APRIL 19, 1865:
“No man since the days of Washington was ever so
deeply and firmly embedded and enshrined in the very hearts of the people as
Abraham Lincoln.” --- Dr. Phineas T. Gurley, Pastor, New York Avenue
Presbyterian Church.
April
Nineteenth dawned soft and bright; it was the most beautiful day some people
would ever remember. The public, drawn
from many corners of the Union, turned out in the hundreds of thousands, and so
the transfiguration of Abraham Lincoln from Man to Myth continued this day, as
his funeral service was held in Washington D.C.
Death, it has been said,
canonizes a great character. It has preeminently had that effect in the case of
Abraham Lincoln. ---
The New York Times
Victorian
funerals were, as a rule, ornate and somber, dripping with pathos, studied
ritual, and black veilings. Lincoln’s funeral would turn out to be the
apotheosis of its kind, an event unmatched in American history, an event the
likes of which would be unseen for another 98 years, until the death by
assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. The Kennedys would
take as a template for the young President’s funeral the pageant that was
Lincoln’s funeral. Kennedy would lie upon Lincoln’s catafalque. Even the same
flag was used in the funeral ceremonies.
Lincoln’s
death and funeral were even more poignant than Kennedy’s, if that was possible,
because the United States was in the midst of a national euphoria at the moment
the sixteenth President was gunned down. The ecstatic celebrations that had
attended the Fall of Richmond and the Surrender At Appomattox, like grand
crystalline globes catching the sunlight, were smashed into irrecoverable
shards by the death of the President, and the country was driven down into a
gloom which was all the deeper for the heights from which the nation had
fallen.
As
if to symbolize the fall, the bier that held Lincoln’s catafalque was an
immense and elaborate affair.*
If . . . I must die at
the hand of an assassin, I must be resigned. I must do my duty as I see it, and
leave the rest with God. --- Abraham Lincoln, 1864
The
silence this day was deafening, broken only by the weeping of the attendees.
Mary Lincoln sobbed, “His dream was prophetic! His dream was prophetic!” No one argued; nor could they do more than
utter condolences. There was no solace for anyone this day. She quickly retired
to her rooms, and was not seen again until June.
The
brightness of the day was in utter contrast with the darkened Executive
Mansion, draped in black mourning cloth inside and out. Black fabric lined the
sashes of the White House windows inside and out, the mirrors and portraits
were covered in black, and the chandelier arms were twined in black.
Temporary
bleachers, draped in black, had been built in the East Room, surrounding the
catafalque, amphitheatre-fashion.
An
honor guard stood around the catafalque. Seated within the circuit of the honor
guard were Robert Lincoln and Tad Lincoln, Lincoln’s personal staff, family
friends, selected VIPs, and four clergymen, Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, Dr. Charles H. Hall, Bishop Matthew Simpson, and Dr. Edwin H. Gray.
*It was most immense and
elaborate not in Washington D.C. but in New York City. At fifteen feet in
height, it was topped by a canopy of black silk hung with black plumes, swags,
and American flags. The gilded figure of a stooping eagle hung from the center
of the canopy, and a flagged dome topped the entire confection.
***
The
funeral service began at fifteen minutes past twelve. Several eulogies were
offered. Bishop Matthew Simpson of Philadelphia, representing the Methodist
Episcopal Church, delivered the opening prayer.
Almighty God, our
Heavenly Father, as with smitten and suffering hearts we come into Thy
presence, we pray, in the name of our blessed Redeemer, that Thou wouldst pour
upon us Thy Holy Spirit, that all our thoughts and acts may be acceptable in
Thy sight. We adore Thee for all Thy glorious perfections. We praise Thee for
the revelation which Thou has given us in Thy works and in Thy Word. By Thee
all worlds exist. All beings live through Thee. Thou raisest up Kingdoms and
empires, and castest them down. By Thee kings reign and princes decree
righteousness. In Thy hand are the issues of life and death. We confess before
Thee the magnitude of our sins and transgressions, both as individuals and as a
nation. We implore Thy mercy for the sake of our Redeemer. Forgive us all our
iniquities. If it please Thee, remove Thy chastening hand from us; and, though
we be unworthy, turn away from us Thine anger, and let the light of Thy
countenance again shine upon us.
