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Les diegiammes sulvants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 G \i^y^JeAc^jA'^ jh 14^^71^ ^y ^.JZ.W^ y^i^;^ ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN, DELIVERED AT THE HALL OF THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, ^aint John, |i, g. JUNE 1, 1865. AT THE INVITATION OF THE CITIZENS. BY CHARLES M. ELLIS, ESa.. of Soslon, pass. SAINT JOHN. N. B.: J. & A. McMillan, 78 prince wm. street, 1865. THE '^mvvinl ^Hu»» ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN, DELIVERED AT THE HALL OF THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, mm John, f . 1. JUNE 1. 1865. AT THE INVITATION OF THE CITIZENS. BY CHARLES M. ELLIS, ESQ.. of Joslon, Pass. SAINT JOHN, N.B.: J. & A. McMillan, 78 prince wm. street, 1865. IT ■■■ li mt m nH tM iu m ui 'mfifm "Vf^sMMfMAMMMMIMMH^tniM ♦ ^1 "r »)lf:i Oil 5 "to /;t/^ 1 1 J|lnst ''Sassei ;«•,' .V •• ■I'wwr'i' r«S4*t«*nM«(WiH ■m' '"^ '• •' JPres . ' ' " ■I. man^ J late ( f 1^ » i fltion. HIetaj \ »he (^ To EJ 1 1 f HOA I D 1 May 1 last- 1 lish( /'i;WWls«Bll«»«»»*'*'M»'»'***i' • MAYOR'S OFFICE, St Johnj iV: B,f 2nd June, 1865. Gentlemen,^ Having been present last evening, by your kind invitation, *' to attend the memorial exercises at the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute," in common with the citizens present I was much pleased to note the fine and fraternal feeling that pervaded the whole [assembly. The oration of the occasion in memoriam of the death of the late [President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, delivered by the Hon. Mr. Ellis, of Massachusetts, was in such good taste, and taking large and comprehensive a view of thiD whole subject, that in my lind the publication and circulation of the same, would enable lany in this City and Province to obtain a better knowledge of the [late disturbance in the United States, than they have at present. If this cpuld be accomplished without inconvenience, I hope it lay be done, as I am well convinced it would give great satisfac- tion. And I would respectfuHy suggest that the proceedings in letail might be set out, which reflect such good ta^te on the part of the Committee of the United States' subjects residing in this city. I am respectfully, your friend, I. WOODWARD, Mayor. To E. D. Jrwbtt. 0. Small, A. Cushino, Esqrs., Committee. Samt John, June 2nd, 1865. ^ON. C. M. Ellis. Dear Sir, — We enclose a note just received from his Worship, Mayor Woodward, expressing the desire that your address delivered last evening at the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute, should be pub- lished for general circulation. IT. s Should you feel diaposed to leave us your manuscript for that purpose we shall feel great pleasure in complying with the desire of his Worship. Respectfully yours, OTIS SMALL, E. D. JEWETT, A. GUSHING, i ^ St. JohtiyJme Zndy 1866. I r.«<>ci>>i> ilodvv cull i) ' , Gentlemen — ,; I have just had the pleasure of receiving your kind note enclosing ihe letter sent to you by his Worship, the Mayor of this Gity« ,,,,;As it is his wish and your pleasure, I cheerfully give you th^ ^^ess for publication, though so little time was left me since ^urday last when first I knew that I was to have the honor of taking part in your meeting, I know it needs to be very charitably judged. I am faithfully, your friend. 0. M. ELLIS. Mewn. 0ns Smau., E. D. Jbwitt, A. Cuihinq. fhe Order of fizeroises adopted li^ QtHiimittee of JS/93$B>gfmohtf carriAd: out, at the Publifi Meeting hisld in th^ Hf^ of the Meehanics' Insidtute, will be found on the allowing page.] JVECB^jriCa* MjrSTMTUTE, JUJTE 1, 1865. OBDEB OF EC VOLUNTARY on the Organ, - by Professor ALLAN. PRAYER, " Rev. OLIVER BROWN. ANTHEM, IHORT ADDRESSES, 'RAYER, lENEDICTION. - - - by n u Citizens of St. John. Rev. JOHN BREWSTER. Rev. W. V. GARNER. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen. Send her victorious, Happy and glorious. Long to reign over us. God save the Queen. 2 Through every changing scene, O Lord preserve the Queen, Long may she reign. Her heart inspire and move. With wicdom froci above, And in a nation's love. Her throne maintain. 