YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 05423 5107

Beveridge, A.M.
Discourse on assassinaliion of
President Lincoln
Troy ,N.Y., 1865

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
STUART W. JACKSON
Yale 1898

»

A DISCOURSE

ON THK

ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT LINCOLN,
i
dehvp;red in the
i
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
Lansinsbargh, N. Y.,
/
" OX SABBATH EVENING, APRIL 16, 1865,
*
V
BY REV. A. M. BEVERIDGE.
PUBLISHED B^iBEQCEST.
J
TROY, N. y.:
A. W. SCRIBSBR, BOOK AHD JOB PRINTEE, CANNON PLACE.
1866.
A DISCOURSE

ASSASSIN A.TION OF

RESIDENT LINCOLN,

DELITEEBD IN THE

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

Lansing'bu.rgh, N. Y.,

ON SABBATH EVENING, APRIL 10, 1865,

BY EEV, A. M. BEVEEIDGB,

PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST.

TROY, N . Y . :
A. W. SCRIBNER, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, CANN'O.-f PLACE.
18B.5.

Co.u

SEEMON.

Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in
Israel. — 2i) Samdei., m : 38.
Abraham Lincoln, our honored and beloved
Chief Magistrate, is dead ! He fell, murdered
by the hand of a dark-minded malignant assassin,
in one of the places of public concourse, in the
city of Washington, the Capital of the Nation.
A great man — and good, has thus fallen in
our American Israel — a man, who, notwithstand
ing all the disadvantages of his youth and earlier
manhood, and all the infirmities and faults of
his nature, inseparable from our humanity, will
stand hereafter, side by side, with the immortal
Washington — his compeer in sagacity, in wisdom,
in integrity, honesty, firmness, kindness of heart,
and in all those virtues and elements of manhood
which are essential to constitute true greatness,
or true nobility of character; and his name will
live, so long as that of Washington himself shall
live — the one, acknowledged and revered as the

Father of his country, and the other, as the in
strument in God's hand, of her deliverance and
preservation. That so wise, aud so good a man was, in the
Providence of The Most High, summoned to the
helm of the ship of state, in the season of her
extremest peril^when her very life, and all the
inestimable blessings, with which she was freight
ed, were in jeopardy, demands of us the gratitude
of oui- hearts and the praise of our lips, even in
this dark hour of our sorrow ; and that this noble
helmsman, to whom vvas committed such vast
treasures— even a nation's weal — has so skillfully
piloted the preciously laden bark through so
many storms, and teinpests, and breakers, has
not only excited the admiration and the applause
of the ten tliousand interested and anxious wit
nesses of his wisdom and his power to master
difficulties, but it has again and again, and times
without number, evoked from the loyal heart of
the nation this fervent prayer : God bless Abraham
Lincoln ! God bless J braham Lincoln, !
But the faithful helmsman — the man whom the
people delighted to honor, and in whose hand and
head and heart they so confidently trusted, has
been stricken down at his post— stricken down
when the long-tossed vessel, after out-riding so
many storms and escaping unnumbered dangers,

seemed to be just entering the long sought haven
of peace ; and now, the nation, whose lips were
opening to give utterance to the merited plaudit,
"Well done, good and faithful servant," — and
whose hands were prepared to crown him wdth
garlands of honor, is all so suddenly bathed in
tears of sorrow, and draped in the habiliments
of woe.
Never siuce the first fatal gun was fired, on
that sweet April morning, four years ago, upon
Fort Sumter, and whose reverberations peeled
with such wild dismay, through the length and
breadth of the land, has this nation's heart been
so profoundly moved, and so overwhelmed with
unaffected sorrow, as when with yesterday's sun,
there came speeding in quick succession over the
electric wires the sad announcements — "The
President of the United States has been assas
sinated " — " The President is dying " — " The
President is dead !"
The news of this terrible catastrophe fell like
a stunning blovy upon the head of the people —
producing everywhere the profoundest indigna
tion and horror — paralyzing for the time, the
very senses, and exciting emotion too deep for
utterance ; or which, if it found utterance at all,
only in sad emphatic monosyllables — a silent
grasp of the hand, or in unbidden and resistless
tears.