At this solemn hour, as
we mourn for the death of our President, who was stricken down by the hand of
an assassin, grant us also the grace to bow in submission to Thy holy will. May
we recognize Thy hand high above all human agencies, and Thy power as
controlling all events, so that the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and that
the remainder of wrath Thou wilt restrain.
Humbled under the
suffering we have endured, and the great afflictions through which we have passed,
may we not be called upon to offer other sacrifices. May the lives of all our
officers, both civil and military, be guarded by Thee; and let no violent hand
fall upon any of them. Mourning as we do, for the mighty dead by whose remains
we stand, we would yet lift our hearts unto Thee in grateful acknowledgment for
Thy kindness in giving us so great and noble a commander.
Thou art glorified in
good men, and we praise Thee that Thou didst give him unto us so pure, so
honest, so sincere, and so transparent in character. We praise Thee for that
kind, affectionate heart, which always swelled with feelings of enlarged
benevolence. We bless Thee for what Thou didst enable him to do; that Thou
didst give him wisdom to select for his advisors, and for his officers,
military and naval, those men through whom our country has been carried through
an unprecedented conflict.
We bless Thee for the
success which has attended all their efforts, and victories which have crowned
our armies; and that Thou didst spare Thy servant until he could behold the
dawning of that glorious morning of peace and prosperity which is about to
shine upon our land; that he was enabled to go up as Thy servant of old upon
Mount Pisgah, and catch a glimpse of the promised land. Though his lips are
silent and his arm is powerless, we thank Thee that Thou didst strengthen him
to speak words that cheer the hearts of the suffering and the oppressed, and to
write that declaration of emancipation which has given him an immortal reward;
that though the hand of the assassin has struck him to the ground, it could not
destroy the work which he has done, nor forge again the chains which he has
broken. And while we mourn that he has passed away, we are grateful that his
work was so fully accomplished, and that the acts which he has performed will
forever remain.
We implore Thy blessing
upon his bereaved family, Thou husband of the widow. Bless her who,
broken-hearted and sorrowing, feels oppressed with unutterable anguish. Cheer
the loneliness of the pathway which lies before her, and grant to her such
consolations of Thy spirit, and such hopes, through the resurrection, that she
shall feel that "Earth hath no sorrows which Heaven cannot heal."
Let Thy blessing rest
upon his sons; pour upon them the spirit of wisdom; be Thou the guide of their
youth; prepare them for usefulness in society, for happiness in all their
relations. May the remembrance of their father's counsels, and their father's noble
acts, ever stimulate them to glorious deeds, and at last may they be heirs of
everlasting life.
Command Thy rich
blessings to descend upon the successor of our lamented President. Grant unto
him wisdom, energy, and firmness for the responsible duties to which he has
been called; and may he, his cabinet, officers and generals who shall lead his
armies, and the brave soldiers in the field, be so guided by Thy counsels that
they shall speedily complete the great work which he had so successfully
carried forward. Let Thy blessing rest upon our country. Grant unto us all a
fixed and strong determination never to cease our efforts until our glorious
Union shall be fully re-established.
Around the remains of
our loved President may we covenant together by every possible means to give
ourselves to our country's service until every vestige of this rebellion shall
have been wiped out, and until slavery, its cause, shall be forever eradicated.
Preserve us, we pray
Thee, from all complications with foreign nations. Give us hearts to act justly
toward all nations, and grant unto them hearts to act justly toward us, that
universal peace and happiness may fill our earth. We rejoice, then, in this
inflicting dispensation Thou hast given, as additional evidence of the strength
of our nation. We bless Thee that no tumult has arisen, and in peace and
harmony our government moves onward; and that Thou hast shown that our
republican government is the strongest upon the face of the earth.
