The Lincoln memorial : a record of the life, assassination, and obsequies of the martyred President

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Preface

The death of President Lincoln and the terrible circiunstances attending it, his funeral rites, solemn beyond example in history, and the passage of his honored remains from city to city for thousands of miles, created too deep an impression not to make the scenes and the words spoken by the great and eloquent in that season matters to be preserved as a record for after time and thought.

To meet this feeling, the present Memorial has been compiled. Original matter has been furnished, and the full reports of the press, in all parts of the country, freely used.

Giving a sketch of the late President's life, an account of his death and obsequies, the effect here and in Europe, it may be said to include all that is worthy of preservation, and, as such, is submitted to the public.

COIs^TEI^'TS

J. Life of Abrahazvi Lincoln 7

His first Protest against Slavery 15

Resolutions on the Mexican War 17

Acceptance of the Chicago Nomination 24

Farewell Address at Springfield 26

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 27

Proclamation, April 15, 186i 37

Emancipation Proclamations 41, 43

Amnesty Proclamation 45

Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 49

U. AsSASSmATIOX AND LAST MOMENTS OF THE PRESIDENT 53

Major Rathbone's Account 61

Miss Harris's Account 6S

Captain McGowan's Account 65

Hon. M. B. Field's account of the death 69

HI. The Effect on the Country 73

The World Editorial 76

Speech of General Butler 81

Speech of Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson 83

Speech of Ex. President Pierce 85

Sermon of Rev. Dr. Gurley on Easter Sunday 88

Sermon of Rev, Henry W. Bellows 90

Sermon of Archbishop McCloskey 97

Sermon of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher 101

rV. The Funeral at Washington 109

Prayer of Bishop Simpson 117

Faith in God, a Sermon on the Death of the President, by the

Rev. P. D. Gurley, D. D 120

V. Funeral Observances in Other Cities 139

VI. The Funeral Cortege from Washington to Springfield . . 161

Yll. The Rites at Springfield ^ 223

Bishop Simpson's Funeral Oration 228

VIII. The Effect op the Assassination in Europe 237

Remarks of the English Press 237

Proceedings in Parliament • 253

Proceedings on the Continent 262

IX. Poems ^71

X. The Assassin and His End 281

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Theee is perhaps no point in which all human history, and the records of inspiration, are more clearly illustrative of each other than this — that Providence, in working out the great and mighty revolutions in the civil and social, no less than in the religious order, chooses the unknown, the lowly, the apparently unfit. But though drawn from obscurity, these instruments in the Mighty Hand are always intrinsically great — great in clearness of thought, great in cahn deliberation, great in earnestness, in unaffectedness, in imselfish devotion to duty.

Thus viewed, Abraham Lincoln was truly great. Raised suddenly to the station which Washington was the first to fill, his sudden elevation sent a pang to the hearts of many, as though a sad degeneracy had fallen on our times ; while others shuddered at the unequalness of the man for the most critical position which had yet arisen in American affairs.

Four years have so changed all this, that his name is universally revered ; the great qualities which he really possessed, his knowledge of men, his uprightness and honesty, his kindliness of heart, his extreme caution in the unnumbered difficulties that daily arose in the constant civil and military emergencies, with a firmness that was never swerved by flattery or fear — all these, and the great results effected under his administration, have given him in the heart of the people a place second only to that of the Father of his Country. The sudden and terrible assassination which so suddenly cut short his second administrative term, has embalmed his memory, and in its very suddenness convinced men of all opinions and all parties of the extent and greatness of the national loss.

Sprung from the people, with no ancestral renown or services, with none of the auxiliaries which wealth, social position, or academic honors afford the mass of aspirants to great public honors, Abraham Lincoln rose step by step to the highest station in the gift of his fellow-countr^Tnen. And although party virulence, which in our press has no check, persistently coupled his name with odious epithets, there has never been the slightest charge of any thing to detract from a high moral character. He was too great to stoop to vile means to accomplish his ends.

No Caesar he, wliom we lament, A Man without a precedent.

Sent, it would seem, to do

His work, and perish too !

The study of the life of the unpretending, homely Abraham Lincoln is, then, a study for the American people and the world. He is a man possible only under our form of government, and in life and death a proof of its excellence. He is no common man whose loss is so deplored ; he is no common man whose loss a ruler-choosing-nation sees no one to fill in its confidence and affection.

