Qass L^ 51 
 
 Book. ^^— 
 
>'- v- 
 
3n 
 
 KESOLUTIONS 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 OCCASIONED BT THB DBXTH OT 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 PRKSIIDKNT OB^ THES XJJSTITED STATES, 
 
 Who iied at Waihlngton CUy, April 19, 1865. 
 
 THl DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, OF 
 
 MANCHESTER, VERMONT, WEDNKSDAT, APRIL 19, 1865, 
 
 BT BKV. B. 8. CUSSMAN. 
 
 M ANC HESTER: 
 
 »BXMTXD fOB THB OOKMITTBB 
 1865. 
 
.8 
 
 ^OUBNAL PEIKT, 
 
The foUowiug rsaolution was adopted, unanimously, bj tke congi-egatlba imme- 
 diately after the following discourse was pronounced : 
 
 EESOLriD, That Eev. Mr. Ccbhmak be requesto*! to furnish a copy of his Funeral 
 Discourse for publication, and that in connectioi with the resolutions offerfed by Hon. 
 A. L. MiKER and Rev. Jameb Andzrsok, it be forwarded to Mrs AsRABAk LmcoLV 
 S8 an expression of our sympathies for her, in her recent gr&^t and crushiii^ sorrow. 
 
DISCOURSK. 
 
 What mean these sable symbols of mourning? Why this 
 House of God draped ? Why that Flag — the emblem of our 
 national life and power — why wears it the weeds of marked 
 grief? Why this large and solemn gathering? Why these 
 prayers and dirges lifted to Heaven through our tears ? 
 
 You tell me they utter, one and all, the fact of Death, and 
 are signs of uncommon sorrow. 
 
 But who of your dear ones is recently dead? Into whose 
 home has the grim messenger entered of late and made new 
 havoc with your hearts, in smiting down some illustrious, shin- 
 ing victim, and hence waked this wail of mourning, this quite 
 universal, crushing grief, in our quiet New England home ? 
 Who of us have recently lost a loved one ? I see no cofl5n. 
 You have not brought with you into the House of Prayer the 
 dear remains of any dear departed one. Why these symbols 
 of anomalous grief? Why this dark and sepulchral pall? 
 Why your faces covered with tears ? Why do your hearts 
 ache as if they must break, or you die ? Lo ! What do I see, 
 all over our land, where Loyalty and Freedom remain, where 
 are yet found hearts true to God and to law-abiding Liberty, 
 what do I see? Thousands and thousands of my countrymen 
 gathered in the Holy Sanctuary* and at the toll of bells so 
 lately rung in pealing and joyful tones, are assembled, with 
 sad hearts and amid the same insignia of profound and unut- 
 
terable forrow and even woe, to uttM- tlieir ])jajeri tnd their 
 sighs in the ear of Heaven — whence any true comfort can 
 come. Why all this I ask you ? Ah ! following the lines that 
 radiate from the heart-centre of onr national existence, in 
 streams of mourners, we reach inward and approach the home 
 of j)0wer and national glory and attraction, and presiing our 
 way through the dense crowds of living, gloomy men, women 
 and children of every race and color, we, with solemn tread 
 ihayx near a sarcophagus — a coffin — surrounded with the 
 mightiest of the land — scarred and war-beaten soldiers — war- 
 riors, whose names "the world will never let die," statesmen of 
 the ripest intellect and of the holiest worth, with grey locks 
 whitened in the service of their country — weeping like chil- 
 dren and mingling in one refrain of anguish, their sobs, with a 
 family group, who but a week since were all on the very summit 
 0^ joy? but now, with broken, crushed hearts, are about to b^ar 
 away theif loved and honored one to his old home. Sadly we 
 lifi the covering, and my soul, who lies therein ? I need not 
 tell you. His face is as familiar, though we may never have 
 looked upon it, is as familiar as the face of any dear and near 
 friend — that face marked with honest plainness, with inherent 
 strength, and with serene and smiling grace, you recognize it 
 And who e is itf Alas, alas, it is the face of him, though we 
 had seen him not, we loved — esteemed more and more, and of 
 whom we can truly say we did not know till now how much 
 we loved him and how our hearts confided in him, our worthy^ 
 humane^ honest, stout, true and Christian President — the leader 
 under God, as ever Moses was of Israel, of this American 
 people and yet who like Moses permitted to view from Pisgah'i 
 top the beauty of the Land of Promise, and not himself enter 
 in. So our leader dies within fair sight of bis hoped-for good, 
 dies just as he was writing on the undying page of history, my 
 country saved from the mad assault of Treason. But how is 
 this ? Is he dead ? How ? O my country weep. Tell it not 
 in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkalon, dies indeed, 
 
