% £of")f I- E 457 .8 4 .T16 m Copy 4 EULOGY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Sixteenth President of tiis United States, YRONOUNCED BY RUFUS I>. TAPLEY, ESQ., APEIL 19, 1865, AT SACO, MAINE, INCLUDING THE LEPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN OF SACO CONSEQUENT UPON HIS DEATH. v >:-s§33<=^ b v( BIDDEFORD : PRINTED AT THE UNION AND JOURNAL OFFICE. 1865. «3 4 8 10 1942 *1 ■^^^ R E T j O R T PROCEEDINGS. Committee Rooms, ?own Hall, ) Saco, April :20th, 1865. { RcFcre P. 1'ai-i.ky, Esq., Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements, it was TOtod that we tender you our thanks for the Eology pronounced by you up- on the late Presidentof the United .States, and, in accordance with another ad a general desire of tho citizen* o : • have the same pub- lished in pamphlet form for preservation and reference hereafter by the community, we request, ii convenient and agreeable to yourself , a copy of the - ime lor publication. Very Respect fully, Voui Servants, JAMES M. DBBRING, Chaikman Oi TBI Cov. 01 Abbakokmknm. Saco, April 20, 1865. pyol the earn forpubl ition, trusting the cir- o under which thej • red some apology for theii imperfeel I ition. \ ours, with rosi • I . RUFUS P. lAl'LKY. e dm mitti I Ira Friday, the 14th day of April, 1865, at thirty minutes past 10 o'clock P. M., Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth Presi- dent of the United States, was assassinated and shot by J. Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre, in the city of Washington. He survived the act until the next day, April 15th, and died at 7 o'clock 22 minutes A. M. An attempt was made to as- sassinate William H. Seward, Secretary of State, at the same moment of time, but failed. Mr. Seward was dangerously wounded by the assassin, and is now recovering. Upon the receipt of this awful intelligence, which was communicated by telegraph immediately upon his decease, the citizens of Saco assembled at the Town Hall and resolved to close their places of business, and hold a public meeting at 3 o'clock P. M. of the same day, and immediately report- ed an organization by the choice of officers, as follows: PRESIDENT. r> a. isr i if, i^ s m ith, j i- . VICE PRESIDENTS, H, TEMPLE, JACOB MARSTON, ABEL I1ERSEY, DAVID FERNALD, JOSEPH STEVENS, JOSHUA MOODY, NATHANIEL DEERING. MOSES EMERY, GEORGE SCAMMAN, JAMES M. DEERING, PHILIP EASTMAN, MOSES LOWELL, JOSEPH HOBSOV I. H. FOSS, SECRETARIES, CHAS. 8. PATTEN, STEPHEN F. SHAW. At :J o'clock P. M. the ball, draped with the insignia of mourning, was crowded to its utmost capacity with a great mourning assembly. The meeting was called to order by Hutu- P. Tapley, Esq., who reported the list of officers. The Chairman of the meeting announced the exercises, which took place as follows : Prayer, by Rev. J. T. G. Nichols. Singing, by Select Choir. Reading of Scriptures, by Rev. S. J. Evans. Reading of Resolutions, and remarks, by R. P. Tapley, Esq. Remarks, by Rev. J. Windsor, A. F. Chisholm, Esq., Rev. O. T. Moulton, Rev. Benj. Wheeler, Rev. E. Mi rtin, of Saco, and Rev. John Stevens of Bid- deford. Singing, by the Choir. Benediction, by Rev. J. H. Windsor. Th> Resolutions presented by Mr. Tapley, Chairman of the Committee <>n Res Ives, were as follows: RESOLUTIONS. 1st. Resolved, That in the sudden and melancholy death of the Chief ;iatruto 'it' this nati a, the country has lost a Patriot, and Freedom and Liberty an > nswen • r. 2d. Resolved, That we renew our thanks to Almighty God that while tlh: nation mourns as lore, behind its cloude of tears we distinctly r gmize tin' glistening e\ • ■( faith in the success of our cause, and the rem wed determination "i the people to preserve and maintain tins glorious inheritance, Phal tuition mourns it in not disheartened, hut will trust in tin- same All Wi»e ruler ol events to aid u< in the complete UHiation "i the ^1 < . and Bhall truly be the Ban- ner of Liberty. On Monday fche 17tb, it was announced by the acting Sec- retary of State, that the funeral services of the late Presi- dent of the United States, would take place at 12 o'clock M. on Wednesday. April 19th, A. D. 18(>5, at Washington, D. C. and recommended a proper observance of the occa- sion throughout the country. The citizens of the town immediately assembled, and chose a committee of arrangements to make preparations for a suitable observance of the occasion. The Committee consisted of James M. Peering, Chairman. Rufus P. Tapley, Joseph Hobson, Joseph Hardy, F. L. Harmon, 0. B. Chadbourne, Ohadtah Durgin, F. 0. Boothby, Cornelius Sweetser. N. T. Boothby, Tracy Hewes, John Gains, S. P. Shaw, Jason W. Beatty, George Parcher. This Committee subsequently reported the following Or- der of ExercFs'es, and officers of the day : OSDEfc 0KT EXSECXSES. Government, State, and Municipal Officers of the Town, and Citizens generally, will meet at Town Hall, at precisely half past twelve o'clock, when the exercises at the Hall will commence. 