In this solemn presence,
may we feel that we too are immortal! May the sense of our responsibility to
God rest upon us; may we repent of every sin; and may we consecrate anew unto
Thee all the time and all the talents which Thou hast given us; and may we so
fulfill our allotted duties that finally we may have a resting-place with the
good, and wise, and the great, who now surround that glorious throne! Hear us
while we unite in praying with Thy Church in all lands and in all ages, even as
Thou hast taught us, saying:
Our Father which art in
heaven; hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, forever. Amen!
***
The
Episcopal Burial Service was given by Dr. Charles H. Hall, rector at the Church of
the Epiphany:
I am the resurrection,
and the life saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believeth thou this? (John 11:25-26)
For I know that my
redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And
though after my skin worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eye shall behold, and not another;
though my reins be consumed within me. (Job 19:25-27)
Lord, let me know my
end, and the number of my days; that I may be certified how long I have to
live. Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long, and mine age is
even as nothing in respect of Thee; and verily every man living is altogether vanity.
For man walketh in a vain shadow and disquieth himself in vain; he heaped up
riches and cannot tell who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what is my hope?
Truly my hope is even in Thee. Deliver me from all my offences; and make me not
a rebuke unto the foolish. When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin,
thou makest his beauty to consume away, like as it were a moth fretting a
garment: every man is therefore but vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and with
thine ears consider my calling; hold not thy peace at my tears: For I am a
stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me a
little, that I may recover my strength, before I go hence, and be no more seen.
Lord, those hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, thou
art God from everlasting, and world without end. Thou turnest man to
destruction; again Thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men. For a thousand
years in Thy sight are but as yesterday; seeing that it is past as a watch in
the night. As soon as Thou scatterest them they are even as asleep, and fade
away suddenly like the grass. In the morning it is green, and groweth up; but
in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. For we consume away in
Thy displeasure; and are afraid at Thy wrathful indignation. Thou has set our
misdeeds before Thee; and our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. For
when thou art angry, all our days are gone; we bring our years to an end, as it
were a tale that is told. The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and
though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is their
strength but labor and sorrow; so soon passeth it away and we are gone. So
teach us to number our days; that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Glory be
to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
We brought nothing into
this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. (I Timothy 6:7 and Job
1:21
But now is Christ risen
from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man
came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then
cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For
he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But
when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted,
which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto
him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things
under him, that God may be all in all. Else what shall they do which are
baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized
for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your
rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the
manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, which advantageth it me, if
the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die. Be not deceived:
evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not;
for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. But some
man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou
fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath
pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh:
but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of
fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies
terrestial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestial
is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and
another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised
in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in
weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so
it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is
of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also
that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For this incorruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is
sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as
ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord. (I Corinthians 15:20-58)
***
The
chief officiant, Dr. Phineas T. Gurley, who had led young Willie Lincoln’s
funeral and who had sat the deathwatch on April 14-15 with Mary Lincoln and the
boys, delivered a lengthy sermon entitled Faith
in God:
As we stand here today,
mourners around this coffin and around the lifeless remains of our beloved
Chief Magistrate, we recognize and we adore the sovereignty of God. His throne
is in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. He hath done, and He hath permitted
to be done, whatsoever He pleased. "Clouds and darkness are round about
Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne." His way
is in the sea, and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not
known. "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the
Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper
than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea. If He cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then
who can hinder Him? For He knoweth vain men; he seeth wickedness also; will He
not then consider it?"--We bow before His infinite majesty. We bow, we
weep, we worship.
"Where reason
fails, with all her powers,
There faith prevails,
and love adores."
It was a cruel, cruel
hand, that dark hand of the assassin, which smote our honored, wise, and noble
President, and filled the land with sorrow. But above and beyond that hand
there is another which we must see and acknowledge. It is the chastening hand
of a wise and a faithful Father. He gives us this bitter cup. And the cup that
our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it?
God of the just, Thou
gavest us the cup:
We yield to thy behest,
and drink it up."
"Whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth."
O how these blessed
words have cheered and strengthened and sustained us through all these long and
weary years of civil strife, while our friends and brothers on so many
ensanguined fields were falling and dying for the cause of Liberty and Union!