hj the permissive Providence of God, overruling all in utmost 
 wisdom, though dark to us, yet smitten down in a moment by 
 one of our own countrymen, impelled and frenzied by the mur- 
 derous spirit of the most unjust and foulest rebellion that ever 
 saturated the earth with its blood, and has now culminated in 
 the fiendish assassination of our Chief Magistrate ! 
 
 This then is the reason of this assemblage. This is the oc- 
 casion of all this sable drapery and mourning and tears, this 
 wide-spread grief. It is fitting indeed, that we, with the na- 
 tion, should come into the house of the Lord and cluster about 
 the altar of prayer, here bow down our hearts in submis!?ion at 
 the foot of adorable Sovereignty and Mercy and through our 
 tears look up to Him, our Father God, whence our hope and 
 help must come. 
 
 And who can help mourning, and more deeply mourn that 
 he should dia at this critical and yet hopeful juncture in our 
 national struggle against the vile spirit that inllamed the 
 heart of Treason, that nerved the arm of the foul invader, 
 opened the blood-gate of war and has now, as its legitimate 
 and mad work, struck with an assassin's hand at the very heart 
 of the nation — of all true and Constitutional law and order in 
 the land. This aggravates and intensifies our grief. This 
 adds the emofions of horror and of just indignation to our sor- 
 row. We shudder as we weep, as the deed apprehended, and 
 yet we never could believe there was a heart depraved or 
 arm Satanic enough to consummate, has been accomplished ! 
 
 And yet the deed is done, no worse in spirit or in fact, than 
 the spirit and fact of the rebellion that prompted it, that threat- 
 eoed he should never take his seat at the Capital, threatened 
 to orerthrow this Government and tumble our free institutions 
 into chaos, yet it is done ! There in yonder cofiSn, I see, through 
 blurred eyes, our good, noble, magnanimous, National Repre- 
 sentative lies, calm and sweet in death, his all-guiding and 
 great spirit wafted away from the tumult and care and madness 
 and joy of earthy and may we not hope through the mercy of 
 
8 
 
 that adoraUe Jesus whom he loved, and that God whom he 
 ever recognized, is safe where the wicked cease from troubling 
 and the w^eary are at rest. 
 
 He is no more! His ear is deaf to the shoutsfof welcome 
 at his presence, or now to the wail of wild and unutterable 
 grief that bursts from the bruised heart of his companion and 
 children. His eye is closed upon the rising glories of his 
 emanfipated country. He has listened for the last time to the 
 glad voices of Victory as they leap and^swell ovefj^the land. 
 He is no more, ah ! can we say this? Nay, never was he so 
 all pervasive as to-day. We see and feel him in our 
 dreams! " Though dead he yet speaketh." He cannot die 
 out on earth even. The green sods, as they grow greener and 
 more fresh over his grave, can never muffle his ^voice or bury 
 his memory and wisdom. His name and fame are immortal. 
 
 And yet he is gone, and we weep and mourn like children, 
 and we can't help it, for we esteemed and loved him. The 
 blow that struck him, strnck us. We all feel weak. Our 
 limbs tremble underneath us. We sink down and cry after 
 him, My Father! My Father! the chariot of Israel and the 
 horse-men thereof! Our hearts quake, fears take hold of us 
 as of a woman in travail. We know not what will be on the 
 morrow. We seem to stand upon the perilous edge of some 
 deep and dark abyss, whose mad waters swirl and cast their 
 iQ.^ Spray over us, and into it are plunging our hopes, our liber- 
 ties — our free institutions — all that we hold dear on earth. 
 For the spirit that maddened the assassin's brain, still lives in 
 our land. Thousands we fear are glad that the deed is done, 
 and dared they, would tumble our Government into one vast 
 heap of ruin and raise upon it, in the glee of Devils, the black 
 tanner of anarchy and'o^c? night^^ What was intended and at- 
 tempted, more than was [accomplished, is sad proof of this. 
 We thank Heaven for its sparing favor. May the life and 
 fttrength ot our new President and^ his constitutional advisers 
 be precious in its sight ! 
 