6
Nor is it a wonder that there was experienced
such a paralysis of feeling and such unutterable'
consternation and woe. The shock was too great
and too sudden to be otherwise. The nation's
heart was all alive and aglow with the joy of
victory. Her authority had been nobly vindi
cated. The majesty of justice and of law had
triumphed over treason and lawlessness. The
proud army and the last hope of the rebellion,
had been driven in dismay from behind her
strong fortifications — the Capital of the bastard
and iniquitous Confederacy been evacuated — her
Chief Ruler and masterspirit had fled as a fright
ened fugitive from the scourge of justice — the
vaunted leader of the rebel hosts with his chivalric
followers and all their paraphernalia of war, been
captured or slain ; — and as the result of such
unbounded success, the bright dawn of an early
and blessed peace was hailed by a happy and
overjoyed people; and they were ready, in the
abundance of their good will, to grant it upon
the easiest of terms. To officers and to soldiers
of the overpowered foe— blood-red as were their
hands with foulest murder, — the most humane and
lenient terms of surrender were given ; and the
loving arms of the nation, as if wholly forgetful
of all the wrong that had been done her and her
children, were thrown wide open, to take back

to her bosom and to her heart, her alienated
and erring brethren ; and she was ready to re
invest them with all the privileges, immunities,
and honors of American Citizenship, aye, and
seemingly ready, in the overflowing kindness of
her heart, to kill for them the fatted calf and to
rejoice with special joy, that the wanderers had re
turned, and the lost were found ; and now, just
in the midst of all this good feeling and these
joyous prospects, when the pulse of the nation's
hope is beating so high, and all the sad calamities
of four long years of the most sanguinary war
are about to culminate in the blessing of peace
and the reciprocal feeling and advantages of a
united brotherhood ; we are startled and appalled
by the unexpected intelligence, that this monster
of rebellion, fairly and justly beaten on his own
chosen field of contest but spared from utter
destruction, in order that it might finally be
subdued by the moral force of christian kindness,
has, in its last death agony, and true to its
fiendish nature still, turned and struck with a
murderous hand at the very heart of the nation
in the person of its chief and most honored ruler.
It is a fitting climax to the barbarities and
infernal malignity of a slaveholder's rebellion !
Dark as the deed is, it ought not to have been
unlooked for; and it was not bv many who

knew better the animus of the foe. It is the
legitimate outgrowth of the system of human
oppression, and of a war which was begun, and
has been carried on for the accursed purpose of
enslaving mankind. It may be a deed, unap
proved by all the South, and even by all that
have been engaged in this unholy rebellion. For
humanity's sake, I trust that it is — but to a
people so corrupt and hardened and lost to all
the nobler principles of humanity, that they could
sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the nation
which had been their protection, and professedly
their pride — that could wade through rivers of
blood for the inglorious privilege of extending
the area of human bondage, and to live and
fatten upon the unrequited toil of poor, degraded,
brutalized bondmen and bond women; aye, and
that could so defy and trample upon all the
laws of civihzed warfare and outrage humanity
itself as to dehberately and systematically starve
and murder, ^nch by inch, sixty thousand free
men, for the sake of accomplishing their hellish
design ; to such a people, this last masterly stroke
of iniquity, this dastardly blow, at the foremost
champion of human rights and liberty, will not
be an ungrateful, nor an unapplauded deed.
It will send, doubtless, a thrill of joy throuo-h
all the dark realms of disloyalty, north as well

9
as south ; aye, and through all the realms of
darkness beneath, where this foul plot and the
foul rebellion itself originated ; even as it has
already sent a thrill of anguish to every loyal
heart throughout the land; and as it will yet
send to every liberty-loving heart througliout
the civilized world. It will be chuckled over
in secret ; it will be gleefully repeated at the
fireside and in the haunts of the enemy ; be'
dignified, by printer's ink, into an act of noble
daring, or the sublimity of moral heroism, and
applauded by thousands upon thousands, as the
very acme of poetic justice. Poets themselves
will celebrate it in song^^orators will find par
allels upon the page of history, or even liken
the perpetrator of the horrid crime, who for the
good of his imperilled country, stabbed the
mighty Csesar for hi-s ambition, upon the steps-
of the Senate-house of Rome; and purblind and
corrupt priests, calling themselves the ministers
of our holy Religion, will point to it as a note-
'worthy exaraple of the retributive justice, or
avenging wrath of God ; and JDriest and people,
in the exuberance of theiv delight, will together
clap their hands and cry. Amen ! or even joining
in the mock heroism of the red-handed mui'derer,
as he brandishes his glittering steel in the face
of that horror-stricken audience nhere the dara-
2

