Eras. That he was truly garah, and that his fame will Endure settled bry by of and modal the deliberate judgment. the world. the unique distinction of receiving the tribute of general and outspoken sentiments of repel admiration and good will, and that within forty four years from his death, from ли ན Facsimile of Manuscript Tribute from Hon. John M. Dickinson, hopes others is a wrought mich to destory. That this feeling of the South toward Mr Lincoln should wish at this day tribute both to his Character, ability, humanity, geuthness and patriation, and the sense of pisteen, bearth of judgment, and independence of thoughts of the Southern people, fought for a principle, acupted the resuch of war, and have the moquanimity to appreciate and to show their_ appreciatim of salted with Cown though habe & emplified on who apposed their mosh Cherished hopes. who Jum 7.1909 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 country's welfare, cherishing, but without bitterness, the proud memories of their conflict-have long since realized the prophecy of Lincoln at his First Inaugural that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." The death of Lincoln postponed for a dreary time that happy era. How much humiliation, sorrow, wretchedness, and hate, what an Iliad of woes to white and black came through his untimely end, no tongue or pen can ever portray. As far as the human mind can estimate and compare what was with what might have been, it was for the entire nation, but especially for the South, the most lamentable tragedy in history. My judgment, based upon years of observation and study, is that it was, in the light of subsequent events, more regretted by the Southern people than was the fall of the Confederacy. What conflicts, what ingratitude, what disappointments in his great purposes, he may have been spared, we do not know. But we know that at the height of his fame, at the triumphant close of the great conflict which he had led, he was, by a tragedy that shocked the world, caught up from the stage of human action and its vicissitudes, and fixed forever as one of the greatest luminaries in that galaxy of illustrious men who will shine throughout the ages. He passed out of view like tropic sun that "With disc like battle target red Rushes to his burning bed, Dyes the wide wave with ruddy light, Then sinks at once and all is night." Southern-born-with mind, heart, and soul loyal to its traditions, believing that the South was within its constitutional rights as the Constitution then stood, that her leaders were patriotic, that her people showed a devotion to principles without a touch of sordidness, that such action as theirs could only come from a deep conviction that counted not the cost of sacrifice, cherishing as a glorious legacy the renown of her armies and leaders, whose purity of life and heroism were unsurpassed by those of any people at any one time-yet I say in all sincerity and without reservation, that I rejoice as much as any of you that our country produced Abraham Lincoln, who will, as long as great intellect, patriotism, sincerity, self-denial, magnanimity, leadership, heroism, and those graces of the mind and heart which reflect the gentle spirit are cherished, shed lustre, not only upon his countrymen, but upon all humanity. |