1. Voluntary by the Choir. 2. Prayer by Rev. Mr. Windsor. 3. Reading of Scripture by Rev. Mr. Nichols. ■!. Singing by the Choir; Hymn by Rev. Mr. Wheeler. 5. A procession will then be formed and proceed to Fac- tory Island, where R. P. Tapley, Esq., will pro- nounce a Eulogy. G. Prayer by Rev. Mr. Moulton. 10 7. Doxology. Selections by Bev. Mr. Evans ; the au- dience to join in singing. B. Benediction by Rev. Mr. Martin. ornc£B.s or the dax. JOSEPH HOB90N, Pmbidsht. VICE PRESIDENTS. Hannaniafa Temple, George Scamman, Jacob Marston, Abraham Cutter, David Fernald, Abel 1 1 > • i -« y , James Littlefield, Eld. John Boothby, Nathaniel Fernald, Theodore Tripp, Oliver Freeman, Nathaniel Deering. Daniel Smith, Jr. James Beatty, Samuel V. Coring, Samuel Storer, William Cutts, Elias Parcher, Nathan Hopkinson, Christopher Shackford, Charles C. Sawyer, Joseph Stevens. 1 BKCBET ABIES. I!. L Bowers, R. ( -«- Dennett, Charles M. Littlefield. CHIEF HABSHAL, Qwen B. Chadbourne. Stephen F. Shaw and Ira II. Fobs were appointed Aids by l.\ the Chief Marshal, with a sufficient number oi Assistants. The i dci ssion was directed by the Marshal to move at one o'clock in the following order : < ivalcade, under the direction of Col. B. J. March. Paul's Comet Band. Aid. Cbiep Mabsbal. Aid. 11 Municipal Officers of the Town ; Government and State Officers ; Officers of the Day ; Clergymen, and other Citizens of the Town. Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Engine Companies. Schools, under the charge of their respective Teachers. Citizens generally. EOTTE 0£ F&OC£8SX029r. Prom Town Hall up School to High street ; up High to Beach street ; up Beach to Main street ; down Main street to the stand on Factory Island, where the Eulogy will be pronounced and the other exer- cises continued as in the order announced. The procession was very large and preceded by a caval- cade of one hundred horses, and moved in the order and over the route indicated to the stand, where a vast concourse of people were assembled. The number of persons present exceeded 5,000. The de- livery of the Eulogy occupied forty-five minutes, during which time hardly a foot in the vast throng was moved. The Eulogy was pronounced from a stand erected near the Eastern Express Office, which was appropriately draped in mourning, and the Flag of the country extending over the entire back ground, forming at once a grand and solemn picture. Mr. Tapley's voice was clear, the delivery solemn and impressive ; a strong wind was blowing at the time, yet the audience heard him distinctly in all parts of the vast as- sembly. 12 At the solicitation of many citizens, the manuscript has been obtained, and is published with this report. All the places of business were closed, and draped in mourni ig, \\ i t li most of the dwelling-houses in the village. The services were very impressive and proceeded unin- terruptedly, as indicated in the arrangements. The I ■ | ili of April. 1865, will be- remembered long in "ho United States of America. ( W B ium ma — — — — - r» «Jwyi T l w \ B— -^^'2'^ E U L G Y ABRAHAM LINCOLN x^ ♦ afE » !M^ — \ I ' \ EULOGY. "Abraham *§inz#\K, SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 8TATES: I5».«rn .!*&-!'.:m, 1609 ; DlKD APRIL 1'tii, I6C6." Thus is marked the frail enclosure of all that is mortal of a great and good num. Kings and Emperors, Princes and Potentates, Heroes and Presidents have gone before, and kingdoms, empires and nations have wept, hut not as our nation weeps to-day. Mis great goodness and untimely end have struck with awful, terrible and unmeasurabie sadness the deepest wells of emotion and the very foundations of human sympathy. When, after a long life of usefulness, a Patriot, a Hero or a President shakes off his earthly habiliments and is gath. ored, full of years and honors, as the rip mud sheaf is gath- ered, to the home of the just and good, we drop the silent, tear of affection and re3pect, and regarding the end as an obedience to the stern law that from dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return, it leaves no sadness oi' heart and