PREFATORY.

TO OUR READERS:

We offer you a memento of times of greatest moment, of events of wondrous and tragic interest, of stupendous and successful crime, of unparalleled national grief.

April 14, 1865! Memorable day! impressed on the nation's heart as none other. Throughout the north the loyal of the people had been exultant as never before; the power of the Rebellion had departed; the legions of the Union were pressing, with victorious tread, hard after the defeated and flying foe; the tidings of victory, borne on the wings of the lightning, reached every town and village of the land; the starry banners were given to the breeze; the cannon of peace thundered echoes to the cannon of war; that for which all had sighed seemed to approach, and the patriotic and grateful hailed each other with glad voices and glowing faces. Who can tell what a day may bring forth! The sun set on happiness and rejoicing; the mantle of night fell on the land, and ere it was lifted a deed was consummated the intelligence of which should shake the world. Again the lightning courier sped on his way. Again tidings were borne to every town and village, and from happy slumber the people woke to horror and mourning, to sadness never to be forgotten in time-never to be told. The heads borne so proudly yesterday droop on the breast to-day; the springing footstep of yes

terday is the funeral pace of to-day. Friends met in silence and tears. When utterance was given, men talked of God— of His providence of His wisdom. The head of the nation was stricken and slain, and the nation turned to Him who is from everlasting to everlasting. In the centres of commerce and finance there was heard the voice of supplication. The Sabbath came-never more opportune-never more welcome -and in temples dedicated to Jehovah the heart-stricken gathered and waited while the ministers of God interpreted their feelings.

In time to come, this record of the religious sentiment of the people, as, stricken and sad, they gathered in their places of worship, will be influential in bringing the darkest hour of the nation's life, with its surpassing interest, within the reach of the sympathy of coming generations. When the flowers have many times bloomed and faded on the grave of our martyred President; when the banner of Peace floats over every acre of the broad territory of our glorious Union; when the hearts that felt the pangs of awful bereavement are still, men will assent to the facts recorded by the historian, but they cannot feel with the generation whose bosom received the fiery darts, unless they come in contact with their feelings.

This volume treasures up the utterances of those who were the mouth-pieces of the people, and thus conveys to the readers of the future a better idea of the wonderful effects produced on the national heart by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, than can be conveyed in any other way.