Kut what a fall is this from tlie height of hope and joy that 
 Ave had reacli<"'l one week n^ol IIjw inexpressibly ditferent 
 the scene, amid the triumphant waving of the nation's banner 
 upon the captured walls of Sampler, and that awful scene 
 when amid the music and merriment of the hour a single pis- 
 tal shot is heard, the instantaneous unconsciousness of our 
 President, his head dropped on his breast, the scream of a 
 widowed woman, and the deep death slumbers of her noble 
 and honored husband I 
 
 •' How has the mighty fallen." 
 
 Many noble and dear brave ones have fallen before, and we 
 bad thought our grief so deep as not to be moved with a deep- 
 er sorrow, and yet we mourn to-day as never b- foie, fulfilling 
 to the letter the words of the holy Pr "piiet at the d-ath of Is- 
 rael's beloved King. " In that day shall there be a gr-at 
 mournin;: in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadradrimmon in 
 the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn ev ery fam- 
 ily and their wives apart, the family of the house of Nathan 
 apart and their wives apart, the family of Levi apart and their 
 wives apart, the family of Shimei apart and their wives apart. 
 All the families that remain and their wives apart." So it is 
 this day. 
 
 But amid this quite universal gloom, what voice above our 
 wail do I hear, if not the. voice of Heaven speaking to us, in 
 the words of the great Massilon, at the funeral of his beloved 
 King, contrasting the weakness of the monarch with the im- 
 mutability of God, God alone is great ! He lives and ruLs ! 
 So when Jehovah was pleased to command the Prophet Isaiah 
 to make a public proclamation in the ears of the people, what 
 was it, think you, he was ordered to announce ? The voice 
 said cry, and he said what shall I cry ? 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 blow«th apon it. Surely the peoplt is gragg. Tht gr*«« 
 
10 
 
 withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall 
 stand forever. 
 
 Instead, then, of presentincr to our eyfs tlie mutations of 
 power, the revolutions of States and Empires, lie exhibits a 
 most awful spectacle, the human race withering under the 
 breath of his mouth and perishinsj under his rebuke, while He 
 plants his word, pregnant with Eternal Truth, subsisting from 
 generation to generation and in undecayed vigor, to console 
 our wretchedness and impregnate the dying mass with the 
 seed of Immorta'ity. So, now, as Heaven has shown how ut- 
 terly unstable and uncertain are bare earthly hopes and prop^, 
 that mundane glory must soon fade, the honored and the good 
 lie down in one common grave with the humble and obscure, 
 as we feel a dread precariousness gather about our pathway, 
 ob, how glad we are to welcome the sublime and up-loom ng 
 truth ; there is a God, and he is supreme and good, that though 
 individuals die, principles of truth and righteousness live, and 
 will ere long triumph. 
 
 Now is the time for us to trust in our Father God, and yie|d 
 our hearts, our country, our all into his wise, Omnific hand, to 
 love and obey Him. We needed to^ be humbled even in our 
 joy. We needed to realize anew, that there is an overruling 
 God on the Throne ; 
 
 '• That a Divinity shapes our ends 
 Rough hew them as we will." 
 
 Shall we ever again forget this old and oft-reminded lesson ? 
 But to retrun. That the death of great and good men should 
 be particularly noticed is equally the dictate of reason as of 
 itevelation. The tears of Israel flowed in torrents at the de- 
 cease of good Josiah, and to his memory the funeral women 
 chanted their solemn dirges. The death of Washington and 
 other of our Presidents produced a great sorrow. The tidings 
 especially of the Father of his Country moved the infant na- 
 tion and it wept. The death of Mr. Lincoln— the Preserv- 
 er of our Country — while it causes our hearts to bleed in their 
 
11 
 
 an<];uish, yet aucb were the circumstances attending it, it chills 
 our liopes and curdles our blood. He has fallen not in the or- 
 dinary movements of Divine Providence but as the result of 
 the spirit of barbarism, for years past permeating the land, 
 and ihat takes us back to the dark ages for its parallel of 
 crime, the spirit evolved of pliysical and moral oppression, that 
 has urovvn up witii the history and strengthened in its afrocity 
 with the system of African Slivery, whose prime law is, that 
 might makes rights that physical force is mightier than moral 
 obligation and holier than civil or Divine law. 
 
