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 ■ 
 
 MEMORIAL SERMONS. 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 I 
 ) 
 
 SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION OE THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN B. WEBB, 
 
 PASTOR OF SHAWMUT CHURCH, BOSTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill. 
 18G5. 
 

 
Boston, April 19, 1800. 
 Rev. E. B. Webb. 
 
 Dear Sir — 
 
 The undersigned beg leave to ask a copy of each of the discourses 
 delivered by you in the Shawmut Church on the mornings of the 9th, 13th, and 10th 
 inst., for the press. 
 
 Approving the sentiments which they contain, and believing them adapted to per- 
 petuate the memory of those momentous events which followed in such rapid succes- 
 sion, and which gave to a great nation so much joy and such intense sorrow, we hope 
 you will not deny our request. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 L. R. SHELDON, 
 DANIEL HARWOOD, 
 OSBORNE HOWES, 
 CHARLES HUTCHINGS, 
 C. A. PUTNAM, 
 MOSES W. RICHARDSON, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Boston, April 20, 1805. 
 Gentlemen,— 
 
 The sermons for which you so kindly ask are very humble and hasty 
 efforts; but, indorsed by a large and intelligent congregation of citizens, they may 
 help to shape the popular opinion, aud to record the fearful struggle between loyalty 
 and treason, and also the sudden transition from one extreme of unutterable feeling 
 to another, through which we have passed in these times which have no parallel in 
 national history. They are, therefore, submitted to your disposal. 
 With ever-increasing aifection, 
 
 I am faithfully your pastor, 
 
 E. B. WEBB. 
 
 To I.- i;. Sheldon, M. i>., Daniel Harwood, Osborne Howes, 
 
 Charles Hutchings, c. a. Putnam, Moses W. Richardson, Esqrs., 
 
 Committee. 
 
THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 " The Lord is ray strength and song, and he is become my salvation : he is my God, 
 and I will prepare him a habitation; my fathers' God, and I will exalt him." — 
 Exodus xv. 2. 
 
 The past has been a week of great joy. Not one 
 city, not one State, but the whole loyal North, from 
 Maine to California, has been jubilant. Not waiting 
 for official requisitions, the people — spontaneously, 
 unitedly, universally — have given thanks to Gocl in 
 prayer, have united in songs of thanksgiving, have 
 thrown their flags and streamers to the wmds, have 
 made their houses from attic to cellar luminous with 
 expressions of gladness ; and at the call of authority, 
 citizens have assembled with bands of music, amid 
 the peal of cannon, with waving banners, in vast 
 crowds, to congratulate each other, and give utterance 
 to the general feeling of exultation. 
 
 And manifestly this has not been a mechanical 
 sell-excitation: men have been moved ; hearts have 
 been oppressed with feelings that words could not 
 utter; and the shouts of living, sympathetic masses 
 have been called for, and Te Dennis with full orchestra, 
 
to express even partially what every one has felt. We 
 have rejoiced before, but then with fear and dark 
 forebodings; now with no vague, oppressive appre- 
 hensions, with no reservations, but with full and deep 
 respiration, and unclouded hope. Men feel that the 
 foundations are sure, that the instincts of a loyal 
 people are right, that justice lives, that God reigns. 
 
 And what is the occasion of all this gladness and 
 congratulation ? Just that which called forth the Song 
 of Moses from which our text is taken : " Thy right 
 hand, Lord, is become glorious in power : thy right 
 hand, Lor.cl, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 
 
 A little more than a year ago, a modest, reticent, 
 but able and magnanimous commander was called to 
 Washington, and made commander-in-chief of all our 
 armies. Up to that time, the strength of the Re- 
 bellion had been once or twice checked, but never 
 humbled. The leader of those rebel legions had 
 never met his master. He was still abroad, free, and 
 able to move when and where he pleased. When 
 he chose, he fortified and lay behind his works ; when 
 he chose, he invested the capital or invaded the 
 loyal States. His power was unbroken, his spirit 
 undaunted, his limbs unfettered. 
 
 With a quiet determination, our new commander 
 said that General Lee must be controlled, his army 
 must be conquered. The strength of the Rebellion 
 is here. Operations aggressive and successful 
 
elsewhere .ire worthless while the heart of the 
 Confederacy is untouched. Quietly but efficiently, 
 as the forces in Nature accomplish their end, 
 General Grant set himself to his unmatched and 
 terrible work. The sight is sublime, as, with his 
 carpet bag in his hand, and a single attendant at 
 his side, he crossed the Potomac to undertake and 
 execute his masterful design. On the first secular 
 day of May, 1864, he crossed the Rapidan to find 
 and fight the enemy, — the enemy of the Re- 
 public and the enemy of mankind. What work 
 followed, for days and nights and weeks and 
 months, in the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, and all 
 the way dowm to Cold Harbor, across the Pamun- 
 key, and finally across the James, and to the en- 
 virons of Richmond and Petersburg, you all know. 
 How many brave fellows found a bloody grave ; 
 how many thousands found the hospitals only to 
 sleep there their final sleep ; how many more 
 thousands found themselves sent home with hon- 
 orable wounds, — will be known wherever history 
 is read. Such fighting, so determined, prolonged, 
 and persistent ; such courage ; such fortitude ; such 
 marching ; such endurance of heat and wet, inces- 
 sant fatigues and bloody battles, — the world never 
 saw. 
 
 And how much we owe to that tenacity of pur- 
 pose which never let go its hold, and never was 
 
8 
 
 diverted from its aim, which fought till the blood 
 stood in pools on the ground, and never failed to 
 follow up an advantage, — is not known yet, as we 
 believe. It evinces the true greatness of the Lieu- 
 tenant-general, to sit there before Petersburg in grim 
 patience, planning brilliant campaigns for popular 
 leaders, and praising them with shotted salutes for 
 their splendid execution ; doing nothing himself that 
 the world can see or praise or photograph. There 
 is something of moral heroism, as well as of intellec- 
 tual greatness, in the man who thus silently holds 
 the organized military strength of the Rebellion 
 with the powerful grasp of one hand, and with the 
 other points out what can be done in the Valley of 
 the Shenandoah, and at Nashville, and along the 
 Atlantic coast, and through the central and vital 
 parts of the Confederacy. 
 
 After a council of war, on Monday night, March 27, 
 1865, at which were present men whose names will 
 head new chapters in history, — Lincoln, Grant, Sher- 
 man, and others, — the great army of the Lieutenant- 
 general began to move, under his immediate super- 
 vision. The solution of the mighty problem which 
 has engrossed not only the thoughts and energies of 
 this nation, but has interested and influenced to a 
 great extent the nations of the whole earth, is about 
 to be solved. A bold, stupendous plan is just unfold- 
 
ing its ultimate design. For five long, weary days. 
 marching through dense forests, floundering through 
 swamps, fording streams, drenched with rain, exhaust- 
 ed in the mud. catching a few moments' sleep in the 
 ranks, or upon the cold spongy ground, while waiting 
 for orders to move, — for five weary, memorable days 
 the uncertain struggle has raged. Back and forth 
 over the same ground the veteran combatants, horse 
 and infantry, swayed and surged. Friday closed 
 gloomily for the loyal cause. The rebel leaders had 
 become fully aware of the disposition of our forces, 
 and of their own immediate peril. And, putting forth 
 all their long-enduring, disciplined strength, our 
 cavalry was driven back; our infantry was repulsed ; 
 our veterans of the fifth corps, many of them, were 
 killed, wounded, captured. But, as if helped by 
 the inspiration of the Almighty, and confident that 
 the hour and the end were nigh, our lines re- 
 formed, and, becoming steady, once more moved 
 forward, like a good ship that feels her helm again 
 after the staggering shock of some tremendous wave. 
 Craps are filled up, connections made; and feeling- 
 one another's strength, and the confident, steady 
 will of a present commander, the aspect of the 
 whole field is gradually changed. An unseen hand 
 ministers courage to fainting hearts. Cheers break 
 out in well-known accents along the Union lines. 
 The crisis is passed. Forward, forward! and wrong 
 
10 
 
 long defiant, cowers before the right. Bebellion 
 acknowledges its master. 
 
 And now what means this joy of the loyal people, 
 this exultation of loyal hearts seeking expression 
 through every possible symbol of gladness and con- 
 gratulation ? 
 
 It means that the serpent, driven hissing and de- 
 fiant into her den, and kept there by a cordon of 
 fire, is making her escape with the whole slimy brood, 
 along a tortuous way, — the only one open to them, 
 — dodging and dipping their vile heads to avoid the 
 conqueror's uplifted heel. 
 
