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EULOGY

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS OF LOWELL,

gM punfmgtott fall, %ril 19% 1865,

BY HON. GEOEaE S. BOUTWELL.

PUBLISHED BY RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL.

LOWELL:
STONE & HUSE, PRINTERS, COURIER OFFICE, 21 CENTRAL STREET.
1865.

EULOGY.

The nation is bowed down to-day under the weight of
a solemn and appalling sorrow, such as never before rested
upon a great people. It is not the presence of death
merely, — with that We have become familiar. It is not the
loss of a leader only that we mourn, nor of a statesman who
had exhibited wisdom in great trials, in vast enterprises of
war, and in delicate negotiations for the preservation of
peace with foreign countries ; but of a twice chosen and ¦
twice ordained ruler in whom these great qualities were
found, and to which were added the personal courage of the
soldier and the moral heroism of the Christian.
Judged by this generation in other lands, and by other
generations in future times, Abraham Lincoln will be es
teemed as the wisest of rulers and the most fortunate of
men. To him and to his fame the manner of his death is
nothing ; to the country and to the whole civilized family of
man it is the most appalling of tragical events. The rising
sun of the day following that night of unexampled crime
revealed to us the nation's loss; but, stunned by the shock,
the people were unable to comprehend the magnitude of the
calamity. As the last rays of the setting sun glided into
the calm twilight of evening, the continent was stilled into
silence by its horror of the crime and its sense of the great
ness of the loss sustained.

If we believe reverently that God guided his chosen
people in ancient times, that He was with our fathers in their
struggle for independence, we are likely also to believe that
in the events transpiring in this country the Ruler of all the
earth makes his ways known to men in an unusual manner
and to an unusual extent. If God rules, then are not all
men, even in their imperfections and sins, in some mysterious
way and under peculiar circumstances the doers of His will ?
To the human eye Abraham Lincoln seems to have been
specially designated by Divine Providence for the perform
ance of a great work. His origin was humble, his means of
education stinted. He was without wealth, and he did not
enjoy the support of influential friends. Much the larger
part of his life was spent in private pursuits, and he never
exhibited even the common human desire for public employ
ment, leadership and fame. His ambition concerning the
great office that he held was fully satisfied ; and the triumph
of his moderate and reasonable expectations was not even
marred by the untimely and bloody hand of the assassin.
During the canvass of 1864 and with the modesty of a child
he said, " I cannot say that I wish to perform the duties of
President for four years more ; but I should be gratified by
the approval of the people of what I have done." This he
received ; and however precious it may have been to him, it
is a more precious memory to the people themselves.
His public lifei was embraced in the period of about six
years. This statement does not include his brief service in
the legislature of the State of Illinois, nor his service as a
subordinate officer in one of the frontier Indian wars, nor his
single term of service in the House of Representatives of

5

the United States nearly twenty years ago. In none of
these places did he attract the attention of the country, nor
did the experience acquired fit him specially for the great
duties to which he was called finally. He was nearly fifty
years of age when he entered upon the contest, henceforth
historical, for a seat in the Senate from the State of Illinois.
This was the commencement of his public life, and from that
time forward he gained and grew in the estimation of his
countrymen. At the moment of his death he enjoyed the
confidence of all loyal men, including those even who did
not openly give him their support ; and there were many,
possibly in them it was a sin, who came at last to regard him
as a Divinely appointed leader of the people. The speeches
which he delivered in that contest are faithful exponents of
his character, his .principles, and his capacity. His state
ments of opinion are clear and unequivocal ; his reasoning
was logical and harmonious; and his principles, as then
expressed, were consonant with the declaration subsequently
made, " that each man. has the right by nature to be the equal
politically of any other man." He was then, as ever, chary
of predictions concerning the future ; but it was in his open
ing speech that he declared his conviction, which was in truth
a prophecy, that this nation could not remain permanently
half slave and half free.
In that long and arduous contest with one of the fore
most men of the country, Mr. Lincoln made no remark which
he was unable to defend, nor could he, by any force of argu
ment, be driven from a position that he had taken. It was
then that those who heard or read the debate observed the
richness of his nature in mirth and wit which charmed his

