Gass £45" 7 Book J ^l.t^WC^ THE CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. IDISOOTJK.SIE] ^ellaeied ^/iHl SSd, 1S'Lo§, at mmuin'd. MaLL, JACKSONVILLE, ILL., BY REV. L. M. GLOVER, D. D., Pastor Ist Presbyterian Church. JACKSONVILLE : PRINTED AT THE JOURNAL BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. C <3> n THE CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. IDISCOTJI^SEl )eLLiiEied :fl.ftdL ^Sd, -/Sfb3, at mi^amn! L MlLL, JACKSONVILLE, ILL., BY REV. L. M. GLOVER, D. D., M Paator let Presbyterian Church. JACKSONVILLE : PRINTED AT THE JOURNAL BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 18G5. L."^5n /^' Jacksonville, April 24, 1865. Bev. L. M. aiover, B. D. ; Dear Sir — The undersigned, partaking of the common admira- tion of the very able and just manner in -which you have dehneated the hfe and character of the late lamented President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in yom' commemorative discourse pro- nounced yesterday, respectfully solicit a copy for pubhcation if con- sistent with yom- feeUngs on the subject. And. McFarland, Joshua Moore, James Dunlap, Robt. Hockenhull, Wm. M. Foster, O. D. FiTzsniMONS, Thomas W. Melendt, Ralph Reynolds, F. E. Dayton, John Looisns, 0. H. Ten Eyck, H. K. Jones, J. ISTeely, a. McDonald. Jacksonville, May 3, 1865. Dr. A. McFarland,, Col. James Dunlap and others : Gentlemen — Yours of the 24:th ult. is before me. Thanking you for the kind terms m wliich you speak of my discom'se on the char- racter of Abraham Lincoln, I cheerfully accede to yom- request, and herewith commit the manuscript of said discourse to your care for publication. Partaking of the common grief of the people at the irreparable loss which has befallen us, I am, in the bonds of Christ and of country, Youi's, L. M. Glover. DISCOURSE. 2nd. Samuel, 1 : 19: — The beauty of Israel ig slaio upon thy high places ; how are the mighty fallen! 2nd. Samuel, 3 : 38 : — And the King said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel? Louis XI Y of France, b j a reign of dazzling splendor, impressed himself upon the imagination of his people as "the Grand Monarch," and was familiarly called, in his day, "Louis the Great." But when Massillon, the prince of the French pulpit, rose in the chm-cli of "Notre Dame," to pronounce his oration at the obsequies of that King, the first words he uttered were these, "God alone is great," at Avhich the whole vast assembly spontaneously and reverently rose to their feet as if thriUed and awed by that simple, but impressive, announcement. That involuntary act of the congregation was less a tribute to the commanding power of the speaker than to the elo- quence of the occasion and the sublime authority of truth. Greatness is relative. In respect to God every created being is small — exceedingly diminutive. The finite can sustain no proper comparison with the Infinite. Hence Moses said, "Ascribe ye greatness unto om* God." His is the true, the absolute greatness. What is any man, however exalted in the gradations of earth and time, in contrast with Him? When set in the relation they sustain to that uncaused and eternal being what are the princes, the poten- tates, the intellectual giants who figure on this narrow scene of things; what an Alexander, a Csesar, a Newton or an Edwards? Only as sparks to the glowing fires which warm the universe; only as struggling rays to the central orb which floods that universe with light. When such comparisons are drawn, how little the crca- tm-e called man appears, even the greatest man, the noblest of his race; for, in this view, the most exalted and the most abject stand well nigh upon the same level, since nothing, which in its mcjisurc is limited, can approacli that which is absokite or unlimited. In- deed, all men are so far equal that they are subject to like passions, iniu-mities, distempers, down-castings and fatal issues both of con- duct and of Kfe. They are alike crushed before the moth. Acci- dent, disaster, sickness, death, these fall indiscrhninately upon the children of Adam's race. "Man, at his best estate, is altogether vanity." The prmce hath no certain exemption from evil to which the peasant is not equally entitled. In the grave, all human dust mingles ; the humblest and most unknown lying down in the last sleep with kings and conquerors, the noble and honored of earth ; for a solemn voice crieth, " All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field ; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, surely the people is grass." Well, then, did the mighty preacher, abeady re- ferred to, as the splendors of a throne lay shrunk and fading in the cofiin before him, exclaim, " God alone is great," an utterance to which I would fain give an echo to-day in view of an event no less impressive, and far more afflicting than that which called