Qass. Book ,sg^ OUR NATIONAL SORROW. A DISCOURSE ON THE DEATH OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN, CONTAINING THE SUBSTANCK OF TWO SERMONS y DELIVERED IN THE Presbyterian Chorch, Johnstown, APRIL 16 AND 19, 1865. REV. DANIEL STEWART, D. D. JOHNSTOWN : J. D. nOUGHTALINa, PRINTER. 1865. <♦ OUR NATIONAL SORROW. DISCOURSE ON THE DEATH OP ABRAHAM LINCOL CONTAINING THE SUBSTANCE OF TWO SERMONS DELIVERED IN THE Presbyterian Charch, Johnstown, APRIL 16 AND 19, 1865. REV. DANIEL STEWART, D. D. % JOHNSTOWN : J. D. HOUaHTALING, PRINTER. 1865. 8 ' Johnstown, April 20, 1865. KKv^ D. Stewart — Dear Sir : — At the close of the public services to- day at the Presbyterian Church, the uuclersigned were appointed a Committee to solicit tor pubUcation a copy of your Discourse deliv- ered on the occasion, and also a copy of your Sermon on our great National bereavement, last Sabbath morning. In discharging their duty, the Committee take pleasure in assuring j'ou that, in common with all your hearers, they were deeply impres- sed with your discourses, and fully concur in the judgment very gen- erally and emphatically expressed, that they ought to be placed in a ' permanent form, both for the benefit of your auditors, and others who had not the pleasure of listening to them. We respectfully re- quest, therefore, that you will gratify the public by consenting to their publication. llespcctfuJIj and 'I'ritlj/ Yours, FRANCIS BURDICK, DAA^D A. WELLS, ' H. E. SMITH. Messrs. Bdrdick, Wells and Smith — Gentlemen : — I do not feel myself at liberty to consult my own judgment, nor to follow my own preferences in the matter of your request. Believing that much of the interest you attribute to these hastily written Discourses, is due, in a large degree to the state of the public mind produced by our great National Bereavement, I yet comply with your wish in the main. I have deemed it best to throw togethe" the substance of both discourses under one text, rather than to give the Sermons in their original form. Yours, Very Truly, DANL. STEWART. Johnstown, N. Y., May 1st, 186.5. DISCOURSE Lam i-:!?'!' ANIONS 5: 15. "The joy of our heakt is ceased: our DANCi; IS TUCKED JJf'O MOUUNrNG." This day which calls us together to pout out our lam- entations over a great nalional calamity, was set apart by official proclamation as an occasion for joy and thanksgiving in view of national triumphs.* The multi- tudes who to-day are surrounded with the sad emblems of sorrow, were to have been arrayed in the garments of praise. The bells that are tolling out their deep notes, responsive to the deeper sorrows of the people were to have rung out their merriest peals, in unison with the bounding joy, inspired in all hearts by the prospect of an immediate peace. But " the joy of our heart is ceas- ed : our dance is turned into mourning." The heart of the whole nation swells with the same emotion. One great sorrow, which for the time being swallows up all other interests, spreads its dark shadow over all the land — clouds and darkness obscure our social and polit- ical heavens — a sabbath-like stillness reigns almost un- broken in our business marts ; and the strong men who are wont to crowd these marts sit alone and weep. Why all this 1 Why is the joy of our heart ceased ? What (*) This day was originally set apart by the Governor of the State as a day of thanksgiving. 2 is it that has so suddenly turned our dance Into mourn- ing? Do the reasons for rejoicing no longer exist ? Are the prospects of'an immediate peace in any wise dimmed l Is the rebellion any more formidable than when we were stringing our harps to the notes of praise ? Nay, my hearers ; the banner of victory is still borne onward by our conquering legions. The citidal of the conspirators ajofainst our national existence is patrolled by union sol- diers. The confederacy of treason is broken in pieces. Its armies are utterly destroyed. The flag of the union is everywhere triumphant, and the arch traitors aie fugi- tives from the avenging arm of justice. Every day adds new triumphs to our past victories. Every day brings tidings which in other times would light up all faces with gladness. But now the joy of our lieart is ceased. We almost forget that General Grant scarcely more than a fortnight since captured the city of Riclimond and re- ceived the surrender of General Lee and his well appoin- ted army. We read in bold capitals that Mobile has fal- len, but these bold capitals are less stirring than the long black heavy lines by which they are surrounded. The triumphant march of the irresistible Sherman, driving the last army of the Confederates before him, and utterly blotting out the last hope of treason, is received without any public demonstrations. No bells are rung, no bon- fires are lighted. The flags of the Union are indeed hung out to the breeze, but they look sad with their heavy weeds of mourning. The streets mourn, the houses mourn, the whole Nation mourns as it has never mourn- ed before ; and all this, when there are such reasons for joy. The darkness for the hour seems more than the light. The one great affliction has dimmed our eyes to the many great blessings. It outweighs all others. It has fallen with crushing weight. It has fallen on every part of the land. Our wise, pure-minded, patriotic and generous President has fallen — has fallen by the hand of the cowardly assassin — in an unexpected mo- ment, and at a most critical period in our history. The greatness of the National calamity weighs down all hearts. We feel that the stroke that extinguished his valuable