10
ning deed was done, will shout — "Sic semper
tyrannis" — So let it ever he to l-yrants.
But no words of apology or, of extenuation —
no high- wrought, illusive imagery, or illustrious
example gathered from classic lore — no labored
effort of poet, author, orator or priest, can avail
to change the nature of the crime ; and nothing
which they can say or do, will serve to obliterate,
or to cover up the stain of its damnable guilt.
"The offence is rank — it smells to heaven — it
hath worse than the primal eldest curse upon
it — and there is not rain enough in yon sweet
heavens to wash it white as snow." It is done.
The pen of history will record it — record it in
all its fearful blackness — and record it to. the
eternal dishonor and shame, not only of the vile
perpetrator of the bloody deed, but of all who
have sunk so far into the depths of human
depravity, and are so wanting, in the nobler
instiucts and feehngs of our humanity, as to
be capable of abetting, and sympathizing with
such monster of iniquity.
I know not, whether such enemies, blinded,
prejudiced, maddened as they are, even to despe
ration, will ever be able to discover the enormity
of this crime which they have thus added to the
long, dark catalogue of their other sins. Passion
which has so i^erverted and destroyed their moral

11
vision, may still continue to pervert, and hide it
from their eyes. But if I mistake not, the time
is coming, when it will repent them that they have
done this deed — when they will wish, oh ! how
much — that it were undone — because of its return
to curse the doers — converting their fiendish
laughter and joy, into bitter lamentations and
wailings of woe. I could wish, for their sakes,
as well as ours, that it had never been done ; for
have they not to fear — will they not find when
too late to repent, that the little finger of the mur
dered one's successor will be thicker than the loins
of " Father Abraham ; " and that whereas, this
gentle-hearted father of his people, so lenient and
so kind, that he could hardly chastise his rebel
lious children with whips ; his official substitute,
schooled to severity in the fires which their own
madness- had kindled and fostered ; and sustained
as he will be by the temper of an outraged and
indignant people, shall hereafter chastise them
with scorpions '! But it is too late now for selfish
ness to put on the sackcloth of repentance. The
camel's back is broken. The foul deed which
calls for severity, if not vengeance, has been com
mitted, and cannot, if it would, be recalled — nor
can the consequences be averted. As they have
sown to the wind, so must they reap the whirl
wind.

12
And no more can it be recalled by us, however
much we may regret it, or sorrow over it. The
hand that did the deed, did it as effectually for us
as for them. And strange as, at first thought, it
mav seem, it was done under the Providence of
that God. who worketh all things according to the
counsel of his o\vn will— and to whom the faith of
this si-eat nation has been looking in her danger-
ous extremity for guidance — and in whom she has
trusted, and not in vain, for help. It is au unex
pected, startling, mysterious and most trying Pro
vidence. It is so mysterious and so sudden — even
as the stroke of the thunderbolt — and withal so
contravenes all our plans, desires and hopes, that
it is hard to gracefully submit, or to say, at this
hour, from the depths of the heart, " Thy will, 0
God, be done." But still we must submit — must
and ought. God's will be done ; and wdiat are we
that we should rebel against his government !
Let us, therefore, instead of fighting against God,
or of indulging a spirit of complaint, or sinking
down into despair, aim to possess and to cherish
that frame of mind which will enable us, not only
to bow with the profoundest reverence before
Him, but to be resigned to this dark dispensation
of His ever wise and ever holy Providence.
And that we may be thus reconciled to that
supreme will, which orders and disposes all events

