Qass. 
 Book. 
 
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 !^^^2MS2s^£a 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 National Lessons from the Life and 
 Death of President Lincohi. 
 
 A SEEMOlSr I 
 
 PREACHED IN ^ 
 
 CANONSBURG, PA. 1^ 
 
 FAST DAY, THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1865. 
 
 RET. J. W. BAIN, 
 
 GC^ 
 
 PITTSBURGH: 
 
 TRINTED BY W. S. HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
 1865. 
 
 
 '^f^l 
 

National Lessons from the Life and 
 Death of President Lincoln. 
 
 A SEEMO]^ 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 l|^ Uitilili ^Pi^li||lijiia.iii CIe^^I, 
 
 CANONSBURG, PA. 
 
 FAST DAY, THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1865. 
 
 / 
 
 HEY. J. W. BAIN, 
 
 PITTSBURGH: 
 
 TRINTED BY W. S, HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
 1865. 
 
E^s 
 .s 
 
 
SERMON. 
 
 "And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, &c." 
 
 2 Chronicles 35:24, 25. 
 
 With a very few exceptions, the Jewish nation had been afflicted 
 with very corrupt rulers for many years preceding Josiah, and he 
 succeeded a very had nder, but during the reign of good King 
 Josiah a great reformation was effected in the nation, at least out- 
 ivardly. In all these points there is an analogy between this good 
 king and our lamented President. But death robs earth of the 
 best it has, taking them from the wicked, unworthy present, or the 
 evil to come ; and wherever or whenever death comes, he speaks 
 solemn lessons to the living. Whether he enters the hovel or the 
 palace, whether he take the king or the peasant, the old man or the 
 infant, his visitation should teach the living wisdom. But when he 
 " comes up into our windows, and enters into our palaces," and 
 cuts off, by the hand of foulest bloody assassination the Ruler of a 
 great and troubled nation, there is different and more important 
 instruction than his common visitation teaches. The death, the 
 time and manner of the death of our beloved President, has some 
 peculiar lessons for us. All Judah and Jerusalem, both church and 
 state, mourned for good Josiah, and it was right — they suffered a 
 great loss and a sore bereavement ; so all, both in church and 
 state, have good reason to mourn for Abraham Lincoln, for it was 
 a great loss and a painful bereavement. But thoughtless grief is 
 not sanctified, and bereavement that teaches nothing is unprofitable ; 
 then let us try to get good out of this sorrow. To this end, I ask 
 your attention to some lessons which I think it plainly and im- 
 pressively teaches. 
 
 First. The greatness and atrocity of the crime of treason and re- 
 bellion. Before this last woeful tragedy, we had many proofs of this. 
 
We had seen the noblest youth of our land — that loving mothers had 
 cradled, watched over and educated to manhood, the pride and 
 strength of their country — given by hundreds of thousands to the 
 rebel bayonet and the sword of treason ; we knew that thousands 
 of them had been starved into sickness, madness and death ; we 
 had seen every source of wealth and happiness troubled, the hard 
 earned fruits of freemen's honest toil poured by millions daily into 
 the bottomless pit of war, and bereaved weepers walking all over 
 the land ; yet the moral sense of the Nation did not seem to be 
 aroused and purged to see the enormity of the crime. We seemed 
 to regard it as an unfortunate difference of opinion, as quite a par- 
 donable offense ; inclined to take the red, treacherous hand, and 
 restore to confidence the erring brother, with only a sharp rebuke. 
 In our folly we were almost, if not quite ready '' to make a mock 
 at this sin." But the crime, just in the hour of defeat, arouses its 
 dying energies, embodied in the persons of these assassins, and 
 stabs the nation in the bodies of her Chief Magistrate and Prime 
 Minister. This was not the result of individual hate or personal 
 vengeance. In the fall of our beloved ruler we can exclaim, with 
 Antony, "Oh what a fall was there, my countrymen! then you, 
 and I, and all of us, fell down, and bloody treason flourished over 
 us ;" for the nation's life was supposed to be embodied there. 
 Surely this should teach us that treason and rebellion is a heinous 
 and a bloody crime, whether talked in the name of a once great 
 political party, or acted in defense of a rebellious confederacy; 
 whether uttered at the fireside or the forum, talked in the shop or 
 the market, in the school or the church, it is an odious and flagrant 
 crime, odious in the sight of God, and the greatest committed 
 against civil government and humanity. It is this that has robed 
 this nation in the habiliments of woe to-day. Oh that tears of 
 grief may wash clean the moral vision of the land to see the crime 
 in its magnitude. 
 