life, has felled us to the ground. We a,re be- wildered — we stagger with the blow -—our speech is bro- ken. " The joy of our heart is ceased." No sweet music cheers it, no glad tidings awakes it to joy. In truth, my hearers, there never has occurred since we became a Na- tion, an event of greater magnitude. There never before has been an occasion when matters of a profound public interest were so blended and mixed up with feelings of sadness and anxiety — though just now it is altogether an afiair of the heart; and for the moment all party con- tention and clamor are hushed and merged into one com- mon and overwhelming sensibility. Oh how it tends to quiet the agitations of every public interest when Death steps in and demonstrates the littleness and insignifi- cance of all that men are toiling for ; wlien as if to make known the greatness of his power in the sight of the whole country, he stalks in ghastly triumph over the highest seats of office and power, and singles out the one on whom especially are suspended the hopes of a great Nation ! A few days ago all looked so full of life — so full of cheerfulness. Tidings of the most hopeful character were flashing in all directions over the wires. The country was preparing to give expression to loud anthems of praise to the Ruler of the Universe for his signal favor to us as a Nation. The embassy of gladness had travelled over the land, and the country forgetful of all she had suffered during the past afflictive years — was about to oSer the spectacle of one wide and rejoicing jubilee. Yet why should this event, the destruction of one life, sad and heart-rendiug and horrible as it is, pro- duce such a wide spread feeling of sorrow 1 Thousands have perished iu the great struggle for the life oi the Re- public, and the land has been drenched with blood ; why let our joys be turned into mourning at the death of one ? /s' U t/iat the afixassinailon of our clierhlif.d and noble President will seriously) imperil any aubyianlial interest of the country? I do not believe it. The times are indeed peculiar so far as we are concerned. They teem with interests of vast moment — interests which call for the exercise of the most matured statesmanship. The prob- lems to be solved, are, if possible, more difficult of solu- tion, than those which have occupied so much of the attention of the country in the past. The questions con- nected with peace are likely to be more perplexing than those pertaining to war, and to call forth a diversity of sentiment and opinion which might tax all the good, sound common sense of our lamented Chief. All revo- lutions, whether political or religious, are prolific in ex- treme opinions and extreme measures. In the reforma- tion of the sixteenth century the tide of opinion rolled on so rapidly and resistlessly as almost to sweep away the land marks of truth and righteousness. The Remon- strants carried matters to such an extreme as to place in peril all that was accomplished by the wiser and more moderate actors in that important drama. That there should be extreme opinions and the advocacy of extreme measures, growing out of our past and p'esent troubles, were no matters for marvel. It may therefore be regar- ded as especially calamitous, that at this time, the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, characterized eminently by moderation in counsel and moderation in action, should be so ruthlessly snatched away. The Nation knew him ; 9 it had faith iQ his judgment, and in his ability, under God, to bring it safely out of all iis difficulties. He was the man lor the times. Yet whatever may be our fijst impressions connected wilh this terrible outrage on civiJization and humanily, it must be obvious to all thoughtful obsei vers, that no one life, however pjecious, is essential to Ihe well-being of the Nation, and that no serious damage can aiise out of this most terrible of National afflicfions, so far as the existence and stability of the Republic are concerned. The elements of strength and prosperity all remain, and however much we may give the pi eference to the long tj ied and faithful servant, so sadly removed fiom our midst, we have yet not the slightest doubt that the same kind Providence which has so manifestly watched over us as a Nation, during the progress of the great conflict with treason and oppression, will provide the needful instru- ments to work out the high destiny that awaits the Amer- ican Nation. Jf ever any people had reason to say it, we have in a most emphatic manner : " God is our ref- uge and strength ; a very present help in trouble : therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." In our darkest hours. He has caused the light to shine. In our greatest straits. He has brought deliv- erence ; and in the present as well as in the past, there is everything to assure us that He will, by raising up the proper agency, bring us out of all our troubles and make us a praise in the earth. To my mind it is as clear as if written with a pencil of light on the firmament of heaven, that as a Nation, instead of being weakened or coming to a stand, we have taken out a new lease on existence. As is sometimes the case, one disease throws offauother which was threat- 10 ening the life of the patient ; so we in our life struggle have thrown off the cancerous affection which was prey- ing on the very vitals of the body politic. We were wont in other times, to think differently. We looked upon the Nation as a young giant, full of life and vigor, capable of any endurance and strong enough to throw off any at- tack, and