of Chamonix, and looks up to the summits of the
high Alps within his view, he will be likely at mid-day to think that
two or three peaks are higher than the one which is pointed out to
him as Mt. Blanc ; it is only when he rises before the sun, and sees
which peak first glows in his morning gilding; or at evening, which
shows last the purple of his setting, that one sees that his informant
tells the truth. It may be that when the sun of fame, that now
courses the heavens and reveals in full day, so many heads that
tower above tbe valleys and the plains of humanity, shall sink below
the horizon of present action in our national life, that its «MQUJbPg
light will rest latest upon the head of our Chief Magistrate who is
just laid in an untimely grave. That President Lincoln was the
greatest man of our time, I shall not assert ; but that he was a
mighty man, is conspicuously evident.
No President— Washington not excepted — has ever had so diffi
cult a task as the heritage and duty of his office. Treason encoun
tered him everywhere. Treason was in all the Southern States. It
was in Congress. It was in the Cabinet of his predecessor. It had
fed at the public tables. , It had carved the joints* and distributed
the- food, and picked the bones of the Nation. It built its nest in
the Departments of the Capital. It hatched its brood under the warm
feathers of the American Eagle. It went forth from its nest like a
dove, with innocence in his eye, as if on a mission of peace, and came
back as a bird of prey to feed its young in high places upon the vi
tals ofthe nation, which it bore in its bloody talons. Treason had
scattered the Army to the remote parts ofthe Nation. It had dispersed

©ur feeble Navy to distant ports. It had sent all the arms that it could
make available without detection, from our arsenals, to the South. —
It had attempted to put its tools in authority as commanders of our
navy-yards and forts. It had secured, before anything could be done
to prevent, all the forts, and consequently all the ports, on the Atlan
tic coast South of Fortress Monroe, exeept Fort Pickens and Key
West. It blockaded and held the Mississippi River from its mouth
to Cairo, Illinois. It drew every Slave State into the vortex of its re
bellion except Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri ; Mis
souri only being saved by timely interposition of Federal arms, and
Kentucky and Maryland only saved through a wholesome fear ofthem:
The United States Treasury was empty. Treason only left the Vice
President's chair when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated. Everything
was to be done, and there was nothing with which to do it, but the
crudest material. An army was to be enlisted, and trained in the art
of war. Officers were to be commissioned, and taught, or tried.—
Commanding Generals were to be tried, and retired or emerge from
the obscurity of subordinates by the force of 'their genius. — I do not
at present think of a sigle General of our forces, who has greatly sig
nalized himself in the war, who was in a position of high command
when the rebellion broke out. — A navy was to be created with which
to blockade thirty-six hundred miles of difficult eoast. Jealousy of
our growth and the threatening aspect of our free institutions had
made foreign powers lend the ear to rebel emissaries. Complica
tions with these powers were looming up on the edge of the horizon.
The war was to be carried on with every advantage of strategic points,
and capabilities of defence in favor of rebellion. Twelve millions of
people were claimed to be represented in arms against the Govern
ment. Last, but not least, social, commercial and political connections
with the South, seemed to threaten almost any policy which might
be adopted, with a division of the North. Such was the state of af-
M^SiftAen Mr. Lincoln became President, or go soon afterward, that
no aetion on his part could have prevented it." Now, what is the fact I
The sea-ports ofthe rebellion, with the exception of Galveston, have
all been re-possessed. The forts commanding the entrance to these
ports, have all been captured and occupied. The Mississippi and
Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers have long been open to naviga
tion. The arsenals and armories and military stores of the Gonfede-'
racy, have been, in great measure, destroyed. Its chief lines of com
munication have been cut ; its means of supply have been crippled:
Its Capital has been taken ; its best army and Generals have surren
dered. Its President has fled. He, who in Richmond, in June, 1861,
declared Mr. Lincoln an ignorant usurper, in April, 1865 finds him
self a fugitive, with the probable anticipation of finding himself an
exile, or. an outlaw. The last army on which the Conederacy can re
ly for any check to its desperate fortunes, if not already surrendered,
is- fleeing before overwhelming numbers of victorious legions. The
rebellion is crushed. In crushing it, its corner-stone — Slavery — has