3 May just and righteous laws Uphold the public cause. And bless us all. Home of the brave and free. The land of liberty; We pray that still on thee Heaven's smile may fall. 4 And not this land alone. But be Thy mercy known From shore to shore. Lord make the nations see That men should brothers be. And form ono family, The wide world o'er. « •f*. Thi «ga the for fail ^ MU rec( has chl the anc hui ati lin yoi I th( 801 8tG 8tl to de wi ai] d ADDRESS BY )!'; CHARLES M. ELLIS, ESQ. Thb dire war which for four years slavery has waged against the Union is ended. This final effort to complete the revolution which had been so long in progress, and for a generation past so rapidly, so nearly effected, has failed. The last remnant of the Rebel army beyond the ^ Mississippi has surrendered. That government which, so recently proudly claimed a place amongst the nations, % has vanished, and will never more be seen a^ain. The chiefs in their cells, indicted as Traitors, as felons await the sure course of justice, which we of British blood deny and delay no man. A part of the Federal armies, — some hundreds of thousands of men, — have just been reviewed at the Capitol and are now being disbanded. On every line of conveyance, to the remotest parts of the country, you see the war worn men lying with their heads upon their knapsacks going home to their M labors; and often some of ^their comrades, freed at last from Libby or the stockade, wan and wasted, carried in strong arms, or on stretchers, tenderly borne homeward, to be nursed back to life again by loving hands, or to die, — proofs of the depth of that barbarism which hurried to treason and civil war, and resorted to fire, starvation, poison, pestilence, and assassination, — ^though all in vain, for their wrath only 8 served God's purposes. All over the North, men are fall- ing into the quiet, well-worn, pleasant paths of peace, which is heginuing to shed her blessings on the regener- ated South. The guide, the leader of his people, Abraham Lincoln, the Saviour of his country, has been foully murdered, brutally slain by the side of his wife, by one of a gang of conspirators who thought to effect foi' Slavery and Free- dere, hy anarchy, what they had failed to do by civil revo- lution and intestine war; but he is with the just, and Tfith vision free from mortal obstructions sees the good of his life, the good of his death, and lives in the throbbing hearts of his countrymen, whilst his country goes steadily on; It has pleased you to join with us in the observance of this day set apart by the executive of the United States on account ^i the loss of their good President, as you united with tL m also in the last rites, on the sad day of his fhtie- ral ; moved by honor and love for the true man, respect and sympathy for his cause, good will to our country, rev- erence for the interests of humaoity. rf If it were possible to make any fit response to the feel- ings you thus express, to tel^with what emotions the people of the United States meet you in such acts it would be enough. The sentiments expressed by your Queen ; by the unan- imous voice of both houses of the Impc::al Parliament; by the press ; "by people of all ranks and classes, across the water; and especially throughout these Proinnces, by you, our next neighbors and friends ; manly, just, generous, fra- ternal were such as became the race. They came ium. true hearts, and went to the hearts of our people who 5r- *^. boast the same lineage with yourselves. Accqpt my thanks for the honor ypa conferred in asking me at this hour, to speak of him, for his countrymen, to you. Yet it is some- what difficult, now, when his life and character have been so fully, constantly, ably, exhaustively discussed to offer any now thoughts, and to present the relation of his life to the history of America and of man, to citizens of an- other government. With the events of the life of Abraham Lincoln you are, doubtless, sufficiently familiar; though, probably, five years ago most of you knew little of him, and many of you nothing . whatever. But the events of generations have been crowded into five years and bis char8x:;ter is already historic. You know all ; his birth in Kentucky, a slave State, in 1809, of poor parents ; how they migrated with him a lad of eight, their all on a raft, to Indiana ; how he helped to build there the log cabin in which they lived ; his buck- skin clothes and coonskin cap ; the little schooling whereby he got the elements of what he called his "de- fective education ;" the Dilworth Spelling-book; a little writing ; for the higher branches, a little arithmetic ; his books, the Bible which his mother taught him to read, Pilgrim's Progress, --government, — though poor, and feeble and few, yet by force of their moral and politi- cal faith and truth gave an impulse to the civiliased world, •o that France was revolutionized, England liberalized, the people of Europe freer, whilst the United States of 1850 to 1860, though stretching from ocean to ocean, 80,000,000 strong, rich, powerful, intelligent, was the reproach of civilization. So strong indeed was the South in its own opinion, so strong to appearances, so changed from what it was once, that, unblushing, unconscious of wrong, it ventured to put under a constitution like our own, as its corner stone. Slavery ; that is making it just what ours was by interpre- tation and exposition, and expected to force it on the coun- try. So strong were they actually that they obliged the Norlh to treat them, though traitors, and by law and jus- tice worthy the troitor's doom, as belligerents. You