Some industrious genealogist, tracing out the Lincoln family in America, will hereafter tell us of the original ancestor of the President in this country. He was, from all that family tradition preserves, one of the clear-headed honest Friends who came to settle the colony granted to William Penn, and made his new home in Berks county, Pennsylvania. Some of his descendants pushing southward became citizens of Virginia, and here in Pockingham county was bom Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President, and the eldest of five brothers. The influence of affairs had transformed the staid Quakers into hardy backwoodsmen, and when Boone laid open to the adventurous the rich lands of Kentucky, then an outlying wilderness forming the western part of Virginia, Abraham Lincoln was one of the host of stalwart pioneers who, unheralded and unsung, pushed westward to found on the southern shore of the Ohio the high toned State of Kentucky.

The young pioneer settled, it is generally supposed, on Floyd's Creek, and rearing there the log-cabin of a pioneer, cleared the forest to begin the necessary cultivation. But before lie could see liis labors crowned with success, or a home for himself and his children blooming in the wilderness, the torrent of Indian war, so cruelly kept alive by the English authorities against us in the Ee volution, swept that exposed frontier, and Abraham Lincoln was killed and scalped by the savages in one of their forays.

Tlie widow, with her little family, was left thus bereft of all, far from the aid of civilized society; but her boys struggled manfully, and Thomas, the youngest, with the clear hereditary head and self-reliance, stood the buffets of fortune till he reached manhood. He married, in 1806, Lucy Hankes, and settled in Hardin county. Here, on a knoll that rises from the banks of Nolen Creek, and about a mile above Hodgensville, Abraham Lincoln was born, on the 12th of February, 1809, and here he remained until his sixth year, when his father removed a few miles further on to a new location.

At seven years of age he was sent to school to a Mr. Hazel, carrying with him an old copy of Dilworth's spelling-book, one of the three volumes that constituted the family library. He was also for a time imder another teacher, of the name of Einey ; but the whole period during which he was enabled to enjoy any of the advantages of a school was extremely limited, not exceeding at most a few months.

The family, as will readily be seen, were poor, and in a poor part of the country. Mr. U. F. Linder, a leading Democratic lawyer of Hlinois, a friend of Mr. Lincoln from boyhood, says : — "I knew his father and his relatives in Kentucky. They were a good family. They were poor, and the very poorest people, I might say, of the middle classes ; but they were true." In a slave State, the position of the poor white was one utterly disheartening and crushing ; and Thomas Lincoln, after battling wearily with his disadvantages, resolved to strike forward to a field opening greater prospects of success for himself and his children. When Abraham was in his eighth year, his father sold his clearing, and, placing all his household goods on a raft, sought a new home in the wilds of Spencer county, Indiana. After seven days' journey through an almost uniuhabited country, and, for part of the way, actually hewing a road through the woods, the pioneers reached their new home.

A log hut soon rose in the clearing, Abraham giving such assistance as his age and strength permitted, for he was never in life an idler. His life here during the next twelve years furnishes few incidents. For education, his opportunities were even less than in his native State ; but he was ambitious, and sought to improve. Books were not more plenty in the cabins of the neighbors than in the humble domicil of the Lincolns ; but Abraham sought out all that he could find, and, aided by his mother, he read them with avidity. A copy of Weems's Life of Washington, which he read, impressed him deeply, and the poor boy, little dreaming that he was ever ,to succeed the Father of his Country as the head of the Government, paid in toil for the pleasure which the perusal of the life aiforded him. The rain at night, penetrating through the chinks of the cabin, spoiled the book, and some days' hard labor for the owner was the boy's only means of compensation, and this, with his proverbial honesty, he insisted on performing.

The arrival of a young man in the neighborhood who could write, and who kindly offered to teach young Lincoln, was indeed an epoch. Already filled with the idea that he needed but education to rise, and that he had good sound sense enough to fight his way, he allowed no occasion of improvement to escape.

He was now to lose his mother— his almost only teacher— a good, simple, pious woman, who sought to instil into her son the principles of virtue and religion, and give him such education as her ability afforded. Abraham deeply deplored her loss, and his first letter was one addressed to the Eev. Mr. Elkins, a travelling preacher and an old friend of his mother's, requesting him to come and perform funeral exercises over her grave. Three months after, the clergyman and the friends assembled to pay a last tribute to one universally beloved and respected.