 It means that victory, complete and final victory, 
 crowns the loyal cause. It means that the fortifica- 
 tions and forts, and all the defences of the rebel 
 stronghold, are stormed and carried. It means that 
 the spirit and strength of Rebellion are at length sub- 
 dued and conquered. It means that the so-called 
 Confederate Government is a vagabond, without a 
 capital, without a home, without resources, without 
 revenues, without currency, without friends, and exe- 
 crated by all peoples under heaven. It means that 
 Lee, who was educated by the Government, as by a 
 munificent mother, at her best-endowed schools, and 
 in her best positions; who remained with General Scott 
 just long enough to learn unmistakably all the re- 
 sources and secrets and purposes of the Government ; 
 and who, for the last four years, has been using all 
 
11 
 
 that knowledge, and all his (.'ducat ion, and energy, 
 and military skill, that with perjured hand he might 
 plunge his sword into the bosom that nursed him, — 
 it means that Lee, the pet and pride of the Rebellion, 
 is foiled and vanquished at last. 
 
 The old mother has had too many sons to stand 
 between her and the weapons poised and aimed by 
 traitorous hands. Lee is Hying, a criminal, lie knows 
 not where, to escape a merited halter, he knows 
 not how; his army beaten, his braves captured, his 
 followers deserting. 
 
 It means that the Lieutenant-general and the loy- 
 al armies are master of the field, and master of the 
 Confederacy. It means that slavery, the one dark 
 cause of all our bitterness and bloodshed, is forever 
 dead. It means, no more massacres at Fort Pillow ; 
 no more Union soldiers in Libby Prison, nor starved, 
 emaciated, dying skeletons at Salisbury or Anderson- 
 ville, — names to be pronounced with righteous indig- 
 nation, and remembered with a shudder. It means, 
 no more threats on the floor of Congress, no more 
 tyranny of opinion, no more forced silence anywhere, 
 no more iniquitous compromises, and no more repeal 
 of righteous ones. It means that the old flag, which 
 was planted, in the resplendent morning of April 3, 
 ISC"), on the ramparts of Richmond, conquered and 
 captured by Liberty's thundering legions, shall float 
 the emblem of strength, freedom, and justice, over 
 
12 
 
 every capital and city and village and inhabitant of 
 our original domain. 
 
 It means that the war, the long terrible war that 
 has trampled down our harvests, and burdened our 
 industry, and desolated our homes, and bereaved our 
 hearts, and made delicate wives widows, and helpless 
 babes orphans, — this war for the overthrow of a 
 beneficent government is virtually ended. 
 
 It means that Republican Government, a Govern- 
 ment of the people and by the people, is no longer 
 a question and an experiment. It means that the 
 people have the right and the capacity to govern 
 themselves in peace and in war ; and, therefore, that 
 the Republic of the United States of America is a 
 government and a success. It means that our in- 
 stitutions, affording security and liberty and oppor- 
 tunity and education and religion to all men, are to 
 triumph. 
 
 Such is the occasion of our joy to-day ; and well 
 may we congratulate each other, and utter forth 
 praise, and take up the strains of ancient Israel, 
 " The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my de- 
 liverer ; by thee I have run through a troop, and by 
 my God have I leaped over a wall." Well may we 
 repeat after Moses and Miriam, taking up that sub- 
 lime strain which the shore echoed to the sea, and 
 the sea back to heaven again, " I will sing unto the 
 Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. . . . Thy right 
 
13 
 
 hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power, thy right 
 hand, Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 
 "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; 
 he breaketh the how, and cutteth the spear in sun- 
 der; he burnetii the chariot in the fire." "If it had 
 not heen the Lord who was on our side when men 
 rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up 
 quick when their wrath was kindled against us." 
 
 Let me not fail, my friends, to turn your thoughts 
 and your thanksgivings directly to God. As of old, 
 when the prophet warned the king, " Behold the peo- 
 ple shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as 
 a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of 
 the prey and drink the hlood of the slain ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " What hath God wrought!" so now, when 
 the prophecy has such a striking fulfilment, as our 
 forces, almost without rest, or food, or sleep, sn-<<j> 
 on, aroused, resistless, dominant Avt us repeat, " What 
 hath God wrought! what hath God wrought!" 
 
 Everybody admits, consciously or unconsciously. 
 that God's hand planted the nation. He prepared 
 the seed; he prepared the soil. He controlled the 
 forces of Nature, and the will, and the wickedness of 
 man, to the end that Plymouth Rock should be the 
 landing-place of our fathers, and Puritan principles 
 the foundation on which we should build ; and wheth- 
 er the people of this nut ion purpose and execute, or 
 purpose and fail, the building is going up. God 
 
14 
 
 knows how to make the wrath of man praise him. 
 The model of this nation has been determined by 
 the great Builder, and made certain by the princi- 
 ples which he has already wrought into it. Virgil, 
 the first of Roman poets, represents the goddess moth- 
 er of ./Eneas presenting him with a celestial armor 
 with which he is to triumph over his enemies, and 
 establish the foundations of imperial Rome. He ex- 
 amined it all with intense interest ; 
 
 " But most admires the shield's mysterious mould, 
 And Roman triumphs rising on the gold ; " 
 
 for on that shield, celestial hands had prefigured the 
 destiny, the course and glory, of Rome. 
 
 When a tabernacle was to be built in which the 
 Israelites should worship, Moses was to have control 
 of the work, as indeed he had of every thing which 
 that nation did ; and the peoj)le were voluntarily to 
 supply the materials; but it was to be built, the 
 whole and every part of it, according to a pattern 
 wrought in the Heavens. "After the pattern that was 
 showed thee in the mount, even so shall ye make it." 
 
 So for us, whether ive see it or not, before celestial 
 eyes, wrought by the divine hand, our history is writ- 
 ten in prophecy, — and not the grand outline merely, 
 but the perfect model and all the working plans of 
 the glorious structure completed ; and just according 
 to that pattern all the resistless forces of this nation 
 
15 
 
 are building. Who lias not felt again and again dur- 
 ing these last lour years that we were putt inu- 
 tile mighty efforts and sacrifices of the nation as 
 materials for our future into unseen hands: thai as 
 the two great armies, alternately aggressive and re- 
 ceding, ebbed and flowed back and forth between the 
 two capitals, an omnipotent hand held the scales, 
 and weighed the issue of battles? Was God present 
 with the people whose deeds the Old Testament re- 
 cords? Then he has been present with us. Was God 
 present when Israel and Amalek fought, and the bat- 
 tle fluctuated in the wilderness and Plain of Rephi- 
 dim, — present to give Joshua the victory? So has he 
 been present with our armies. Did he have respect 
 unto the rod of Moses as he lifted it high towards 
 heaven in prayer ? — and when his hands were weary, 
 and his voice faint, and the enemy prevailed, did he 
 acknowledge the renewed exertions and united sup- 
 plications of Aaron and Hur? Then has he been with 
 us. answering our prayers and succeeding our en- 
 deavors. Over all these battles, over all these hum- 
 ming messengers of death, over all these night as- 
 saults and defeats, over all these weary, exhausting 
 marches through swamps and forests and mountain- 
 gorges, God has presided, rifting results as huge stones 
 from the quarry, and hewing and fitting them as ma- 
 terials for the great structure which is rising. — rising 
 according to the pattern shown in the mount. 
 
1G 
 
 Let us thank him ! let us pitch our songs to reach 
 his ear ! let us praise Israel's God, our fathers' God, 
 and our God, for unexpected, thorough, complete, 
 and glorious victory ! " The Lord is my strength 
 and song ; and he is become my salvation." 
 
 Let us thank God for the gift and endowments of 
 the Lieutenantrgeneral ! Oh ! how easy it seems to 
 conquer now ; but let us call to mind the feeling 
 which blanched our cheeks, and bowed in the dust 
 our hearts, when, after long and confident expecta- 
 tion, in campaign after campaign, the only despatch 
 that stayed us up against immediate despair was the 
 poor mockery of our grief, " The Army of the Poto- 
 mac is safe ; " that is, safe in its retreat, safe in its in- 
 trenchments again, safe from immediate annihilation. 
 All unused to war as we were, soldiers could not be 
 made in a day, much less a commander. Besides, 
 any man who is physically sound — and most are till a 
 draft is ordered — may soon learn his duty and per- 
 form it. But who is to guide these forces when 
 armed and disciplined ? Who is to employ, with plan 
 and skill and foresight, the mighty hosts scattered 
 over the country, and time their movements, and 
 turn their concentric exertions to account in securing 
 the one great end ? Here is a demand for the hio-h- 
 est order of mind, and for that peculiar combination 
 of intellectual and moral endowment which has ap- 
 peared only at rare intervals in the history of the 
 
IT 
 
 world. How long did England seek before she found 
 her Wellington? Franco lias had but one Napoleon. 
 And who but Washington showed the necessary quali- 
 fications of a captain during all our long struggle for 
 independence? The times do not make men, they 
 call for them ; and the more you think of it. the more 
 deeply will you feel how absolutely dependent upon 
 God we have been for such a man, and forgetting 
 him into the commander's position so soon. ( >f course, 
 no man can predict his future, nor is it necessary. 
 Enough that, bold in conception as he is reticent in 
 speech, quiet in person as he is efficient in command, 
 modest in appearance as he is unconquerable in pur- 
 pose, he has been endowed, and raised up, and put in 
 command, to serve and save the nation. Cyrus was 
 not more the gift of God to the Jews than is Grant 
 to this nation. U. S. G. means hereafter the United- 
 States General. Let us appreciate God's goodness in 
 furnishing us this leader, and be thankful, — thankful 
 to the Creator and Preserver and Disposer of men 
 and nations ! 
 