forth the remark at first. Human greatness is only seen and appreciated when withdrawn from these high contrasts, and reckoned by the common ideas which rule the subject among men in then* relations one to another. Some persons rise high above then- fellows in natural gifts, in acquirements, in wealth, in social position, in rank, and in the various resources of influence and of honor. There is some, perhaps much, true great- ness in the world, and yet there is more passing under the name that is factitious, essentially accidental and without reality. Such is usu- ally the distinction which bnth creates, which large inheritances give rise to, and which, in so many instances, grows out of mere fa- voring ch-ciunstances. Thus some men come to station and power rather by what seems chance or a fortuitous combination of events than by the exertion of those commanding qualities by which me- diocrity is overreached and the rewards of rarest excellence are won; And yet the general fact remains, that substantial greatness is not the outgrowth of accident in any case; that it is never a prize care- lessly and blindly di-awn out as in a lottery, but universally is the result of a developing and compacting of noble qualities, through the regular operation of those laws by which an unseen but vigilant and ever-working Providcnee cultures particular men for particular destinies of responsibility, work, and glory. And, I doubt not, tliis is the light in which history, when it shall be impartially written in a subsequent age, will place the name and character of Abraham Lincoln, late Chief Magistrate of the United States, and whose untimely and tragic end has shrouded a continent in gloom, and will send a thrill of horror around the globe. "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places; how are the mightv fallen!" "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?" The estimate of the lamented President, which is to be presented in this discom'se, shall be both carefid and candid ; unbiased bv partisan dislike on the one hand, and by the partiaHties of personal or political friendship on the other. On an occasion hke this all generous minds are eager for the truth, and arc quite willing that any former errors of judgment or feeling should be subverted and rec tilled. This is not the hour for party spirit to assert itself either in empty laudation of the departed, or in a poorly concealed delight that he is no more. It is a time, if ever, when men should be seri- ous, impartial, and magnanimous; when they should deliver up then* minds to truth, to the culture of a wholesome grief, and to com- mon expressions of horror at the enormity of that crime which has brought a nation down to the dust in the very moment of its unre- strained joy at the prospect of speedy restoration and peace. In regard to Abraham Lincoln, I think it no venture to say that he was not a common man, or to add to this, that he was a truly great man. Regarded officially, as to the trust he held, the authori- t}' he wielded, and the honor he enjoyed, it may safely be affirmed that none of earth's potentates surpassed him; he stood at the very apex of human ambition and hope, both as relates to earthly good actually attained and an earthly immortality virtually secured. — That there was sometliing apparently adventitious in the sudden- ness of his rise from a humble sphere to the most exalted station has struck us all, and that a fortunate concurrence of circumstances had more to do with this than any foreseen talent, genius, or qualitica- tion for statesmanship, is what every one is ready to admit ; and yet none will deny that the pressure of responsibility and the jirocess of trial developed in liim an unexpected capacity, and brouglit to view that solid substratum of character on wliich trae greatness is built. The intellectual qualities of Mr. Lincoln were well defined. They were stroyig and solid. Like the granite rock, his mind was some- what rough, but it was massive. It had never been subjected to any very systematic culture, and hence it wanted the polish and beauty of which it was in a high degree susceptible. The Univer- sity did nothing for it, and it remained to the last essentially a piece of nature's work on which the hand of art had not expended its skill. In the workings of that mind we discern many elements of power. It was not only strong, but lively and quick ; in analysis, clear; in reasoning, cogent ; in humor sparkling. It resembled the other works of nature in variety and exuberance, combining diversity in unity. One who cast his eye over it saw no dead level there, but pleasing alternations of hill and vale, waterfall and quiet stream, rock and flower. We cannot speak of it as profound; we cannot attribute to it genius; strong common sense was its predominating quality. Mr. Lincoln looked at