A brief term at a school established near them, and we find Abraham, at the age of eighteen, seeking employmeut and preparing to relieve his father by doing for himself. A neighbor starting with a boat-load of stores for New Orleans invited him to join him, and the young man readily accepted the opportunity. In March, 1830, his father, who had mamed again, removed to a spot on the north side of the Sangamon river, ten miles west of Decatur, in Macon county, Hlinois ; and Abraham, after assisting him in the removal, as well as in erecting a new house, split the rails for a fence — an incident whioli was taken lap in the canvass for the Presidency, and made his rails as famous as Harrison's log cabin.

'Working aromid by day, studying and improving himself by night, the yoimg man pushed ahead, and, in the spring of 183 1, was taken into the employ of a speculating trader named Denton OfFutt, who had noticed his good qualities. With him, he took a boat again to Xew Orleans, but, on its return, tlie boat got aground near ]^ew Salem, in Illinois, near a mill and store. Offutt, deeming it a place for an opening, got possession of the place and opened the store, Lincoln being his clerk and mana_i::er. He soon made his mark : an attempt of a gang of the bullies of the place to give him a beating resulted in the defeat of their champion by the tall, sinewy stranger, who at once became a favorite with those who guaged men by their physical endurance and courage, while his affable manners, his unfailing cheerfulness, his ready wit, and his stories, made him a favorite with all. A store was soon his own ; but he was too honest and too kind-hearted to drive sharp bargains, and soon found himself in difficulties which it required years of subsequent struggle to clear away, but which he allowed to stand no longer than his ability to discharge them. Honest Abraham Lincoln knew no bankrupt's discharge, but a receipt in full on payment in full.

The office of postmaster of Xew Salem, a petty office indeed, was his first public position, and one which gave him intense pleasure from the opportunity of reading it afforded him; and it is not a little remarkable that he began life, we may say, by serving the General Government in a civil, and, soon after, in a military capacity.

While still a clerk, the Black Hawk war broke out, and a company of volunteers was raised which elected him captain. He marched his force to Beardstown, but they were not called into active service during their term of thirty days ; yet, with persistence characteristic of him, he enlisted in another company, and remained in service till the war was ended.

This early choice of one who was at most a clerk and hand in a country store, shows how clearly his fellow-citizens had recognized him as one bom to be a ruler of men. At the next election for members of the Legislature, he was taken up as the candidate of his district, and so completely united the votes of all parties in his precinct that he received every vote but seven out of 284; and though he was defeated in the district at large, it was the onlj occasion in which he failed in a popular election.

About this time, by the advice and aid of John Calhoun, afterwards prominent in the troubles in Kansas, as president of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, Mr. Lincoln studied surveying, and soon met with sufficient employment ; but difficulties weighed so heavily on him, that his instruments were actually at one time seized for debt.

He still took an active part in politics, and in August, 1834, was elected to the Legislature by a large majority. In this new field he learned much. He was a persistent student, and had already, by close application, made up for much of the deficiency of his early education. He analyzed all he read, and gave up nothing till he had thoroughly mastered it. This gave him a correctness and precision of thought which never failed him. iS'aturally modest, he discharged his legislative duties without any of the parade or elation which makes some inexperienced members mere tools of the wily politician or personally ridiculous. His clearness and eloquence struck the Hon. John T. Stuart, one of his fellow-members, and he urged the young member to study law.

Acting on this advice, he set himself to Blackstone with ardor, his favorite retreat being a wooded knoll near !N"ew Salem, where, stretched under an oak, he would pore over the doctrines of the Common Law, utterly unconscious of all passing around him, and impressing some, at least, of his neighbors with doubts of his entire sanity. In 1836, he was admitted to the bar, and was the same year again elected to the Legislatm-e — an honor conferred on him by his fellow-citizens successively in 1838 and 1840.

This closed for a time his political career. During the eight years of his service in the assembly, a great rage prevailed for public improvements ; but we find Mr. Lincoln's name recorded in favor of none of those extravagant projects which were subsequently so disastrous. He always favored improvements which his practical sound sense commended as judicious. During his first tei-m of service, he was a member of the Committee on Public Accounts and Expenditures. Every act in favor of

LITE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15

education, agriciiltural improvements, the relief of the stniggling poor man, met his warm support. Questions of a national character seldom came up ; but pro-slavery resolutions having been presented to the House, in 1837, Mr. Lincoln, in the following protest, recorded views, which show how early he formed his opinion and how little he ever swerved from it : —

The following protest was presented to the House, which was read and ordered to be spread on the journals, to wit : —

" Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both branches of the General Assembly, at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same.