 Let us thank God also for the brave men who have 
 executed his plans and achieved the victory. Oh. 
 what courage to go forth when certain death stared 
 them in the face! Oh, what a spirit of self-sacrifice 
 to close up broken ranks, and press steadily for- 
 ward across ground once, twice, thrice lost, tramp- 
 ing iu the blood of the dead and dying, and over 
 
18 
 
 friend and foe ! Would that those titled and untitled 
 heroes could have seen this day, and lived to enjoy 
 the victories which their valor helped to win, and the 
 new future which their blood helped to inaugurate ! 
 Such unfaltering courage from the Rapidan to the 
 James, from Nashville to Atlanta, (a whole army de- 
 pendent on one exposed rickety railroad, which was 
 like a hundred men clad in marine armor going down 
 into the deep sea to fight unknown forces, and only 
 one little, brittle tube for all to breathe through,) and 
 now from the Confederate capital to the capture of 
 the Confederacy, — such dauntless courage, such al- 
 most superhuman endurance, such continued self-sac- 
 rifice, — let us thank God for such soldiers ! And, re- 
 membering the patience, fidelity, and heroism of the 
 navy, for such sailors too ! 
 
 Mark also what a spirit God has given the people. 
 How bravely they have sustained the Government ! 
 How patiently they have borne defeat and loss ! How 
 cheerfully they have anticipated the drafts ! How 
 readily they submit to taxation ! How submissively 
 they mourn their slain in battle ! Neither Rome nor 
 Sparta knew nobler fathers and mothers than weep 
 to-clay among our New-England hills and over our 
 Western prairies. The God of all consolation com- 
 fort them ! 
 
 Mark also how God has disposed the nations 
 towards us, compelling us to develop our own re- 
 
L9 
 
 sources, and to depend upon own energies, keeping 
 us clear of all foreign entanglements and hostile in- 
 tervention. 
 
 But I must leave the story of God's goodness half 
 told : I can only hint at the multitude of mercies 
 which should call forth our praise, — our praise to 
 Him " who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
 doing wonders." 
 
 In conclusion, my friends, what shall we render 
 unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us? Shall 
 we not serve him as these soldiers have served their 
 country ? This is what we want now, in the Church 
 as in the Republic, only bloodless, and, without carnal 
 weapons, a grand triumphant advance. You all re- 
 member the exhortation of the Apostle, "No man 
 that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of 
 this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen 
 him to be a soldier." Were our self-devoted soldiers 
 under obligations to the country that we are not un- 
 der to our God ? If this war, on our part a holy one, 
 is only subservient to the far-reaching designs of Je- 
 sus, our captain and king, what shame ought to burn 
 the cheeks of many in the ranks of the Church! En- 
 tangled with the affairs of (his life, some of us can 
 just make out to lender once a week, a pool- half- 
 day's service on the sabbath, manifest^ having uo 
 purpose or principle that does not govern an enemy 
 or alien to the cause of Christ. Entangled with the 
 
20 
 
 affairs of this life, whole divisions are seldom present 
 at the regular weekly appointments of the church, 
 and never at an extra service, though conquests and 
 captives wait their hands in our Great Captain's 
 cause. Ah ! if many of you who have enlisted in 
 the ranks of the Church should bring yourselves to 
 the standard of the New Testament, as you ought, 
 or to the standard of that army discipline which 
 makes conquering soldiers, one-half of you would 
 condemn yourselves as stragglers and deserters, de- 
 serving no share in the successes of the Church, as 
 manifestly, consulting your own ease and convenience, 
 you bear no part in her sleepless vigilance and pro- 
 tracted conflict. 
 
 When would our armies have won without disci- 
 pline, self-denial, and heroic self-sacrifice ? Shame ! 
 shame on such indifference, laxity of principle, skulk- 
 ing, and cowardice as is found creeping into the 
 ranks of the Church ! 
 
 This world is in revolt against the Son of God. It 
 is to be conquered and subdued to his righteous scep- 
 tre. Already the battle is joined. Unwavering de- 
 votion, prompt obedience, patient faith, and persistent 
 purpose, — these are the elements that win. Let us 
 each hear for himself the clarion call of the great 
 warrior apostle ringing along our lines like the 
 echoes of a bugle-note among the hills: " Thou, 
 therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Je- 
 sus Christ." 
 
21 
 
 Then shall the Church, like the Republic, advance 
 to new conquests and possessions; and our sabbath- 
 songs thrill like a battle-hymn on a nation's anniver- 
 sary. Then shall we sing, more sweet, more loud, 
 -The Lord is my strength and song, and he is be- 
 come my salvation: he is my God, and 1 will prepare 
 him a habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt 
 him." 
 
SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 
 
 1 Chronicles xxii. chapter, 0-1 6 verses. I will not 
 transcribe the passage, but only so much of it as is 
 necessary to exhibit its spirit and the foundation of 
 my discourse. 
 
 "And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it 
 was in my mind to build a house unto the name of 
 the Lord my God ; but the word of the Lord came 
 to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and 
 hast made great wars : thou shalt not build a house 
 unto my name. . . . Behold, a son shall be born to 
 thee, who shall be a man of rest : he shall build a 
 house for my name. 
 
 "Now, my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper 
 thou and build, — only the Lord give thee wisdom 
 and understanding, and give thee charge concerning 
 Israel, that thou may est keep the law of the Lord 
 thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest 
 heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the 
 Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel : be strong 
 and of good courage ; dread not, nor lie dismayed. 
 
 "Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for 
 
24 
 
 the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of 
 gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver ; and 
 of brass and iron without weight ; timber also and 
 stone. Moreover, there are workmen with thee in 
 abundance, — hewers and workers of stone and tim- 
 ber, and all manner of cunning men for every man- 
 ner of work. 
 
 " Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, 
 there is no number. Timber and stone also, all is in 
 abundance. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the 
 Lord be with thee." 
 
 Like David, our period of war and bloodshed is pass- 
 ing away. Like Solomon, a new period of peace and 
 rest, its offspring and successor, is about to succeed. 
 Generally, it is true that every era, is the child of 
 that which preceded it ; but the era upon which this 
 nation is now entering is peculiarly and strikingly 
 the offspring of that which is passing away. The 
 present, these four years and more of pain and agony 
 and travail are not merely giving place to the peace- 
 ful future, — this closing present is the parent of the 
 hopeful, matchless future that is just stepping into 
 its place. 
 
 And upon this rising future is devolved the inspir- 
 ing but tremendously responsible task of building a 
 national structure whose magnificence and glory 
 shall be to that which preceded the war, as the tem- 
 ple of Solomon was to the tent or tabernacle in which 
 
25 
 
 David worshipped. Using the texl analogically, the 
 points of discourse to which your attention is invit- 
 ed are two; viz., the materials accumulated, and the 
 laws which must govern a successful use of them. 
 
 1. And first, as to the materials secured and pre- 
 pared for future use by this period of war. After 
 the boundaries of a nation are settled (and we are 
 now pretty well defined in this particular, I think ; 
 at any rate, between the oceans on the east and west, 
 and between the lakes on the north and the Rio 
 Grande on the south, we are not likely to have any 
 hostile or divisive lines run for some time to come), — 
 after the boundaries of a nation are determined, the 
 next question relates to the materials, — the materials 
 of self-development, of growth, and greatness ; and 
 these, if the nation is to attain prominence and per- 
 manence, must be abundant and varied. Not for the 
 building of the temple alone, but for the building of 
 the nation as well, there must be gold and silver and 
 brass and iron and stone; and was ever a nation 
 more abundantly provided than we are with all 
 rich mines of precious metals, minerals, and ores? 
 As to our gold mines on the Pacific coast, we have 
 been in the habit of congratulating ourselves for the 
 last fifteen years that they were kept concealed till 
 those western slopes, which connect the lofty line of 
 perpetual snow with the warm waters of the gentle 
 
26 
 
 Pacific, came into the possession of a Protestant Chris- 
 tian nation. 
 
 But does it not seem as if the value of those mines 
 was reserved especially for these days of war and 
 bloodshed ? What should we have done without 
 them in the disturbed state of our currency ? Where 
 should we have obtained the vast amounts of gold 
 that we have been obliged to export while we were 
 issuing paper and promises to pay at such a fearful 
 rate ? What a timely deposit these mines have 
 proved ! 
 