things pretty much as they are. He took the world as it is. He was bewildered by no philosophies. He gave himself up to no hair-splitting casuistry. He followed off no "ignis fatuus" of speculation. His mind moved about among realities. What of truth he saw, he saw directly, as it were intuitively; hence his first view of a matter involving questions of propriety, prudence, and right was quite likely to be as sound as that to which others arrive only by a lengthened consideration. This quick and pene- trating good sense is ever an element of greatness. It went far, in the case before us, towards supplying deficiencies of culture and learning. A talent so discerning and practical is more useful than any other, and it is vain to deny that it must and will have power. With the lamented President it was great power. He also possessed that soundness of judgment with which wisdom is associated. The man who has exalted talents and little pru- dence, is like a well built vessel set afloat without sails or rudder; or he is like a meteor which blazes for an instant and then goes out in darkness. A person so constituted does not win confidence read- ily ; people are slow in entrusting important interests to his care ; they speak of him as imreliable, unsafe. But gjod judgment as evinced in a practical prudence wins favor ; it is more mighty than genius, learning, or eloquence; it gains ascendancy over men's minds when these fail to do so. This quality Avas prominent in him we mourn. Though a man of warm impulses, ho had these under a masterly control ; hence he did not yield to momentary clulli- tions of feeling, or under the pressure of excitement give way to rashness of speech or of conduct. Through the obscurities which prejudice and passion throw over a matter, his calm eye penetrated to the light. When the conflict of extremes raged about him he had more than common of that wisdom which discerns the srolden mean and steadily makes towards it. This quick perception of what is proper and best I think was quite characteristic of him. Hence the general prudence of his counsels, and his own unusual self-possession in the midst of perplexities and dangers. Had he been less calm and judicious he would have been less a man for the time. His rare good sense was a prime quality for the hour, concil- iating confidence, and inspiring in the breasts of the people those sentiments of good will and approbation without which no ruler could bear up manfully or go forward steadily in the midst of such difhculties, and under such a burden of care and trouble. The na- tion believed his judgment sound and therefore implicitly trusted him. This shows that true power lies in those qualities which are least brilliant, and which are commonly thought to give the smal- lest promise of eminence ; qualities which, when furnished with an opportunity and called into exercise, as they were in his case, con- fer greatness upon character which the eye of the historian is sure to discern and his pen to record. Another characteristic of the man was simplicity. Tiiey whom circumstances rather than merit elevate to high positions often be- come ostentatious, and exhibit towards their inferiors a haughtiness which ofl'ends and repels. This disposition is the more disagreea- ble and unpardonable in those who have risen from humble fortune to lofty estate, and in the pride of their elevation quite forget the day of small things, ignore, so far as possible, their origin and turn their backs upon the associates and friends of other years. Mr. Lincoln was eminently simple in his tastes, manners, and habits. He was in no respect urbane or courtly. In dress and address he was plain and unadorned. He took on no airs. He looked down contemptuously upon no man, but ever put himself on terms of fa- 8 miliarity with all who approached him in a proper manner. Nor did the dignities to which he attained dazzle or bewilder him so but that he could recognize still the acquaintances of former times, and meet any man, however humble, face to face on the common terms of an equal humanity. He was, to the last, th e same unas- suming and simple minded man; true to his former history; true to early sympathies and friendships ; true, perfectly true to the bent of his own genial nature. Such simplicity is a condition of real greatness, nay an essential element in it. False greatness is starched and showy, lofty and assuming, but actual greatness is in- versely to such dispositions. A man is usually small in proportion as he fancies himself large, and struts, and puts on consequential airs, and demands respect. John Milton, Isaac Newton, and George Washington were simple and guileless as childhood itself; so was Abraham Lincoln, and true excellence, higli worth and real greatness are ever so characterized. Let me remark further that all the natural instincts