PLOT TO ASSASSINATE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES--THE CONSUMMATION
OF THE INFERNAL PLOT--DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND DEADLY ASSAULT UPON
SECRETARY SEWARD--RESOLUTIONS OF THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE.
During the autumn of 1864, at a meeting of the Sons of Liberty, in
Chicago, a proposition was introduced which contemplated the raising of
a fund of fifty thousand dollars, which was to be expended in payment
of the services of some person who would undertake to assassinate the
President of the United States. This was an informal proceeding, the
meeting having just adjourned, but it was discussed by several of the
leading members, who declared that the "extermination of tyrants was
obedience to God."
What say you, citizens of Chicago, concerning the band of traitors
in your midst, who meditate and discuss such crimes as make the soul
sicken, and the face blanch with horror; would not any honest man
deliver this department of Jeff Davis' most efficient allies into the
hands of the United States Government, by any means Heaven might place
in his power? If there is a man so fastidious of propriety, so mindful
of selfish considerations, that he would not, then, in our opinion,
that man is a coward, a traitor, an imbecile too weak to punish, and
deserving the scorn and contumely of his countrymen, for all coming
time. This proposition was the next day reported in a dispatch to Col.
Sweet, and is now on file in his office. It may be that the persons
who discussed the proposition, would not themselves have undertaken
the accomplishment of the deed, but the animus of the party was thus
rendered apparent, and the proposition was gravely considered and
discussed. This occurred soon after an interview, by the writer, with
Maj. Gen. Hooker, at the Tremont House, in Chicago, in October. It had
been often said that in case Lincoln was elected, he should never be
inaugurated, implying that his life would be terminated before that
event. Some of the very parties who made these threats, have since been
prisoners in Camp Douglas, but are now at large. On the night of the
14th of April, 1865, assassins, who were, doubtless, members of the Sons
of Liberty, in accordance with the same spirit in which that Order came
into existence, and was conducted from first to last, consummated their
hellish designs by shooting President Lincoln, and stabbing Secretary
Seward. The nation now mourns the loss of the noble martyr of freedom,
the truest heart, the most devoted patriot, the sincere advocate of
republican institutions, and the friend of the people. In every city,
town, and village, and hamlet of the land, is sincere mourning; deepest
grief swells the hearts and dim the eyes of all who have hearts to
feel, and fountains of tears, for the greatest bereavement that has
ever befallen our nation. The emblems of mourning, the solemn tolling of
bells, the universal gloom which overshadows our land, all impress upon
our hearts the terrible affliction that has come upon us, and while we
would bow reverently before Him who doeth all things well, and whose
wise purpose in this chastening of our already sorrowing people may not
now be apparent, we cannot repress the just indignation of our
souls that moves us to the enactment of that stern justice which is
uncompromising, and which cries to Heaven for vengeance, which nerves
our hearts and hands to deeds, the generous, noble, President of the
nation, now silent in the tomb, would have softened or averted. Villains
have slain the man whose heart was large enough to take into his
affections and paternal love, the whole country,--the man who knew no
North, no South, no East, no West, but whose devotion to the best good
of the people, was the ruling motive of a life so full of honors and
usefulness. The North had no friend like Lincoln! The South had no
friend like Lincoln! And, as our noble armies now march onward to
victory, and crush out beneath their iron heel, the last vestige of
treason, the memory of Lincoln will prove a watch-word of magic power;
soldiers will remember the entreaties, the offers of pardon, the
paternal affection of the noble Lincoln, and the base ingratitude of
the demon who consigned him to the tomb; they who have commended his
magnanimity, his humanity, his hopefulness, his reluctance to deal out
stern justice, which required hard blows--such of our fellow-citizens
will now, with holy indignation, rise in their might, and sweep from the
land those whose treason is heard, and whose bloody hand is uplifted,
aye, and those who devise their hellish schemes in secret chambers and
hiding places in our own cities and towns. "Remember Lincoln," will be
the battle-cry of our boys as they encounter armed treason in the field,
and "Remember Lincoln," should be the watchword of friends of freedom at
home, when hesitating in clemency, to strike down Copperheads who seek
to embarrass the government, and hope for, prophecy and delight in its
reverses upon the field of contest. Remember Lincoln and Seward ye men
who would now compromise by any and all sacrifices, with a people who
have sought to destroy our country, and have stricken down the pride of
our nation, the noblest of our land, and the champion of liberty. The
Chicago Board of Trade assembled upon the morning of the 15th of April,
and adopted the following resolutions:
_Resolved_, That this Board has heard with mingled sentiments of grief
and horror of the foul assassination, by accursed traitors, of Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States.
_Resolved_, That we mourn in the deepest sorrow his loss as a national
calamity. His persevering and devoted patriotism through the dark days
of the Republic; his wisdom alike in the hour of trial and triumph, have
embalmed his memory in the hearts of his countrymen, and encircled his
fame with a glory which time can never tarnish.
_Resolved_, That in this infernal act we see but another instance of
the demoniac hate of the slave power, arrested by the strong arm of the
government, under the heaven inspired leadership of Abraham Lincoln, in
its career of treason, murder and despotism; and we are admonished
anew to insist upon no compromise with the infamy, and upon the condign
punishment by the mailed hand of power, and the strong arm of the law,
of treason and its abettors, wherever found.
_Resolved_, That in our capacity of business men and citizens, we vow
eternal hate to the treachery and treason of the rebellion, which,
in addition to its before unnumbered crimes, has added the cowardly
assassination of Abraham Lincoln in the vain hope of destroying this
Republic.
_Resolved_, That in deep humiliation, we bow before the God of battles
and of Nations, and, in this hour of our grand triumph and overwhelming
sorrow, we reverently consign to His all-guiding wisdom the destiny of
this Republic, and pray Him still to have it in His holy keeping.
_Resolved_, That the members of this Board, who have, from the war's
beginning, felt it their duty, as it has been their privilege and their
pride, to stand by the nation and its President and all its constituted
leaders, loyally aiding and encouraging, as they could, the Cabinet
and the Army in the gigantic struggle of the past four years, do now
solemnly, unitedly, in the presence of Almighty God, and in humble
reliance on the Divine help, pledge our full, unreserved, and trusting
support to the Government of these United States, and to the men who now
constitutionally succeed to the authority and powers, now laid down by
the great and good man, who has fallen a precious and holy sacrifice on
the altar of his country. And the members of this Board, in making this
solemn pledge, do the same, not for themselves only, but in behalf
of the loyal and patriotic people of the North-west, who have freely
offered their first-born, and best beloved for their country's
existence, security and honor.
_Resolved_, That the members of this Board express their profound and
respectful sympathy with the bereaved family of the deceased, and
with the associates of the departed in the Cabinet, as well as all the
members of the national councils, in the tragic and deplorable events in
which they share so largely.