 And, so far from being exhausted, it would seem 
 that we have but just begun to comprehend their ex- 
 tent and value. We have gathered up what has 
 been washed out upon the surface. The great vaults 
 hidden in the mountains, and the richly veined ave- 
 nues that lead to them, are yet to be opened. Dur- 
 ing these years of bloody war, we have learned much 
 as to the value and position of these deposits, and, 
 therefore, are prepared to draw against them for the 
 future. 
 
 Great advances have been made, too, in the discov- 
 ery of silver, of copper, and lead and iron. 
 
 Of petroleum what shall be said? Who could 
 have divined, four years ago, that seas of oil should 
 be discovered in the interior of the earth during this 
 tremendous civil war ? — an oil of so many and such 
 remarkable qualities, that we have but just begun 
 
27 
 
 to conjecture' the uses to which it may be put in the 
 economy of civilization. 
 
 Doubtless, many a property and many a company 
 are alike bogus; and yet. after due allowance lor all 
 speculation and gambling, the veal discoveries of 
 precious metals, minerals, and ores, have been many 
 and of immense value ; and around all these mines 
 must be gathered from overcrowded centres and 
 cities a population, more or less dense, of capitalists 
 and laborers. Here, at the base of the mountain, in 
 the forest never traversed before, except by the In- 
 dian and the buffalo, manufactories will rise, villages 
 spring up. and fields be cleared ; and whoever secures 
 the building of a house, or a barn, or workshop or 
 factory, or the converting of a tract of wild land 
 into a farm on the coast of the Pacific, or in the for- 
 ests of Pennsylvania, adds to the wealth and pros- 
 perity of the nation. 
 
 Our agricultural resources were large and rich 
 before; but we add to them immensely by the issue 
 of this bloody war. Now the sunny South is open 
 to free labor and all the healthful rivalries of per- 
 sonal productive industry. Here are vast plantations 
 to be made as the' garden of the world under the 
 economy of the Northern fanner ; here are unmeas- 
 ured wastes of virgin soil waving in an unshorn wan- 
 tonness of tropica] luxuriance; and broad meadows 
 white with cotton from generation t<> generation; 
 
28 
 
 and immense swamps reeking with a heat and mois- 
 ture that may grow rice for the world. All these 
 plantations, wastes, wildernesses, meadows, swamps, 
 and unexplored lands stretching from the Chesapeake 
 Bay far down to the Gulf of Mexico, and around 
 it, are to be divided, like our Northern lands and 
 Western prairies, into innumerable farms and free- 
 holds occupied and improved by the willing, intel- 
 ligent owner, white or black, and thus to become 
 an incalculable means of growth and wealth to the 
 nation. 
 
 As regards all such materials of national greatness, 
 the war closes with nothing; wanting. Leaving now 
 the productiveness and extent of the soil, and all the 
 minerals, mines, ores, metals, deposited beneath its 
 surface, let us turn to the people dwelling here. This 
 is a material without which the wealth of the mines 
 and soils are of little account. Manifestly, there is 
 a great difference in peoples ; one nation " living out 
 feebly and obscurely the term of its existence, and 
 then sinking into complete oblivion ; another exer- 
 cising a powerful influence over its contemporaries, 
 and leaving a luminous track in the annals of the 
 world." Lord Bacon, speaking of the true greatness 
 of kingdoms, says, " The greatness of an estate in 
 bulk and territory doth fall under measure ; and the 
 greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under 
 computation. The population may appear by mus- 
 
 es 
 
20 
 
 ters, and the number and greatness of cities and towns 
 
 by curds and maps; but yet there is not any thing 
 amongst civil affairs more subjecl to error than the 
 right valuation and true judgment concerning the 
 power and forces of a State." 
 
 "Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, good- 
 ly races of horse, chariots of war. . . . ordnance, artil- 
 lery and the like, — all this is but a sheep in a lion's 
 skin, except the breed and disposition of the people he 
 stout and warlike!' Just at this point was our weak- 
 ness. Our pursuits, our education, our love of wealth 
 and ease, had unfitted all the inhabitants of the free 
 States for the perilous adventure and bloody carnage 
 of war. We had every thing else, but we had not 
 the stout disposition and warlike temper. We had 
 become broad of forehead, but narrow of chest, in- 
 tellectual and far-sighted, but weak of nerve and 
 faint of heart. The dollar, so grateful to the palm, 
 had unfitted it to clasp the sword and the musket. 
 Our young men sought places behind the counter, 
 avoided the out-of-door toil, the frown of the ele- 
 ments, and the heat of the sun; and so they had 
 come to have neither strength for the camp nor cour- 
 age for the fight. They could not and they would 
 not go to war. So multitudes believed ; and thus our 
 Government was like a rich prize, waitingonlya mailed 
 hand to pluck it. — such was the talk on the floor of 
 Congress, such was the expectation of our enemies; 
 
30 
 
 but I need not say how completely the war has revo- 
 lutionized and corrected all this. The spirit of '76 
 had not died with our fathers. The heroic spirit of 
 Spartan mothers was in our women ; and the endur- 
 ance of Roman soldiers in the men that answered to 
 the country's call. 
 
 We have discovered or developed that stock and 
 spirit, and marvellous power of adaptation, which, 
 with the blessing of God, insures the perpetuity of 
 our Government and our free institutions against all 
 secession and revolt at home, against all interference 
 and insult from abroad. 
 
 All unprepared for such a gigantic and formidable 
 rebellion, and abhorring the carnival of war, we have, 
 nevertheless, created a navy which exacts the most 
 defereutial regard of the nations ; and, turning the 
 country into a camp, and the makers of cars and 
 pianos into the makers of cannons and rifles, we 
 have tried and settled the question of self-preserva- 
 tion ; and it will be a new element in our future, — 
 a truth demonstrated and priceless, that the Republic 
 wants neither living patriotism, nor the people war- 
 like power. 
 
 And, in settling the question of self-preservation, 
 we have also settled the question of capacity, — the 
 capacity of the people to govern themselves. How- 
 ever clearly the right of self-government may be de- 
 duced from abstract principles, to maintain that right 
 
31 
 
 successfully, without the capacity of self-government, 
 is clearly impossible and absurd. We had kept along 
 well enough in peace, as the most unseaworthy craft 
 
 may keep her keel in smooth water, and the most in- 
 competent pilot hug the land in fair weather. Up to 
 1861, it was an open question, whether the people of 
 this Republic were capable of self-government. Then 
 came the storm and test ; and who was certain of the 
 issue? Who had faith in the people then ? Some 
 voices will be very loud now, telling of courage and 
 .confidence and prophecy; but no man heard them 
 in 1861. We listened in vain for a clear, command- 
 ing utterance from any quarter. No man knew what 
 to do. Those who .should have directed and led 
 the way stood paralyzed. Senators left their seats. 
 States seceded and organized within the limits and 
 jurisdiction of the United States. Our statesmen 
 faltered, — made defenceless, apparently, by the Con- 
 stitution which they had sworn to defend. Our politi- 
 cians babbled more than usual. The Old World looked 
 from her thrones across the water, and said. " Yes, 
 yes, 1 told you so: the great bubble has burst; your 
 Republic has gone up!" 
 
 But by and by Beauregard opened fire on Sumter, 
 humbling the flag, which, after four years, in the shot 
 and smoke of battle, goes up again to-morrow, to float 
 in triumph over the old fort, and over the humiliation 
 of every traitor that has ever lifted his hand to assail 
 
32 
 
 it ; and that fire was something that the 2)ec>2)le could 
 understand and decide about : that was an act of war 
 which went booming through the land, waking a pow- 
 er that instantly took control of the Government, — 
 comprehending the issue, and rushing volunteers into 
 the ranks by the hundred thousand. Resistance — 
 instantaneous, unconcerted, sympathetic, inflexible 
 resistance — evinced the unity, the instinct, and the 
 purpose of the people ; and in all these four years, 
 tried sorely, disappointed in the repulse and defeat 
 of their armies, impatient of delays, the people have 
 never faltered. Politicians faltered ; many of the chief 
 rulers began to think of retreat, of some kind of set- 
 tlement; newspaper editors cried, Enough! — enough 
 of blood, enough of drafts, enough of debt! — and 
 hied them away from the great city to the Can- 
 ada shore, by the Falls, to plot something, to do some- 
 thing, they knew not what ; but the people, following 
 their instincts, held steadily on their way as if in- 
 spired by the Almighty. There was no wavering, no 
 signs of weakness, no want of capacity, with the 
 people. 
 