of Mr. Lin- coln's mind and heart lay in the same general direction as the qual- ities already named. Among these was his sense of right. This seems to have been inborn, and it exhibited itself as a determining force in his charac- ter and life. He had a strong natural conscience, an inatc sense of rectitude which led him to make a broad distinction between good and bad principles, and between right and wrong conduct. These are things which political men have been too much in the habit of confounding, and hence the moral blindness and infatuation which we have too often had occasion to complain of and to mourn over in the high places of the land, as evinced in the practical adoption of the maxim which is as much apart from real patriotism as it is from true religion, ''Our country right or wrong," and as evinced further in the disposition and tendency to merge the idea of right into the idea of legality, thus exalting the legislation of men into equality with the legislation of God. Whatever weaknesses Mr. Lincoln had, and whatever errors he committed as a politician and a statesman, they did not lie in that direction. I am not now at- tributing to him the cultivated heart of piety ; I speak here of the promptings of nature in him, that they were unmistakably and pow- erfully in favor of what is good and right. Hence, when a matter 9 involving any principle of rectitude was committed to his judgment, there was always a strong presumption amounting to certainty that his mind would gravitate towards a just vicAv of it — that he would give his ultimate preference and preponderating choice to tliat side of the subject on which the moral considerations clustered. It can- not be doubted that he was ambitious to please, and that he was politic in the choice of means to secure popularity, but it is also clear that he was disposed rather to strive for the favor of the good than for the favor of the bad, that on all accounts he preferred the approbation and applause of the sober minded and right hearted portion of his fellow men. With such an instinctive tendency it may with propriety be said of him that " even his failings leaned to virtue's side." Closely associated with that sense of right, was a quick intuition and love of justice. Having such inborn convictions of rectitude, he would be Avanting in sympathy with wrong in the relations of man to man. All injustice Avould naturally be abhorrent and a grief to him. He would instinctivly take the part of the injured against his injurer. The oppressions practiced by the rich upon the poor would incite in such a breast the sentiment of indignation. The law's delay to vindicate the wronged, the quibbles of advocates de- signed to darken counsel and to hinder the vindication of truth would create a burning impatience in a mind so constituted. With the struggles and sorrows of the bondman a spirit so alive to jus- tice would readily bear a part. Mr. Lincoln carried in him such a heart, and it gave quality to his treatment of men in every private and social relation. Respecting the rights of all, he sought to do justly with all. This devotion to rectitude ruled his practice as a lawyer and a politician. It also entered into his statesmanship when called to execute the highest trusts in the gift of the nation. We see in his public conduct no letting down of principle for the sake of advantage; no compromise between the convictions of his under- standing and that desire too natural to man to conciliate the favor of those who do wrong. At the same time he was eminently characterized by kind and lenient dispositions. The justice, of which he had so keen a sense, was not that severe and unbending attribute which is not assuaged by mercy or softened by compassion. There was nothing fierce Or 10 savage in his nature. No element of cruelty entered into bis spirit. He was morally incapable of the tyranny which rebels, who were conscious of having forfeited his clemency, were, of course, ready to charge him with, and of which the murderer, in the moment of his crime, proclaimed himself avenged. Abraham Lincoln a ty- rant ! Abraham Lincoln a Nero, a Caligula, a Charles IX, a Henry VIII ! Impartial history will make no such record of him. Rather will it associate him with the most humane and beneficent of rulers, with Augustus, with Marcus Aurelius, with William III, and with Washington. His temper was not caustic and biting, but mild and amiable. The sarcasm which goes scathing through a man's soul is not ascribed to him, but rather a genial humor which sends sun- shine and good cheer through all the avenues of feeling. His kind heartedness and clemency were proverbial. The law of kindness was in his mouth. He opened his lips to gratify and instruct, not to inflict a wound or to produce pain in any. He was a friend of the poor. He commiserated the down trodden and