in- exorable grief. But when one in whom Ave have confided in hours of great trouble, one on whom we have been accus- tomed to look as the peculiar agent under God to deliver us from our dangers and save us from a national dismember- ment, one whose kindness exceeded all others, is struck down in the midst of his usefulness, in cold-blooded murder by the hands of those he tenderly cared for, the deep fountains of the heart are so moved that we cannot be comforted, and it; each returning day brings with it the deep-drawn, heavy Bigh oi' unutterable sorrow. Words are p iwerless to speak our l : the tongue is too feeble to express our sor- row, and time with us too short to efface the remembrance of this hour. When, Mr. President, you and I shall have paid the last debt of nature, and hid adien to earthly ambi- tions and transitory scenes, these little children will remem- ber the hour, and Badly rehearse to their children the cruel end of the loved, kind, wise and good Lincoln, and with them, as with us, the high, enviable position of President of a great people and nation, will sink into utter insignificance when compared with the great goodness of his heart, his love of justice covered all over with mercy, and his unap- proachable int< grity. Since God in his all-wise <' father's name was Thomas Lincoln and his grandfather's name was Abraham. They were burn in Virginia, but moved into Kentucky in L780. Here Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President, lived until 1816, when he removed to Spencer County, Indi- ana, Abraham being then about seven years of age. Their ihold goods and his tools wero curried in u flat-boat made father, assisted bj himself, young as be then was. Their jourw y occupied some seven days through an "an:!' i ttry ; their restinj at night b< ing a 17 blanket spread upon the ground. Immediately after arriv- ing at the place selected for their residence, they built a log cabin Having only one room. The loft was young Abra- ham's room, and was approached by a ladder. During the year that followed, Abraham gave such attention as he could to reading and spelling. His mother could read, but his father could not. During the next year his mother died, which was a sad event for the young President. He had been a dutiful son and she a devoted mother, and it is said that to her may be traced many of those remarkable traits and characteristics for which he was distinguished in after life. During this year he learned to write, so that at the end of the year he was able to write a letter. He was now about ten years of age. During the next year a small school was opened in his neighborhood, and he attended upon this in all about six months, and this comprised all his public in- structions at schools. He, however, embraced every op- portunity to add to his limited education. Until he was nineteen years of age he was constantly engaged in laboring in the woods. At this time in life he made a trip to New Orleans in a flat boat, at a pay of $10 per month. In 1830. being thon twenty-one y cm r.< of age, he moved with his fa- tner to Macon County in the State of Illinois. Here they erected another log cabin and enclosed a lot of land with rails split, out by himself. The following spring he left home to seek his fortune among strangers, and went westward into Menard Count v, and after working on a farm about a year he took another trip to New Orleans in the employ of a trader, who was so well pleased with his services that he employed him to take charge of his mill and store, and in this position it was he acquired the title of "Honest Abe." In the year following he served some months in the Black Hawk war as a captain of infantry. In 18o4 something more 2^SZMnU£Sat&BBKBSXUBf££J&Z^J 1> than a y.-ar after his return from the campaign, he was elect- ed a member of tin- Legislature ami was again re-elected in L836, l v ;8 and 18-10. While attending the proceedings of the first Bession of the Legislature, he determined to be- come a lawyer, and being placed in the possession of the accessary books, through the kindness of the Hon. John T. Stuart, applied himseli to study and in L836, was admitted to practice. In April 1^.57. he removed to Springfield and became a partner ol Mr. Stuart. In that pursuit he won a position and reputation at the Illinois bar. second to none. His mind was eminently Legal. As an advocate he was clear, COgenl and logical. In 1846 he was elected to Congress, and during his term of office he exhibited those remarkable traits of character, and debating powers which distinguished him in later years. After the expiration of his term of office he devoted him- self almost exclusively to the practice of Jaw until 1854, when he again entered the political arena ; and from that time until his election as President he was frequently before the public in the discussion of public matter.