 Second. It should teach us the guilt and corrupting power of 
 human slavery. We had also many proofs of this before. We had 
 seen it gag John Quincy Adams, one of the noblest representatives 
 of the people, while claiming for them the sacred right of petition ; 
 we had seen a most scholarly and eloquent senator struck down in 
 debate, and beaten senseless by a slave-bred ruffian, and the whole 
 slave-driving aristocracy applaud the deed; we had seen it in the 
 
bowie-knives, blackguardism and brutality that disgraced the halls 
 of national legislation ; we saw it plunge a nation in a fratricidal 
 war, and conduct it with the most relentless cruelty and barbarism 
 — but we could not yet believe sincerely that this was the guilt and 
 power that so debauched the souls of these rebellious people. It 
 was reserved for this crowning act of infamy to set the seal of 
 eternal reprobation on it as a fearful crime. The spirit of slavery 
 became incarnate in the person of the assassins, and murdered our 
 noble President. Slave-chivalry is responsible for the " deep dam- 
 nation of his taking off." Surely this is enough to open our eyes 
 to see that to educate a boy in tyranny and licentiousness, from 
 his cradle to his manhood, can fit him only for treason and rebel- 
 lion ; that to rob and wrong a man, though he is black — to despoil 
 and imbrute a woman, though she is yellow, will deprave any gov- 
 ernment. Nothing but such a polluting power as slavery could ever 
 have debauched so deeply the souls of any people, that they 
 would rebel against such a government as this and murder such a 
 man. Let us execrate the very spirit of such a crime forever. 
 
 Third. It should teach us to execute lawful and righteous 
 penalties upon him that doeth evil, and give security to the loyal 
 and law abiding. Mercy is indeed a Divine attribute ; and to 
 exercise mercy, where sin is condemned, justice satisfied, and in- 
 nocence secured, must be a delight to every noble heart : but a 
 mawkish charity for the criminal does not belong to such an attri- 
 bute ; a sickly, sentimental pity for the condemned only shames 
 this holy disposition. A few sharp pangs unwillingly endured, 
 will not wash out the guilt of an atrocious crime. Fraternal re- 
 gards for the transgressor, mild penance, will not give safety to 
 the innocent, odium to sin, satisfaction to law, or honor to justice. 
 Some talk as if there was no attribute noble but mercy, no feeling 
 magnanimous but pity, and no act great and commendable but 
 pardon : as if God had but one attribute, and that unqualified 
 mercy ; as if nothing had higher claims to regard than the crimi- 
 nal's entreaty. Do men forget that justice may be robbed, 
 righteousness and obedience dishonored, and God displeased, by 
 acts of unqualified mercy to transgressors ? You know that I 
 have reference in these remarks to Lee, Davis and Co. as criminals. 
 Have they not been guilty of high treason and rebellion? most 
 relentless, inhuman and bloody rebelhon and treason ? 
 