know well, too, the foreign embarrassments of our country. The South had many emissaries abroad, suborn- ing the press, poisoning the public mind, appealing to foreign interest and prejudices. Kecal, now, the general course of events of his public life — from the time when, bidding farewell to his neigh- bours and friends, he asked them to ^''pray that he mighi " receive that Divine assistance without which he could not sue- " ceeil, but with which success was certain,*' Hemember that in his inaugural address he said, *' / have no purpose, dv- " rectly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of Slcvery " in the States where it exists, I believe I have no lawful ** right to do so, and 1 have no inclinaUon to do so,** Remem.- ber what efforts were made, in every form, for compromise 1» and peace. Bear in mind, too, that though it was ohvious war made of all traitors or patriots, it was equally obvioas that, in this civil war, treason was everywhere, and that the traitors in open arms found their most efficient aid from their abettors, who, in the guise of patriots, gave them aid and comfort; with purse ; by trade ; in parties ; by muni* tions and intelligence ; crippling the loyal states ; obstruct- ing the Government ; instigating riots ; justifying seces- sion ; exulting in its successes ; toiling for it with tongue and pen, at home and abroad ; — ^traitors as much as them- selves. Bear in mind, top, that he was called to exercise a power untried, undefined, unknown. Those who understood the country knew that it was a nation. * Those who had fully weighed its constitution knew that its framers had not^ like fools, left the one great cause of their own woes through long years of weakness in war, military impotency. They knew it was a nation ; one nation : with the am- plest, with unlimited power for war. Multitudes, in our country, everywhere, thought that the nation had no power to coerce the States or the peo- ple ; that is, that there was no nation ; *^hat he had no power to act. At first he seemed to hesitate, to question the extent of his power. Of the nation's he had never any doubt. At the outset he called for but seventy-five thousand men, acting under an old statute, marked obsolete iu our Look^ But the tempest raged as had not been dreamed of. In July, 1861, he told Congress that to make the contest short and decisive as many as 400,000 men and 400,000,000 dollars would be required. I^Meanwhile the movement of things on the surface began mm 16 to indicate the coarse and the force of the great carreats below. Slaves became <' contrabands." Tngitives wdre fttmished with employment. We had a fagitive slave bill, bat common sense overraled it when fugitives eame'to oar cainps. Humanity could not let them starve. Slaves in the Confederate service were confiscated ; taken away as property, kept as men. Oar officers were forbid to return fugitive slaves. But it did not seem to be understood what a nation was. Rather, it did not seem clear that self-government could, in so vast a civil rupture, preserve the element of nation-^ ality, or apply it, or that he had adequate power. But, soon it was seen that, under a constitution framed by the pebple, for the United States, every man was bound, he and all he had, to the support of the nation ; that the ele- ments of strength existed where it was thought there was weakness ; that he had given to him adequate, unrestricted military power, in the simple, unqualified, and so amplest possible terms << Commander-in-Chief." If strong in peace, the country was stronger still in war. Still he hesitated to exert his power. In August, 1861, General Fremont declared martial law and emancipation at the West, and was removed. The President was not ready to adopt the emancipation policy of Secretary Cam- eron. At the South^, Hunter issued a proclamation for that end, and was likewise removed. Still the current of history was sweeping him and the peo- ple onward. The days were long and dark ; disasters came dfUia. Bangers surrounded us. To the doubting, to the timid, ruin seemed iiievitable. To the traitors, to their friends, success certain ; though, now, it is plain that pur suecess in the first year would hav^ only restored the civil 17 power, and left the government and people to go on again tinder that, till slavery should have completed the revolu- tion it had hegun. War, alone, stopped that revolution. Only our defeats and disasters led the nation on till, by war, by the war power of the constitution, the people were united, strength- ened, and forced to extinguish slavery forever. Victory then would have been ruin. But as the people moved, the President moved. Calm careful, conscientious, controlled by no party, section or interest, he was forced by the very pressure made on him by every shade of opinion, as well as by his own habit, to decide his own course of ('uty and run the machine