-, the most noted ol' which i> the joint debates with Senator Douglas in L858. Thus much of his history it may be proper here to men- tion that we may ha\e some view of the early incidents in his history, and learn in what school he was taught those lesson- of wisdom and virtue without which no man can be -real. Abraham Lincoln was a self-made man. as the term is sometimes used, which means and in reality is, he was a man tcrling qualities ol heart and unusual intellectual pow- ers. Beared in the wilderness, the companion of poverty, and lai r< moved from the educational privileges enjoyed b\ real mass ol his constituency lie rose to the highest civil and political position given to man to occupy in this w orld. , — ,...., ,i 19 He became the President of a great Republic, in the hour of its greatest peril. A Republican government had been before regarded as a an experiment. He was called to direct those mighty and wonderful events which should proclaim to all the world pre- sent and future that it was a fact. The fathers had died hoping for its perpetuity, but fearing that in its comprom- ised construction the seeds of its own dissolution were sown. Washington warned his children of the danger, and Jeffer- son trembled in view of the justice of God. An unexampled prosperity for more than three quarters of a century had raised us from a few feeble colonies to a powerful nation of thirty millions of people ; with inexhaus- table resources at home, and a ready respect abroad, our flag floated upon every sea and ocean, acknowledging none as its superior; yielding justice to all, we were enabled to exact it in return. While thus our relations abroad were peaceful and harmonious, at home the two antagonisms of our construction were slowly but inevitably approaching the comflict for mastery. Webster, Clay, and the great men of the day, endeavored to avert it, by new compromises and new guarantees to the weaker element; these served only to postpone for a brief hour, as it were, the crisis ; we could not endure ''half slave, and half free." The voice of the people expressed four years before the election of Mr. Lin- coln, plainly indicated the predominate spirit of the country, and the South learned that slaver} r must die or live alone. It was not the hand-maid of Liberty. With the choice between liberty with union, and slavery with disunion, they chose the latter, and during the four years preceding the election of Mr. Lincoln, the most assiduous, stealthy and perfidious efforts were made to divide the coun- try and prepare the foundations of a new government in the United States, based upon Am°,riecLii slavery: (for all the civ- i i i i ii nil ii ii ii i 111 in i 111 ii i m i m i m i i — mi Mi nn mm 20 ilized nations of the earth had forbade the enslavement and traffic in the natives of Africa.) The army and navy had been gathered to their nses, and the federal government was stripped ot all its power except its inherent virtues. With treason stalking forth all over the land, and made magnificent by its wondrous proportion and boldness, with Statu after State renouncing their allegiance to the Consti- tution and the laws of their country, without army, navy or treasury Mr. Lincoln succeeded a corrupt, traitorous admin- istration, and an imbecile, it" not worse, President. Truly such a position needed more than a Washington, and when he left his quiet home to assume the arduous du- ties to which he had been elected, well does he say : -1 feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine ;iid which sustained Washington, and in the same Almighty Bei I place my reliance foT support." To meet the great emergencies of such an hour, not only great administrative abilities were required, but greal sagac- ity in the selection of moans and the time and the manner of execution. The civil and the military must be blended togother, an army and a navy created, and a treasury 'ill d. Ilow well he fulfilled the great trusts committed to him, and performed the Herculean task imposed upon him, the his- torj of the past lour years will over attest, and the great unanimity of bis re-election will evidence the appreciation ol an intelligent people of his fitness for this periloi * p< riod in our country's history. [Je needs do other eulogy. No brighter paged can be written for him than the record ol his deed-, and as untime- ly as his death a halo of glor) surrounds him excelling in ..:: and goodness an) since the day of the father ol' li! country. I'»\ the side of Washington will his name go down to tin' I ' i 'ions of men. and unborn millions >. . *....