6 
 
 I have already spoken of the atrocity of the crime, and I take 
 it for granted that you admit it. What is the legal and righteous 
 penalty for such crimes ? Death ! for the satisfaction of justice, 
 for the condemnation of the sin, and the safety of society. What 
 reason can be given, then, why death should not be inflicted upon 
 the civil and military chiefs of the rebellion, and confiscation and 
 disfranchisement executed upon every official of the Confederacy ? 
 Does not justice demand it? Most certainly. In after time, when 
 it is asked, Why did that man perish on the gallows ? history will 
 answer, his crime was so atrocious that justice would permit 
 nothing less. Does not the proper condemnation of the sin de- 
 mand it ? Yes ! nothing less will sufficiently brand the crime. 
 Does not the safety of society, the peace and happiness of humani- 
 ty, the blessings and permanence of civil government, demand it? 
 Let such unprincipled, crafty, powerful men, free to work upon an 
 ignorant and excitable populace, and can we disband our armies with 
 safety ? Let men who have shown such fiendish cruelty, and 
 practiced such atrocious barbarity, free on society ? Rather let 
 the wolf into your fold and the tiger into your pasture. Will 
 government be safe from the plotting of treason and rebellion, if 
 she has not courage to punish such criminals ? 
 
 I woula not excite one spark of vengeance in man ; this is ignoble. 
 I knovr to look on the graves of slaughtered sons ; pens of torture, 
 where brothers and fathers have died muttering idiots and raving 
 madmen ; to look on all the desolation and bitter bereavement of 
 this war, it is hard to repress the feeling that revenge is not only 
 sweet, but right. It is hard to say to the heart, " rejoice not in 
 the agony of thine enemy;" but I entreat you repress such 
 thoughts. I only desire to excite in you a love of justice, a love 
 for the honor of God's law, a love for the peace and happiness of 
 humanity and the blessings of civil government, that will induce 
 you, calmly, dispassionately to demand the execution of righteous 
 penalties upon such transgressors. But you may ask, are only the 
 leaders guilty ? Certainly not ; every individual engaged in the 
 rebellion, and many here in the North who never carried a rebel 
 musket, are morally guilty, and should be made to feel that they 
 live, not because innocent, but that they live by the clemency of 
 their government and the forbearance of this noble, generous 
 people. But I have heard it remarked, " this government is strong 
 
enough to pardon like a God." We ask no more than this. God's 
 pardon honors justice and condemns sin ; God's pardon secures 
 indemnity and safety to his government ; — give us this and we ask 
 no more. But the speaker did not mean this ; he was of tliose 
 who appeal to national vanity, and say, what a proud honor it 
 would be for our country to show now a magnanimity that would 
 astonish the world. National vanity is but little less dangerous 
 than national vengeance. The honor of God and justice comes 
 before national honor. The nation can find room for the exercise 
 of great and safe magnanimity in pardoning a mass of rebels and 
 traitors, male and female, that still remains, both South and North; 
 and this is magnanimity enough. 
 
 If this crime is to have no expiation by death, if justice is to 
 have no sacrifice from among the transgressors, then let the next 
 Congress repeal the penal statutes, and blot the death penalty from 
 the Book of God. Gen. 9 : 6, Ezra 7 : 26. If John Brown de- 
 served death, why not Lee and Davis ? If Booth merited a felon's 
 doom, Lee and Davis are guiltier than he. He only struck at the 
 life of the government in one individual ; they, in the person of 
 thousands. If the safety and peace of the dear South demanded 
 the execution of John Brown, what does the safety and peace of 
 the whole land demand for Lee, Davis, and others ? If Henry A. 
 Wise had shown John Brown all the mercy which humanity can 
 claim, then what can humanity claim for Henry A. Wise and such 
 as he, more justly than a halter ? No government has the right 
 to so far forget God's honor, the greatness of the sin, the claims of 
 justice, and the safety of its people, as to run the peril of releasing 
 such criminals. How would the generous man over whose grave 
 you speak, thus be pleased with such teachings ? The law of my 
 ofiice is this : " We dare not seek to please men, but God, who 
 trieth our hearts." 
 