for himself. But thus his course was the resultant of the forces of twenty million men : that is the course of history. Bis movements were the aggregate force of this mighty people. A leader, a man of Napoleonic type, of ambition, of will, theory, might have ruined, surely would have embarrassed the country. Gradually the current began to sweep things along, at first slowly. In 1862, he urged a plan for gradual, compensated emancipation of the several border States. He looked for what was practicable as well as what was right. He must build his house and fence of such logs and rails as he had or could split. He issued a procla- mation in September, 1862, announcing the great step to be taken the coming new year. This too was a dark year. The military campaign was not successful. Still the coun- try seemed to be gathering strength. Slavery was abolished in the district of Columbia ; forbidden forever in the Ter- ritories: negroes began to be enlisted. The people began to grow confident, to put forth their power, not to call 2 18 'd for levies of men by huudreds of thousands and money by millions, but, as of yore, to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their snored honor, to lay all, all, on the altar of country. Then came the immortal proclamation of Freedom of January 1, 1868. Then it began to lighten up, the ship was off a dangerous shore; but she had sea room; the Captain was at the helm; she was well manned; though leak- ing yet the pumps kept her free; her sails were set; the ocean currents were sweeping her to safety; the breezes of heaven wafted her on her course. In July, 1863, came the victories at Vicksburg. The Mississippi was opened, the rebellion severed in two. That year be- gan the general enlistment of colored men as soldiers; Virginia, Missouri, the Cherokees abolished slavery. In November, at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln declared " this Naiioriy under God, shall have a new birth of Freedom, " Government of the people, by the people and for the people ** shall not perish from the earth*' He had taken observa- tions ; got his reckoning ; knew the strength of his vessel ; saw whither the course of history set; had confidence in the people, and being a faithful servant of them, confi- dence in himself; and absolute trust in God. He began that year by declaring every slave within the rebel States tree forever. From that time success was con- stant, victory sure. In December, 1863, ofteriijg amnesty to the rebels and announcing a scheme for the restoration of civil power, for he never had a dream of ambition, he said that " the policy of emancipation and of employing black soldiers gave to the future a new aspect about which hope^ and fear, and doubt, contended in uncertain conflict," and the next 19 fr spring ho wrote to friends in Kentucky that then " at the " eiid of three years* struggling the Nation's condition is not ^^what either party or any men devised^ or expected. God ** alone can claim it. Whither it is extending seems plain. If " God noio wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills, also, " that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay *^ fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will ^^Jind therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and ^* goodness of God,** Still there were vast obstructions; opposition, disaster enough to consolidate and strengthen the people in their work. The South had allies in the North, criminally agitating, in print and speech, against the Country, fomenting bloody riots in New York, Boston, and other places; allies abroad, co-conspirators urging on parliament to recognize the Southern Confederacy in- dependent. You know the course of military and naval victories of the next year. You know the course of progress in civil affairs — the admission of the right of colored men as wit- nesses; their right to education; — Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland free, self-made free ; the fugitive slave bill re- pealed ; a new Supreme Court ; the citizenship of colored men and freedmen recognized and confirmed. You know the great political event of last year, an event in the world's history as well as in ours, how an opposition in the interests of treason was attempted to be organized against the nation, to reassert the of- old omnipotent principle of compromise ; to guarantee the rights of the States and territories intact, and by old asso- ciations and prejadices and interests, with the help of mili- tary glory, to restore things as they were before the war began. But the ideas, the interests, the errors of the past so generation had vanished. The people looked to the long, the distant past, the far-opening future. Ahraham Lincoln was unanimously nominated upon the principles of nation- lility ; the utter extirpation of slavery ; and the constitu- tional prohibition of it