- . 1, .».. . . SBEBi 21 of every nationality shall read his name and deeds but to bless him. He was a man of great intellectual power, and in this par- ticular history and the future alone will do him justice. He lived at a time when the events of centuries were crowded into days. The great, momentous and novel occurrences of the time absorb, in their comet-like coursa, every thing of a less attractive nature. A d iv mikes a horn and an hour unmakes him. The present cannot truly measure them. The impartial historian, writing their lives after the storm shall have pissed, will chronologically present their acts and deeds, and we shall read and wonder that passion, zeal and the all-absorbing events of the da}* blinded us to their great and good qualities of heart and mind. The President was placed at the head of the government in a most remarkable period of its history. The whole civ- ilized world looked on with wonder and awe, as well as in- terest. The performance of his duties required, and it re- ceived, an intellectual power truly wonderful. It was not manifested in great efforts and results in one given direction and upon one given subject, but he did many things well, rather titan a few, in an extraordinary manner. Ifis state papers were very numerous. lie wrote more than any other President, and he wrote them all well. The critic, even, will pronounce them all good. They embraced a vast variety of subjects, and required to be fitted to the times and circumstances. Their wonderful qualities were not in form and dress, but in their remarkable adaptation in tone, tune and substance to the exigencies of the occasion ; and it is one of the grandest evidences of his remarkable mind, that were we to tread anew the path of the past, with the light of all its experience, the wisest men of to-day could not change for the better those acts of his done at the hour of their call. ™sT~n?r ; 22 While hi* sp • ■ ;li •> and addresses are not clothed with the !i-- .in 1 dictioD of Everett's writings,and do not Iih -ess upon them of the profound expression of ii til Ianguag3 of a Webster, the conclusive, irresist- iY • priof of the masterly mind which conceived and exe- cul ! them, lies in the facl that they were universally the things rightly said in the righl time. To thus place ;,!!;,- !i in the present under such extraordinary circumstan- equired the greatest wisdom, sagacity, prudence and firmness. Su :h results flow nut from the ordinary mind. To scan the mighty field of events passing and opening to the view, ami quickly prescribe and administer the antidote, without i 1 :- light of precedent, calls into exercise those powers of mind and qualities of hearl possessed only by the wonderful in in rarely found i i ages of existence. Scan the world, sele -t thegreatesl -talesmen and scholars of the old ami new world, and tell mi-, with the light even of y t where is the man who could have better executed the trusts committed to him than he whose untimely death we mourn. The record of his acts and the results of his deeds will constitute an everlasting monumenl of his greatness. President Lincoln was ever attached to the true principles of a Tree government. His earliesl public acts and speeches ■.i.. greal promise, asa defender of tree institutions. At no time or place was he ever found the defender or apolo- ^•i>t of oppression or tyranny in any form. His speeches in the memorable campaign of 1858 show how well he rstood those principles, and how ably he could defend Every act and ever} purpose of his life was to j 'eld to the greal end of the " permanency of a free eminent." II loved his country sincerely, and while nol indifferenl thly honors and political preferment, he TT * nr ,s'i ir. jii.m. 