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entirely overcome. She had never shared her husband's indifference to his perpetual peril, but the shock was none the less severe when it now smote upon her so suddenly.

The evil deed had been completely done. Mr. Lincoln was unconscious from the moment when the bullet struck him. There was little need for the verdict of the medical men who gathered so quickly around him, that the hurt was surely fatal, and the news went out to the country untempered by any delusive hope.

There had been a mutual agreement between the conspirators as to the time for striking, and the less successful assault upon Mr. Seward was made at precisely the same hour. Incidental circumstances prevented the remainder of the plot from even attempted execution.

The unconscious President was carried to a private residence, near the theater; and here, at twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock, April 15, 1865, the last tokens of life disappeared.

There was bitter grief among the statesmen and generals who sobbed around that death-bed. Bewildering and agonizing was the sorrow of Mrs. Lincoln and her sons, in the room adjoining. These were of the fallen ruler's flesh and blood and life. Those were the associates and co-workers of his long toil and trial. It was but natural that they should break down, stunned and staggering, under such a blow. The greater marvel was in the immediate effect upon the nation. It was as if there had been a death in every house throughout the land. The day before the murder, the North had been rejoicing, even beyond the bounds of sober reason. Even the South was drawing long breaths of relief and hope. By both sections alike the awful news was heard with shudder and with a momentary spasm of unbelief. Then followed one of the most remarkable spectacles in the history of the human race, for there is nothing else at all like it on record. Bells had tolled before at the death of a loved ruler, but never did all bells toll so mournfully as they did that day. Business ceased, except

ing the purchase of crape. Men came together in public meetings as if by a common impulse, and party lines and sectional hatreds seemed to be obliterated. It is true that here and there an angry voice called aloud for vengeance. It is true that a few bitter-hearted brutes declared their infernal gratification, even at peril of their miserable lives. The former calmed themselves to learn the holier lessons of the hour, and the latter were too few and insignificant to add a black drop of disgrace to the cup of the national sorrow.

The intelligent people of the Southern States felt that their stage-mad "avenger" had inflicted upon them a fresh disaster, and they both publicly and privately expressed their anger and regret.

Their feeling is well illustrated by the action of the Masonic fraternity in Arkansas, locally known as the "Reb. Masons." They were the first to call and hold a meeting to declare and emphasize their condemnation and sorrow, and a hall in Little Rock, the State capital, was well filled with those who assembled. In large part they were ex-Confederate soldiers, many of whom still wore remnants of their army uniforms, and they listened to a funeral oration upon Abraham Lincoln from the lips of a well-known Union man, of the Masonic fraternity. It was but twelve hours after the news of the murder reached Little Rock by telegraph.

The assassination took place on Friday evening, and on the Sunday following funeral services were held in all the churches in the land, and every church was draped in mourning. The ingenuity of grief seemed to exhaust itself in vain attempts for adequate expression. Nowhere was there any visible sign of disorder.

A vague dread of what might possibly come turned every man into a self-appointed guardian of the public peace, robbed of its Constitutional protector. The feeling in the army was intense; but the sternest soldier felt that no act of stupid revenge could honor the memory of a man like Lincoln. Not one such act was undertaken or committed, then or afterwards.

The punishment of the conspirators, under due form of law, was ordinary justice and not mere vengeance. These were all captured and received varying sentences, according to their several adjudged degrees of crime.

After Mr. Lincoln's death, his body was removed to the White House and embalmed. A gathering of Congressmen and other public men, at the Capitol, on Monday, made arrangements for funeral services on Wednesday. Pall-bearers were named, and also a Congressional Committee, representing the several States, to accompany the remains to their resting-place in Illinois.

The funeral services, on Wednesday, were held in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, and from this the coffined body was borne in solemn procession to the catafalque prepared for it in the rotunda of the Capitol. Endless crowds had poured through the East Room, while the body remained there, each passer bending to take a last look at the silent face the nation had loved so well. The same sad stream poured on through the corridors of the Capitol, for none was willing to fail of that final opportunity, and they came from all the region round about.

On the 21st of the month the funeral-train left Washington; and, through all the fifteen hundred miles of its route to Illinois, the mournful pageant of its reception by the people surpasses all power of words for its description. Slowly the train proceeded, from city to city, between almost continuous lines of sorrowing multitudes doing last honors to their beloved Chief Magistrate, whose hold upon their hearts they had not known till they had lost him.

With the remains of Mr. Lincoln were carried those of his beloved son Willie. Father and child had gone Home, forever, and their earthly bodies were borne homeward side by side.

Springfield, Illinois, was reached on the morning of the 3d of May. The grief of Mr. Lincoln's oldest friends and near neigh

bors could hardly exceed that of many who had never heard him utter a word nor at any time had looked upon his living face. A day later, in the presence of a great multitude, the coffin was placed in a tomb prepared for it in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near the city, with appropriate ceremonials and oratory.

A sort of echo of the National sorrow came back from almost every corner of the world, and many of the tones and expressions were only less surprising than were their sources. America was at once on better terms with Europe, especially, all in a day, when the voices of the trans-Atlantic press were printed in our own newspapers, side by side with the official condolences of foreign potentates. The public uses of the life of Mr. Lincoln did not terminate until this last service had been effected by his death, and the value of it was by no means insignificant.

This is all. The lessons of such a life are very plainly to be read. They should be made familiar to the heart and brain of every American. Every soul born in the United States, or coming to dwell here, should study them well and so learn to understand and love the country wherein alone on earth such a life is possible. It is a land which has been rich in noble men and well-spent lives, both of men and women; but there has been no other just like this. Among all there is not one recorded which is so well adapted to teach and enforce these things that the lowliest may hopefully strive for the highest elevation; that the most ignorant, under every imaginable disadvantage, may successfully seek for knowledge and its uses; that the most skeptical, broken-hearted, hopeless, despairing of all men, may go on to do his duty to himself and others, turning his eyes and lifting his hands to God and drawing surely nearer to Him.

Whatever were his failings, faults, and flaws, this was the unselfish, truth-seeking and truth-serving life of ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

APPENDIX.

A FEW PIVOTAL SPEECHES AND LETTERS OF MR. LINCOLN ALLUDED TO IN THIS VOLUME.

I.

SPEECH,

Delivered at Springfield, Ill., June 17, 1858.

THE FIRST AFTER MR. LINCOLN'S NOMINATION FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATORSHIP FROM ILLINOIS. (See Ch. XXIII.)

MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION:-If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Have we no tendency to the latter condition?

Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost

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