injured. He had no malignity towards any, even his bitterest enemies, but char- ity towards all. He loved man as man irrespective of color, con- dition, or circumstances. He was a sincere philanthropist, a friend of his race — of all races of human beings — but of the colored man especially, because more cast down than others and needing more sympathy and help to enable him to rise. These moral instincts of our late President — his sense of right, of justice, and humanity were elements of real greatness. It is of such materials that the "column of true majesty in man" is reared. Intellect, learning, eloquence alone do not carry up the shaft. Power is not its base; genius is not its apex. Without high moral qualities it cannot rise in strength and beauty. These alone give consistency and weight to character. Without them, a man of larger gifts in all other respects would not make an Abraham Lin- coln. Without them, he himself would have been diminutive and obscure. It was confidence in his character that carried him up, once and again, to the dazzling heights of power. In this their choice, the instincts of the people were not at fault. What they wanted in a President, they believed was realized in him, viz: ca- pacity and Jioncsty. They did not fear for his statesmanship when they saw that his heart was right. They were ready to take him 11 on trust as to all matters of pul>lic policy when convinced that lie was a true man. They had little apprehension that he could wreck the Ship of State while such moral cpialities -with vigilant eyes were at the helm — that the Union could tall to i)ieces when such a girdle of virtues was lashed about it. If it be said that it was the Presidency which made Mr. Lincoln great, it may be admitted that this was a condition of his greatness, the essential means of its full development. But mark, it is not every man that even the Presidency would make great. It has al- ready failed to make some great who enjoyed its emolmnents and honors. Elevation to that exalted place will not impart the elements of greatness to him who did not ])ossess them before. Mr. I^incoln carried up to the nation's capitol the essential materials of all he af- terwards became; and those materials, when cast into the fiery cru- cible of responsibility and trial, were molten into the shape and forms of majesty that now present themselves to view while we contem- plate him as one of the noblest of men, and the most eminent ruler of his time. Many persons, in the out])urst of their partiality, speak of Abra- ham Lincoln as the second Washington, and the second father of his country. Now, to place any man in such proximity to tliat revered personage who, by connnon consent, is reckoned the greatest of earth's great ones, may appear quite presumptuous; the similarity and correspondence must be very striking to justify or give perti- nence to any such comparison. Upon a careful analysis, however, of these two very illustrious characters I must candidly confess that there appears to me to be not a little in cunnnon between them. "Both hved in stormy times ; both passed througli a revolution ; botli were manifestly born of and for the most fearful exigencies ; both were men of rare good sense, of uncommon prudence, and of right moral sympathies; both, in their way, exhibited the lofty traits of courage, fortitude, ])atience, and magnanimity. General Washing- ton, however, united in himself the military and civic virtues. Tlie latter only can be claimed for Mr. Lincoln. It will not do, there- fore, to press the comparison, though it may so touch at various points as to admit of its being drawn in general terms; at the same time it must be borne in mind that these men had qualities pecu- liar to themselves; also, that they lived at dilfercnt eras, and acted 12 in the midst of emergencies somewhat similar, Indeed, and yet, fur the most part, entirely unlike. If it is events Avliich, in the eye of history, give character to an administration then none can be more ] signahzed in the future records of this country than the one which ] has just now so tragically closed. ISTone is so crowded with occur- rences of profound and lasting interest; none so stained with blood and yet none so marked with promise. Indeed, if it shall not be re- garded as the most illustrious of all up to this date, it can only be be- cause it was not the first in order of time. And I have no doubt that the judgment of posterity will be that George Wasliington was the instrmnent under God of founding this glorious RepubKc, and that Abraham Lmcoln was the instrument under God of saving it. Where the greater honor lies it were difficult to tell. Such in brief is the estimate I form of the character and services of the man at whose tragic end a nation is sunk in grief. I ha^-e aimed only at a delineation of what lie ivas ; what