l;; «
of this world, both great and small ; let us remem
ber that although a great and good man has fallen
in our Israel, he fell not until ho had done a great
work — ^a twrk which has made glad the hearts of
millions of poor bondmen in our own and other
lands ; and the hearts of all, who love righteous
ness, justice, liberty and truth, throughout the
earth. His lif'e therefore has not been in vain.
It indeed has scarcely fallen to the lot of one poor
mortal to devise and to execute so much for hu
manity and for God. His name stands enrolled
to-day, among the foremost of earth's benefactors.
Had there been raore work for him to do — work
which he would have done better than any one
else, he had doubtless been left to complete it.
But there was not. His mission — though to us
it may seem prematurely ended — was fulfilled ;
and God, who never errs, as to time, or place, or
event, called his chosen laborer home ; and he has
passed, as we believe to his reward on high — and
"his works do follow him." Let us therefore
devoutly thank God, the great and good Giver;
thank him for the work done, and that it l^as been
so loell done.
But in this dark hour of our national calamity,
let us not only seek to be thankful for the many
favors of the past, and submission for the present
and for the future, but let us aim to benefit by the

14
«
lessons which this afflictive Providence, when pro
perly interpreted, inculcates. Not to be made
wiser, and better, by such Providences, as that
over which we mourn to-day, is to despise the
chastening of the Lord and to provoke anew his
wrath. And First, let us learn, as individuals, and as a
people, to be humble, and to knoto that the Lord is
God; and that we are not, therefore, to boast of
our own wisdom and strength — and not to put
confidence in princes, or in an arm of flesh, but in
the arm of the living God ; for he only is great,
and wise, and Almighty. "Cease ye from man
whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he
to be accounted of!" "Trust ye in the Lord
forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength." " Trust in the Lord, and do good, so
shalt thou dwell in the land." Is it not thus that
the voice of the Lord is heard speaking to us,
and to this whole people, as they sit mourning,
to-day, over the loss of the great and good man
who has fallen in our Isreal t
But does not this Providence also teach us, as a
people, to be just as well as merciful ! Have we
not, or had not, the nation forgotten, or was she
not in danger of forgetting, that there is some
thing due to the majesty of law— to God's unre
pealed statutes and the great law of public right.

15
as well as to the sweet law of kindness and of
love. It is true, that the law of Christian benev
olence directs and requires us to " love our
enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good
to them that hate us, and to pray for them that
despitefully use us and persecute us ;" — and we
would not detract one jot, or tittle, from that law of
mercy ; but there is given to it a false interpreta
tion, and an application essentially wrong, and
decidedly disastrous in its tendencies, and effects
upon public morals, and the well being of the
State, if it be supposed to inculcate, or to encour
age that mawkish sensibility, or that attenuated,
weak and shadowy sentimentalism which is
shocked at the idea of punishment ; or if it be
supposed that the laws of Christian justice can be
sacrificed to that sickly humanitarianism which is
so lenient in its dealing with public oifenders,
that it would suffer every graceless villain, or
every violator of the great law of right, whatever
the turpitude of his crime, to escape with impu
nity. And yet, what was the popular cry but
yesterday, or before the news of this sorrowful
event, so distinctly revealing the true animus of
the rebellion, broke upon the ears and struck
upon the heart of this great people ? Everywhere
almost. North and South, East and West, from the
pulpit and from the press, and in the street, there

16
were heard spoken in words and tones, softer than
those of Christian charity itself sentiments like
this: "Let these red-handed traitors go — all go —
' scot free.' " They would, it is true, if they could,
have pulled down this grand fabric of free insti
tutions, and erected upon its ruins another edifice
wliose chief corner stone was human slavery ;
but what of that ? They have in their mad effort
to rule and to destroy, caused the death of five
hundred thousand of their fellow countrymen, the
life of each one of which was as dear and as
valuable as their own ; but what of that \ They
have, with a demon-like cruelty, literally starved
out of life sixty thousand unfortunate prisoners of
Avar, guilty of no greater offence than that of
taking up arms in the name of liberty, and to de
fend the rich and free inheritance bequeathed to
them as the dying legacy of their fathers; but
what of that? They have sold into slaveiy, or
massacred, in cold blood, soldiers whose misfortune
it is to have a darker skin than their own ; con
scripted and imprisoned law-abiding Unionists,
driven defenceless women and children as fugitives
from their homes, or burned their roof-tree over
them ;— and withal brought desolation and woe to
almost every hearthstone throughout the broad
land ; but what of all this ? Are they not our
countrymen— our brethren— and shall we not