forever. A common election, a political contest ; a desperate effort of secession, — it proved Tto be another pulsation of the heart of humanity, a new uprising of the people in their power, resting on their faith in God. Chosen almost unanimously he embodied the mind, the heart, the faith of America. You know the rest, the judgment, the execution. You know the vast sweep of the armies taking many States as in a net ; how the constitutional amendment forever forbid- ding slavery was passed in Congress and ratified by so many states ; how then the final victories of war came, and he walked up the streets of Richmond, leading hisb<^ by the hand, amidst the benedictions of the race he had freed. You know all the rest ; how treason showed its hellish- ness and tried its last resort in murder; how without disease or pain, with a smile in his face, he passed from mortal life ; you know the wretched, lingering, agonizing 4eath of the beastly assassin ; the bursting of the hollow shell of secession, — the mean, contemptible flight, disguise ■and capture of the leaders of the traitors. It seems as if the devil, having had them for his allies and Msed them as Ills tools, left them in despair and in revenge, robbed of human sympathy, to be the laughing-stock and scorn of mankind forever. In his eleetion and by his death our country and man- kind wera taught two important political lessons ; one that the e^eOutive eleclions, in which the wisest jurists had 21 supposed there was the greatest danger to a democracy, could be safely conducted in the worst of times, that the people can protect themselves : the other, that no other form of government is so secure from disturbance, from interruption of its executive functions by death, disease, or otherwise, as those in which the executive is elective ; nay, that the destruction of its executive head is impos- sible. Such was the private life, the public history of Abraham Lincoln ; the former inspired with the spirit of America, the latter the embodiment of the history of her most glo- rious days. American born ; bred by America ; at manhood he stood six feet four. In this spontaneous movement of society he moved with the people, though he towered above them, and as leader and legislator was only the servant of their thought and will^ as he saw their purpose to be the design of the Almighty. And are not you fit judges of his private and his public life? you who judge by those laws in which your history and ours, and the issues of freedom and humanity are united and confluent. Contemplate, now, his personal character. What wns the volume of his mind ? Who was ever freer from all dis- turbing elements : pride ; ambition ; prejudices ; social, political, professional influences; no false philosophy ; no pet theories, misled him. Ready to meet, to hear, to an- swer the wisest of any craft ; adequate to every emer- gency ; shrewd ; wise as he was simple ; does he not in this respect fall into the class of such as Franklin, Socrates ? How large was his heart ? He not only was wise in thought, timely in speech, prudent in action, but he gave 22 expression to the feelings cf the nation. He spoke from his heart, and his fresh and honest emotions touched the heart of his people and of mankind, and set them throb- bing What poor woman or soldier failed to secure his sympathy ? Whi.o poet or orator ever moved men more ? What philanthropist was ever more zealous to serve his fellow men ? Whom did the world love better ? How absolute was his trust in the laws of God ? He had faith in humanity, believed in the conscience of the people, began and ended life in childlike faith, which Na- poleon reached as the result of his so different life that "there ?s no power without justice ; " and in his last in- augural address, said " the Almighty has His own purposes; " the judgments of the Almighty are righteous altogether,'' For this combination of elements, attested by the unan- imous judgment of men to have been faithfully applied through his life, whom will you place above him ? To judge of his 'public character^ you must consider the relation of the public acts of his life, principles, and not to transient events ; to learn his place in history you must see what he did for institutions of historic importance. To judge him as a public man, you must know the rela- tion of his acts to the public mind, the intelligence of mankind; to the human heart, tbe conscience of the world ; to the law of God, the Divine purpose. You will regard little his origin or education, little whether his powers were native or acquired ; how he start- ed; or what course he took. You look chiefly to the results in these relations. You will consider whether in these results he looked to personal, local, transient inter- ests or had regard to universal, permanent, absolute laws alone. Did he regard political, sectional ends, or his 28 From ithe