In the great drama of the rebellion there were two acts. The first was
the war, with its battles and sieges, its victories and defeats, its
sufferings and tears. Just as the curtain was lifting on the second
and final act, the restoration of peace and liberty, the evil spirit
of the rebellion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed the hand
of an assassin to strike down the chief character in both. It was no
one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; it was the embodied spirit of
treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that
struck him down in the moment of the nation's supremest joy.
Sir, there are times in the history of men and nations when they stand
so near the veil that separates mortals from the immortals, time from
eternity, and men from God that they can almost hear the beatings and
pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time has this
nation passed.
When two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the
field of honor, through that thin veil, to the presence of God, and
when at last its parting folds admitted the martyr President to the
company of those dead heroes of the Republic, the nation stood so near
the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men.
Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people knelt in tearful
reverence and made a solemn covenant with him and with each other that
this nation should be saved from its enemies, that all its glories
should be restored, and, on the ruins of slavery and treason, the
temples of freedom and justice should be built, and should survive
forever.
It remains for us, consecrated by that great event and under a
covenant with God, to keep that faith, to go forward in the great work
until it shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and
obeying the high behests of God, let us remember that:
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.