" They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad poHcy ; but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.

'* They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different States.

" They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of said District.

" The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said resolutions, is their reason for entering this protest.

" (Signed)

''Dan. Stone, "A. LixcoLX, " Representatives from the County of Sangamon r

In 1837, he moved to Springfield, and became a partner of his friend, Mr. Stuart, the connection thus formed continuing till the election of Mr. Stuart to Congress, when Mr. Lincoln became the partner of Judge Logan, one of the leaders of the bar.

Mr. Lincoln's characteristics as an advocate were an earnestness and sincerity of manner, and a directness, conciseness, and strength of style ; he appealed, at other times, to the weapons of good-humored ridicule as ably as to the heavier arms of forensic combat. He was strongest in civil cases, but in a criminal cause that enlisted his sympathy he was also great. It was then that the advocate's convictions, presented to the jm-y in terse and

16 LINCOLN IMEMORIAL.

forcible yet eloquent language, sometimes outweighed the charge of the judge. Juries listened to him and concurred in his arguments; for liis kno\vn truth had preceded his arguments, and lie triumphed. There might be law and evidence against him, but the belief that Lincoln was right, nothing could shake in the minds of those who knew the man.

He prepared his cases with infinite care, when he had nothing but technical work before him. JS'o detail of the affair escaped him. All the parts were perfectly fitted together, and the peculiar powers of his keen analytic mind were brought into full play.

Lincoln did not grow rich at the law, though possessing a decent competence and owing no man any thing. JS'o early friend of Lincoln ever appealed to him in vain ; and his biograj)hers relate his defence of young Armstrong, the son of an early benefactor, for whom he secured an acquittal when every thing seemed to render his conviction certain.

Another old friend, U. F. Linder, Esq., a member of the Ilhnois bar, at a meeting of the profession called when the sad tidings of Mr. Lincoln's death arrived, alluding to a case in which his own son was involved in a similar difficulty, said : —

" On tkat occasion, many seemed to avail themselves of the opportunity to wreak vengeance upon me in the death of my son. I wrote to Mr. Lincoln. I was in a quarter of the country where I knew he was a tower of strength, where his name raised up friends, where his arguments at law had more power than the instructions of the court. I feared — many of his political friends being united against my son — that his services and his talents might be enlisted against him. I wrote to him, giving him all the circumstances, telling him of my wife's grief and my own, and soliciting that he would come and assist me to defend my son ; that I thought he had been employed against him. I preserved his letter for a long time. I wish I had it now ; I should rejoice in its possession. The sum of it was this : he condoled with me and my wife in'our misfortune, and assured us that no matter what business he might be engaged in, he would come ; and he was truly sorry that I supposed that he would take part in the prosecution of the son of a friend of his. I had offered him a fee, and in that letter he also said that he knew of no act of his life that would justify me in supposing that he would take money from me or any dear friend for assisting in the defence of the life of a child. I give this as a proof of his friend-

LIFE OF ABEAHA3I LINCOLN. 17

ship ; and that friendship has been cherished by me through all mutations of life. In politics we have ever been opposed ; but I thank God to-day that he always was my friend."

Meantime, in tbe year 1842, Lincoln married a woman worthy to be the companion of his progress towards honor and distinction. Miss Mary Todd, who became his wife, is the daughter of Eobert Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky, a man well known in that State, and at one period the clerk of the lower house of Congress. At the time of her marriage, Miss Todd was the belle of Springfield society— accomplished and intellectual, and possessing all the social graces native in the women of Kentucky.

The fruit of their Union were four sons— Eobert Lincoln, now a captain on General Grant's staff, bom in 1843 ; a second son, born in 1846, and William, born in 1850, both of whom are dead; and Thaddeus, bora in 1853, who stands beside his illustrious father in the last photograph taken of the President.

