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 where the patriot and good shall live forever. His example teaches young men that every position of eminence is open before the diligent and the 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 sepulchre, let us resolve to carry forward the work which he so nobly began. 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 God has given us. How joyful should we be that it floated over parts of every State before Mr. Linoln'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 the army of nearly 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 battlefield and from every patriot's grave shall yield a sweeter music when touched by the angels of our better nature." The oration was listened to with the most marked attention, and at the conclusion "Over the Valley the Angels Smile," was sang. At this stage of the proceeding Rev. Dr. P. D. Gurley arose and made a few remarks, and offered the closing prayer. The following hymn and doxology was then sung, and the service closed by benediction, by Rev. Dr. Gurley: FUNERAL HYMN. Rest, noble martyr! rest in peace; Who, like thee, fell in Freedom's cause, Thy name shall live while time endures, These deeds shall be thy monument, This consecrated spot shall be And Freedom's sons of every race O God! before whom we, in tears, Grant that the cause, for which he died, DOXOLOGY. To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, The God whom we adore, Be glory as it was, is now, And shall be evermore. The troops and the fire department then formed into line and marched back to the city. We have thus followed the remains of President Lincoln from Washington, the scene of his assassination, to Springfield, his former home, and now to be his final resting place. He had been absent from Springfield ever since he left it in February, 1861, for the national capital, to be inaugurated as President of the United States. We have seen him lying in state in the Executive mansion, where the obsequies were attended by numerous mourners, some of them clothed with the highest public honors and responsibilities which our republican institutions can bestow, and by the diplomatic representatives of foreign governments. We have followed the remains from Washington, through Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago, to Springfield, a distance in circuit of 1500 or 1,800 miles. On the route five millions of people have appeared to manifest by every means of which they were capable their deep sense of the public loss, and their appreciation of the many virtues which adorned the life of Abraham Lincoln, and one million came in order and sorrow to gaze on his lifeless countenance. All classes, without distinction of politics, spontaneously united in the posthumous honors. All hearts seemed to beat as one at the bereavement; and now funeral processions are ended, our mournful duty of escorting the mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln to Springfield is performed. We have seen them laid in the tomb. The gratitude of his country will rear noble monuments to commemorate his virtues and his services: a more enduring monument is in the hearts of his countrymen. 16 |