consequently we regarded slavery as nolhing more than an ugly ulcer on one of its limbs, which could never imperil the system ; and wliich might in time be thrown off by the strong constitution of the patient. So we thought, and so we declaimed. We spun out fine theories and whistled ourselves out of all idea of danger. But the ulcer spread. The day of danger came at length, and happily there was vitality enough for the great cri- sis. Life prevailed over death. The deadly disease has been thrown off. and the life of the Nation not only sa- ved but thoroughly regenerated. With the Rebellion is ended this monstrous system of iniquity which was the great black spot on the sun of our Nationality, the dis- grace and sliame of our National profession, the dark spirit which instigated all our troubles, which has caus- ed our laud to flow with rivers of blood, which has enac- ted the most atrocious barbarism of the nineteenth centu- ry, and which has now, last of all, covered the Nation with sackcloth by assassinating the Chief Citizen of the Realm. Amidst the sorrows of this hour and the solem- nities of this day, I thank God that the clanking of the chain-gangs will never more be heard in our land, and that our eyes shall nevermore see what has so often been witnessed in our Southern States — human beings, hand- cuffed and chained together two and two, and crowded to- gether like cattle in a filthy car, so conscious of their degradation that they would not look you in the face, and for no other crime than that their skins were black ! 11 But the end has come and with it a new life to the Na- tion, and indemnity beyond doubt, against the machina- tions of conspiracy and treason. No ; however deep our sorrows to-day, it is not from any fear that the Nation will not move steadily onward in everything that contri- butes to National renown. Is it from any fear that this dark deed of expiring" treas- on will in any wise bring damage to us in our relations ivith Foreign JYations — that as a people we are bowed down to- day? It may be questioned whether at any former pe- riod in our history, we have commanded a higher degree of respect among Foreign Courts than we do at this pre- sent moment. However the opinion may 1 ave been en- tertained and perhaps cherished, that our experiment of Free Government must, when subjected to such a trial as it has faced for the last four years, prove a failure, that opinion to-day has very few advocates. And the manner in which the Nation has met the grand crisis of its existence and weathered the storm, will compel the respect of the most reluctant. A war unparalleled in its magnitude, waged with a most desperate and unscrupu- lous enemy, involving an expenditure of countless mill- ions, yet carried on without borrowing from other nations a single dollar, or asking for a single man, is an exhibi- tion of National power and of National resources which must command the respect of the vvhole world. Such energy is without a parallel ; and as well by our own consciousness of strength as by the manifestation of it in effecting what the leading European nations predicted could not be done, we have most effectually placed our- selves beyond and above any danger from the interfe- rence of any foreign power. Nay; our rapid triumphs have carried us beyond this point of danger — they have placed us on such vantage ground that those Foreign 12 States who were so short-sighted as to trench on the rights of National hospitality in the days of our adversi- ty, will no doubt be swift to make the amende honorable when they learn that the Confederacy of treason is no more. No ; in the cup of our sorrow to-day, there is no such ingredient as this. With victorious armies led on by the fii st generals of this or any age — with an unequal- led navy, a restored Union and the smiles of a benign Providence, no considerations of this kind could evoke the utterance: " The joy of our heart is ceased." It is in the midst of our strength that we are bowed down. It is in the hour when we have no fears to quell that our eyes are suffused with tears. It is just at the moment when the dark cloud which has so long overshadowed us is beginning to break, that this horror of darkness is upon us. No ; not in these nor in any of the possibilities which a timorous nature might suggest, is to be discov- ered the cause of this loud and prolonged wail of an af- flicted Nation. Tliejoy of our heart ureased because of the great calam- ity that has fallen on the JYation — this and this alone. Our President, whom we have learned io love and honor, has fallen by an assassin^ s hand. Under any circumstances the death of the Chief Magistrate of the Katioii is a start- ling event. When he dies in I he bosom of friendsliip, at- tended by the ministry of love and affection, the deep sympathy of the public is aroused. But such a death — the extinguishing of such a life by such a hand, fills the mind with horror. Words are impotent to characterize the deed. There are men of bad passions everywhere. There are adventurers in evei'y society, who for the sake of gain are ready to waylay the unprotected ; but the spirit developed in the assassin, who for sentiment or revenge, can thus at a blow cover a Nation with sorrow, 13 could originate only in connection with that civilization which could systematically starve to death thousands of helpless and defenceless men to gratify a fiendish hate. That such an event should occur in a Christian land in the nineteenth century, under the very tree of Liberty, is a nameless horror ; yet is has passed into history, nev- er