 We have read of this spirit's working. We have read with 
 horror of the savage assaults it has made upon the innoe.ent — 
 the lovers of old Union and of law, of the deliberate and per- 
 sistent purpose to starve into hopeless idiocy or lingering death 
 prisoners taken in a war it madly inaugurated. 
 
 We have read of plots to burn whole cities, and butcher un- 
 armed men, women and children, and all under the sanction 
 and by the authority of a Government nowhere under Heaven 
 or above Heaven, but in Hell, recojinized as a legitimate pow- 
 er—professedly organized for Freedom — liberty^ with an iron 
 heel on the neck of the poor white and the poorer African. 
 We hhve heard that the precious life of our Chief Magistrate 
 was in jeopardy, and yet we had closed our eyes to the fact that 
 it could be possible, that the spirit of rebellion even, could so 
 corrupt and influence any of its votaries, as to ignore all law 
 aiid riyhf, crush out conscisnce and all the instincts of a com- 
 mon though depraved humanity and to concieve in cold blood' 
 and consummate the toul deed of murdering the Chief Magis- 
 trate of the nation. Personally, those who are in rebellion, 
 and those who sympathize with it, North and South, many of 
 them, may not be directly implicated in this high-handed and 
 brutal murder, and yet every man, we care not where he lives, 
 that has had the least particle of sympathy with it, is more 
 or less responsible and guilty in this deed. Every insurgent 
 Jn the land has the spirit of murder in hi* heart. Few had 
 
the de.^peration to strike the blow but all have urojed on the 
 the niMdii'^Ps tliat jravp ihe df^nth-woun'), who have even seeret- 
 ]y hoped or prayed that the rebellion might succeed. And 
 mce, ray Iriends, this foul d'-ed is but tlie natural <)ut-i)irth of 
 the low and mawlnsh sense of justice and rcijard to law and 
 the le^iitimate execution of its pena'ties upo i all criminals, 
 all law breakers, and which under the garb of sweet phil^tn- 
 thropy, or polluted, mistaken views of Christian mercy has 
 poisoned and demoralized so many minds and hearts among 
 us. 1 permit no one to go beyond myself in the enforcement 
 of the great and holy doctrine of Christian mercy and of 
 Christian forgiveness, in its bearinn; upon individual affection 
 and conduct, toward those who have wronged us, but, my 
 hearers, God is just as well as merciful and He haih put the 
 Sword, the keen emblem of Death, into the hands of the le- 
 gitimat'^ rulers of this world that they may, by his authoiity, be 
 just even to the taking of life, as well as merciful ; and where 
 ever this i.- denied or overIot)ked He will punish us for o-ur 
 dastardly temerity and hurl down ruin in the form of wide- 
 spread anarchy upon our heads. 
 
 And yet the foul deed has been done, and our worthy, be- 
 loved Chief Magistrate is dead ! We can hardly believe it. 
 It is too av\t'jl to believe, and \ et they tell us he is dead, just 
 as the the broad dayii<;ht t^eemed to be opening upon the dark, 
 stru^jglirag night of our woe, just as the powers of darkness 
 were being repulsed, and he and we all began to breathe more 
 easily, and hope, with a halo of glad visions, revived within us, 
 — ^just as he was preparing a Proclamation of Amnesty, we are 
 told, and of iioly Thanksgiving to Almighty God, — as the 
 shouts of welcome from the rebel capital were lingering in his 
 ears, — he was shot — and he too has passed away, with the vast 
 muliitude — immolated on the bloody al'ar of a foul rebf^llion. 
 
 So far as our late President is concerned, how sweet it is far 
 us to hope and feel that he is at resi — not only far removed 
 from the mad assaults of polluted Treasoa, and at rest from 
 