been broken in pieces — visible indeed in its fragments, but never,
as we believe, to be re-united, but finally to disappear when the rub
bish of the great conspiracy is removed. All this has been done un
der the administration of Abraham Lincoln. We do not ignore the
justice of our cause and the favor of God. May our nation, taught
gratitude and devotion, ever render to Him supreme glory. We do
not overlook the service of other great and good men. We can nev
er forget the pecuniary, and bloody sacrifices of a great people. But
we do say, that the very fact of administering our national affairs in
the midst of such portentous perils, and bringing them to so salutary
and glorious an issue, must stamp the man in whose hands the reins
of Government are, as one of the mighty men of all ages. Laboulaye,
an eminent Frenchman, said of him in the college of France — "Mr.
Lincoln is a greater man than Caesar." Another eminent French
politician said— -"No Monarch in Europe could carry on such a col-
lossal war in front, while harrassed by so many factions and fault
finders behind." Whether these eulogiums are fully deserved or not,
is a question. which we can afford ^ leave for the future to decide ; <
but we must be blind not to see, that none but a mighty man could
have been instrumental in accomplishing such great things.
Mr. Lincoln was a mighty man in his comprehension of the situa
tion of all our affairs. It is now evident that his mind grasped the
difficulties of his own position and all the imperilled interests of th©
nation. He was mighty in his knowledge of the right kind of men
with whom to surround himself as his counsellors and coadjutors. If
we judge men, not by what their friends or enemies say of them,
but by what they have accomplished, then it must be acknowledged
that our President brought around him most able and efficient men;
— men competent to achieve, in their departments, all reasonable re
quirements. President Lincoln was mighty in his singleness and tenacity of
purpose. The oath of his office is as follows : — " I do solemnly swear,
that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United
States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and de
fend the Constitution of the United States." This oath required.that
be maintain the territorial integrity of the United States. He held
the maintainance of Union ever before his eyes. He never lost sight
of it. He was wise enough to see that military power in rebellion
must be broken by military power; and he broke it. He has pre
served, protected and defended the Constitution, according to the
best of his ability. If any act which he has ever done, has seemed
to be in violation of a single provision of the Constitution, that act has
already been endorsed by the people as a means of preserving the
whole Constitution. President Lincoln did not make oath that the
people of the United States should not change the Constitution ac
cording to the methods provided in it. If any article of the Consti-
tntion should pass away, or be changed,- as one of the measures of
Jhe people and of the President, it will be done without violence to

ihe Constitution. As a measure of War, to cripple the military pow
er of the rebellion, and as a measure ot policy to prevent the recog
nition of the Southern Confederacy by European powers, President
Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Emancipation. That this Proc
lamation has helped to destroy the rebellion, is perfectly manifest
That it helped to prevent recognition of the Confederacy, by France
and England, is probable. That the emancipation of the slaves was
In accordance with his humane instincts and religions principles, is
doubtless also true. That the President foresaw, or thought he fore
saw, that the perpetuation of slavery would imperii the existence of
the nation, as it had already threatened its destruction, is true. But
that emancipation was the great aim, and that the maintenance of the
Union was the subordinate purpose, of the President, is without any
evidence. Whateeer else the President did, or might seem to do, his
one great thought and purpose, adhered to in all complications and
vicissitudes, in the exultation of victory, and the gloom of defeat, Was
the maintainance of Constitutional Government, over the whole land.
» He moved as steadily toward Um end, as the Mississippi River, here
deflected eastward, there deflected westward, yonder turned north
ward, yet always tenaciously travels Southward to the Sea.
President Lincoln was mighty in those traits which endear a man
to the people. There was simplicity of character— honesty — in all
his principles and deportment. He never made any pretence. He
never wore a mask. He never assumed a character. He never tried
to conceal the fact that he was from the ranks of the people, as do
some little great men. While he comprehended all the great ques
tions of State, he seemed to talk and act as Qiough every other man
could comprehend them. He met every man' as his equal. He did
not straiten himself np before his coachman. He did not apologise
to a foreign Ambassador that he had not the advantages of an early
education. He would converse as freely with the one as with the
other, if occasion demanded. He would applyfo each the same joke, if
it were applicable. A little gaunt, and awkward to the Beaux Brum-
mels of society, he was nevertheless familiar and easy with all men ;
never insipid, never obscene ; always good-natured, always sensible,
sometimes unconsciously majestic, as a mountain in the middle of a
plain. President Lincoln was mighty in timing his acts so as to secure the
co-operation of the people. A man of the people, he comprehended
the people. Comprehending the vital point of the war, that it was a
war in behalf ofthe people against an aristocratic faction, of the many
against the few, of man as man, against men, usurping place above
man, he saw that he could do nothing to sustain the Government, un
less he could have their endorsement and co-operation. Thus, if he
had called in the first instance for more than 75,000 troops, the peo
ple would have been afraid of usurpation. Ifne had issued the ftoc-
Hmation of Emancipation one year, or six months before he did, the
people would not have sustained him. The same may be said of the