 None according to their ability would honor the great dead 
 more than I, or loved him more sincerely, with all his faults. His 
 great tenderness — if fault it was, it was a most lovely fault — has 
 left behind a sweeter fragrance on his memory than the sweetest 
 flowers can ever breathe upon his grave. His great, kind soul 
 could not believe the murderous malignity and implacable hate of 
 his country's foes ; but you and I have a proof in addition that he 
 never had, that is, his foul and bloody murder. We have seen that 
 
8 
 
 they could slay Love and Mercy themselves, if the sword of 
 Justice is sheathed; then let judgment injustice be done. 
 
 Fourth. His life and death shall teach us the duty and profit- 
 ableness of prayer for rulers. The divine injunction requires this 
 as a duty of Christians, and Mr. Lincoln's life is an encouragement 
 to do it. He took a most affectionate leave of his neighbors at home, 
 asking their prayers, confessing his great need of divine guidance, 
 and his great, honest, candid, simple heart, that looks out through 
 all his eventful career, forbids us to cherish the thought for one 
 moment that this was merely a political bid for Christian favor. He 
 meant what he said ; and perhaps in the same length of time so 
 many prayers were never offered for any ruler. This we believe 
 enabled him to walk fearlessly and calmly amidst perils and 
 perplexities, when he could see no path for his feet through the 
 darkness that covered the snares and labyrinths of treason. He 
 walked securely and safely for himself, and successfully for us, 
 because a divine hand guided him; and he who cannot see this as 
 he looks back upon his road, where the slightest deviation must 
 have been ruinous to the nation, must be void of confidence in the 
 divine truth and promise. 
 
 Now the same duty for Andrew Johnson will surely be profitable 
 for us, ana the unhappy conduct of his inauguration day only makes 
 the duty more imperative for our safety as well as his. But I think 
 many persons, including some ministers and religious editors, have 
 been hasty and unjustly harsh in condemnation; they have denounced 
 him as if he was a confessed inebriate, a confirmed sot. Is this 
 near the truth ? I have no apology to make for drunkenness ; but we 
 have a right to any evidence that will comfort us and encourage 
 our confidence in our President, and that will do justice to his 
 reputation. He passed through a campaign unparalleled for bitter 
 vituperation, as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, yet his most 
 vigilant enemies never discovered that he was a drunkard. This I 
 think strong presumptive evidence of his sobriety. Gen. Burnside 
 says, when he was associated with him most intimately for weeks 
 in the Department of the Ohio, he never knew him to touch intoxi- 
 cating drinks. Hon. E. Etheridge, who knew him well in Tennessee, 
 testifies the same. Every one knows that he was in feeble health 
 when he reached Washington, and that he was advised to take the 
 brandy as a stimulus to enable him to bear the fatigue of the 
 
9 
 
 ceremonies of the day; and one who -vfas present says, if he had 
 been a drinker the amount taken then would not have affected him. 
 When Mr. Lincoln spoke to him about the unhappy affair, his 
 promise was that it should be the last of that kind, and we have 
 never heard of its repetition. Instead of harsh, unchristian censures, 
 tending to weaken public confidence in him, would it not be much 
 better to gather confidence and comfort from these facts, and say, 
 God help Andrew Johnson, then it shall be well with our land. 
 Has not his loyalty and patriotism been tried and proved pure and 
 strong ? He braved the traitors in the senate chamber, and told in 
 their ears their guilt and merited doom ; left his home, property and 
 all its endearments, rather than associate with traitors, and now 
 God, by a mysterious providence, has placed kim in power as his 
 avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil ;" and let us 
 pray that he may be made faithful in duty, only tempering judgment 
 with weeping mercy when the tears will not tarnish the glittering 
 sword of justice that he bears as the minister of God. 
 
 Fifth. We may learn the strength of a free government. When 
 kings and despots are struck from their thrones, dismay, confusion 
 and anarchy almost certainly follow, before the crown is placed and 
 the sceptre acknowledged. But there wa snothing of this in our land ; 
 after the quiver of agony that ran through the whole frame had 
 passed, the blood circulated healthfully, strength returned, and 
 there was only the painful regret of a member lost, a wound unhealed. 
 Why is this ? Because the strength and life of our land is not in its 
 hills and mountains, but in the vast solid plain on which they stand. 
 The national hills may be shaken, and the mountains melted down, 
 but the government is not overthrown, because it stands on the vast 
 solid plain of the intelligent masses ; it is founded on the loving, 
 loyal hearts of its free subjects, and to slay it, the assassin's bullet 
 must pierce every loyal brain and heart in the land. 
 