'W i iT never sought tliem at the sacrifice of principle. With a scrupulous regard for the constitutional rights of States and individuals, lie watched with jealous care any encroachments upon the libeities of the people. Believing that the framers of the Constitution had left the institution of slavery "in a course of ultimate extinction," he regarded the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the attending decision of the Supreme Court in the Drcd Scott case as acts designed to change that policy, and he gave nil the powers of his mind to exhibit the great injustice of the one and the fallacy of the other, with a success that has placed him high in the rank of logical debaters. A distinguished scholar and critic, speaking of him in one of those debates, says: Mr. Lincoln has a rich, silvery voice, enunciates with great distinctness, and has a free command of language : for about forty minutes he spoke with a power that we have seldom heard equalled. There was a grandeur in his thoughts, a comprehensiveness in his arguments and a binding force in his conclusions which were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng was silent as death ; every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him serious attention. He was the tall man eloquent ; his countenance glowed with animation, and his eye glistened with an intelligence that made it lus- trous. He was no longer awkward and ungainly: but bold, graceful and commanding. 1 heard him speak but once, and that was in the delivery of his first inaugural address, and therefore prefer to give the opinion and description of a person who had heard him many times. He was proverbially an honest man; " the noblest work of God." He was so regarded by men of all parties. After four years of administration, with almost as many millions of money expended as ever thousands before, he is again be- fore the people for re-election, with no intimation or breath of suspicion made, or entertained against his integrity of purpose and act, by his most violent oprosers. Subjected to ill- closest scrutiny, and most violent partisan warfare, travelling difficult paths, and surrounded with almost insur- mountable difficulties, without the light of any precedent, by his unswerving integrity and unyielding attachment to the right, he laid off his armor as pure and unspotted as when he put it on. II.- was kind to a fault. No act <>l' his life from his earli- est infancy, to the close of his earthly existence, forms the exception. His magnanimous soul disdained a mean thing, and his kindness of heart forbade a knowing wrong. Mr. Douglas in his first reply, said of him. ''I take ;. pleasure in saying, that 1 have known personally and inti- mately, for about a quarter of a century, the worthy gentle- man who has I n nominated formy place, and I will say, I regard him a- n kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman, a good citizen, and an honorable opponent, and whatever issue I may have with him, will be one of principles, and not involv- ing personalil : is." This peculiar trail of Ins character, i-. perhaps, more prom- inent than any other. His very nature repelled evervl harsh and ungenerous. II ■ could not helieve in a t the of the treason and rebellion existing in the country. II. • want- ed to regard every man honest, and sec in every man a friend ; and although lig - i to reach the ca] itol of his country by ;i devious pat I . to avoid assassinate >n, in closing his in m j. u- ral he breathes forth the same kindly spirit, and says : I am loth to ;loso. We are raol em nies, but friends. We not be en mies. Though passi >n may have strained, il must not break our bonds ofaffecti >n. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from even I ittfe-field, and patriot i, to even living heart and hearth stone all over the I land, will yet swell the eh. him of the Union, when again touched, as they surely w ill be, b\ the better angels of . in' n.i! iir>\ rariBiJ a— .. v. < in r TTBTP S3 25 He could not realize that there existed among the people of this country, that reckless disregard of the feelings of common humanity, that would starve the brave soldier of an opposing army while their prisoners of war, until the indu- bitable evidence of this great outrage upon the laws of na- tions, nature and humanity, had been exhibited to him ; and then, when the highest military officer of a traitorous army, with all his subordinates and soldiers, has been compelled to submit to the supreme force of law and order, administered by our brave soldiers, with every incentive to retaliate and punish, the same kindly, christian spirit, dictates the terms of a surrender, which will ever be marked in the annals of war, as of extraordinary magnanimity. Returning from the extraordinary exhibition of magnanimi- ty, to his home, he attends a place of public amusement, not to gratify his own pleasure, but that he