 In addition to all this, and adding immensely to 
 the strain, in the very midst of the storm and fury 
 of civil war, a Presidential election came. The polls 
 were opened ; bayonets did not guard nor govern 
 them. The day passed as quietly as the sun runs 
 his course, and closed with benedictions and doxolo- 
 
33 
 
 gies ; and the capacity of the people for self-govern- 
 ment is proved. The question of capacity is settled 
 and recorded forever. A gifted and worthy son of 
 Massachusetts, speaking at a time when every 
 mind was burdened with apprehension, says, "If the 
 people shall go through this election freely and fairly, 
 whatever may be the result as regards parties, our 
 institutions will have received a triumph : no nobler 
 spectacle will have been witnessed in this land, since 
 it first asserted its title to be called a land of liberty." 
 Behold, the triumph, the nobler spectacle ! 
 
 Another question, and one of vast importance in 
 this nation, has been settled ; and the conclusion, defi- 
 nite and dominant, is one of the grandest materials 
 to be built into our rising future : I mean the ques- 
 tion of State sovereignty. Out of this doctrine of 
 State sovereignty comes the claim to declare null 
 and void a law of the United States, — out of this 
 comes secession and war. This suicidal doctrine of 
 State sovereignty is not in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence : that reads, " We, therefore, the represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America, . . . by the 
 authority of the good people of these colonies, solemn- 
 ly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, 
 and of right ought to be, free and independent 
 States." Mark two things : 1. This is done by author- 
 ity, not of the States, but of the people. 2. The 
 
34 
 
 States are declared " free, independent," but not sov- 
 ereign. 
 
 The doctrine was in the old confederation, which 
 lasted thirteen years from the time of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and was a failure. 
 
 The doctrine is not in the Constitution. That starts 
 off, like the full sweep and swell of the sea : " We, 
 the i^oi^le of the United States, ... do ordain and 
 establish this Constitution." Our national Govern- 
 ment is not the creation of sovereign States, — is not 
 a compact, or league, to which they may accede, and 
 from which they may secede. This is the " people's 
 Constitution, the people's Government, made for the 
 people, made by the people, and answerable to the 
 people ; " and this same people, and not sovereign 
 States, have declared this national Government su- 
 preme, and the Constitution the supreme law of the 
 land. " This Constitution . . . shall be the supreme 
 law of the land, . . . any thing in the constitution 
 or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 John Quincy Adams says tersely, speaking of this 
 doctrine of State sovereignty, " The Declaration says, 
 It is not in me. The Constitution says, It is not in 
 me." 
 
 And yet, this very doctrine, having no fixed foun- 
 dation in our history, and none in the great exponents 
 of our national life, and absolutely destructive of the 
 very idea of self-preservation, exposed and exploded 
 
:;:. 
 
 by Mr. Webster in his reply to Hayne, and again 
 
 triumphantly denied as false, and denounced as sui- 
 cidal, in his reply to Calhoun. — this doctrine, like the 
 genius of evil, has ever been intruding its bastard 
 presence through all our history. No argument could 
 expel it from the minds of Southern men. They 
 wanted to believe it, and they would believe it. From 
 history, from argument, on the floor of the senate, 
 from the judgment of the people, they appealed to 
 the bloody arbitrament of the sword; and the decision 
 is again, as always, against them, — triumphantly, 
 overwhelmingly against them. There is no other 
 appeal. Beaten on every field ; compelled to surren- 
 der their armies as prisoners of war; in the midst of 
 all the poverty, mourning, anguish, and desolation, 
 which they have brought upon themselves, compelled 
 to see the old flag raised again upon the forts, arse- 
 nals, post-offices, and custom-houses of the United 
 States. — they are not likely to repeat their appeal 
 to the sword. The question of State sovereignty is, 
 therefore, settled ; and the settlement is a corner- 
 stone in our new structure. 
 
 And the settlement of this question settles the 
 policy of the Government and the destiny of the 
 South. The Government must sustain the loyal 
 men of the South, whatever their social condition or 
 color. Any other hypothesis is too base to lie enter- 
 tained. Multitudes of these rebel leaders have lied. 
 
36 
 
 abandoning their homes, their social position, their 
 property. Loyal men, having no occasion to fly, have 
 remained, and must occupy these vacant places and 
 this abandoned property. Already this transfer has 
 been made largely, is now being made rapidly, will 
 continue to be made heavily; and these loyal 
 men, established directly by the Government on these 
 rice lands and cotton plantations, or in the cities 
 through the failure of rebels to pay their taxes or re- 
 deem their estates, — these loyal men, having come 
 into the possession of the forfeited social position and 
 property of the guilty, must receive three things ; viz., 
 1. The jealous protection of the Government. 2. The 
 unqualified support of the Government. 3. And the 
 immense patronage of the Government. And then, 
 further, if human nature can be relied upon as a basis 
 of reasoning, these men will appeal to each other — 
 those who are there, and those who shall go there — 
 for mutual support ; and they will appeal to the Gov- 
 ernment against the restoration, and against the re- 
 turn, of those known by their neighbors to be guilty, 
 as well as against those who have confessed their guilt 
 by flight, or by the arms captured in their hands. 
 Let us not be disturbed, therefore ; for there are causes 
 at work, whatever may be the leniency of our nation- 
 al authority, — causes that have gone too far to be 
 resisted or controlled, — causes which must decide 
 the future of the South. Let Congress keep strictly 
 
within its power to inflict punishment for treason, 
 and maintain that "No attainder of treason shall 
 work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except for 
 life." Those leaders in rebellion are to be leaders no 
 more. Passing those who will pay the penalty of 
 their crime with their lives, — as some of them surely 
 must, or all crime go unpunished, — not one of those 
 men who sat in the councils of the nation, nor one of 
 those who, with perjured hands, drew their swords 
 against the Government that had educated and sup- 
 ported them, — not one of those traitors, nor their 
 children, will ever regain their former position. The 
 power is neither with them nor their constituents. 
 It has passed at the fountain into other hands. The 
 road to their old supremacy is held, at the popular 
 end of it, by other people ; and the very gate of en- 
 trance controlled by new views, new doctrines, and 
 new sympathies. These Southern men have yet to 
 learn, and possibly a few others also, how completely 
 they have revolutionized their own societ} T . Hence- 
 forth, the Government is a unit, controlled and worked 
 in the interests of loyalty, freedom, and nationality ; 
 and this will be found another and a mighty element 
 in our rising future. 
 
 Such, my friends, as well as I can describe them 
 now, are some of the elements or materials gathered 
 and prepared by this war for the building which is 
 to rise in the days of peace upon which we are en- 
 
38 
 
 tering ; and they are as essential and as abundant 
 certainly as the materials prepared by David for the 
 building of the temple. 
 
 I have been compelled to write in weariness and 
 in haste ; but I cannot conclude without touching an 
 essentially practical thought for us all. How shall 
 these materials be put together? on what founda- 
 tion ? in accordance with what laws ? beautified with 
 what ornament ? 
 
 1. First as to the foundation. The temple, which 
 is the glory of Jerusalem, rested on deep founda- 
 tions of solid rock; and so our vast national struc- 
 ture must rest upon an immutable foundation ; that 
 is, upon the fundamental doctrines and principles of 
 the inspired word. The Christian religion is the only 
 secure basis on which we can build. 
 
 Expediency has its place in the affairs of Govern- 
 ment ; but, as a foundation on which to raise a vast 
 and permanent superstructure, it is a quicksand. 
 Neither can morality alone bear the tremendous 
 Aveight of Government. Religion — the religion of 
 the New Testament, vital, immutable, eternal — is 
 our only foundation. 
 
 Washington, in his Farewell Address, says, " Reli- 
 gion and morality are indispensable supports of every 
 habit and disposition that can contribute to national 
 prosperity ; " and then adds like a discriminating 
 preacher of the gospel, " and let us with caution in- 
 
39 
 
 dulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained 
 without religion, — morality cannot prevail in exclu- 
 sion of religious principle." And then he adds with 
 a power of exhortation which has Lost nothing of its 
 point or pertinency, "Who, that is a sincere friend to 
 the Government, can look with indifference upon at- 
 tempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?" 
 
 The declaration of the prophet has been mourn- 
 fully illustrated in the downfall of many and mighty 
 structures: "For the nation and kingdom that will 
 not serve thee shall perish/' Jesus Christ is the cor- 
 ner-stone of our national as of our personal salva- 
 tion. 
 
 '1. Then again : in accordance with what laws shall 
 we build? There is no objection to a leaning tower, 
 as an object of curiosity to attract the traveller; but 
 the walls that are to stand must rise in accordance 
 with the laws of gravitation: not more surely must 
 the fabric of the nation rise in accordance with the 
 laws of God. "This way of tying walls together 
 with iron, instead of making them of that substance 
 and form, that they shall naturally poise themselves 
 upon their butment, is against the rules of good 
 architecture," says one ; and George Herbert has 
 this line: "Houses are built by rule, and common- 
 wealths." 
 