to be expunged — to go down to the remotest ages as the blackest crime of a rebellion that has not a solitary mitigation. It is to stand pre-eminent among all the dev- ilish and frightful tragedies of the darkest periods of the world's existence — without a parallel in the annals of crime. The history of ancient Rome, disfigured as it is by violence and crime, presents no spot so dark as that which must throughoui; all time pollute the annals of our American Republic. In the first century of the Chris- tian era, Caligula, a monster of iniquity — a disgrace to humanity — the man who gave utterance to the wish that the whole Roman people had but one neck, that he might destroy them at a single blow — fell by the weapon of the assassin, and no tear was shed over his grave. Domi- tian, another wretch of the same century, was struck down by a company of conspirators, among whom was his own wife. In the second and third centuries, it be- came the prevailing fashion of the country to put to death by violence the rulers who became offensive to the soldiers. In the course of fifty years from the death of Alexander Severus, there are reckoned more than fifty Caesars, who with that title, lawful or unlawful, made their appearance to contend for the imperial throne. Proclaimed and then murdered by their soldiers, they were the sport of fate and cruelty. As there was noth- ing of virtue in their lives to render their memory immor- tal, so there was nothing of loss in their death to render them lamented. English history is comparatively free 3 14 from such stains so far as the rulers of the land are con- cerned. Edward the 2d, Richard the 3d, and Edward the 5th, were the victims of the assassin's hand ; but the first two were weak and utterly unfit to wield the scep- tre of power, and the last was a mere child, who perished at the a.oje of twelve years. There have been nuraerons attempts on the life of the reigning sovereigns, but with- out success. In the history of modern France, wjiile le- gal murders have been frequent enough, there are but few instances of assassination. Henry the 3d, a weak and worthless prince, fell by the hand of lawless vio- lence, unwept ; while Henry the 4th, perhaps the noblest prince that ever sat on the French throne, was mourned by the whole nation. But the assassin was a tanatical ad- venturer, from whose mind reason was partially dethron- ed, and who, when he had accomplished tlie deed, stood up with the boldness of a hero and confessed the crime. Yet this has hitherto stood out as perhaps the most prom- inent instance where a good and wise Ruler has fallen by this inhuman crime. But even this furnishes no par- allel to that which brings us before God, as suppliants, to-da3^ The conspirators, who plotted this most diaboli- cal crime, and the assassin who carried it into execution, had neither the apology of insanity nor the manliness of the maniac. They constitute but a part and parcel of the gigantic conspiracy against the Nation's life, and are animated with the heroism of cowards. They have made themselves pre-eminent in infamy, leaving all their confreres in sin so tar behind, that no parallel will ever be found, and their names will go down to posteiity as the synonym of all that is horrid and Satanic in human action. Indeed it may be doubted whether the human mind in its most depraved state is capable of conceiving even of a more damnable crime against humanity, and 15 certainly humanity could under no possible circumstan- ces suffer a more frightful outrage. We stand aghast at the insane madness and tiendishness of the act — unparalleled in infamy, it is unequalled in folly. If the evil genius of treason had been inspired by the very Prince of liars and deceivers, it could not have perpetrated a more suicidal act. It has stricken down at a blow the only man who could or would have lightened the retribution that awaits the high handed transgressors of rebellion. It has not only made treason tenfold more odious, but it has pla- ced the least expression of sympathy with the rebellion at a perilous discount. With the exception of a few silly people, too few to be of cou>equence, too silly to com- mand any respect, it has united the whole North in one common burst of indignation and sorrow, irrespective of all party lines, and at the same time evoked such an ex- pression of sympathy for the existing Administration as to make it stronger than at any period during the last four years. Was there ever such a crime perpetrated with so little motive, nay in the face of such strong mo- tives 1 Has the old serpent lost his cunning 1 Has trea- son bereft its minions of all thought and consideration ? But while over this gigantic crime which must to the latest generation disgrace the annals of our country, we are sad to-day — sad that such a concentration of wick- edness could by any means find existence under the shad- ow of our free institutions and in the light of our Amer- ican Christianity : most of all is the joy of our heart ceased because the hand of the assassin has torn from us our good much loved President. We have been called in the Providence of God, since we took our place among the nations of the earth to mourn the loss by death of two acting Presidents. They passed away from their high places of honor and trust, with quiet sorrow to 16 the house appointed for all living. No such tumultuous sorrow has ever before agitated the Nation's heart. The respect paid to the honored dead has been formal, mark- ed by little emotion ; but now the very fountains of sorrow are broken up. The love