he did has passed before all eyes and is perfectly familiar. He is no more ! He slumbers with the mighty dead. His work is done and the measure of his fame is full. In an unsuspecting moment he fell by the hand of an assassin, a cowardly and fiendish assassin for whose foul crime the vocabularies of human language furnish no significant word. Manslaughter, assassination, murder, how tame even these words seem, and how inadequate to express the awful enormity as our souls feel it. These may tell the story of the outward act, but after all they leave us grasping after some form of thought capable of indicating the utter badness — the infinite ma. lignity of the plot and of its execution. But the deed shall not go unpmiished, for it is written " Vengeance is mine, saitli the Lord, I will repay." Again it is written " There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." And it is written further, " He that fleeth of them'shfll not liee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered ; thi)ugh they dig into Hell, thence shall mine hand take them ; though they clind) up to Heaven tlienco will I bring them down ; and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence ; and tliough they hide from my sight in the bottom of the Bea, thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them ; and though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I 13 command the sword and it shall slay them ; and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good." The cnrse of the Almighty will rest on the perpetrator of this crime, as it rested on Cain, and even if he is not brought to condign punishment, as the probability is he will be sooner or later, * yet he will feel that his punishment is greater than he can bear, for he will be a vagabond and a wan- derer in the earth, ever fleeing and yet never escaping from the shadow of his foul deed ; remorse, his accuser, followmg hard upon his footsteps as the unappeased avenger of blood. Abraham Lincoln is dead. " The beauty of Israel is slain upon I thy high places. How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, pubhsh it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Phihstines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triiunph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew neither let there be i-ain upon you nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away as though he had not been anointed with oil." And so it is that " One sinner destroyeth much good." The maddened brute, without understanding, may gore with his horn the proudest of human flesh. The mean man, the hardened wretch who has no character to save and is morally incapable of any good, may yet do boundless mischief; he can strike down the righteous, he can vilely cast away the shield of the mighty; by a single act, in a single moment he can cast down the heart of a jubilant people and overspread a great nation with gloom. So fell our Saul as if he had not been chosen of God and anointed with oil. How great the change which has come upon om' dead President ! How sudden and how vast the transition ! He has passed from time to eternity, from the shifting and changeable to the permanent and enduring. His offices and honors he has laid aside. His ear is now forever deaf to the applause of his countrymen, and will not listen to the strains of panegyric which posterity waits to accord him. And may we not trust that his spirit is where both his name and fame are, among the mighty and the wortliy dead ? A general con- viction is that he was ready for this great change, ready in the only way by which readiness can be secured. Oppressed by his respon- "On the 27th of April, John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, was captured, and killed in beinnr captured, near Port Royal, Va., thus meeting his doom in less than two weeks from the date of his crime. 14 sibilities, weighed down by private grief and by public calamities, often at his wit's end to know what to say and what to do, it would be marvelous indeed had he not felt constrained to lay hold on God for wisdom, direction and aid, nay, if he Uad not come to the cross of Jesus, as a stricken sinner, for comfort and hope. But it would be still more marvelous if this man, in whose behalf a whole nation was in a ceaseless agony of prayer, had not been inclined to rule in righteousness and even to yield himself up a willing captive and ser- vant to Christ. If reports are true, President Lincoln not only im- itated Solomon in the search for true wisdom where alone it can be found, but David also and other pious princes in the exercise of faith, and the cultivation of the temper and the habit of devotion. Al- lowing it to have been so, then the change which has come upon him is as blessed as it is great ; the aching head is at rest ; the throbbing heart is calm and