 To determine what the will of God is, as respects 
 society, and to define that will in laws to which the 
 
40 
 
 judgment and conscience of the people will respond, 
 is the great work of the legislator. To re-affirm the 
 ordinances of Nature, to re-enact the laws of the 
 Creator and Sovereign and Judge of the world, — 
 this is the essence of all wise legislation. 
 
 "We are indeed through the war ; but we have a 
 mighty work on our hands, — one over which, in the 
 midst of all our joy, we may well fast and pray, — a 
 work requiring the profoundest wisdom, the firmest 
 adherence to principle, — a work that can only be done 
 in obedience to the commands of God. 
 
 This is what we must do, — all the people of this 
 land, — render the hearty, scrupulous obedience of 
 Christian men in all our work. No mistake is more 
 fatal than that a great nation, with such materials as 
 we have, can afford to be lax and lawless and irreli- 
 gious. Just the reverse is true. Any thing that will 
 live, endure, must render an obedience stricter as it is 
 greater. For instance, a grain of dust may not al- 
 ways and uniformly obey the laws of gravitation ; 
 but the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars, must 
 obey. The great ocean must obey influences that 
 little lakes and rivers are not required to recognize 
 even. 
 
 Just so, like the sun and the sea, this nation must 
 obey the laws and precepts of the Almighty. Let 
 us each one, with heart and hand, with lip and life, 
 however humble, however lofty our part, do all in 
 
41 
 
 strictest obedience to Him who filled the temple with 
 his glory, and honors them that honor him! 
 
 3. And, finally, as to the adorning of our temple : 
 above all the splendor of art, above all the crea- 
 tions of genius in stone or on canvas, let it be like 
 the inscription on the bells of the horses in the last 
 days; — on all our door-posts and windows, on ceiling 
 and walls and floor ; let it be, " The beauty of holi- 
 ness ; " " Holiness to the Lord ; " and let it be reflected 
 by all the builders, " The ornament of a meek and 
 quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great 
 price." " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, . . . the fast 
 of the fourth month shall be, to the house of Judah, 
 joy and gladness and cheerful feasts : . . . therefore 
 love the truth and peace." 
 
 And do thou, Lord, for whose sake we would build 
 our temple enduring, lofty, and beautiful, " make us 
 glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflict- 
 ed us, and the years Avherein we have seen evil. Let 
 thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory 
 unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord 
 our God be upon us : and establish thou the work of 
 our hands upon us ; yea, the work of our hands es- 
 tablish thou it." 
 
THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, whal 
 of the night? 
 
 The Watchman sail!, The morning conieth, and also the night. 
 
 These words seem to me strikingly appropriate 
 to our present circumstances. Last Sabbath morn- 
 ing it was my privilege to place before your minds 
 some reasons for thankfulness, — thankfulness to 
 God. Then the streets were decked with symbols 
 of joy; gladness in welcome accents broke from 
 every lip. Men's countenances were bright, as if 
 reflecting the coming of the morning. We clasped 
 each other's hands with a jubilant pulse, and every 
 eye answered back hope, inspiration, to the eye 
 that looked into it. 
 
 But how changed is all in a moment! Yester- 
 day morning flags were set at half-mast. Even 
 Sumter's flag is but half raised. As the day ad- 
 vanced, emblems of mourning drooped from the 
 highest windows to the sidewalk. The President 
 ■is assassinated! Men hold their breath, and turn 
 pale at the appalling words. Citizens meet, and 
 
44 
 
 shake hands, and part in silence. Words convey 
 nothing when uttered. All attempt to express the 
 nation's grief is utterly commonplace and insignifi- 
 cant. An eclipse seems to have come upon the 
 brilliancy of the flag, — a srnile seems irrelevant 
 and sacrilegious. Even the fresh, green grass, just 
 coming forth to meet the return of spring and the 
 singing of birds, seems to wear the shadows of twi- 
 light at noonday. The sun is less bright than be- 
 fore ; and the very atmosphere holds in it, for the 
 tearful eye, a strange ethereal element of gloom. 
 Surely " the night cometh." And as we gather here 
 this morning, after an absence of only two days, 
 how appalling, in this cheerful home of our religious 
 affections, are these wide-hung emblems of grief and 
 anguish ! It is manly to weep to-day. The coming 
 of the morning, and also the night, are strangely 
 mingled. 
 
 Had death overtaken any one of our brilliant 
 military leaders in the field, we should have said 
 it was a thing to be expected. Had any sudden 
 reverse in the fortunes of war visited one of our 
 armies, it would have been a terrible grief, but still 
 a kind of calamity to which we have become accus- 
 tomed. Had the President fallen by a chance 
 shot in Richmond, or by the hand of some lurk- 
 ing assassin, as he passed the fortifications through 
 which our hearts did not consent to his going, 
 
45 
 
 we should but have realized some of our transient 
 forebodings. But after his sale return, and the 
 triumph of our arms, which he took so much 
 pleasure in telegraphing to the people, we had 
 almost dismissed from our minds any fears for 
 the safety of his life. And hence the telegram an- 
 nouncing the death of the President at such a 
 time, in such a way, falls upon us like a crash of 
 thunder from an unclouded sky. 
 
 Wearied with the duties of his high position, and 
 the persistent annoyance of petty office-seekers, 
 and unwilling to disappoint the people even in their 
 unreasonable expectations, he sought an hour's recre- 
 ation in the theatre. And what a horrible tragedy ! 
 The actor, having thoroughly prepared his part, 
 and being often defeated in one way and another 
 from the fiendish acting of it, finds his opportunity 
 at last. With the stealthy step of a base, brutal 
 coward, with a damning lie on his tongue, and the 
 heart of a demon in his breast, he approaches the 
 generous, unsuspecting man in the rear of his seat, 
 and, aiming the fatal weapon with practised hand 
 at the back of his head, puts the ball directly 
 through his brain, and then makes his escape through 
 the screens and drapery and doors with which his 
 calling had made him acquainted. There are no 
 last words for wife or children. — no word for tin- 
 people's heart to which he always spoke, — no pari- 
 
46 
 
 ing counsel for a bereaved and almost bewildered 
 nation. The hand that signed the emancipation 
 'proclamation hangs helpless in death ; the mind 
 which had borne so evenly the tremendous strain of 
 four unparelleled years is hurled from its throne ; 
 the great, good, magnanimous heart is stilled ; those 
 generous lips which have spoken mercy so often, 
 and would perhaps, like martyred Stephen's, have 
 said in their last articulate speech, "Lord, lay not 
 this sin to their charge," are sealed forever. The 
 nation has lost a father ; the human race a sincere, 
 devoted, and able leader ! 
 
 I have had no time to analyze the character, or 
 choose out words to express our sense of the worth, 
 of the late Abraham Lincoln. But I may employ, 
 with your approbation I am sure, the words used 
 by Daniel Webster concerning Zachary Taylor : 
 " He has left on the minds of the country a strong 
 impression ; first, of his absolute honesty and integ- 
 rity of character ; next, of his sound, practical good 
 sense ; and, lastly, of the mildness, kindness, and 
 friendliness of his temper towards all his country- 
 men. " 
 
 Yes : " towards all his countrymen." He was, on 
 the very day of his untimely death, exerting all 
 the kindness of his unselfish nature, and prepared, 
 it is believed, to peril all his great popularity, in 
 inaugurating a policy most lenient, most forgiving. 
 
47 
 
 towards those who had forfeited every thing except 
 
 the right to be hung. They have put aside their 
 friend. They have murdered the new-born mercy 
 which waited to bless them. No man could if he 
 would, and no man was disposed to, do so much 
 for them as Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 And how the loyal people confided in him! how 
 implicitly the common people trusted him! The 
 world has scarcely seen the like. He came to the 
 chair of the Chief Magistrate from the rough expe- 
 rience of frontier life. He owed his election, and 
 the favor with which he was received, to the be- 
 lief, in the minds of the people, that he was an 
 honest man. 
 
 And did he disappoint that confidence ? Did he 
 show himself unworthy? Did he ever incur the 
 suspicion of dishonesty or corruption? Or did he 
 ever swerve from what he conceived to be the 
 path of duty to win popular applause? Never. On 
 the other hand, so impartial was he in selecting 
 men from all parties to fill the high offices of 
 government, so artless was he in all that he did, 
 so transparent were his deeds and his motives, 
 that, by a popular vote scarcely paralleled, the 
 people called him a second time to guide the na- 
 tion for another four years. He knew nothing of 
 tricks or double-dealing or party-shifts, or crooked 
 policies. He was a sincere, impartial, straightfor- 
 
48 
 
 ward, honest man. And the people saw it and 
 felt it, and were glad of an opportunity to honor 
 him with an overwhelming repetition of their well- 
 placed confidence. What a noble example is he to 
 all young men looking to office or popular regard ! 
 With no military reputation, with no brilliant ora- 
 tory, with no winning grace of manners, he was 
 the foremost man for the highest office in the gift 
 of a great, free, and intelligent people, once and 
 again, because he was a man of absolute honesty 
 and integrity of character. 
 
