wave of emotions, feelings of indignation, commingled with a vague sense of impending evil, swept over us. Our souls mirrored the spirit of the times and its environment. From that day to the surrender at Appomattox, we would not have regretted the death of Lincoln any more than did the people of the North the fall of Stonewall Jackson. The War was protracted. There was time for revision of impressions. Sorrow in Protean forms, that pervaded every household, and, like the croaking raven, seemed as if it would never more depart, attuned their souls to an appreciation that those in the high tide of happiness and prosperity can never fully have, of facts that revealed a gentle spirit and a heart that was womanly in its tenderness, and in its sympathies commensurate with human suffering. Amid the pæans of victory, sorrows over defeat, the times of hope, the periods of despair, congratulations to the victorious living, dirges for the dead; in the gloomy intervals, all too short, when they were not sustained by the excitement of battle, there drifted in stories of generous acts, soft words, and brotherly sentiments from him whom they had regarded as their most implacable enemy. They came to know that his heart was a stranger to hatred, that he was willing to efface himself if his country might be exalted, and that his love for the Union surpassed all other considerations.

They were profoundly impressed, when, at his Second Inaugural-a time when it was apparent that the Confederacy was doomed-he said:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan— to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

With this favorable condition for responsive sentiment, the scene changed. Appomattox came, and then in quick sequence a total surrender. A civilization which developed some qualities of splendor and worth never surpassed-a civilization allied with an institution which all other Christian countries

had freed themselves of, and subsequently condemned, but which the South, with its conditions and environments, could not at once, without precipitating an immeasurable catastrophe, abolish-fell into financial, social, and political ruin as complete as that which overwhelmed the people of Messina.

The world did not spontaneously comfort them with tender words and overwhelm them with generous aid. Foreign nations dared not offend the triumphant flag. Potential voices at the North rang out fiercely for a bloody assize. Then it was that the great patriot, undazzled by success, untouched by the spirit of revenge, moved by generous sympathies, with the eye of a seer, looked beyond the passions of the times, saw the surest way for consolidating this people into a Union of hearts as well as of States, and, stretching out his commanding arm over the turbulent waters, said, "Peace, be still."

The magnanimous terms granted to their surrendered soldiers convinced the Southern people that Lincoln, having accomplished by force of arms the great work of saving the union of the States, would consecrate himself with equal devotion to the no less arduous and important work, for the endurance of our national life, of rehabilitating the seceding States, restoring to effective citizenship those who had sought to establish an independent government, and bringing them back to the allegiance which they had disavowed. There was a new estimate by the Southern people of his character and motives. They learned that he was not inspired by personal ambition, that he was full of the spirit of abnegation, even to the point of self-abasement, that he did not exult over them in victory, but sorrowed with those in affliction, that his heart was always responsive to distress, his soul full of magnanimity, and that he was filled with a patriotism which held in its loving embrace our entire country. With this new aspect in which he was regarded by our people, I well remember where I stood, and the consternation that filled all faces, when his assassination was announced. I will not say that some fierce natures, that some of the thoughtless, did not exult. But, as a witness of the times, I testify that there was general manifestation of sorrow and indignation. I would not convey the im

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Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Hon. John M. Dickinson,
Secretary of War (First page)

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hopes he of are others wright mich to destroy. That this feeling of the South toward Mr Lincoln should wish at this day tribute both to his greate Character, ability, humanity, geuthness and patriation, and the sense of pistrer, bearth of judgment, and independence of thought of the Southern people, who fought for a principle, acapted the resuch of war, and have the magnanimity to appreciate and to show their appreciatim of salted worth Conn though shali & emplified om who apposed their mosh Cherished hopes.

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Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Hon. John M. Dickinson,

Secretary of War (Second page)

pression that it was an exponent of such feeling for Lincoln as went out from the people of the North. That would have been as unnatural at that time, as it would have been ignoble to rejoice over his suffering, or approve the dastardly act that laid him low. It came partly from such chivalric spirit as that which evoked the lament of Percy over the fallen Douglas at Chevy Chase. It came also from a realization of their own condition-the sense of an impending storm, charged with destructive thunderbolts forged by political hatred, and launched by those who would humiliate them, grind their very faces to the earth, make their slaves taskmasters over them, and if possible expatriate them and divide their substance-and the belief that Abraham Lincoln, who had been the leader in the fierce contest between the States, alone so held the affections and confidence of the Northern people that he could speedily "bind up the nation's wounds" and "achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves."

Nearly forty-four years have passed since that woeful event. I stood on Decoration Day by the monument erected in Oakwoods Cemetery-mainly by the contributions of Northern people to the memory of the unknown Confederate soldiers who yielded up their lives as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, and saw the Illinois soldiery fire over those who fought for the Stars and Bars the same salute that was fired over those who fought for the Stars and Stripes. Within a short time there will be unveiled on the capitol grounds at Nashville, a monument to Sam Davis, the hero boy of Tennessee, who was hung as a rebel spy. General G. M. Dodge, who ordered his execution, and many other people of the North, were foremost among the contributors. The voice of Wheeler that had urged on the sons of the South in a hundred battles against the Union, rang out with equal devotion while leading our soldiers from North and South under the flag of our common country. In the same uniform, a son of a Grant, and a son of a Lee, ride side by side. Am I not right, here in the North, and in this assembly, in saying that the American people, reunited -with no contest, except in generous rivalry to advance their