Oh, slow to smite and swift to spare,
Gentle and merciful and just!
Who, in the fear of God didst bear
The sword of power, a nation's trust.
In sorrow by thy bier we stand,
Amid the awe that hushes all,
And speak the anguish of a land
That shook with horror at thy fall.
Thy task is done; the bond is free--
We bear thee to an honored grave,
Whose noblest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
Pure was thy life; its bloody close
Hath placed thee with the sons of light
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of right.
[Illustration: CITY HALL, NEW YORK, N. Y.]
At the time of the appearance of the procession at the City Hall at
least twenty thousand persons were assembled in the immediate
neighborhood. While awaiting the arrival of the procession a number of
German singing bands were marched into the open space before the Hall,
and arranged on either side of the entrance, preparatory to the
singing of a requiem to the dead. The procession entered the Park at
about half-past eleven o'clock, and the hearse stopped before the
entrance to the Hall. Here the coffin was immediately taken from the
hearse and carried up the stairs to the catafalque which had been
prepared for its reception, while the singing societies rendered two
very appropriate dirges.
The interior of the City Hall had been decorated with much taste.
Across the dome a black curtain was drawn, and the rays of light thus
conducted fell subdued upon the sad but imposing spectacle.
Henry T. Tuckerman, a member of the Committee on Resolutions, wrote
the following ode for the funeral obsequies, on the 25th day of April,
1865, at New York City. The Athenaeum Club participated, bearing an
appropriate banner, the members wearing distinctive badges of mourning
and under the leadership of their Vice-President, Henry E. Pierpont;
the President, William T. Blodgett, being at that time absent acting
as Chairman of the Citizens Committee: