with bitterness of any human being, but he did not conceal how keenly
he felt that he had been wronged by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in
reply to other cavils: "The emancipation policy and the use of colored
troops were the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion; the job was
a great national one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable
part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; then will
there be some black men who can remember that they have helped mankind
to this great consummation."
The proclamation accomplished its end, for, during the war, our armies
came into military possession of every State in rebellion. Then, too,
was called forth the new power that comes from the simultaneous
diffusion of thought and feeling among the nations of mankind. The
mysterious sympathy of the millions throughout the world was given
spontaneously. The best writers of Europe waked the conscience of the
thoughtful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old World was
drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. Russia,
whose emperor had just accomplished one of the grandest acts in the
course of time, by raising twenty millions of bondmen into freeholders,
and thus assuring the growth and culture of a Russian people, remained
our unwavering friend. From the oldest abode of civilization, which
gave the first example of an imperial government with equality among
the people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state for foreign affairs,
remembered the saying of Confucius, that we should not do to others
what we would not that others should do to us, and, in the name of his
emperor, read a lesson to European diplomatists by closing the ports of
China against the war-ships and privateers of "the seditious."
The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for anxious
spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on LINCOLN, and his face was
ploughed with the furrows of thought and sadness. With malice towards
none, free from the spirit of revenge, victory made him importunate for
peace, and his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his
abounding clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but
not unless the freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand
battles of Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, Malvern Hill, Antietam,
Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia, Winchester, Nashville, the
capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher, the march from
Atlanta, and the capture of Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the
issue. Still more, the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the
continent; of Maryland, whose sons never heard the midnight bells chime
so sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by the voice
of her own people, she took her place among the free; of Tennessee,
which passed through fire and blood, through sorrows and the shadow of
death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the faithfulness of her
own sons to renew her youth like the eagle--proved that victory was
deserved, and would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy,
uttered as they were by LINCOLN on the waters of Virginia, were
defiantly repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will,
went as the arrow to its mark, and, without a feeling of revenge,
struck a deathblow at rebellion.
Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief Magistrate possessed more
sources of consolation and joy than LINCOLN? His countrymen had shown
their love by choosing him to a second term of service. The raging war
that had divided the country had lulled, and private grief was hushed
by the grandeur of the result. The nation had its new birth of freedom,
soon to be secured forever by an amendment of the Constitution. His
persistent gentleness had conquered for him a kindlier feeling on the
part of the South. His scoffers among the grandees of Europe began to
do him honor. The laboring classes everywhere saw in his advancement
their own. All peoples sent him their benedictions. And at this moment
of the height of his fame, to which his humility and modesty added
charms, he fell by the hand of the assassin, and the only triumph
awarded him was the march to the grave.
This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and ashes; that we
mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a
thing were man if there were not that within him which is higher than
himself; if he could not master the illusions of sense, and discern the
connexions of events by a superior light which comes from God! He so
shares the divine impulses that he has power to subject interested
passions to love of country, and personal ambition to the ennoblement
of his kind. Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has helped to make
this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of
humanity. The heroes who led our armies and ships into battle and fell
in the service--Lyon, McPherson, Reynolds, Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Foote,
Ward, with their compeers--did not die in vain; they and the myriads of
nameless martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, gave up their lives
willingly "that government of the people, by the people, and for the
people, shall not perish from the earth."
The assassination of LINCOLN, who was so free from malice, has, by some
mysterious influence, struck the country with solemn awe, and hushed,
instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. It seems as if the just
had died for the unjust. When I think of the friends I have lost in
this war--and every one who hears me has, like myself, lost some of
those whom he most loved--there is no consolation to be derived from
victims on the scaffold, or from anything but the established union of
the regenerated nation.
In his character LINCOLN was through and through an American. He is the
first native of the region west of the Alleghanies to attain to the
highest station; and how happy it is that the man who was brought
forward as the natural outgrowth and first fruits of that region should
have been of unblemished purity in private life, a good son, a kind
husband, a most affectionate father, and, as a man, so gentle to all.
As to integrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him: "Lincoln is the
honestest man I ever knew."