6

friends without wounding his opponents, and which he used
with wonderful sagacity in illustrating his own arguments, or
in weakening, or even at times in overthrowing the argu
ments of his antagonist. And yet it cannot be doubted that
for many years, if not from his very youth, Mr. Lincoln was
a melancholy man. He seemed to bear about with him the
weight of coming cares, and to sit in gloom as though his
path of life was darkened by an unwelcome shadow. His
fondness for story and love for mirth were the compensation
Which nature gave.
' In the midst of overburdening cares these characteris
tics were a daily relief; and yet it is but just to say that he
often used an appropriate story as a means of foiling a too
inquisitive visitor, or of changing or ending a conversation
which he did not desire to pursue.
During the first French revolution, when the streets of
Paris were stained with human blood, the inhabitants, women
and men, flocked to places of amusement. To the mass of
mankind, and especially to the inexperienced, this conduct
appears frivolous, or as the exhibition of a criminal indiffer
ence to the miseries of individuals and the calamities of the
public. *But such are the horrors of war, the pressure of
responsibility, that men often seek refuge and relief in
amusements, from which in ordinary times they would turn
aside. In Mr. Lincoln's speeches of 1858 there are passages
which suggest to the mind the classic • mpdels of ancient
days, although they do not in any proper sense rise to an
equality with them. His style, of writing was as simple as
were - his own habits and manners ; and no person ever

excelled him in clearness of expression. Hence he was
understood and appreciated by all classes. The Proclama
tion of Emancipation, his address at the dedication of the
Cemetery at Gettysburg, and his touching letter to the
widowed mother who had given five sons to the country, are
memorable as evidences of his intellectual and moral great
ness. His speeches of 1858 are marked for the precision with
which he stated his own positions, and for the firmness exhib
ited whenever his opponent endeavored to worry him from
his chosen ground, or by artifice, or argument, or persuasion,
to induce him to advance a step beyond.
His administration, as far as he himself was concerned,
was inaugurated' upon the doctrines and principles of the
great debate. He recognized the obligation to return fugi
tives from slavery, and it was no part of his purpose to
interfere with slavery in the States where it existed. It
must remain for the historian and the biographer, who may
have access to private and personal sources of knowledge, to
inform the country and the world how far Mr. Lincoln, when
he entered upon his duties as President, comprehended the
magnitude of the struggle in which the nation was 'about to
engage. The circumstance that his first call for volunteers was
for seventy-five thousand men only, is not valuable as evi
dence one way or the other. The number was quite equal
to our supply of .arms and materials of war, and altogether
too vast for the experience of the men then at the head of
military affairs. The number was sufficient to show his
purpose ; — the purpose to which he adhered through all the

trials and vicissitudes of this eventful contest. His purpose
was the suppression of the rebellion, both as a civil organi
zation and as an armed military force, and the re-establish
ment of the authority of the United States over the terri
tory of the Union. There yet remain in the minds of men
who were acquainted with Mr. Lincoln in the spring and
summer of 1861, the recollection of expressions made by
him, which indicate that there were then vague thoughts in
his mind that it might be his lot under Providence to bring
the slaves of the country out of their bondage. But how
ever this may have been, he never deviated from his purpose
to suppress the rebellion ; and he conscientiously applied the
means at his command to the attainment of that end. Thus
step by step he advanced, until in his own judgment, in the
judgment of the country, and of the best portion of mankind
in other civilized nations, the emancipation of the slaves was
a necessary means for the successful prosecution of the war.
Mr. Lincoln was not insensible, to the justice of emancipa
tion ; he saw its wisdom as a measure of public policy ; but
he delayed the proclamation until he was fully convinced
that it offered the only chance of averting a foreign war,
suppressing the rebellion, and restoring the Union of the
States. In the great struggle of 1862, Mr. Lincoln exhibited a
two-fold character. He was personally the enemy of slavery,
and he ardently desired its abolition ; but he also regarded
his oath of office, and steadily refused to recognize the
existence of any right to proclaim emancipation while other
means of saving the republic remained. He sought the
path*of duty and he walked fearlessly in it. Until he was