17
treat them as brethren ; yea, all of them, from the
highest to the lowest, the chief plotters, abettors
and supporters of this rebellion, as well as their
deluded and misguided followers t Let us be
generous, let us show to them, and show to the
world what a great Chris-tian nation has the
magnanimity to do; and let us take them back
unshriven to our bosom, enfold them again within
our loving arms, without any satisfaction for the
wrong and outrage done, or any sign of repent
ance, save what h-as been extorted by the sterry
necessity of an overpowering military force ; and
let us bestow upon them every privilege forfeited ;¦
aye, make them feel, not only that we welcome
them back to the great national brotherhood, but,
by the very plenitude of oui" kindness, that we,
now think them even more worthy of our friend
ship and honor, than when as yet their hand&
were not sacriligiously put forth to pull down the
temple of liberty, and tbey were not dripping
with the blood of liberty's martyred heroes.
Such, in effect, was the by far too popular,
cry — such the direction which the nation, led by
the government itself, was drifting — 'ignoring the
first great principles of human and Divine justice
— and essentially abandoning the eternal distinc
tions between right and wrong, and all, too, iiv
the name of our holv Christianity.

18
But out upon such Christianity as this ! It is
not Avorthy of the name. It is dishonored by an
association v^-ith. such reckless principles. It is
not fouud in the Book of God, from Genesis to
the Revelation. It is a maudlin sentimentaUsm,
that assumes to be wiser and better, and more
benevolent than God himself who, in his un
swerving rectitude and attachment to the princi
ples of justice, has affixed penalty to law, and has
ordained that the Avay of the transgressor should
be hard, and has pronounced an anathema upon
them that do the Avork of the Lord deceitfully.
No ; it is not Christianity ; it is infidelity ; infidel
ity to principle; infidelity to justice and righteous
ness and truth ; and no nation can be strong, and
no nation can stand, Avhicli abandons these found
ation principles ; or that fails, through a false
sensibility, or an indifference to right, to give
vigor and pohcy to just and equitable law. The
majesty of law must be vindicated or crime will
run rampant. The magistrate, to whom is com
mitted the sword, must use the sword to execute
wrath upon evil doers, as well as for the pro
tection of them that do Avell ; or it Avill be Avrested
from his grasp and committed to more faithful
hands, or the government, which he, has been set
to maintain, will go down under her own weight
of acccumulated evils.

19
And may it not be — I know that, at best, we
are but poor interpreters of God's designs, and are
often led in our ignorance and by our blind im
pulses to hastily formed conclusions, — but may it
not be, and is it not probable, that one end of this
mournful Providential dispensation, is, to arrest
the nation which has been silently detaching herr
self from her moorings, from thus drifting off into
this dark sea of infidelity, where she is in danger
of being engulphed ; and to lash her again to the
throne of God — that throne whose foundation and
whose pillars are justice and judgment? or may it
not be, to write anew, and as with a pen of iron,
the love of justice and a due reverence for law
upon the nation's heart, and thus to hold her fast
to her great mission, and to establish her upon a
firmer and an immovable foundation ? Verily, I
believe it to be so ; for I am assured from all that
I can learn of the character of God from the ex
pression of his will in man's moral constitution,
from his Providence and from his word, that He is
the God oj right ; and that such is the holiness of
his nature — such his love for the right, that he
never has, and never will grant mercy to the
offender, at the expense of the claims of justice;
and furthermore, that he requires individuals, and
requires nations, to do justly, as well as to practice
mercy. He himself governs the world, and gov
erns the universe by law ; and in ordaining human