The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward thought,
rather than of action. He delighted to express his opinions by an
apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by a story.
He was skilful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea
on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it
by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would be
intelligible to all. He excelled in logical statement more than in
executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judgment was
good, and his purposes were fixed; but, like the Hamlet of his only
poet, his will was tardy in action, and, for this reason, and not from
humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty
which devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of another.
LINCOLN gained a name by discussing questions which, of all others,
most easily lead to fanaticism; but he was never carried away by
enthusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant language, never
hurried to support extreme measures, never allowed himself to be
controlled by sudden impulses. During the progress of the election at
which he was chosen President he expressed no opinion that went beyond
the Jefferson proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had
faith in the intuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with
rare sagacity. He knew how to bide time, and was less apt to run ahead
of public thought than to lag behind. He never sought to electrify the
community by taking an advanced position with a banner of opinion, but
rather studied to move forward compactly, exposing no detachment in
front or rear; so that the course of his administration might have been
explained as the calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful
politician, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle
which from the first determined his purpose, and grew more intense with
every year, consuming his life by its energy. Yet his sensibilities
were not acute; he had no vividness of imagination to picture to his
mind the horrors of the battle-field or the sufferings in hospitals;
his conscience was more tender than his feelings.
LINCOLN was one of the most unassuming of men. In time of success, he
gave credit for it to those whom he employed, to the people, and to the
Providence of God. He did not know what ostentation is; when he became
President he was rather saddened than elated, and his conduct and
manners showed more than ever his belief that all men are born equal.
He was no respecter of persons, and neither rank, nor reputation, nor
services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in
discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but he readily
deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the head of the armies he
followed the manifest preference of Congress.
A good President will secure unity to his administration by his own
supervision of the various departments. LINCOLN, who accepted advice
readily, was never governed by any member of his cabinet, and could not
be moved from a purpose deliberately formed; but his supervision of
affairs was unsteady and incomplete, and sometimes, by a sudden
interference transcending the usual forms, he rather confused than
advanced the public business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous
regard due to the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently
without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be
established. Truth he would receive from any one, but when impressed by
others, he did not use their opinions till, by reflection, he had made
them thoroughly his own.
It was the nature of LINCOLN to forgive. When hostilities ceased, he,
who had always sent forth the flag with every one of its stars in the
field, was eager to receive back his returning countrymen, and
meditated "some new announcement to the South." The amendment of the
Constitution abolishing slavery had his most earnest and unwearied
support. During the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from his
privately suggesting to Louisiana, that "in defining the franchise some
of the colored people might be let in," saying: "They would probably
help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the
family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed himself "not in favor of" what he
improperly called "negro citizenship," for the Constitution
discriminates between citizens and electors. Three days before his
death he declared his preference that "the elective franchise were now
conferred on the very intelligent of the colored men, and on those of
them who served our cause as soldiers;" but he wished it done by the
States themselves, and he never harbored the thought of exacting it
from a new government, as a condition of its recognition.
The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent, by the
Speaker of this House, his friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky
mountains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the return of
hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruitful industry; as he welcomed
in advance hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his eye
kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the nation. And so,
with these thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and
temptations of this life, and was at peace.
Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave when the
prime minister of England died, full of years and honors. Palmerston
traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LINCOLN went back only
to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the best
scholars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge; LINCOLN'S early teachers
were the silent forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars.
Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; LINCOLN for but a tenth
of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established
aristocracy; LINCOLN a leader, or rather a companion, of the people.
Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the
House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth;
LINCOLN thought always of mankind, as well as his own country, and
served human nature itself. Palmerston, from his narrowness as an
Englishman, did not endear his country to any one court or to any one
nation, but rather caused general uneasiness and dislike; LINCOLN left
America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston
was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the conflicting factions
of the aristocracy; LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise
himself on the ever-moving opinions of the masses. Palmerston was
capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the sense of honor, not
heedful of right;
LINCOLN rejected counsel given only as a matter of policy, and was not
capable of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial,
delighted in banter, and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful
levity; LINCOLN was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest
earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the
aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the
conscience of humanity, but the House of Commons; LINCOLN took to heart
the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of
Providence, and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity.