the untold care and anxiety of this world — so vain and wuful 
 oft 
 
 One thing is certain, he h.as not lived in vain. lie spruno' 
 from a Quaker family, and was born in Kentucky. The ag- 
 gregate amount of school education he ever received was about 
 one year. With axe in hand, at seven years of age, he spent 
 his youth with his fatiier in Indiana, or as a hired man on flat 
 boats, on the great Mississippi. Once a soldier, in the Black 
 Hawk war, wh::re he received his first honor as Captain of a 
 volunteer company. Soon after he is reading law, with books 
 borrowed, and studied by night. He enters political life and 
 is unsuccessful, and in 1837 removes to Springfield, Illinois, 
 and rises rapidly in his profession. In 1844 enters Congress 
 and is found on the unpopular side of humane and just legisla- 
 tion. But you know his history. Every child should read it, 
 and will read it, and you know that how he rose step by 
 step, against odds large and quite overpowering, until from the 
 'highest position in civil life, on earth, he has wrung from the 
 reluctant heart of the nation the confession, that he was not 
 only highfy and nobly endowed, hut an honest man. One 
 such was found at last, a (air incarnation of our free and Dem- 
 ocratic Government, plain and true. He has won our admira- 
 tion, not by any dazzling and transcendant qvjalilies of bare and 
 cold intellect, but by attributes more dependant upon the puri- 
 ty and elevation of his moral nature— by unceasing and inflex- 
 ible devotion to duty — by heroic firmness and constancy, even 
 when we were saying, he had no mind of his own — by a calm 
 and quite intuitive judgment, inspired by that rare and rough 
 quality, sound common sense — with a native gentleness and 
 kindness of heart, that made him a stranger to all bitterness of 
 spirit or of real party animosity — full of simple and touching 
 courtesies, sparkling with hcmiely and keen wit ; conspicuous 
 for his moderation and humanity in the hour of triumph, a> of 
 serene ho()e in the dirk hour of uusuccessful conflict — a model 
 of simplicity and integrity, whose exterior look was not faih- 
 
u 
 
 ioned after flu; mcdein .schools of ci.urllj life, but whose soul 
 'vas the impersonation of humane and manly purposes. Oh ! 
 he has been snatched away (Vom us so suddenly and so foully, 
 that had we not confidence in a wise and overruling Providence, 
 our hearts could not submit to it. Yes, I look upon Abraham 
 Lincoln, take him all in all, as the ripest and most natural 
 development of American Democracy, that we have seen since 
 the days of our Fathers — the living embodiment of a pure and 
 noble American culture, roughened, ; erhaps, by a Western 
 pioneer life, but refined iu heart and made holy in purpose by 
 the uplifting force of the Word of God, in which he believed, 
 and the i-adical principles of our free and Republican institu- 
 tions. 
 
 And have we not reason \o believe that with all and above 
 all his moral qualities of higii and stable virtue, he was a chris- 
 tian man. Listen to these words of his, as he left his home 
 for Washington : 
 
 My Friends : No one not in my position can appreciate the 
 sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I 
 am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a cfentury ; 
 here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. 
 I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves 
 upon me, which is, perhaps, greater than that which has de- 
 volved upon any other man, since the days of Washington. He 
 never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Prov- 
 idence, upon which he always relied. I feel that I cannot suc- 
 ceed without the same Divine aid, which sustained him, and 
 on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; 
 and IJiopeyou, my friends, will pray that I may receive that 
 Divine Assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with 
 which success is certain. Again I bid you all an affectionate 
 farewell. 
 
 Go read and read over again, and then again, if your tears 
 will allow you, his last inaugural — so calm, so far removed from 
 any exuUant spirit over his opponents, or of any revengeful 
 
15 
 
 spirit toward the enemies of the country, so trustful in God, so 
 strong in H<'aven's own nnd eternal Truth, so hopeful of tiie 
 future and yet prepared for the worst — closing, you remember, 
 with these words : 
 
 With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
 in the ri^ht, as God gives us ,to see the right, let us strive to 
 fini.>h the work we are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to 
 care for him who t^hall have borne the battle and for his widow 
 and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
 and lasting peace, among ourselves and all nations. In full 
 harmony with the above we have, on what we regard good au- 
 thority, this little and touching incident to relate; Not many 
 monihs since, a gentleman having business with the President, 
 was requested by a friend to ask him whether he loved Jesvs. 
 The business being concluded, the question was kindly asked. 
 The President buried his face in his handkerchief, turned away 
 and wept. He then turned and said : 
 
 When I left home to take this Chair of State, I requested 
 ray countrymen to pray for me. I was not then a Christian. 
 When ray son died, the sorest trial of my life, 1 was not a 
 Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and looked upon 
 the graves of dead heroes who had fallen in defence of their 
 country, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ: / do 
 love Jesus. And can we fail to see that he loved Jesus, the 
 Saviour of the world, and may we not trust that his spirit rests 
 in the bosom of his Father and our Father, never more to be 
 disturbed by the sin and turmoil of earth. 
 