might not be the instrument of disappointment to others, and there, while confiding in the same goodness of heart in others which characterized him, he was cruelly murdered. Truth is, in- deed, stranger than fiction. It is this foul crime, this ingratitude for kindness shown, that raises in the heart of man something beyond sorrow, and will require the exercise of those kindly feelings which so distinguished him, to repress. The*se qualities of his heart, prompted him to the consum- mation of the crowning act of his life — the emancipation of an enslaved people. Four millions of people in bondage, crying out to be de- livered from their oppressors, grated harshly upon his ears, and his heart, quickened by the generous impulses of his nature, sought in every legitimate way their amelioration. By careful and intuitive steps, the great public mind was educated, not only to the justice, but the necessity, of the emancipation of that oppressed people, and if no other act 26 or deed marked his name, this alone, would crown it in the 3 di' history with more endearing tame, than bas ever vrt been a< corded to hero or pbilanthropisi in any It v. a to him to strike the fetters from millions of his enslaved country men. It was given fco him to wipe out blot od our nation's otherwise glorious record. He, with a patriot's hand, and a christian's heart, with he- roic courage, seized the pen and wrote, 'Be free, ye millions of bondmen." While the people stood fearing and doubt- ing, he did it. Then the storm came from the enemies oi ; iv : the winds beat; and the rain of invective denuncia- tion fell in torrents, but the house did uot tall, for it was buill upon the eternal rock of justice. Let everlasting thanks be given to Almighty God that he made one so worthy. His instrument to break the rod of the oppressor; that lie gave him courage when others (cared: that He strengthened hiin when others tainted. From the hour of that proclamation, American Slavery lead, and the United States a tree go^ ernment, the dec- imation of independence an accomplished fact, and the con- st it nt i 1 1 1 1 a charter of Liberty . In rude and simple phrase, millions of thanksgivings and praises to his name and memory have ascended from that oppressed people, and will continue to rise so long as histo- ry shall record then- oppression and the name of their deliv erer. In the rude huts, in the rice swamps, and on the held of the ver) interior of the oppressors' country, as if bj some lighl from heaven, or by some angel communication, I >f toil, have discovered their deliverer, and abovi oami i and cherish his. I Ee was made to open to them the brighl and glorious day >>l' freedom: to open the window- oi the -oul. and lei in the lighl of intelligence to hundreds oi thousands: we can almost hear the ten thousand lisping the Brsi rudiments of lighl and in- 27 telligence in the hundreds of freedmen's schools ; not the little one alone ; not the young alone ; but the aged and hoary are there too, drinking in the very light of heaven it- self. What more glorious act could man do ! How sur- round his brow with a brighter halo ! That great act must live long in history. The future alone will open to view its great and glorious results. The pre- sent cannot appreciate it. He did it; again, I say it was Ms act, his measure and Ids proclamation. Cabinet ministers, Senators, Representatives and Governors, hesitated, doubt- ed, and stood afar off, fearing ; but he, armed with the pan- oply of confidence in the right, willing to take the responsi- bility, proclaimed freedom to enslaved millions. 'Tis of such we mourn to-day. Let his name be cherished in our heart of hearts. Let his character and fame be de- fended whenever and wherever assailed ; and let us, upon whom is cast the duty of finishing up the great work begun, enter anew upon it with the same devotion that character- ized him. He was allowed to look over upon the land redeemed from the blight of slavery, it may be permitted to us to enter and enjoy. In so doing never, never let us forget to give thanks to the Ruler of all nations, for his signal manifestations in our behalf in the hour of peril ; and may He so dispose the minds of those who have rebelled against the best govern- ment among men, that they may penitently and cheerfully return to their allegiance, and this nation become again one in form, and one in spirit. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 027 675 A LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 11 II II 012 027 675 ft %