Addenda.
_ABRAHAM LINCOLN._
We had written this portion of our work with feelings of gratitude to
the brave men who achieved the glorious victory over the rebellious
armies of the South, and looked forward to the time when Abraham Lincoln
in triumph could repeat his words, uttered long before the surrender of
Lee’s army: “_When the rebellion is crushed, my work is done._” That
work was done, and four millions of people were rescued from slavery;
not alone from the fact of any determined opposition to the institution
as it was and existed under the Constitution, but the effect of the
rebellion itself.
Freedom under the administration of Abraham Lincoln became a reality,
what before was but a name,—a shadow! He had just reached that point:
his labor was nearly done, armies had surrendered, and the power of the
government fully sustained. The shout of gratitude went up from the four
points of our country, North, South, East, and West, and was carried to
other nations with a rapidity unequalled in telegraphic or steam
history. In the midst of this rejoicing, at a time when every heart
throbbed with pleasurable emotions and a nation’s gratitude was about
being manifested by brilliant illuminations and rejoicings, the demon of
hell sent a fiend forth to destroy the life which had given a new one to
our nation.
Our country was an Eden on the morning of the fatal day whose evening
shrouded it in the deepest gloom. All nature was joyous, all men happy
save those who inaugurated the rebellion and looked upon the downfall of
slavery as the end of an institution upon which they sinned and grew
rich,—vampire-like living on the blood of their fellow-creatures!
Abraham Lincoln stood in the garden, the Eden of our country, the Adam
of a new order of things,—a recreated world! The tree of liberty had
been planted, its apples had been eaten eighty years before, and the
curse of slavery followed. But now the tree was clear of its “Dead Sea
fruit,” which had withered its branches; anew it blossomed, anew the
rich, ripe fruit of freedom loaded its stems, and hung suspended,—bright
jewels on a living tree. It was, is, and ever will be the tree of
knowledge to a free and independent people, the golden fruit of all that
is good, whose roots were watered by the tears of the grateful, and
whose soil was enriched by the blood of those who died in defending it.
Abraham Lincoln stood in this garden, the man of the people, as was the
first man of God. There came up from the four corners of our land in
lightning flashes the congratulations of twenty-five millions of _free_
people. Proudly there he stood; the smile on his face was lighted up by
the sunshine of his heart. Then it was that a wretch, whose vocation and
associations had totally demoralized him, crept into this Eden, wherein
all was joy and happiness,—his vile nature, envying a nation’s return to
peace, aimed to destroy it. The name of this serpent was J. Wilkes
Booth, the tool of Southern chivalry, the assassin by whose hand Abraham
Lincoln fell. The moment that the spirit of this martyr passed from
earth to heaven, the chains fell from the limbs of four millions of
people, and the doom of slavery was sealed forever! The 14th of April,
1865, may be dated as an era in our country’s history long to be
remembered, for Abraham Lincoln died in carrying out his great work of
emancipation. He lived to see the last battle fought, lived till the
power of the rebellion was broken, and then, having finished the work
for which God had sent him, he passed away from this world to that high
and glorious realm where the patriot and the good shall live forever.
“For the stars on our banner grown suddenly dim,
Let us weep in our sorrow, but weep not for him;
Not for him who departing leaves millions in tears,
Not for him who has died full of honors and years,
Not for him who ascended fame’s ladder so high,
From the round at the top he has stepped to the sky:
It is blessed to go when so ready to die.”
_OUR NATIONAL GRIEF._
The murder of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, on the 14th of April, 1865.