 Sixth. We should learn greater confidence in God. All through 
 the. gloomy night of sorrow he has seemed to hold our chief by the 
 hand, and in the wildest and most perilous hours of the storm has 
 said to us almost audibly, "Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." 
 Now he has taken the loved chief away, and says, " Put not your 
 trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 
 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day 
 his thoughts decay. But in God's name display your banners." 
 
10 
 
 Now, to the young men of my congregation, nay, I might say, 
 to young and old, all who hear me, I wish to present a few traits 
 of Abraham Lincoln's character that should be studied, wrought 
 in your hearts and copied in your life. I need scarcely speak of 
 his great tenderness, gentleness and kindness of soul, that balanced 
 his strong sense of justice, and seemed to almost overbalance this 
 attribute. The humblest sufferer received his sympathy; he 
 mingled his tears with the poorest, in their bereavement. This is 
 the mark of a truly great mind and heart ; it is this that now 
 sheds the sweetest odors around his memory ; it is this that won 
 for him such love in every true heart of this great land. Such was 
 the integrity of his character, that those who had lived near him 
 longest, and knew him best, sought to title him with a descriptive 
 cognomen, and they called him "Honest Old Abraham." I know 
 it has been uttered many a time with a sneer, as a nickname, but 
 it was a title of endearment, a name of affection and confidence, 
 that, alas ! so few deserve ; a title that would honor any crowned 
 head on earth. It was given to him by men who wept for joy 
 when he was first nominated for President, because they loved him 
 for his simplicity, candor, and lofty, pure integrity of character, 
 and they rejoiced to see their country's highest honors placed upon 
 him, and her glory and welfare placed in his hands, for they felt 
 they would be safe by virtue of his purity of soul. Young man ! 
 if you would learn the path of usefulness, honor and greatness, 
 study and copy his life who wore this homely but honorable title to 
 his grave — his life that was so pre-eminent for spotless integrity of 
 heart and purpose. Nothing will lift you surer, safer, higher on 
 earth, than this purity of honor. 
 
 Again, study his decision of character. He has proved by 
 severe trial, that in favor of anything right, whether popular or 
 not, he could say Yes ; and against anything wrong, though sanc- 
 tioned by custom grown hoary with age, and consecrated by sacer- 
 dotal rites, he could firmly say No ! Oh, that we had more men 
 with decision enough to use these little monosyllables appropriately 
 and timely. Who, when asked by a professed friend to help the 
 purposes of fraud and meanness, could emphatically say No ! Who, 
 when asked to drink at the bar, could say No ! Not timidly or 
 offensively, but firmly. ^. Who, when enticed by the saloon and 
 halls of guilty pleasure, could still say No ! But when asked to 
 
11 
 
 espouse the cause of the poor, of right, purity and li])erty, could 
 as firmly and cheerfully say Yes ! Lincoln was decided, not obsti- 
 nate ; firm, but not dogmatic ; unyielding in his convictions of 
 right and duty, yet pleasant in refusal, and generous in his regard 
 for the opinion of others who differed with him. This trait of his 
 character, that gave him stability of purpose and action, is worthy 
 of study and imitation. 
 