 And besides these unselfish, impartial, upright ele- 
 ments of character, there was a masterful common 
 sense, a genial mother-wit, and a practical statesman- 
 ship, which showed themselves in some of the most 
 compact specimens of argument, happy avoidances 
 of difficulty, and a thorough apprehension of popular 
 instincts and judgments. 
 
 He was unpolished in style, but he was profound 
 in thought. He was pithy in his sentences, but origi- 
 nal and patient in investigation ; rough on the exte- 
 rior, but a jewel within, — 
 
 " Rich in saving common sense." 
 
 How much we owe to his unambitious example ; how 
 much to his far-reaching discernment ; how much to 
 his good-natured hearing of all sides ; how much to 
 his steady calm judgment, which held the scales, in 
 
49 
 
 the fury and gusts of the storm, as equally poised as 
 if in the atmosphere of peace and calm ; how much 
 to his great forbearance under stinging reproach; 
 how much to his knowledge of and unwavering con- 
 fidence in the people and the people's cause, God 
 knows, but we know not as yet. May the day never 
 come, when, by bitter contrast, we shall learn how 
 wise and safe was the confidence which we reposed 
 in him! 
 
 This nation mourns to-day as it never mourned be- ' 
 fore. The statesmen of the land had learned to trust 
 him in the greatest exigencies ; the impatient were 
 restrained by his moderation; the immovable and 
 morose were moved and almost brought into time by 
 his steady, sympathetic step forward ; the one-eyed 
 were made ashamed of their ignorance by an hour 
 in his society ; the revengeful learned magnanimity 
 from his deeds. The soldiers loved him, and the sol- 
 dier's mother loved him, and confided in him. The 
 negroes loved him ; oh, how they will mourn for him ! 
 Moses was not allowed to lead the children of Israel 
 into the land of peace and plenty ; neither was he 
 allowed himself to enter it, but only to survey its 
 broad prospect from Pisgah's top. And so their de- 
 liverer and ours is only permitted to come to the 
 border, and, in these last few days, catch pleasing 
 glimpses of the glorious, opening future. And as 
 when Moses died, his eye not dim, and his natural 
 
50 
 
 force not abated, there was mourning throughout all 
 the camp, till the plain of Moab resounded with the 
 cry of sires and sons, mothers and maidens ; so now 
 there will be mourning in the camp, and mourning 
 on the prairies, and far away over the mountains ; 
 but nowhere keener anguish and disappointment 
 than among the sable hosts whom his noble heart 
 and hand has freed. All men unconsciously speak 
 of him as our beloved President; and the hand of 
 the assassin has embalmed him with all his virtues 
 and greatness, and made him sacred and sublime in 
 our fond, loving hearts, and in the heart of the world 
 forever. 
 
 Were I to select some one thing by which to charac- 
 terize Abraham Lincoln, I should name his profound 
 apprehension and appreciation of the popular instinct, 
 — that instinct which is true to the right as the needle 
 to the pole, in all storms, and on every sea. He be- 
 lieved in God. He believed God was to be recog- 
 nized in this war. He believed that the set of the 
 loyal masses, — the deep, silent current, which bears 
 on events, is in the line of God's advance ; and, thus 
 believing, he governed himself by his apprehension of 
 the people, and of God, as manifest in their silent set 
 or drift. As the philosopher learns the plans of God 
 from an unprejudiced study of Nature, so he learned 
 the purposes of Gocl from the instincts of the people. 
 As the naturalist discovers from the structure of the 
 
51 
 
 animal what its mode of life and habits must be, so he 
 saw from the essential peculiarities of our Govern- 
 ment whither our future must tend. He did not 
 mean to be ahead of the popular feeling ; for then 
 there would be a re-action against his policy. He 
 did not mean to be much behind it ; for then some 
 other agent might be sought, through which to give 
 it expression : and so, regarding the voice of the loyal 
 people, in this great crisis of the Republic, as the 
 voice of God, he kept his ear open and his eye attent, 
 and marshalled his policy not quite abreast of the di- 
 vinely led masses. He sought not to control an age 
 thus moved and inspired, but to be controlled by it. 
 
 Herein was his wisdom, herein his greatness, 
 herein his power. This was the secret of his success, 
 the source of that light which, in all coming time, 
 shall gild with unfading splendor the name of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. 
 
 As the Netherlands mourned for William, Prince 
 of Orange, as France mourned for Henry IV., " We 
 have lost our father, we have lost our father ! " so 
 America mourns to-day. 
 
 " Such was lie; his work is done; 
 But, while the races of mankind endure, 
 Let his great example stand 
 Colossal, seen of every land; 
 Ami keep the soldier linn, the statesman pure, 
 Till in all lands and through all human story. 
 The path (if duty lie the way to glory. 
 
52 
 
 But speak no more of his renown, 
 Lay your earthly fancies down ; 
 And in the vast cathedral leave him, 
 God accept him, Christ receive him ! " 
 
 1. And now, my friends, what are the lessons of 
 this great calamity ? First of all, submission. God 
 reigns : we are absolutely dependent and sinful. The 
 Emperor Mauritius seeing all his children slain before 
 his face at the command of the bloody tyrant and 
 usurper, Phocas, himself expecting the next stroke, 
 exclaimed aloud, in the words of David : " Righteous 
 art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judgments." 
 This event takes us by surprise ; but the origin, ma- 
 turity, and perpetration of this awful crime, was all 
 under the sleepless eye of God. For reasons which 
 we cannot fathom now, nor find, he has permitted 
 it. Perhaps, when this day, the lith of April, for- 
 ever marked in our calendar ; marked by the hum- 
 bling of the flag at Sumter ; marked by the exaltation 
 of the flag four years after, — perhaps, when the 
 14th of April comes round four years hence, we shall 
 know more of God's designs in permitting this foul 
 murder of our beloved President. There is ONE 
 whom the hand of violence cannot reach ; and he 
 has not led us thus far to desert and destroy us now. 
 Meanwhile, as becomes us, let us bow our heads in 
 meek submission to the divine will ! Surely his foot- 
 steps are in the great deep ; his designs are hidden 
 
53 
 
 from us in the dark; but let us trust him; let us 
 cleave unto him ! Submitting penitently to the rod 
 of affliction, let us put our hand in his, and say, Fath- 
 er, lead ; Father, spare and bless ! 
 
 2. A second lesson is this : Execute justice in the 
 land. What is the foundation of our confidence in 
 God? Is it not that he will do right? Is it not 
 what David says over and over again in all his trials ? 
 — justice and judgment are the habitation of his 
 throne. And just these — justice and judgment, are 
 the foundation of every throne, and of every gov- 
 ernment. I spoke on Thursday, as far as it was ap- 
 propriate to my theme, of the tremendous mistake 
 and folly and sin for the people of a great nation to 
 think that they can neglect or violate the laws of 
 God with impunity. Just here has been our danger. 
 There has been a miserable, morbid, bastard philan- 
 thropy, which, if it did not make the murderer's couch 
 a bed of flowers, and set his table with butter and 
 honey, made him an object of sympathy, and, after 
 a while, of executive clemency. We are weak in 
 our sense of justice. Why, how long is it since a 
 man was pursued in the streets of Washington, and, 
 though begging for his life, shot to mutilation ? He 
 was guilty of a foul crime ? Yes ; but did that give 
 the injured man a right to murder him ? Are there 
 no courts, no ministers of justice, in the land*.' But 
 the murderer was acquitted with applause in the 
 
54 
 
 court-room. Only this very spring, a young woman 
 shot one of the clerks dead in the hall of the treas- 
 ury-building. To be sure, she said he had broken 
 his vow to marry her*. And, when I was in Washing- 
 ton a few weeks since, it was confidently expected 
 that she, too, would be acquitted. And here in Massa- 
 chusetts, not to speak of other States now, where the 
 punishment of murder is death, the guilty wretch — 
 who could brood over his infernal plan for weeks, 
 and finally, after several attempts on the same day, 
 execute it upon an innocent, unsuspecting young 
 man, and all for the sake of a few hundreds, or, at 
 the most, thousands, of dollars — is allowed to live, 
 and become an object of sympathy. To shield his 
 forfeited life imperils that of every young man who 
 stands behind a counter in Massachusetts. Living, 
 he is an encouragement to all persons like-minded to 
 do likewise. Yea, saith the governor, ye shall not 
 surely die. 
 
 And so in regard to the leaders of this infernal 
 Rebellion : the feeling was gaining ground here to 
 let them off really without penalty. They are our 
 brethren, it is said. Then, we reply, they have added 
 fratricide to the enormity of their other crimes, and 
 are unspeakably the more guilty ! 
 