satisfied of the necessity of emancipation, no earthly power
could have led him to issue the proclamation ; and after its
issue no earthly power could have induced him to retract or
to qualify it. When an effort was made to pursuade him to
qualify the proclamation, he said, in reference to the blacks,
" My word is out to these people, and I can't take it back."
It has been common in representative governments for
men to be advanced to great positions without any sufficient
evidence existing of their ability to perform the correspond
ing duties, and it has often happened that the occupant has
not been elevated, while the office has been sadly degraded.
It was observed by those who visited Mr. Lincoln on the clay
following his nomination at Chicago in June, 1860, that he
would prove, in the event of his election, either a great suc
cess or a great failure.
This prediction was based upon the single fact that he
was different from ordinary men, and it did not contain, as
an element of the opinion, any knowledge of his peculiar
characteristics. History will accept the first branch of the
alternative opinion, and pronounce his administration a great
success. To this success Mr. Lincoln most largely contri
buted, and this in spite of peculiarities which appeared to
amount to defects in a great ruler in troublous times.
Never were words uttered which contained less truth
than those which fell from the lips of the assassin, sic semper
tyrannis, as he passed, in the presence of an excited and
bewildered crowd, from the spot where he had committed
the foulest of murders to the stage of the theatre from
whence he made his escape.
Mr. Lincoln exercised power with positive reluetance

10

and unfeigned distaste. He shrunk from the exhibition of
any authority that was oppressive, harsh, or even disagree-.
able to a human being. He passed an entire night in anxious
thought and prayerful deliberation, before he could sanction
the execution of Gordon, the slave-dealer, although he had
been tried' found guilty, and sentenced to death. There
is but little doubt, such was the kindness of Mr. Lin
coln's nature, that he desired to close the war, and restore
the Union, without exacting the forfeit of a single life as a
punishment for the great crime of which the leaders in this
rebellion are guilty.
Could this liberal policy have been carried out, it would
have been the theme of perpetual eulogy, and its author
would have received the acclamation of all races and classes
of men. Mr. Lincoln had not in his. nature, or in the habits of
his life, any element or feature of tyranny. He had no love
of power for the sake of power. He preferred that every
man should act as might seem to him best ; and when in
the discharge of his duties he was called to enforce penal
ties, or even to remove men from place, he suffered more
•usually than did the subjects of his authority. It is easy
to understand that .this peculiarity was sometimes an obsta
cle to the vigorous administration of affairs. But on the
other hand, it must have happened occasionally that these
delays led to a better judgment in the end.
Mr. Lincoln was, in the best sense of the expression, an
industrious man. Whatever he examined, he examined care
fully and thoroughly. His patience was unlimited. He
listened attentively to advice, though it is probable that he

11.

seldom asked it. For nearly fifty years before he entered
upon the duties of President he had relied upon himself;
and it is said that in the practice of his profession he never
sought opinions or suggestions from his brethren, except as
they were associated with him in particular causes. He had
the acuteness of the lawyer and the fairness of the judge.
The case must be intricate indeed which he did . not easily
analyze so as to distinguish and estimate whatever was
meritorious or otherwise in it. He saw also through the
motives of men. He easily fathomed those around him, and
acted in the end as though he understood their dispositions
towards himself.
He appeared to possess an intuitive knowledge of the
opinions and purposes of the people. His sense of justice
was exact, and if he ever failed to be guided by it, the
departure was due to the kindness of his nature, which
always prompted him to look with the compassion of a parent
upon the unfortunate, — the guilty as well as the innocent.
He was cautious in forming opinions, and. disinclined to dis
close his purposes until the moment of action arrived. He
examined every subject of importance with conscientious
care ; his conclusions were formed under a solemn sense of
duty ; and while that sense of duty remained he was firm
in resisting all counter influences. In unimportant matters,
not involving principles or the character of his public policy,
he yielded readily to the wishes of those around him ; and
thus they who knew him or heard of him in these relations
only were misled as to his true character.
No magistrate or ruler ever labored more zealously to
place his measures and policy upon the sure foundation of