peaceful; the burden of a nation's wel- fare no longer oppresses tlie anxious mind, and the unfettered spirit has risen on jubilant pinions to the home of the good and the true. If it were so, then the honors of a Chief Magistrate on earth are only laid aside for those of an eternal royalty and kingship with Christ and the Father; the fading glory of this world being only exchanged for the brighter and more enduring glory of Heaven. If it is so, then write, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them." How are we to understand the event which has occasioned such universal sorrow, and what lesson of practical good may be derived from it? Kegarded in the light of a divine judgment it must have some designed relation to the sins of the people, and yet to their highest welfare likewise; that relation may be general or it may be special ; it may be prospective or it may be retrospective ; it may be a punishment or it may be a chastening. I confess myself incapable of reading the lesson at present. I know not what the Great Ruler of the Univerpf means by it. " IIow unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! " And is it not presumptuous in any man to stand forth at once with his divining rod and declare, as with certainty, the interpretation of the thing ? Different persons will of course view it from their own standpoint and through the medium of their own peculiar opinions, prejudices and passions./ Some will say it for this, and some for that. One will assert that it is the last tremendous judgment upon slavery and complicity with it; another that it is a rebuke in advance of Presidential clemency towards the rebellious; a third that it is an interposition to prevent any compromise of the rights and welfare of the colored race ; a fourth that it is a providential removal of the main obstacle to the pacification of the country, the speedy rein- stalling of the Union and the Constitution over the whole land, I am amazed at the boldness and confidence with which such views are actually put forth. We might almost fancy that the old proph- ets were risen from the dead when we hear persons speak on the subject in such a spirit of solemn earnestness and authority as if they held relations of immediate intercourse with Heavenf . and knew by a direct inspiration the will and decrees of the Almighty. As to myself, I must wait for further light before accepting- their uterances. At present I am jealous of all human suggestions on the subject, especially of any which, designedly or undesignedly, by friend or foe, reflect upon the lamented President and tarnish the brightness of his fair and well earned fame as a wise ruler, a friend of the lowly, and a servant of the human race. Let us be content to wait and pray until all the truth shall burst upon us, for ** God is his own interpreter, And He will make it plain.'' \\ At the same time, I would humbly suggest that every judgment is a call to personal humiliation and penitence before God. And I would add that whatever the main and ultimate design of this afilic- tive event may be, we can hardly fail to observe in it a solemn re- buke of national vanity, and a divine correction of that tendency too common among the dwellers on earth to put undue confidence in man, in princes, and munitions of war, and especially that ten- dency to hero-worship and the unmeasured adulation of the great, which the infinite Ruler can only regard with an intense and holy jealousy as so much contempt of his supreme authority and of his all-controlling agency in the affairs of men and nations. What- ever else we fail, through ignorance, to discern in this providence, this lesson comes clearly and impressively out of it, that "God 16 alone is great,'' and that praise as well as power belongeth exclus- ively unto Him. " How are the mighty fallen !" But the lesson of the hour is not one of despair. The nation has not fallen with its prostrate Chief. The Constitution has not fallen with its chosen defender. The laws have not fallen with him who executed them in the highest magis- tracy of the land. The Union has not fallen with him who so dili- gently sought to throw around it the strong bands of national su- premacy. The cause of humanity has not fallen with its mighty standard bearer. The death of the President has invaded and changed nothing that is fundamental in our civil structure. The ancient buttresses of the Government stand firm. No strife for the succession has arisen in consequence of these events. The supreme authority has already passed quietly and without question into other hands according to the fixed order of the Constitution. The Cabinet is entire. The status of the army and navy is unchanged. The prospect of victory and of peace is as near at hand, and the beneficent work of emancipation is as likely to go forward as it was before. Society