 The punishment which a nation inflicts on crime 
 is the nation's estimate of the evil and guilt of that 
 crime. Let these men go, and we have said practi- 
 
oo 
 
 cally that treason is merely a difference of political 
 opinion. 
 
 I do not criticise the parole which was granted ; 
 though, for the life of me, 1 cannot see one shadow 
 of reason for expecting it will be kept by men who 
 have broken their most solemn and deliberate oath to 
 the same Government. It was not kept by the rebels 
 who took it at Vicksburg. Nor will I criticise, for I 
 cannot understand, the policy which allows General 
 Lee to commend his captured army for " devotion to 
 country," and "duty faithfully performed." But I 
 considered the manner in which the parole was in- 
 dorsed and interpreted as practically insuring a par- 
 don ; and to pardon them is a violation of my in- 
 stincts, as it is of the laws of the land, and of the 
 laws of God. 1 believe in the exercise of magna- 
 nimity ; but mercy to those leaders is eternal cruelty 
 to this nation, — is an unmitigated, unmeasured curse 
 to unborn generations ! It is a wrong against which 
 every fallen soldier in his grave, from Pennsylvania 
 to Texas, utters an indignant and unsilenced rebuke. 
 Because of this mawkish leniency four years ago, 
 Treason stalked in the streets, and boasted defiance 
 in the halls of the capitol ; Secession organized un- 
 molested, and captured our neglected forts and starv- 
 ing garrisons. Because of a drivelling, morbid, per- 
 verted sense of justice, the enemy of the Government 
 has been permitted to go at large, under the shadow 
 
56 
 
 of the capitol, all through this war. God only knows 
 how much we have suffered for the lack of justice. 
 And now to restore these leaders seems like moral 
 insanity. Better than this, give us back the stern, 
 inflexible indignation of the old Puritan, and the lex 
 talionis of the Hebrew Lawgiver. Our consciences 
 are debauched, our instincts confounded, our laws set 
 aside, by this indorsement of a blind, passionate phi- 
 lanthropy. 
 
 Theodore Parker has a passage in his work on re- 
 ligion, in which he gathers into heaven the debauchee, 
 the swarthy Indian, the imbruted Calmuck, and the 
 grim-faced savage, with his hands still red and reek- 
 ing with the blood of his slaughtered human victims. 
 And the idea, to me, of placing the leaders of this 
 diabolical Rebellion in a position where they might 
 come again red-handed into the councils of the na- 
 tion, is equally revolting and sacrilegious. It makes 
 me shudder ; and yet I think there was an indecent 
 leniency beginning to manifest itself towards them, 
 which would have allowed to these men, by and by, 
 votes and honors and lionizing. The soldiers did not 
 relish this prospect. They are not to be deceived by 
 the misapplication of the term "magnanimity" to an 
 act that turns loose into the bosom of society the men 
 who systematically murdered our prisoners by starva- 
 tion, and again and again shot prisoners of war after 
 they had surrendered, — shot gallant officers, even 
 
57 
 
 in these last battles, after being told that they were 
 mortally wounded, and strung up Union men in 
 North Carolina, because they had enlisted in the Fed- 
 eral army. 
 
 And now, ive see and feel just as the soldiers do. 
 The spirit that shot down our men on the way to the 
 capital ; the spirit that shot Ellsworth at Alexandria ; 
 the spirit that organized treachery, treason, and re- 
 bellion ; the spirit that armed those leaders to strike 
 at the life of the Government, — is the same hell-born 
 spirit that dastardly takes the life of our beloved 
 President, is the same atrocious spirit that seeks 
 the bed-chamber of a sick and helpless man, and cuts 
 his throat, and strikes the murderous dirk at the 
 heart of every attendant. We see its malignant, 
 fiendish nature now ! 
 
 And what shall be done with these secessionists if 
 we succeed in arresting them before they get out of 
 the country, with the blood of the President, and of 
 the Minister of State on their hands ? Pity them as 
 insane ? parole them as prisoners of war ? Doubtless, 
 like the St. Albans raiders, they have their commis- 
 sion from Richmond ! Does this make your blood 
 boil? is this too shocking to suppose? Well, shall 
 we hang them ? — hang the less guilty, and let the 
 more guilty go free? hang the miserable, worthless 
 hirelings, and let the principals and chiefs live ? To 
 do that is to arm men, and goad them to lake ven- 
 
58 
 
 geance into their own hands. The instinctive justice 
 of the human conscience must be satisfied by the 
 action of Government, or it will have private re- 
 venue. There is a consciousness of right in the 
 masses, that will not be tampered with in such a 
 time as this. Not the branches of this accursed tree, 
 but the trunk and the roots, must be exterminated 
 from the land. Hear me, patriots, sires of murdered 
 sons, weeping wives and orphans, — I say exterminat- 
 ed ! " Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a 
 murderer, and ye shall take no satisfaction for the 
 life of him that is fled, that he come again to dwell 
 in the land; for blood it defileth the land, and 
 the land cannot be cleansed but by the blood of him 
 that shed it." And, when David died, he charged 
 Solomon to fulfil this divine command in regard to 
 Joab and Shimei, who had been too strong for him 
 during his life. 
 
 3. One thing more : let us face the future, and 
 all the solemn responsibilities of these uncertain hours, 
 with courage. We have God on the throne that no 
 violence can reach, — the God who has always been 
 with us. " Why art thou cast down, my soul ? and 
 why art thou disquieted in me ? Hope thou in God ; 
 for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my 
 countenance and my God." 
 
 And then, such is the happy structure of our Gov- 
 ernment, that no assassination can arrest its wheels. 
 
59 
 
 A terrible calamity lias overtaken us ; but it will only 
 the more exhibit the inherent vitality of our institu- 
 tions;, and the greater strength of the people. 
 
 Andrew Johnson, who now becomes the Chief 
 Magistrate by the mysterious providence of God, is 
 unquestionably an able man. He has been much in 
 public life, and never failed, except in his speech on 
 inauguration-day, to meet the exigencies of his 
 position. Besides, he has had a schooling in Tennes- 
 see which may have prepared him to lead at this 
 very time. When I was in Washington, four years 
 ago, I heard much in his praise. He told the seces- 
 sionists, who were just then leaving their seats in the 
 Senate to inaugurate the Rebellion, — told them to 
 their faces, for substance : " Were I President of the 
 United States, I would arrest you as traitors, and try 
 you as traitors, and convict you as traitors, and hang 
 you as traitors." And, judging from the speech which 
 he made at Washington after the news of the fall of 
 Richmond, he has not changed his mind. 
 
 We want no revenge: we will wait the forms and 
 processes of law. We want justice tempered with 
 mercy. We want the leaders punished, but the 
 masses of the people pardoned. Let us confide in 
 him as our President. And do you make crime odious. 
 disfranchise every man who lias held office in the 
 rebel government, and ever} commissioned officer 
 in the rebel army ; make the halter certain to the 
 
60 
 
 intelligent and influential, who are guilty of per- 
 jury and treason, and so make yourself a terror 
 to him that doeth evil, and a praise to him that 
 doeth good, — and we will stand by you, Andrew 
 Johnson. 
 
 Another ground of courage is, that the nation 
 is a unit against rebellion to-clay as it never was 
 before. It is too much to hope, . I suppose, that 
 any traitor will have his eyes opened to see the 
 true character of the awful work in which he has 
 been engaged, though it seems as if such an atro- 
 cious butchery were enough to make him see it; 
 but of this be sure, that all loyal men are united 
 now : and woe be to the secessionist who does not 
 instantly sue for mercy or fly the country ! I have 
 seen them launch a great ship. The ways are 
 laid solid and secure; and then the workmen split 
 away, one after another, the blocks from under- 
 neath the keel. Gradually the huge structure set- 
 tles upon the slippery ways, and glides majestically 
 into her future element. The two ways under our 
 ship of State are justice and mercy. In the provi- 
 dence of God, block after block has been knocked 
 away, prop after prop removed, till now, just ready 
 to glide into the new future, she is settling all 
 her weight upon her ways, — ways made slippery 
 by the blood of the murdered Chief Magistrate, and 
 Minister: woe, woe, woe to him who puts himself 
 
61 
 
 in the line of her course ! Infinitely better for him 
 had he been strangled at the birth ! 
 
 Be sure, this people will mourn from sea to sea ; 
 but be sure also, that any provocation will bring out 
 the indignant, instant, sympathetic cry from every 
 lip, " Die, traitors, assassins all ! live, the republic, 
 liberty, and law!" 
 
 The God of infinite justice and mercy be our 
 helper ! Amen. 
 
 Note. — Preached Sunday morning, April 1G, after the news of the 
 assassination of President Lincoln. 
 
MEMORIAL SERMONS, 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAIL 
 
 THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN B. WEBB, 
 
 PASTOR OF 9HAWMUT CHURCH, BOSTON. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhili. 
 
 1865. 
 

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