 And yet this very and dear man, who of all others, seemed 
 prepared by his ripe and large experience, by his manly vir- 
 tues, his unquestionable patriotism and mature statesmanship 
 lo guide us to the end of our terrible coiiflict, is no more ! We 
 seem to be in a night-mare maze, struggling agamst this sad 
 truth, and yet with more than night-mare reality compelled to 
 believe that it is so. Sorrowing most of all that we shall see 
 hifl face no more among the living. 
 
16 
 
 Our liCfit ts ache anew and our sonons flow apacft. nnd we 
 weep with ins companion, known among us, and children and 
 friends. We ininijle our tears vviih our smitten land. But 
 through our tears shall we not praise that Divine Power, that 
 gave hira to us, in the hour of our trial, spared him so lonir. and 
 permitted hitn even, to rejoice in the full assurance of hoj)e, of 
 a preserved, restored, united country, on f rinciples too that if 
 we are true to them, will purify and elevate us. 
 
 In closing permit me to say, that standing as we do, with the 
 afflicted millions of our countrymen, near the opened tomb of 
 hira whose death we mourn, God has spoken to us. He means 
 we shall hear the voice and what does he say. Put not your 
 trust in Princes or in any Earthly Power. There is one high- 
 er than all Earthly Rulers. Will you love and obey him? 
 Will you, amid the startling evidences of Earth's frailty, the 
 instability of Earths good, put your heart's confidence in Him 
 and in His Eternal Word ? Shall we, as citizens of this land, 
 listen to tiie warning voice of God's Providence, repent of our 
 sins and hum}>le ourselves in the dust. 
 
 Oh that Heaven would grant the Holy Spirit to sanctify and 
 consecrate our new President and constitutional advisers and 
 all the people for their new and solemn duties and responsibil- 
 ities, thereby a holy pause come to our vain-glorying, and we 
 be prepared to execute justice in the fear of the Lord, love 
 mercy as His Word demands, and walk humbly before our God 
 all the days of our life — that We may at last, through the grace 
 of our common and atoning Redeemer, hear from his lips, those 
 glad words we hope he for whom we mourn has heard, " W^ell 
 done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord. For thine is the Kingdom and Power and glory for- 
 ever." Aqaen. 
 
CITIZENS MEETING, 
 
 At a meeting of the citizens of Manchester, called to take such action 
 as might he deemed proper in view of the death of President Lincolx, 
 Hon. Myron Clark was chosen Chairman, and L. Munson, Secretary 
 Hon. a. L. Miner. Col. M. S. Colburn, and Dr J. S. Osman, vvere ap- 
 pointed a committi e to draw up resolutions. The following resolutions 
 were presented and adopted : 
 
 Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, the heloved President of these United 
 States, has been most brutally muraered, by a cowardly assassin, and at a 
 time when his great statesiuanship, his noble patriotism, his purity of 
 keart, and disinterested action were most needed to guide our nation and 
 its government to peace, prosperity and happiness. Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That all the citizens of this town be requested to meet at the 
 Congregational Church, on Wednesday next, at 12 o'clock nocn, to listen 
 to a funeral address from the Rev. Mr. Cushman, — to spend a season of 
 solemn mourning for his death, and tf mingle our tears with those of all 
 jood and loyal citizens throughout the land. 
 
 Resolved, That while Washington has ever been justly called "the 
 father of his Country," Abraham L'nccln has been the honored instru- 
 ment, under God. to save it from destruction, and should hererfter be 
 ••lied his country^ preseeveb. 
 
 S 
 
18 
 
 Resolved^ That while all hearts were bounding with joy, that the re- 
 bellion was crushed, and this terrible war w.-s virtually ended, by our 
 great and crowning victories,— and while the nation was singing hymn" 
 and hozannas, and ascribing Dominion and Power to the God of Battlei. 
 for our great deliverance, — and while all eyes were turned towards Prep 
 ident Lincoln, with trusting confidencey to inaugurate a lasting peacw, 
 which should redound to the honor and glory of this great nation, — th 
 shock came upon us, like a burst of thunder, in a clear sky, turning al 
 "our joy and exultationn to the deepest sorrow and gloom. 
 