rob- country and mankind? the issues and fortunes of his ad- ministration, of his generation, or of the people for all coming time ? The judgments of people of other countries, especially of the people of contiguous English colonies, if not likely fto be more correct than that of Americans, must at least be affected by some essential elements which Araericans too often leave out of the accounts in the study o\ their own history and judging of their public men. America can be understood only by study of England. "We must know the life of the Anglo Saxon race, the course of liberty in ifngland for many centuries. We were not only united politically till our revolution, but civil liberty, there and here, was developed from the same principles, by the same laws ; there indeed from the nature of our country, the necessities of our condition, some new ele- ments earlier introduced; but till then essentially one people in our laws, our liberties : and since then differing more in form than in substance ; in some points o:i0 in advance, in some the other. We have no hereditary rulers of the State, you no slaves. In our declaration we set forth certain absolute laws of nature, but we failed to live up to them and are paying the penalty. In many respects you have become freer than a people would be expected to be found under such a form of government. We take too narro\7 views and dwell too little on the unity of American and English, especially of American and Colonial history and lives, and on the laws of all human progress. The best judge of American nationality is he who best understands British liberty. He best knows the wrong of American slavery who knows best the basis of English .38»7PW. :i'yi^:^%ii^iii; ^f.x, ■: I 24 and of human freedom ; the foundation of all human law. Look, then, at the elements of our Nationality. Distin- guish temporary, local deposits. Explore the lower strata. Contemplate longer periods of time, larger relations, fun- damental principles. Look heyoud the issue of North and South ; New England and Carolina ; Atlantic and Pacific ; America and England; the Old World and the New. Find on what they all rest in common. Look beyond the issues of a canvas ; the principles of parties ; the compromises of this or many^generations ; the decisions of courts; even below tbe constitution of our country when you judge — and so too below all of yours, to the laws which under-lie and control all. Sweep away what is transient and fix what is true ; to what they have in common and enduring, the laws on which all rest; to the deeper currents; the inner movements of states ; the laws which govern the origin, growth, of na- tions. Study the laws of the life of races of men through centuries and cycles, the law of humanity. And as by the study of the long course of history — our own as well as yours — and of it as part of all human his- tory, you form a true idea of what a nation is, what the eternal laws of states are ; by that standard judge the events of these last four years, and his public life* in rela- tion to them. What then was American liberty ? The result of Eng- lish life and labor for so many centuries ; the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the protection of equal laws ; justice and the right ; a few simple moral and poli- tical axioms, eliminated, discovered, and applied in the course of ages, as the simple laws of other sciences also were discovered, recognized as absolute natural laws. Wliat was AmencaA nationality ? The state as a divii^^ institution, fon;ae4 as men's fashipps mi^ht require, bat to conform to, to enforce the law of libertj ; a country em- bodying in its institutions those laws,, with power to en~ force ttem ; self-ffovernment, but government by the latp of Liberty. Such were they at the foundation. Practically there were local temporary concessions. But nothing was con- ceded to slavery but with the fair pledge that it should be extinguished, and with the express power reserved to the nation to entree its extinction. Nothing was conceded to the States that was not subordinated to the powers of the one nation in which the people united. But in the course of a mortal lifetime, at the accession of Abraham Lincoln, all had changed. Once justice, liberty, law, the Nation; now, expediency, slavery, the States. You know what was the spirit and purpose of earlier days. But now public men, the ros- trum, the pulpit, the professional chair, moralists, publi- cists, jurists, taught that the basis of all nationality was compromise, expediency. Ignoring the elements of na- tional law, the principles of liberty, they sought to revive a long-exploded systems of morals and of men : unblush- ingly, nay with fervor and zeal, with sheer madness that fancied itself patriotism, they proclaimed that that Fior^l- ity which regarded absolute justice was puerile, foolish, impious ; that one nation, any nation