Palmerston did nothing that will endure; LINCOLN finished a work which
all time cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the
ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of
institutions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the
great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in
Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was attended by the
British aristocracy to his grave, which, after a few years, will hardly
be noticed by the side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; LINCOLN was
followed by tho sorrow of his country across the continent to his
resting place in the heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered
through all time by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world.
As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised the flag; the American
people was the hero of the war; and, therefore, the result is a new era
of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of
anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system
of hereditary wrong; and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens
to the renovated nation a career of unthought-of dignity and glory.
Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor. The
party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and are
merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would have
left us are not brought back as subjugated States, for then we should
hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained; they come
to their rightful place under the Constitution as original, necessary,
and inseparable members of the Union.
We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We respect
the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, raised
emblems of triumph. And our generals are not to be classed in the herd
of vulgar warriors, but are of the school of Timoleon, and William of
Nassau, and Washington. They have used the sword only to give peace to
their country and restore her to her place in the great assembly of the
nations.
SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of America: as I bid you farewell, my last
words shall be words of hope and confidence; for now slavery is no
more, the Union is restored, a people begins to live according to the
laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent.
APPENDIX.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN was assassinated at 10.30 p.m. on the 14th of April,
1865, and died at 7.20 a.m. the next day. Congress was not in session,
but a large number of members hastened to the Capitol on the receipt of
the startling intelligence, and on the 17th a card was published by
Senator Foot, inviting those Senators and Representatives who might be
in the city the next day to meet at the Capitol, to consider what
action they would take in relation to the funeral ceremonies.
The members of the 39th Congress then in Washington met in the Senate
reception room, at the Capitol, on the 17th of April, 1865, at noon.
Hon. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER of Connecticut, President _pro tem._ of the
Senate, was called to the chair, and the Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX of
Indiana, Speaker of the House in the 38th Congress, was chosen
secretary.
Senator FOOT, of Vermont, who was visibly affected, stated that the
object of the meeting was to make arrangements relative to the funeral
of the deceased President of the United States.
On motion of Senator SUMNER, of Massachusetts, a committee of four
members from each house was ordered to report at 4 p.m., what action
would be fitting for the meeting to take. The Chairman appointed
Senators Sumner of Massachusetts, Harris of New York, Johnson of
Maryland, Ramsey of Minnesota, and Conness of California, and
Representatives Washburne of Illinois, Smith of Kentucky, Schenck of
Ohio, Pike of Maine, and Coffroth of Pennsylvania; and on motion of Mr.
Schenck, the Chairman and Secretary of the meeting were added to the
Committee, and then the meeting adjourned until 4 p.m.
The meeting re-assembled at 4 p.m., pursuant to adjournment.
Mr. SUMNER, from the Committee heretofore appointed, reported that they
had selected as pall-bearers on the part of the Senate: Mr. Foster of
Connecticut; Mr. Morgan of New York; Mr. Johnson of Maryland; Mr. Yates
of Illinois; Mr. Wade of Ohio, and Mr. Conness of California. On the
part of the House: Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts; Mr. Coffroth of
Pennsylvania; Mr. Smith of Kentucky; Mr. Colfax of Indiana; Mr.
Worthington of Nevada, and Mr. Washburne of Illinois. They also
recommended the appointment of one member of Congress from each State
and Territory to act as a Congressional Committee to accompany the
remains of the late President to Illinois, and presented the following
names as such Committee, the Chairman of the meeting to have the
authority of appointing hereafter for the States and Territories not
represented to-day from which members may be present at the Capitol by
the day of the funeral:
Maine, Mr. Pike; New Hampshire, Mr. E. H. Rollins; Vermont, Mr. Foot;
Massachusetts, Mr. Sumner; Rhode Island, Mr. Anthony; Connecticut, Mr.
Dixon; New York, Mr. Harris Pennsylvania, Mr. Cowan; Ohio, Mr.
Schenck; Kentucky, Mr. Smith; Indiana, Mr. Julian; Illinois, the
delegation; Michigan, Mr. Chandler; Iowa, Mr. Harlan; California, Mr.