 Resolved, That while we are stricken and grieve, we will not lose Faith 
 in our governvient and free institutions, — that He, who has ever con- 
 trolled the destiny of this land, will not leave us, but will raise up oth- 
 er Lincolns, to guide the nation; and the unequalled blessings, bequeath- 
 ed us by our fathers, at the expense of their blood, will not, and shall 
 not, be torn from us, — and we here pledge ourselves anew to give all our 
 energies, and substance, and our lives, if necessary, rather than have 
 traitors, and slave-drivers, and cowardly assassins, govern this country 
 and rule over us. And that we never will relax our exertions, till all insti- 
 gators of treason, and all assissins, receive the full penalty of the law 
 for their crimes. 
 
 Resolved, That these fiendish assaults up&n the President, and Secreta- 
 ry Seward, and the attempt to murder the Vice Presiiivnt, and other mem- 
 bers of the Cabinet, are the legitimate fruits of Southern Slavery — which 
 has taught men to regard their fellow men as brutes^ fostered and stimu- 
 lated the worst of passions, and often turned masters into demons. It is 
 but the upheavings of this institution that has sought the jYat ion's life, — 
 tortured sixty thousand prisoner.? to death by starvation, and committed 
 more outrages upon humanity, than were ever before committed by all the 
 civilized world, and has finally perpetrated this crowning, dastardly deed 
 — but thanks be to Heaven, and to the loved and lamented Lincoln, this 
 monster. Slavery — this curse of all curses, — has fallen, and fallen to rift« 
 no more forever. 
 
 Resolved, That while we grieve, we, at the same time rejoice and give 
 thanks, that the felon's dagj^er fell short of the life blood cf that most illus- 
 trious statesman, William H. Seward, — and we humbly trust his life may 
 still be spared, and that he may continue to shed such a bright lustre up- 
 on this government and people. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender our warmest sympathies to Mrs. Lincoln and 
 her family, — who have honored this town by their visits, the last two 
 Beasons, — we would commend her and them to the teachings of Him, who 
 alone can heal the cleft heartland who is the widow's God and the orphan** 
 Father. 
 
19 
 
 The following additional resolution was presented by Rev. James An- 
 
 DERSON, and adopted as the sense of the meeting : 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased God in his all wise, but mysterious Provi- 
 dence, to sutfer the removal from our world by the hands of a vile and 
 fiendish assassin, the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, the late beloved, patriotic 
 and efficient President of these United States, 
 
 Therefore Resolved, That while we mourn the loss of our late Chief Mag- 
 istrate with inexpressible sorrow and grief, that we hereby tender to his 
 successor, the Hon. Andrew Johnson, our firm and undivided support in 
 the discharge of the high and responsible duties of his office in these days 
 •f Treason and Blood, assuricg him that the People of these loyal States, 
 who, under a favoring Providence, have fought these great battles of Hu- 
 man Freedom against Treason, and against Barbarism, and cruelties un- 
 heard-of in the wars of civilized Nations, will not now desert the cause 
 they have so bravely won ; but will stand by their Representatives and 
 Rulers, in this conflict, until the whole power of the Rebellion is crushed, 
 and Treason and Traitors meet their deserved condemnation, not only 
 «nder the hand of impending justice, but also in the sentiment and '♦morals 
 «f the World." 
 
 Dr. J. S. OsMAN, Hon. J. B. Hollister, Col. M. S. Colbdbn, and 
 F. H. Orvis, Esq., were appointed a committee of arrangements, Th« 
 Meeting then adjourned. 
 
 Myron Clark, Chairman. 
 
 L. MoNSON, Secretary. 
 
ORDER OF EXERCISES IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 The following was the order of exercises in the Churoh — which, by the 
 ladies, was handsomely and impressively draped : 
 
 90th Psalm chanted by the Choir, 
 
 Introduction and Beading of Holy Scripture— iQth Psalm and 
 iUh Chapter of Is/ Corinthians, by - - - - - Rev. S. Albbe. 
 
 Reading Hymn, by - - - Rev. J. W. Brow». 
 
 Prayer before Discourse, by - - - - Rey. Da. Wickham. 
 
 Funeral Address, by - ~ - ~ - - Rev. K. S. Cushmak. 
 
 Dirge, *' Unveil thy bosom faithful tomb.*' 
 
 01 Using Prayer and Benediction, by - - Rkv. James Andbrsoj?. 
 

 LB S '12 
 
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