Proclamation of Amnesty. But iu every case in which his acts were
new, and without precedent, the people were sufficiently prepared for
them to sustain them and ultimately to give them an emphatic sup
port. A writer in the North American Revew, says "Mr. Lincoln,
as it seems to us in reviewing his career, though we have sometimes
in our impatience thought otherwise, has always waited, as a wise
man should, till the right moment brought up all his reserves."
Mr. Lincoln was great in the magnanimity and generosity of his
nature. Like all public men he had bitter political enemies, but
there is no record of any revenges conceived or harbored by him.
Certainly no man could be more traduced than he has been. But
where has he ever been otherwise than generous towards his enemies ?
Foi; more than four years he has been the object of such abuse from
the southern press, that one would almost think, that ribaldry, and
abuse were the native dialect of the writers, yet no man at the North
has been more kindly in his feelings towards those in rebellion than
he. Since his death, Gen. Lee has said that he surrendered as much
to the benignity of the President, as to the artillery of Gen. Grant.
Mr. Lincoln was mighty in trust in God. He believed that the
cause of our country, as against rebellion, was favored by God. He
believed that it would ultimately triumph. His Pastor — Rev. Dr.
Gukley, of Washington — says of him and this trust — "Through the
power and blessing of God, this confidence strengthened him in all
his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with calm and cheer
ing hope, when others were inclining to gloom and despondency.
Never shall I forget the emphasis and deep emotion with which he
said in this very room — the East room — to a company of clergymen
and ethers, who called to pay him their respects in the darkest days
of our civil conflict : ' Gentlemen, my hope of success in this great
and terrible struggle rests on the immutable foundation, the justice
and goodness of God ; and when events are very threatening, and
prospects are very dark, I still hope that in some way which man
can not see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and
God is on our side.' " Still further Dr. Gurley says :
" We admired his child-like simplicity, his freedom from guile
and deceit, his staunch and sterling integrity, his kind and forgiving
temper, his industry and patience, his persistent self-sacrificing
devotion to all the duties of his eminent position from the least to
the greatest ; his readiness to hear and consider the cause of the
poor and humble, the suffering and oppressed ; his charity towards
those who questioned the correctness of his opinions and the wisdom
of his policy ; his wonderful skill in reconciling differences among
the friends of the Union, leading them away from abstractions, and
inducing them to work together harmoniously for the national weal ;
his true and enlarged philanthropy that knew no distinction of color
or race, but regarded all men as brethren, and endowed alike .by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; his inflexible purpose that what

10'
freedom' had gained in our terrible civil strife, should never be lost,.
and that the end of the war should be the end of slavery and a con
sequence of rebellion ; his readiness to spend and be spent for the
attainment of such a triumph— a triumph, the fruits of which should
be as wide-spreading as the earth, and as enduring as the sun. All
these things commanded and fixed our admiration, and stamped upon
bis character and life the unmistakable impress of greatness.
"But more sublime than any or all of these, more holy and influ
ential, more beautiful and strong and sustaining, was his abiding
confidence in God, and in the final triumph of truth and righteous
ness through Him and for His sake. * * * And this it seems to
me after being near him steadily and witb him often for more than
four years, is the principle by which more than by any other, he
being dead yet speaketh." How pertinent are the words of David's
lament to us in our national bereavement— how is the mighty fallen !
Secondly.— These words also naturally lead ns to look at the
manner and purpose of the death of our President. How is the
mighty fallen. The facts and circumstances of the assassination are
familiaf to you all. I shall not attempt to portray them so as to
make the tragedy any more vivid than it now is in your minds.
When yon arose from your beds a week ago yesterday morning, you
little tboagbt such tidings would meet your ears. A gloom1 settled
over the pu>biie' mind from Maine to California. Hundreds of thou
sands mourned1, almost as they would mourn for one of their own
families. The nation has never had such a sorrow. There has
never been', in this generation, so universal and deep a grief.
•As Dhe tidings flew over the nation, there flashed through' every
mind' a1 process of reasoning, almost as swift as an intuition, which
showed that the deed belonged to the rebellion. It had in it all the
pride,, and assumption of justice in avenging injured innocense,
which characterizes those men who fired the southern heart, and led
them into the crime of rebellion. It had in it the domineering,
violent, tyrannic will, which in many minds, is the legitimate and
necessary fruit of slavery. It had in its preparation that cool-blooded
malignity, and ite its execution that diabolic satisfaction, which
belongs to those authorities that commanded, and those subordinates
Who superintended, the torture and starvation of our prisoners. We
are all no more sure to-day, since we have the proofs, than when' the
conviction flashed on our minds with the intelligence of the deed1,
that this assassination is tbe legitimate offspring of slavery and
rebellion. It may not have had tbe knowledge or the sanction of
the authorities at Richmond ; it may not have been a part of a very
wide-spread conspiracy at this time ; it may have been wider spread
than we have thought ; it may have been known to more men than
we have imagined ; but it was done in the interest of the rebellion,
for the sake of securing for it, what the arbitrament of arms, and the
slow murder of our brave men, prisoners in their hands, had failed
to secure ; or it was done out of the furious spite that the Confeder-