Shannon; Minnesota, Mr. Ramsey; Oregon, Mr. Williams; Kansas, Mr. S.
Clarke; West Virginia, Mr. Whaley; Nevada, Mr. Nye; Nebraska, Mr.
Hitchcock; Colorado, Mr. Bradford; Dakota, Mr. Todd; Idaho, Mr. Wallace.
The Committee also recommended the adoption of the following resolution:
_Resolved,_ That the Sergeants-at-Arms of the Senate and House
with their necessary assistants be requested to attend the Committee
accompanying the remains of the late President, and to make all the
necessary arrangements.
All of which was concurred in unanimously.
Mr. SUMNER from the same Committee also reported the following, which
was unanimously agreed to:
The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in
Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God who
rules all that is done for human good, make haste, at this informal
meeting, to express the emotions with which they have been filled by
the appalling tragedy which has deprived the Nation of its head and
covered the land with mourning; and in further declaration of their
sentiments unanimously resolve:
1. That in testimony of their veneration and affection for the
illustrious dead, who has been permitted under Providence to do so much
for his country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral
services, and by an appropriate Committee will accompany his remains to
their place of burial in the State from which he was taken for the
national service.
2. That in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who, by the benignant favor of
Republican institutions, rose from humble beginnings to the heights of
power and fame, they recognize an example of purity, simplicity and
virtue, which should be a lesson, to mankind; while in his death they
recognize a martyr, whose memory will become more precious as men learn
to prize those principles of constitutional order and those rights,
civil, political, and human, for which he was made a sacrifice.
3. That they invite the President of the United States, by solemn
proclamation, to recommend to the people of the United States to
assemble on a day to be appointed by him, publicly to testify their
grief, and to dwell on the good which has been done on earth by him
whom we now mourn.
4. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to the President of
the United States; and also, that a copy be communicated to the
afflicted widow of the late President, as an expression of sympathy in
her great bereavement.
The meeting then adjourned.
* * *
The funeral ceremonies took place in the East room of the Executive
Mansion, at noon, on the 19th of April, and the remains were then
escorted to the Capitol, where they lay in state in the rotundo.
On the morning of April 21, the remains were taken from the Capitol and
placed in a funeral car, in which they were taken to Springfield,
Illinois, accompanied by the Congressional Committee. Halting at the
principal cities along the route, that appropriate honors might be paid
to the deceased, the funeral cortege arrived on the 3d of May at
Springfield, Illinois, and the next day the remains were deposited in
Oak Ridge cemetery near that city.
President JOHNSON, in his annual message to Congress at the
commencement of the session of 1865-'66, thus announced the death of
his predecessor:
"To express gratitude to God, in the name of the people, for the
preservation of the United States, is my first duty in addressing you.
Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act
of parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh; it finds
some solace in the consideration that-he lived to enjoy the highest
proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief
Magistracy to which he had been elected that he brought the civil war
substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of
the Union; and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his
memory."
Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, immediately after the President's
message had been read in the House of Representatives, offered the
following wing joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted:
_Resolved,_ That a committee of one member from each State represented
in this House be appointed on the part of this House, to join such
committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider
and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for
the Congress of the United States to express tho deep sensibility of
the nation to the event of the decease of their late President, Abraham
Lincoln, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to
that melancholy event be referred to said committee.
On motion of Hon. SOLOMON FOOT, the Senate unanimously concurred in the
passage of the resolution, and the following joint committee was
appointed--thirteen on the part of the Senate and one for every State
represented (twenty-four) on the part of the House of Representatives:
SENATE.
Hon. Solomon Foot, Vt.
Hon. Richard Yates, Ill.
Hon. Benj. F. Wade, Ohio.
Hon. Wm. Pitt Fessenden, Me.
Hon. Henry Wilson, Mass.
Hon. James R. Doolittle, Wis.
Hon. Jas. H. Lane, Ka.
Hon. Ira Harris, N.Y.
Hon. Jas. W. Nesmith, Oregon.
Hon. Henry S. Lane, Ind.
Hon. Waitman T. Willey, W. Va.
Hon. Chas. R. Buckalew, Pa.
Hon. John B. Henderson, Mo.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.