It gives some idea of the prominence of Mr. Lincoln in Illinois, that, though elected to the Legislature only in 1831, he was a Whig candidate for Presidential electors at every election from 1836 to 1852. An early and warm admirer of Henry Clay, he came forward, in 1811, and stumped the entire State of Illinois in his favor, and then crossed into Indiana, attracting attention by the homely force, humor, energy, and eloquence of his addresses. Thus thrown again into active politics, he was elected to Congress in 1816, from the Central District of Illinois, by a majority of 1,500, being the only Whig member from the State. '

Called now into the great council of the nation, Mr. Lincoln took his seat among great men. In the Senate, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Benton, still shaped the destinies and resWned the passions of men ; and men of great ability stood forth in the lower House. Mr. Lincoln was opposed to the annexation of Texas and to the Mexican war. Deeming unfounded the assertion of President Polk, that American blood had been shed on American soil, he offered, on the 22d of December, the following resolutions ; —

" W7ierea&, the President of the United States, in his Message of May 11, 1846, has declared that 'the Mexican government refused to receive him [the envoy of the United States], or listen to his propositions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, have at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on cur own soil.^

"■'And again, in his Message of December 8, 1846, that 'we had ample cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities ; but even then we forbore to take redress into our own hands, until Mexico basely became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our citizens.'

"And yet again, in his Message of December 7, 1847, * The Mexican government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he (our minister of peace) was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading the Territor}^ of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil.'

"And whereas this House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was, or was not, at that time, our oicn soil. Therefore,

"Besolved, by the House of Representatives, That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House —

" 1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his memorial declared, was, or was not, within the territory of Spain, at least, after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution.

" 2d. "Whether that spot is, or is not, within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico.

" 3d.. Whether that spot is, or is not, within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States Army.

" 4th. Whether that settlement is, or is not, isolated from any and all other settlements of the Gulf and Rio Grande on the south and west, and of wide uninhabited regions on the north and east.

" 5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas, or of the United States, of consent or of compulsion, either of accepting oflBce or voting at elections, or paying taxes, or serving on juries, or having process served on them, or in any other wa3\

"6th. Whether the people of that settlement did, or did not, flee at the approaching of the United States Army, leaving unprotected their homes and their growing crops before the blood was shed, as in the message stated; and whether the first blood so shed was, o;

LIFE OF ABRAHAJVI LINCOLN. 19

was not, shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it.

" 1th. Whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as in his message declared, were, or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers sent into that settlement by the military order of the President, through the Secretary of War.

" 8th. Whether the military force of the United States was, or was not, so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than once intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defence or protection of Texas."

These resolutions sufficiently evince Mv. Lincoln's sense of justice. He was accused afterwards of siding with the enemy in the war. He opposed the war as unjust ; but it was a war of the country, and it was equally just that the country should pay the soldiers called to the field ; and Mr. Lincoln never voted against, or avoided voting for, any bill for army pay or supplies or the relief of the soldiers.

When, in 1848, Mr. Gott, of l^ew York, introduced a resolution instructinp; the Committee on the District of Columbia to report a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District, Mr. Lincoln, after consulting Mayor Seaton, of Washington, proposed, on the 10th of January, that the committee should be instructed to report a bill forbidding the sale, beyond the District of Columbia, of any slave born within its limits, or the removal of slaves from the District, except such servants as were in attendance upon their masters temporarily residing at Washington ; establishing an apprenticeship of twenty-one years for all slaves born within the District subsequent to the year 1850 ; providing for their emancipation at the expiration of the apprenticeship ; authorizing the United States to buy and emancipate all slaves within the District, whose owners should desire to set them free in that manner ; finally, submitting the bill to a vote of the citizens of the District for approval.

The Wilmot proviso had made its appearance in August, 1 8tl:7, during the previous session, but frequently came up in that on which Mr. Lincoln served. He steadily supported it, and, as he said in one of his debates with Judge Douglas, " had the pleasure of voting for it, in one way or another, about forty times,"

Mr. Lincoln was a member of the Philadelphia convention which nominated General Taylor for President, in 184:8, and, during the campaign, visited the East, speaking at Kew Bedford and elsewhere. Illinois gave her vote, however, to General Cass. In 1849, Mr. Lincoln retired from Congress, where he had always maintained a dignified and respectable position. He was the unsuccessful candidate for United States Senator, General Shields having been elected.

After his retirement from Congress, Mr. Lincoln devoted himself, with greater earnestness than ever before, to the duties of his profession, and extended his business and repute. He did not reappear in the political arena until 1852, when his name was placed on the Scott electoral ticket.

In the canvass of that year, so disastrous to the Wliig party throughout the country, Lincoln appeared several times before the people of his State as the advocate of Scott's claims for the Presidency. But the prospect was everywhere so disheartening, and in Illinois the cause was so utterly desperate, that the energies of the Whigs were paralyzed, and Lincoln did less in this Presidential struggle than in any in which he had ever engaged.