1 1
acy had foiled and that the South was ruined. This was the manner
and purpose on one side of the assassination of our President.
But there is another side. God, whose pavilion is the dark waters
and thick clouds of the skies, was hovering over that deed, not in
causing it; not in approbation of it, but in permitting it, in over
ruling it for good.
First, it was an easy passage from this life to immortal life. We
have reason to think that Mr. Lincoln was a true child of God, and
that he died only to live. His death was easy. There was no gloomy
foreboding of dissolution in it. There was no pain in it. He passed
away as one overtaken with sudden sleep.
Again, it was a sore chastening which the nation probably needed.
Men trusted in the President. Most men felt that the nation was
safe in his hands. They believed im his honesty, his integrity, his
wisdom and magnanimity and patriotism. All men had learned to
believe that he would not usurp the power of the people. The na
tion felt that liberty was safe with him ; safe from despotism in his
hands ; safe from overthrow by rebellion, or attack by foreign pow
ers. We were flushed with victory. We were almost beside our
selves with joy. We thought we had the greatest generals, the
noblest armies, the safest and best man at the head of affairs, of any
nation on the globe. God has shown us that in a moment he can
humble our greatness, and cast the crown of our pride to the dust.
He has shown us, that He only is our defenee ; that our strength
and refuge are in him ; that if we will not be moved we must build
our confidence upon the Eternal Rock. How quickly God could
remove all our mighty men, and take away the armor in which we
trust, and divide our spoil.
Again, by this crime and calamity, God calls upon the nation to
•cultivate respect for magistrates as representatives of the law. The
erime of assassinating our Chief Magistrate is the legitimate fruit of
the asperities indulged in by extreme men of our political parties in
great political excitements. In this case irreverence and hatred and
professed principle fired with passion are gone farther than ever be
fore in our country ; facther, perhaps, than they ever will go in the
North ; but they should be a warning to us in our own persons and
in the education of our children, and also in educating others by
means of the public opinion which we help to form. The apostle
Peter* characterizes certain wicked, dangerous men, as " presump
tuous, self-willed," as "not afraid to speak evil of dignities."
•Great masses of our people seem to have no reverence for any au
thority. We must not confound liberty to review and discuss the
principles and measures of parties and of men in office, with that
license of speech which is fiery and denunciatory and without reason,
.and which tends to destroy all regard for law and the authorities of
Jaw. This license is an evil which has been growing these many
* 3 Peter, 3, 10.