 Again, he was an example in temperance,' He was temperate 
 from principle, and ever acted consistently with the principle, 
 proving his sincere convictions by his practice. I will relate an 
 anecdote told to me by a senator who was present at the time, 
 that illustrates both his decision of character and his conscientious 
 temperance. He was present at the great Sanitary Fair at Phila- 
 delphia ; a sumptuous collation was spread, and all the celebrated 
 and honored persons present were around the table. The President 
 was offered a bottle of champagne, and asked to perform the 
 ceremony of opening the Fair by drinking a toast ; he consented 
 to undertake any appropriate ceremonies to open the Fair, but 
 firmly refused the wine. The same day a venerable Episcopalian 
 clergyman, the oldest minister in the city, much respected and 
 honored, but who had always been taught to regard a drink of wine 
 at any time as his right and privilege, asked his Excellency to do 
 him the honor to drink a glass of wine with him. Yet he politely 
 but firmly refused. His veneration for the man, his desire to give 
 pleasure, would not induce him to swerve from a principle and 
 practice which he believed valuable to himself, his country, and 
 the world. Many would doubtless have plead that the circumstan- 
 ces would justify compliance, but he seemed to judge that no 
 circumstances would justify a man, especially a ruler, in violating 
 a conscientious conviction and a valuable principle, and setting an 
 example that thousands might afterward plead to their ruin ; so 
 he refused decisively. Young man! act with such decision and 
 principle, and it may save you from sore and vain regret, preserve 
 for you a priceless self-respect, and give you stability and great- 
 ness of character. 
 
 Men were astonished at his calmness and hopefulness in the dark- 
 est hour of his country's night. When despondency bent almost 
 every head, and gloom shadowed almost every brow, eminent di- 
 vines — eminent for learning and piety — thought to carry him 
 
12 
 
 comfort and strength, but left his presence, their weak confidence 
 rebuked by his peacefulness of mind and cheerful hope of heart. 
 Would you like to know the secret of this^? It was his unshaken 
 faith in God and right. When the bloody struggle was fiercest 
 and most hopeless, the conviction, " This is right, and God reigns," 
 anchored his soul safe and immovable as upon a mountain rock, and 
 lifted it into the light of hope and sweet serenity, amid the most 
 appalling fury of the storm ; he might have adopted the favorite 
 emblem of William, Prince of Orange, "tranquil amid raging 
 billows." Young man! espouse the cause of right, then fix this 
 truth deeply in your soul : righteousness will triumph through the 
 power and justice of God. Link this by the strongest convictions 
 to your very inmost heart, then you can either labor or wait fear- 
 lessly, calmly, hopefully, amid the darkest day and the most 
 appalling dangers, for the sun shall not so surely rise as the light 
 of your triumph. 
 
 But I need make no efi'ort to pronounce a worthy eulogy upon 
 this great man. Abler pens than mine must write it, and more 
 eloquent tongues than mine must tell the worth, patriotism and 
 greatness of our late President. It has ever been the fate of good- 
 ness and greatness in this world to be hated, envied and slandered ; 
 but perhaps no one was ever more unjustly and bitterly reviled and 
 traduced than he. When he was laboring and agonizing night and 
 day to save his country's life, honor and liberty, many who claimed 
 to be his countrymen, and to be loyal to its life and flag, linked his 
 name with the most abusive epithets, and poured the foulest calum- 
 nies upon his character. Buffoon, fool, traitor, tyrant, murderer, 
 were the choice titles applied to him by these base, unworthy 
 Americans ; and their infamous pens were employed to write fiend- 
 ish bids for an assassin to take his life. What insulting hypocrisy 
 for such men to black-lead their editorial lines and hang crape 
 about their doors for him ! And many in England, who fawn 
 about a crowned head and flatter a polluted nobility, sought to 
 ridicule and defame his simple greatness and purity. They sneered 
 at his manners, as if greatness could be tested by graceful bows ; 
 they talked of his ugliness, as if beauty was essential to virtue ; 
 they made merriment over his figure and postures, as if genius 
 could be embodied only in symmetry ; they were witty over his 
 dress, as if worth always walked in the elegant costume of Brum- 
 