was possible only by compromise ; that patriotism was the noblest practical limitation of universal philanthrohy ; and the only stand- ard of duty was utility. The ethics of nationality had been forgotten. Secession, treason were the legitimate result. The policy of the parties, the measures of leading men. W"J."i'." few : ' 1: I the statutes, decrees of the Courts ; popular preaching ; the press ; teachings of schools and colleges; the tests of social, political fellowship ; the laws of 1798 and of 1850 ; the policy of territorial extension from Louisiana to Texas^ Kanzas, California ; the dogma of Calhoun ; the constitu- tional theory of Wehster ; the compromises of Clay ; Andover; Princeton; Cambridge; judges; lawyers; di- vines ; writers and scholars — all, all social, political, com- mercial influences joined in assertions that the original law of liberty was a sham. They united to undermine the ancient nationality. Their rule was absolute ; and seemed to bt sure. Arro- gant, intolerant they began the work of proscription. The mails were rifled; speech and the press muzzled ; liberty sacrificed ; the States stood first ; the Kation was their ser- vant and slavery's. Slavery ruled. Nationality was dying out. If peace had continued revolution would have been completed, ruin have come. A few moralists who taught justice ; a few divines who preached the law of God ; a few statesmen who held to the eternal obligation of divine law ; poets who sang for free- dom ; and popular writers and orators who nursed the nation's love for liberty, most of them without position or power, and powerless to act against all this machinery of evil, Chaning, Garrison, Adams, Parker, W hittier, Stowe, Sumner, Chase, and such, kept alive the nation's heart. So Revolution was going on ; the country was drifting to ruin. Slavery had controlled, and nearly practically extinguished both liberty and nationality. But the tempest of war came and cleared the air again. When the shot was fired on Sumter and the flag hauled down, the scaffolding of the old parties, creeds, philoso* 27 phies, fell to the dust in a moment. It was obvious that it was treason against patriotism ; secession against na- tionality; compromise against principle; slavery against humanity; expediency against justice. Parties dissolved. All this machinery stopped. The people hastened to undo the vile work of generations. The nation had been living on, and turned even the work of evil to its account. It was plain, too, that all this machinery was thrown out of gear, useless, powerless, in a moment. For it had all depended on the civil administration of the govern- ment in its several branches, and the modes of controlling the masses in*tho walks and ways of peace ; and now came war: the whole people must move as a military body ; with their commander, by the laws of war. So all that vanished. Slavery, the naked, deadly, loathsome monster, must be met face to face. There could be no parley, no compromise. It was life or death with them now. All at once the old nation was alive again ; morals were taught; religion was preached ; justice decreed; the Con- stitution was read as it had been in the beginning. The war power, as legitimate as necessary as the civil power, brought to an instant test parts of the political system that had never been thoroughly tried before. It was his fortune to move with his people, its leader and head, in this vast movement of American society sweeping on again in the tide of humanity, and in his brief term sweeping away before it to oblivion the shades of seventy years. You have noted his gradual developement, mind, heart and soul, and as the reason, sentiments, and conscience of the people stirred, he regulated the acts of the military and civil power ; vast armies ; the resources of a continent ; if 28 the events of generations, ages, crowded into these four years ; so that at the helm, he brought safe this mighty ship back to her ancient course again. So in four short years this man who came, unheralded, unknown, from the mass of the people, by his native great- ness, or because he was a man of the people, — a true man, untrammelled by social, scholastic, ecclesiastical political or legal creeds, theories, or precedents, obliged to confront the powers and against the country, with the true principles and whole power of the govern- ment in open war ; obliged, as well as inclined to heed the heart and conscience of the people and of humanity, and that alone, did more by his acts to shape the course after the laws of human progress than any other man. And, without regarding the power he had vested in him by his high office and supreme command, it would be difficult to conceive how any man could have acquired over so vast an empire such complete moral control ; as it is impossible to name one whose motives in the exer- cise of supreme power was so completely