20
government— the representative of his authority
upon earth— has placed all men under law— not
to violate at will, or to violate it with impunity,
but to obey ; or if not, to suffer the just penalty
of disobedience.
There is a story found upon the page of Old
Testament history, to which the nation might, per
haps, well take heed. It is in effect this : The peo
ple of Amalek, on account of her cruel treatment
of the Israelites, and for other crimes, had been
doomed by an oath of God to utter destruction.
Saul, the first king of Israel, was commissioned by
the Lord to perform this work of extermination.
Mustering an army of two hundred thousand men,
he invaded, with this strong force, the kingdom of
Amalek ; but instead of executing to the full the
command of the Lord, he, for some reason, spared
Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive, as also the
best of the cattle.^ But Agag did not long enjoy
this reprieve, nor did Saul profit by his disobe
dience ; for no sooner did the prophet Samuel, a
more faithful servant of the Lord, learn the state of
affairs, than he rebuked the insubordinate spirit of
his royal master, and foretold the loss of his king
dom in consequence ; and he summoned the guilty
Agag into his presence, and lieAved him in pieces
before the Lord, saying : " as thy SAvord hath made
women childless, so shall thy mother be childless
among women." Has the so-called Southern Con-

21
federacy — the modern Amalek — the troubler of
our Israel, and the murderer of our children, no
Agags spared alive, that ought to be hewn in
pieces before the Lord 1 or that should be hung
as high as Haman, a spectacle to the world of the
avenging wrath of the Almighty against this crime
of high-handed, bloody treason l But wbuld the
government have done it 1 And had it, would all
the people have said Amen I
Abraham Lincoln — -we speak his name with the
profoundest reverence — -was the exponent of this
government and of its laws. Because of the man
ner of its administration, his enemies accused him
of tyranny and cursed him as a tyrant ; likening
him in their hate, to Nero and to Borgia. But
never were words more falsely used. Abraham
Lincoln had not the first element of a tyrant in
the composition of his character. Never was heart
so filled to overflowdng with the milk of human
kindness ; never was the ruler of any people more
paternal in his feelings. AU his speeches, all his
manifestos, all his acts, prove that his heart was
large enough to embrace his whole country, his
enemies as well as his friends. The one fault of
his character — if I may be allowed to speak it —
the flaw in the diamond, was his almost excessive
leniency. His heart was too soft — it partook not
sufficiently of that sterner stuff, or wanted those
Cromwellian, or I may say, those Jacksonian vir-

22
tues, which shrink not from inflicting punishment,
when and where, and according as it is deserved.
Even the bloody Agags were spared, and the con
spiring Hamans went unhung; and hence, as it
would . seem, some other minister of the Lord's
vengeance must take his place and complete the
work which justice demands to be done, and which
his nature unfitted him to perform.
But he that has been faithful in so many things,
is not permitted to pass away until crowned with
still higher honors. Martyrdom in behalf of that
sacred cause of human freedom to which he had
devoted the strength of his life, and which he had
so honestly and honorably served, still awaits him.
But his work is done — all done and well done-^
and the time of his departure is at hand ; and by
the will of God, by the hand of that miscreant
assassin, John WUkes Booth, he is crowned with
the martyr's crown — his name henceforth and for
ever sacred to human liberty. All honor be to
that noble name ! It needs no monument of
marble, or of brass to perpetuate it. History wiU
not permit it to perish. An emancipated race —
a greatful nation— earth's miUions struggling for
freedom, wiU embalm him in their memory, and
generations yet unborn, shall arise to call him
blessed. The work, my friends, which he so nobly
began, wiU go on. Individuals may die, but the

23
nation lives. It is God's work, and it will be ad
vanced, rather than hindered by the event over
which we mourn. The blood of our martyred
chief is not shed in vain. It was a link in the
chain of Divine Providence that could not be left
out. The purpose for which it was ordained shall
be fulfilled. It will cement the loyal hearts of the
nation in closer unity — endear to us still more our
beloved country — and watering the tree of liberty
planted upon these western shores by the hands
of the fathers, will impart to it a more vigorous
growth, causing it to strike deeper and firmer its
roots in the eternal principles of justice and truth.
Let us, therefore, not despair of the nation ;
though this honored instrument of its preservation
is removed. God permitted him, as he did his
servant Moses of old, to lead her through the Red
sea of her difficulties, and on througli the wilder
ness to the borders of the good land, if not to
enter it. He saw it from Mt. Nebo when he
ascended. And the Lord, who has led thus far in
safety, will not now forsake us in the hour of our
triumph, if we, as a people, are faithful to the
right. Another Joshua will the Lord our God
raise up to go before us, and to lead us on to that
goodly inheritance for which we have so long
struggled, and prayed and hoped ; and the nation
shall have rest.

i