12

right; and no magistrate or ruler ever adhered to his measj
ures and policy with more firmness as long as he felt sure of
the foundation. His last public address is a memorable
illustration of these traits of character.
The charmed cord by which he attached all to him who
enjoyed his acquaintance even in the slighest degree, was
the absence of all pretension in manners, conversation of
personal appearance. This was not humility, either real or
assumed ; but it was due to an innate and ever present con*
sciousness of the equality of men. He accorded . to every
one who approached him, whatever his business or station in
life, such hearing and attention as circumstances permitted.
For himself he asked nothing of the nature of personal con
sideration. In the multiplicity of his cares, in his daily
attention to cases touching the reputation and rights of
humble and unknown men, in the patience with which he
listened to the narratives of heart-broken women, whose
husbands, or sons, or brothers had fallen under arrest or into
disgrace in the military or naval service of the country, he
was indeed the servant and the friend of all.
t The inexorable rules of military discipline were some
times (lisvpoavdeil by him ; he sought to make an open way
Cor justice through the tonus and technicalities of courts
martial, bureaus and departments ; and it is not unlikely
that the public service may have received detriment occa
sionally by the too free use of the power to pardon and to
restore. But the nation could well afford the indulgence of
his over-kind nature in these particulars, for by this kind"
ness of nature he drew the people to him, and thus opinions

13

were ¦ harmonized, the republic was strengthened, and the
power of its enemies sensibly diminished.
Mr. Lincoln never despaired of the republic. During
the dark days of July, August, and September, 1862, he
was not dismayed by the disasters which befel our arms.
His confidence was not in our military strength alone ; he
looked to the Lord of Hosts for the final delivery of the
people. Following this attempt to analyze Mr. Lincoln's intel
lectual and moral character, it remains to be said, that neither
this analysis nor the statements with which it is connected,
furnish any just idea of the man. He was more, he was
greater, he was wiser, he was better than the ideal man
which We should be authorized to create from the qualities
disclosed by the analysis. And so possibly there will ever
remain an apparent dissimilitude between the appreciable
individual qualities of the man and the man himself.
Mr. Lincoln was a wise man, but he had not the wisdom
of the ancient philosophers, who declared it to be the knowl
edge of things both divine and human, together with the
causes on which they depend ; but he was rather an illustra
tion of the proverb of Solomon : — " The fear of the Lord i.a
the instruction of wisdom.
Mr. Lincoln must ever be named among the great per
sonages of history. He Will be contrasted rather than com
pared with those with whom he is thus to be associated ; and
when compared with any, he is most likely to be compared
with the Father of his Country. If this be so, then his rank
is already fixed and secure. In many particulars he differs
from other great men. When his important public services

14

began he was more than fifty years of age, while Cromwell
was only forty years old when called from retirement, and
most eminent men in civil and military life have been dis
tinguished at an earlier age. He had no military experience
or military fame. He was taken from private life and advanced
to the Presidency upon a pure question or declaration of
public policy — the non-extension of slavery. He entered
upon his great office in the presence of assassins and traitors,
and from that day to the day of his death he dwelt in their
presence and faithfully performed his duties. He conducted
the affairs of the republic in the most perilous of times. In the
short period of four years he called three millions of men into
the military service of his country. During his administration
a rebellion, in which eleven States and six millions of people
were involved, was effectually overthrown. But the great
act which secures to his name all the immortality which earth
can bestow, is the Proclamation of Emancipation. The
knowledge of that deed can never die. On this continent it
will be associated with the Declaration of Independence, and
with that alone. One made a nation independent, the other
made a race free.
There are four million of people in this country who
now regard Abraham Lincoln as their deliverer from bond
age, and whose posterity, through all the cpming centuries,
will render tribute of praise' to his name and memory. But
his fame in connection with the Proclamation of Emancipa
tion will not be left to the care of those who have been the
recipients of the boon of freedom. The white people of the
South will yet rejoice in the knowledge of their own deliv
erance through this gift to the now despised colored man.