12
years, and which helped bring on the woes of war. President Bu
chanan was denounced with a fierceness which tended to make men
despise authorities rather than to give a just idea of the evils of his
administration. President Lincoln has been denounced in language
no better than the deed which has just been done. If those who
have spoken thus, cherish the feelings wbich they seem to express,
God holds them guilty of murder in their hearts. We must culti
vate a reverence for authority, or by words and deeds of violence
we shall provoke a despotism which will extinguish all our liberties.
We must learn to love our country and honor authority, more than
we love or hate parties or men.
Still another proyidential benefit may accrue to our country from •
this murder. It calls our attention to, and impresses upon us the
principle upon which human Government rests, and by which it
must be maintained.
By the tidings of the assassination many were unnerved with
grief ; many more were fired with a deep indignation and a desire
for vengeance. While every one with a spark of loyalty and a
sense of justice in his soul, wished that the assassins and their im^
mediate accomplices should be speedily brought to the gallows,
there was, and still remains a feeling beyond this — viz : that the
rebellion is responsible for this crime, and tbat the rebellion must pay
in blood. There were different degrees of this feeling ; some of
comparative calmness, and others of extreme violence. But in every
mind there was a demand for justice which alone would satisfy its
innate and irrepressible feelings. — Mingled with this feeling in some
instances, there was doubtless great evil ; perhaps a murderous feel
ing ; yet the universal voice was a testimony that God had endowed
men with an ineradicable sense of right. Private revenges cher
ished and executed, are sinful because God has not given the sword
to a private individual to revenge his own injuries. But he has
given it to the magistrate to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil
towards the State. Government rests upon justice. Justice is ex
pressed in law- The maintenance of law, and consequently of
Government, rests on the sanctions of law in the hands of magis
trates. Those sanctions are represented by the sword, compelling
obedience or punishing resistance. The punishment due to those
who destroy their fellow-men, or subvert the State, is death. God's
word is specific jn regard to the death penalty : " Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."* Christ says they
that take the sword shall perish with the-sword-t The magistrate
" beareth not the sword in vain." | The magistrate does bear the
sword in vain if it executes no justice, and inspires no terror in re
gard to crime. — The nation is led by the recent crime to demand
adequate punishment of its perpetrators and plotters. The people
are beginning to see, and wisely to see, that it is not full justice
» Gen. 9, 6. t Matt, 26, 53. | Rom. 13, 4.

merely to meet confederate armies upon the field of battle and van
quish them. The great deceivers of the Southern people, the great
plotters of rebellion, ought to die by the hand of the law. We
ought to commend them to the mercy of God and pray for their
repentence and cleansing in the blood of Christ. But the State
ought to slay them, if they do not escape to other lands. Mercy
shown to them is imbecility ; it is dishonor of God who has given
this people in tajst with a government ; it dishonors the ffStion.
We do justice to those who sustain law only by executing law upon
those who try to undermine it- — Certainly we should abide as a na
tion by the terms which we have given to prisoners of war. But as
a people we ought to demand for the honor of law, for the welfaro
of our nation, that there shall he such an exhibition of severity
toward leading conspirators against the life of our nation, as shall
forever deter every man from attempting, or thinking, to destroy it.
If I mistake not, God in his providence in this national affliction,
calls upon the nation to seal the honors, which we pay to our noble
President, and which we owe to His most glorious name, by com
pleting the work which he so nearly finished. The two things by
which Mr. Lincoln will be principally known to the future historian
and to the world, are the vanquishing of the armies of the rebellion
and the emancipation of the slave. Let us remove all the rubish of
tbis rebellion so that nothing shall be left. Let us bury its foul car
cass so deep that our children's children shajl never see a trace of it
.except in the cities of the dead. — Let us demand that no man made
free by the Proclamation of the President shall ever again be made
& slave. If it would be nationally infamous for us to seize and hang
those prisoners ot war who have been released on their parole, unless
they yiolate it or commit fresh crime, so it would be nationally infa
mous for us to enslave those made free by war.— rMay no slave by
authority of the United States, ever tread our soil again. The
crushing of the rebellion is a victory over despotism in the name of
¦the people. The emancipation of the slave is a victory over despot
ism in the name of man. Now, in the name of God let us perfect
our civil and religious liberty -, — let them both be so large that men
can do and say and think anything not inconsistent with law, that it
may be seen in the hastening millennium that we have prepared the
way of the Lord-
iTou have doubtless noticed, my hearers, that the assassin's shot
was dealt to our honored President, upon that day, which in the calen
dar of the church, commemorates the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus
Christ. While it would be blasphemy to attempt to make the two
events parallel in dignity and in their influence" upon the world,
since the one was the slaying of a mere man, the other of the God-
man as an atoning sacrifice for the world, it may not be wrong for
ns to draw a finite line of thought, which may serve as a lesson to
,us in our calamitous bereavement, parallel a little way, with that infi
nite thought and gracious work of God- Christ died for the world,

14
not that the world should linger around his sepulchre in perpetual and
unmitigated sorrow, but that dying with him unto sin, it should, with
regenerate, divinely imparted force, come forth a believing world in
the vigor and purity and bliss of the life everlasting. Our Presi
dent died, in one sense, for this nation, that the people following
him to his grave in the bitterness of their sorrow, contemplating his
acts of justice and humanity, his life martyred to the maintainance
of *W law and the dissemination of freedom, may awake to new
ness of life, forever burying their dead works in bis grave !

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
STUART W.JACKSON
Yale 1898