is not unhinged, order is not subverted, anarchy is not inaugurated. The entire machinery of law and of authority moves smoothly and powerfully on. Doubtless the assassin thought to stun the nation, to paralyze it, to cast it down in the moment of its exultation; perhaps he dreamed that the life of the Republic would flow out with the blood of its representative, his distinguish- ed victim. If so, it was but a dream. The Republic stands and will stand. Its existence has no absolute dependence upon any one man. To millions it seemed that President Lincoln was indis]jon- sable to the nation, and the first rush of feeling at the news of his death was that all was lost. But all is not lost. Nothing that i. vital to a great people lies within the power of an assassin. He may destroy the representativa man, but the principles represented, if good and true, remain and flourish still. The mighty fall, but justice, truth and freedom fall not with them. These are imperish- able. Though often cast down in the persons of their defenders, they yet rise again in the persons of other defenders and pursue their march towards universal supremacy. There is an ever work- ing, eternal providence that watches over the interests which wick- ed men would thwa ■ , and that gives vitality to the righteous cause. 17 So that no sincere and humble effort of good men fails or is fruit- less. Whatever was undertaken by President Lincoln, that was right in itself, is sure to be achieved, though he is gone. The con- stitution and government will be vindicated and established, the Union will bo restored, the liberties handed down from our fathers will be maintained and transmitted to those who are comiuor after us, and freedom will become universal throughout the land. Slave- ry, the occasion of so many of our public troubles and of our private griefs will, at no distant day, come to an end. Indeed it may be said to have virtually ceased already. It is so, so far as the declar- ed purpose of the people and of the government is concerned. Mr. Lincoln decreed its destruction — but the Almighty had decreed it before him — and it is sure to bo accomplished. The human instru- ment has perished, but the divine purpose will go on. The hand of the assassin cannot arrest the march of events, or turn back the pur- poses which rule the univei'se, and through the long years and ages of time, by means often mysterious, sometimes awful, move on the car of improvement and work out the best welfare of man. Indeed, truth seems to become more vital and commanding by opposition. Stricken to the ground it rises again with renewed vigor and force Blood pom-ed out in its defence does but enrich its roots in prepara- tion for a new and more bountiful harvest of good. Whatever just principles President Lincoln sought to advance while alive are more upspringing and forceful now that he is dead. The grave hallows them, and the poor dumb mouth on which the heavy clod rests will continue to speak in their behalf more eloquently and effectively than, the living voice ever did or coidd, and hence it will prove, as ' in numberless other instances, so in this, that " though the work- '■.tjn die the work goes on." The fame of the departed, too, is secure. The assassin may have thought to arrest that fame in mid career, to mutilate by separating it from its objects. It was in vain. He applied himself to his task too late. The work on which the glory of his victim would rest was ah-eady accomplished. The great tacts out of which the web of his jifo story would be wrought had already transpired. The record was already made up. Had he perished four years earlier, that record would have been short and comparatively unimportant. A few lines then would have sufficed for all that was noteworthy m j ' -D 4. -^no fTiPTi SO rapidly have events been generated, "^ ""T ifelfr eoLcl le '.tri and soul, that volumes alone events o! wl el he seemed ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ can confcun t'^^™; JJf"^, '^^ „;„ht have reached a more round- to which he was «f ^' ^' ,^™ „2,=,i fo„,,,d ,ritu pleasing expee- cdfuhness; and he <«;f «.' '"°^ „„;t,d ,„a tranquilized and tations to the tune when, Ins country x all manner of good d-cend,ng Jon >t a» th e. 1 -^^^ ^^ labors, laying as.de the ««>-«^ »* °ffi;;;.^^ ';=, .^j,;,, ,eapi„g the incr in a o-lorions^lialo about bis name. _ no- elsewhere as wdl as about our own dwe hng. ^he beauties o, ^fv of ocean and of earth are for man, and all are entitled to the tri—; of pleasure which they are adapted to e^^^^^^ ,nore, then, have we a common inhentanee '" " g'™^^ lustre and a true attractiveness to any hmnan cha.actei. All ooc , g;eat, and useful n.en belong to their country and theT ^^J^ Barnes and fame are in no private keepmg. The.r ~ "P^^^^^ not vested in a party or a elan. None can W-P-te «.". h t or their