15

And finally, the people of the United States, of the Amer
ican continent, together with the whole faniily of civilized
man, shall join in honors to the memory of him who freed a
race and saved a nation.
What fame that is human merely can be more secure ?
What glory that is of earth can be more enduring ? What
deed for good can be more wide spread ?
The knowledge and influence of the great act of his
life will extend to every continent and to all races. It will
advance with civilization into Africa ; it will shake and
finally overthrow slavery in the dominions of Spain and in
the Empire of Brazil ; and at last, in that it saved a republic
and perpetuated a free representative government as an
example and model for mankind, it will undermine the Mon
archical, aristocratic and despotic institutions of Europe and
Asia. What fame that is human merely can be more secure ?
What glory that is of earth can be more enduring ? What
deed for good can be more wide spread ?
Yet this great act of his life rested on a foundation on
which all may stand. In the place where he was, he did
4;hat which, in his judgment, duty to his country and to his
God required. This is indeed his. highest praise, and the
pnly eulogy that his life demands.
That he had greater opportunities than other men was
his responsibility and burden ; that he used his great oppor
tunities for the preservation of his country and the relief of
the oppressed is his own glory.

16

Had Mr. Lincoln been permitted to reach the age
attained by Jefferson and Adams, his death would have pro
duced a profound impression upon his countrymen.
Had he now in the opening months of his second admin
istration fallen by accident or yielded to disease, the nation
would have been bowed down in inexpressible grief. Every
loyal heart would have been burdened with a weight of sor
row, and every loyal household would have felt as though
a place had been made vacant at its own hearth-stone.
That he has now fallen by the hand of an assassin is
in itself a horror too appalling for contemplation. Had the
deed been committed in ancient Greece or Rome we could
not now read the historian's record without a shudder and a
tear. All those qualities in the illustrious victim which we
cherish were spurs ever goading the conspirators on- to the
consummation of their crime.
His love of country and of liberty, his devotion to
duty, his firmness and persistency in the right, his kindness
of heart and his spirit of mercy were all reasons or induce
ments influencing the purposes of the conspirators. Neither
greatness nor goodness was a shield. Had he been greater
and better and wiser than he was his fate would have been
the same. In this hour of calamity let not the- thirst for ven
geance take possession of our souls. But justice should be
done. The circle of conspirators is already broken and
entered by the officers of the law, and mankind will finally
be permitted to see who were the authors and who the per
petrators of this great crime. For the members of this
circle, whether it be small Or large, and whomsoever it may

17

include, there should be neither compassion nor mercy, but
justice and only justice. Judged as men judge, this crime
is too great for pardon. The criminals can find no protec
tion or harbor in any civilized country. Let the government
pursue them with its full power until the last one disappears
from earth. Vex every sea, visit every island, traverse every
continent, let there be no abiding place for these criminals
between the Arctic seas and the Antarctic pole.
This justice demands as she sits in judgment upon this
unparalleled crime.
One duty and one consolation remain. He who de
stroyed slavery was himself by slavery destroyed. Who
ever the assassin, and however numerous the conspirators,
love of slavery was the evil spirit which had entered into
these men and taken possession of them. Slavery is the
source and fountain of the crime, and all they who have given
their support to slavery are in some degree responsible for
the awful deed. Let, then, the nation purify itself from this
the foulest of sins. And this is our duty.
In the Providence of God, Mr. Lincoln was permitted
to do more than any other man of this century for his coun
try, for liberty, and for mankind. Mr. Lincoln is dead, but
the nation lives, and the Providence of God ever continues.
No single life was ever yet essential to the life of a nation.
This is' our consolation and ground for confidence in the
future.

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