unquestionable. Therefore the people of his country recognize him, as you all do ; as the representative American : the most Ameri- can of Americans ; the exponent of Americarf life. Under him, what a revolution has been wrought ; from profound peace, with no preparation for war, an army of two million men, war on the vastest scale ; from a little navy of twenty-six vessels, now about seven hundred ves- sels of war; manufactures developed enough to reimburse this outlay of thousands of millions ; the enfranchised la- bor of a race enough to repay it ; the energy, courage, principles of the people developed ; from an inferior the country became a first rate power ; it has advanced more four » in these four years of trial than in fifty of prosperity, as a young man grows more in one year of adversity than in* many of apparent success. But all this material progress is nothing besides the moral regeneration of the country ; nothing whatever. Under him, by the blessing of the good God, the people preserved the country entire ; the law of Liberty was re- stored to rule ; Nationality triumphed. It is now plain that Nationality is Humanity ; that in fighting our cause we have fought for you, for self-govern- ment, and liberty regulated by law every where ; for civil- ization, and the progress of mankind. The work of his day, his work, was well done; all done: the work of war, felling and burning the forest. If the work of this day and the coming times, of clearing, culture, civilization, be done as well, it will be his gloiy to have redeemed America. If we fail, now or hereafter, and the roots of evil sprout and grow again, his will be the glory of having begun that work, ours the shame of its failure. Few, if any, names will stand out stronger or brighter in history than that of Abraham Lincoln. How fortunate in his death ! Having meekly, manfully, religiously, a faithful servant of his people and his God, done the greatest work of the ages ; still the same simple, honest, trusting Christian, he laid aside the robes of mor- tality to see his Country united, free, its union sanctified and cemented by his martyrdom ; its heart throbbing with love and gratitude inexpressible for him ; and men of every elime, humanity joining in benedictions to him the gqod, the great, the txue.^^ij Blissful translation ! Si^clent reward ; that a life of slich glorious service should have been crowned with a 80 ideath not less serviceable to the holy cause to which his life was devoted, which enlisted for his country and for him the sympathies of the world. On earth his name will last, long after the monuments men will erect shall have all crumbled to dust. As it is inscribed in the motto above you, "The memory of the just is blessed." The best monument will be the completion of the work that follows emancipation. Let the four million be freed as men, be men. To teach a boy to work, set him to work. To make a man a good citizen, make him a citizen. If there be risks, as there are, take them. There can be no risk so great as that of leaving a root or fihre of the evil in the ground. Let us leave no distinction which may increase; none to recall the evil days. Let us root out slavery, and all trace of it, now and forever. Then will the world see the true glory of this war now closed, and of his life of devoted patriotism : that the law of all laws is the divine law ; know the meaning and the strength of self-government ; and that no State can stand secure that violates the law of human liberty, and the justice of God. ^ These colonies are all but waves of a mighty race, sweeping to these and to other shores, to Plymouth rock ; and to Canada ; to California, India, and Australia. Li the course of centuries, the lessening differences of time and form will all be forgotten. Little will be remem- bered but such mighty convulsions in its course, if the unity and current of the life of the race itself be clear. Possibly, at some future day, your colony and ours, of common origin; inheriting the same institutions; with the same native love for liberty, and law, justice and the right; alike in climate, productions, wants, position ; with 81 one history in common ; one common destiny ; contigu- ous ; with no natural barrier ; so free in intercourse ; so glad to show, so glad to receive, tokens of good will, may be even more closely united. But whether ever united, or only joined in friendly alliance as now, till all shall have developed laws of self- government and, in the progress of mankind, the people have become more and more a law unto themselves, you will ever feel a just pride that in this, their trial day, our people, your kinsmen, proved true to the spirit of their fathers; defended their faith that religious truth is the basis of government, and will honor the name of Abraham Lincoln, the saviour of his country, the martyr for American Liberty. fii rJ^^,^A, ^^3^, /