Certainly if there ever was a man who illustrated some of the principles of pure religion, that man was our departed President. Look over all his speeches, listen to his utterances; he never spoke unkindly of any man. Even the rebels received no words of anger from him, and the last days of his life illustrated, in a remarkable manner, his forgiving disposition. A dispatch was received that afternoon that Thompson and Tucker were' trying to escape through Maine, and it was proposed to arrest them. Mr. Lincoln, however, preferred to let them quietly escape. He was seeking to save the very men who had been plotting his destruction, and this morning we read a proclamation offering $25,000 for the arrest of these men, as aiders and abettors of his assassination. So that in his expiring acts he was saying, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. As a ruler, I doubt if any President has ever showed such trust in God, or in public documents so frequently referred to Divine aid. Often did he remark to friends and delegations that his hope for our success rested in his conviction that God would bless our efforts, because we were trying to do right. To the address of a large religious body, he replied, "Thanks be unto God, who in our national trials, giveth us the Churches." To a minister who said "he hoped the Lord was on our side,” he replied, "that it gave him no concern whether the Lord was on our side or not," for he added, "I know the Lord is always on the side of right," and with deep feeling added, "But God is my witness that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this nation should be on the Lord's side." In his domestic life he was exceedingly kind and affectionate. He was a devoted husband and father. During his Presidential term he lost his second son, Willie. To an officer of the army he said, not long since, "Do you ever find yourself talking with the dead?" and added: "Since Willie's death I catch myself every day involuntarily talking with him, as if he were with me." For his widow, who is unable to be here, I need only invoke the blessing of Almighty God that she be comforted and sustained. For his son, who has witnessed the exercises of this hour, all that I can desire is that the mantle of his father may fall upon him. [Exclamations of “Amen.”] Let us pause a moment on the lesson of the hour before we part. This man, though felled by an assassin, still fell underthe permissive hand of God. He had some wise purpose in allowing him to fall. What more could he have desired of life for himself? Were not his honors full? There was no office to which he could aspire; the popular heart clung around him as around no other man. The nations of the world had learned to honor our Chief Magistrate. If rumors of a desired alliance with England be true, Napoleon trembled when he heard of the fall of Richmond, and asked what nation would join him to protect him against our government. This had the guidance of such a man. His fame was full-his work was done and he sealed his glory by being the nation's just martyr for liberty. He had a strange presentiment, in early political life, that some day he would be President. You see it indicated in 1859, when of the slave power he said: “Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow to it, I never will. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which I deem to be just; it shall not deter me. If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world besides, and I standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before high Heaven, and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love." And yet he recently said to more than one, “I never shall live out the four years of my term. When the rebellion is crushed my work is done." So it was. He lived to see the last battle fought and to dictate a dispatch from the home of Jefferson Davis-lived till the power of the rebellion was broken, and then, having done the work for which God sent him, angels, I trust, were sent to shield him from one moment of pain or suffering, and to bear him from this world to that high and glorious realm were the patriot and good shall live forever. His example teaches young men that every position of eminence is open before the diligent and worthy. To the active men of the country his example urges to trust in God and do right. To the ambitious there is this fearful lesson: Of the four candidates for Presidential honors in 1860, two of them-Douglas and Lincoln, once competitors, but now sleeping patriots-rest from their labors; Bell perished in poverty and misery, as a traitor might perish; and Breckinridge is a frighted fugitive, with the brand of traitor on his brow. Standing, as we do to-day, by his coffin and his sepulcher, let us resolve to carry forward the work which he so nobly begun. Let us do right to all men. Let us vow in the sight of Heaven to eradicate every vestige of human slavery, to give every human being his true position before God and man, to crush every form of rebellion, and to stand by the flag which God has given us. How joyful, that it floated over parts of every State before Mr. Lincoln's career was ended! How singular, that to the fact of the assassin's heel being caught in the folds of the flag we are probably indebted for his capture! The flag and the traitor must ever be enemies. Traitors will probably suffer by the change of rulers, for one of sterner mould, and one who himself has deeply suffered from the rebellion now wields the sword of justice. Our country, too, is stronger for the trial. A republic was declared, by monarchists, too weak to endure a civil war; yet we have crushed the most gigantic rebellion in history, and have grown in strength and population every year of the struggle. We have passed through the ordeal of a popular election while swords and bayonets were in the field, and have come out unharmed. And now in our hour of excitement, with a large minority, having proffered another man for President, the bullet of the assassin has laid our President prostrate. Has there been a mutiny? Has any rival proposed his claim? Out of our army of near a million, no officer or soldier uttered one note of dissent, and in an hour or two after Mr. Lincoln's death, another, by constitutional power, occupied his chair. If the government moved forward, without one single jar, the world will learn that republics are the strongest governments on earth. And now, my friends, in the words of the departed, "with malice towards none," free from all feeling of personal vengeance, yet believing the sword must not be borne in vain, let us go forward in our painful duty. Let every man who was a Senator and Representative in Congress, and who aided in beginning this rebellion, and thus led to the slaughter of our sons and daughters, be brought to speedy and to certain punishment. Let every officer, educated at public expense, and who, having been advanced to position has perjured himself, and has turned his sword against the vitals of his country, be doomed to a felon's death. This, I believe, is the will of the American people. Men may attempt to compromise and to restore these traitors and murderers to society again, but the American people will rise in their majesty and sweep all such compromises and compromisers away, and shall declare that there shall be no peace to rebels. But to the deluded masses we shall extend arms of forgiveness. We will take them to our hearts. We will walk with them side by side, as we go forward to work out a glorious destiny. The time will come when in the beautiful words of him whose lips are now forever sealed, "the mystic cords of memory which stretch from every battle-field and from every patriot's grave, shall yield a sweeter music when touched by the angels of our better nature." At the conclusion of this oration, which had been heard with devout attention and marked approval by the large and most remarkable audience, the choir chanted another dirge, composed for the occasion, by Mr. Wright, and set to the music of Storch: OVER THE VALLEY THE ANGELS SMIL Over the valley the angels smile, Over the valley the angels smile, Tho' we must grieve thee, Our God will receive thee, Blessing thy labor, Our friend and our neighbor; Crowning thee bright as the babe of the Nile. The closing prayer was offered up by Dr. Harkey. Next in continuation was the requiem, "Peace, troubled |