13 
 
 mell; they affected a pious indignation over his jokes, as if jesting 
 was the filthiest sin. They who scarcely knew what love of country 
 meant, presumed to criticise a patriot ; they sneered at a freeman, 
 who were the menials of a petty lord ; they ridiculed a hero, who 
 had never felt a pulsation of true heroism. No ambitious aspira- 
 tions impelled him to struggle for place and power : he set an 
 humble estimate on his own abilities ; he did not climb, he was 
 lifted up, because such power, worth and excellence as he possessed 
 could not be hidden. A great light may be kindled in a valley, 
 but the mountain tops will catch its brightness. He did not seek 
 the place of leader ; others fell behind him, tacitly confessing his 
 fitness to lead. He did not court fame, but fame wooed him. He 
 did not reach for the sceptre, but found it placed in his hand, and 
 felt a ruling spirit grow strong within him while he held it. He 
 never struggled for sovereignty, but accepted it, because he was a 
 nation's choice ; and when in the sovereign's place, he ruled not 
 with the haughty supremacy of kings, but as a minister, humbly 
 acknowledging himself only "a higher power" to serve the High- 
 est. He was not a dictator, because he was too humble to be abso- 
 lute. H,e was not a tyrant, although few ever possessed greater 
 power, or might have been more easily a despot ; but he was too 
 just to tyrannize. He was not an oppressor, because he was too 
 generous and noble to add a needless ounce to a burden. Though 
 provoked by the most scurrilous abuse and ribaldry from enemies 
 who were within his power, yet no feeling of resentment or revenge, 
 either in word or act, escaped him, because he was too kind for 
 bitterness, and too great to be abusive. Even when urged by loyal 
 thousands, and censured for refusal to retaliate on a barbarous and 
 fiendish foe, his great tenderness and mercy held him back, and he 
 stood like an averting angel between them and an injured nation's 
 vengeance. He offended political friends, because he was too 
 honest for state-craft, or the tortuous course of a partisan policy. 
 Kings have been put into a measure of greatness so large, that 
 they left it more than half empty; but Abraham Lincoln filled 
 every standard of greatness by which he was tried, and placed in 
 the largest the world contained, the magistracy of a great nation, 
 in the midst of a bitter, bloody, civil strife, with armed millions in 
 the field of battle, he yet filled the measure in rounding beauty, 
 and saved his country. 
 
14 
 
 In every position he has occupied, from his humble work of a 
 pioneer farmer to the last and the highest, he has served with 
 faithfulness, usefulness and honor. By a native greatness of soul, 
 a natural grandeur of character, he lifted himself from the first 
 position to the last, from the untutored farmer and surveyor to the 
 Presidency of the mightiest Kepublic on earth, and there ruled 
 with a wisdom, dignity, calmness and success, that astonished the 
 world. He was firm, without obstinacy or bigotry; slow to reach 
 conclusions, but when once attained they were held with unyieding 
 tenacity, because in the deep conviction of his soul they were be- 
 lieved to be right. He was a fervent lover of liberty and justice, 
 and a hater of slavery and rebellion ; yet neither a fanatic or an 
 enthusiast. Believing that he was entrusted with power for the 
 good of humanity, and believing in the virtue and beneficence of a 
 republican government, he executed the stern mandates of justice 
 only at the behest of freedom, human happiness and his country's 
 safety. He seemed to decide, by moral intuition, questions of 
 judgemnt, and to adopt his measures from pure considerations of 
 right, not from policy or expediency. By a moral force of heart, 
 a grandeur of character, more powerful than brilliant talents, great 
 attainments or genius, he carried his country through the most 
 imminent peril, through a storm wilder and stronger than has 
 foundered many a noble ship, and he ruled in its wildest fury with 
 a calmness, fearlessness, justice, magnanimity and mercy, that even 
 his blinded enemies began to admire. He was wise without the 
 learning of the schools, and educated without a master ; he was 
 not eloquent, yet orators listened with delight to his words; he was 
 not schooled, yet the most princely scholars of the land were in- 
 structed by him; he was not a religionist, yet the most learned 
 divines left his presence astonished at his humble but strong faith. 
 If he was ungraceful in manners, without the polish of art and 
 posture-masters, and ignorant of the etiquette and conventionalities 
 of courts, yet he could receive embassadors with an ease and 
 genial dignity that was charming. He had a devotion to freedom 
 that William of Orange did not excel, and an intelligent, pure 
 patriotism that made him a peer with the great V/ashington. 
 
 An English writer says, " he is one of the finest characters, best 
 citizens and purest patriots, to whom the land of Washington has 
 given birth." He was truly great in the best and widest sense of 
 
15 
 
 that much abused word. Whether a laborer in the western woods 
 or a boatman on the river, he was morally and intellectually 
 great. As a lawyer, a debater and legislator, he was great; 
 Crittenden's testimony is, "I never heard a more logical debater or 
 finer gentleman than he." The testimony of an other who knew 
 him well is, "God never made a truer man; mild, candid, gentle, 
 noble, Avithout a base design or anything that degrades." This is 
 moral grandeur. As a ruler, his greatness was tried by the most 
 Herculean task, yet he performed it with a giant's strength, a 
 saint's faithfulness, and a woman's tenderness. As the historian 
 says of the Prince of Orange," he bore the load of a people's sorrows 
 on his shoulders with cheerfulness," served them with unselfish 
 devotion in the darkest calamities, "was the guiding-star of a brave 
 nation while he lived, and when he was slain, little children cried 
 in the streets," for a manlier, gentler spirit never left human body 
 through the bloody breach of violence. But now he is gathered to 
 his grave, 
 
 "AVith patriarchs of the infant world, with kings, 
 The powerful of the earth, the wise, the good, 
 Learned sages and hoary seers of ages past:" 
 
 a fit companion for the wisest, the greatest and the best, for/ he 
 was a sovereign that needed no golden crown to show his royalty. 
 God had set jewels in his heart that shined upon his brow/ The 
 great dome of the Capitol was hung with crape that morning ; 
 methinks if it could have stretched upward its gigantic form and 
 hung the symbol of mourning on the sky, the Avhole earth seeing it 
 might say, Weep, all people of every land, for a nation is not only 
 orphaned, but the world is bereaved. They shrouded him for burial 
 while literally millions wept the bitterest tears of rage and grief; 
 "never was a more extensive, unaffected, legitimate sorrow felt at the 
 death of any human being." From State to State his body 
 
 " Was grandly borne, with such a train 
 As greatest kings might die to gain.'' 
 
 He was laid in no royal sepulchre, beneath no massive, gloomy 
 dome, but in 
 
 "The churchyard where his children rest. 
 The quiet spot that suits him best, 
 There shall his grave be made, 
 And there his bones be laid, 
 
16 
 
 "And there his countrymen shall come, 
 
 With memory proud, with pity dumb ; 
 
 And strangers, far and near. 
 
 For many and many a year," 
 
 shall come to kindle anew and purify their love of country at the 
 patriot urn of our martyred saviour. He died in a fullness and glory 
 of fame that historic ages will only increase in purity aud grandeur. 
 His own great deeds, his pure, noble life, is a more imperishable and 
 worthy monument than the hand of man can ever build above his 
 grave ; and his name and fame would be riches to any nation on 
 earth. 
 
 Millions of broken fetters lie about his tomb, and millions of slaves 
 made free will cherish his memory with undying aifection, and will 
 leave his name to their children as a legacy, and bid them wear it 
 in their hearts as a talisman against oppression. And millions 
 whose freedom has been preserved in this land will link his name 
 in history and song with all the glory and happiness of their 
 country, and hand it down to their children as the watchword of 
 Liberty " for many a year and many an age. " 
 
 Oh if his death will only teach this nation to love right and hate 
 wrong, to punish him that doeth evil and protect him that doeth well, 
 " the effect of righteousness shall be peace, quietness and assurance 
 forever, and we shall dwell in a peaceful habitation and sure 
 dwelling-places." 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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