Let them cheer, and strengthen, and sustain us to-day. True, this new sorrow
and chastening has come in such an hour and in such a way as we thought not,
and it bears the impress of a rod that is very heavy, and of a mystery that is
very deep. That such a life should be sacrificed, at such a time, by such a
foul and diabolical agency; that the man at the head of the nation, whom the
people had learned to trust with a confiding and a loving confidence, and upon
whom more than upon any other were centered, under God, our best hopes for the
true and speedy pacification of the country, the restoration of the Union, and
the return of harmony and love; that he should be taken from us, and taken just
as the prospect of peace was brightly opening upon our torn and bleeding
country, and just as he was beginning to be animated and gladdened with the
hope of ere long enjoying with the people the blessed fruit and reward of his
and their toil, and care, and patience, and self-sacrificing devotion to the
interests of Liberty and the Union--O it is a mysterious and a most afflicting
visitation! But it is our Father in heaven, the God of our fathers, and our
God, who permits us to be so suddenly and sorely smitten; and we know that His
judgments are right, and that in faithfulness He has afflicted us. In the midst
of our rejoicings we needed this stroke, this dealing, this discipline; and
therefore He has sent it. Let us remember, our affliction has not come forth
out of the dust, and our trouble has not sprung out of the ground. Through and
beyond all second causes let us look, and see the sovereign permissive agency
of the great First Cause. It is His prerogative to bring light out of darkness
and good out of evil. Surely the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder
of wrath He will restrain. In the light of a clearer day we may yet see that
the wrath which planned and perpetuated the death of the President, was
overruled by Him whose judgements are unsearchable, and His ways are past
finding out, for the highest welfare of all those interests which are so dear
to the Christian patriot and philanthropist, and for which a loyal people have
made such an unexampled sacrifice of treasure and of blood. Let us not be
faithless, but believing.
"Blind unbelief is prone
to err,
And scan His work in
vain;
God is his own
interpreter,
And He will make it
plain."
We will wait for his
interpretation, and we will wait in faith, nothing doubting. He who has led us
so well, and defended and prospered us so wonderfully during the last four
years of toil, and struggle, and sorrow, will not forsake us now. He may
chasten, but He will not destroy. He may purify us more and more in the furnace
of trial, but He will not consume us. No, no! He has chosen us as He did his
people of old in the furnace of affliction, and He has said of us as He said of
them, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth My
praise." Let our principal anxiety now be that this new sorrow may be a
sanctified sorrow; that it may lead us to deeper repentence, to a more humbling
sense of our dependence upon God, and to the more unreserved consecration of
ourselves and all that we have to the cause of truth and justice, of law and
order, of liberty and good government, of pure and undefiled religion. Then,
though weeping may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning. Blessed be
God! despite of this great and sudden and temporary darkness, the morning has
begun to dawn--the morning of a bright and glorious day, such as our country
has never seen. That day will come and not tarry, and the death of an hundred
Presidents and their Cabinets can never, never prevent it. While we are thus
hopeful, however, let us also be humble. The occasion calls us to prayerful and
tearful humilation. It demands of us that we lie low, very low, before Him who
has smitten us for our sins. O that all our rulers and all our people may bow
in the dust to-day beneath the chastening hand of God! and may their voices go
up to Him as one voice, and their hearts go up to Him as one heart, pleading
with Him for mercy, for grace to sanctify our great and sore bereavement, and
for wisdom to guide us in this our time of need. Such a united cry and pleading
will not be in vain. It will enter into the ear and heart of Him who sits upon
the throne, and He will say to us, as to His ancient Israel, "In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment: but with everlasting kindness will
I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer."
I have said that the
people confided in the late lamented President with a full and a loving
confidence. Probably no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply and
firmly embedded and enshrined in the very hearts of the people as Abraham
Lincoln. Nor was it a mistaken confidence and love. He deserved it
well--deserved it all. He merited it by his character, by his acts, and by the
whole tenor, and tone, and spirit of his life. He was simple and sincere, plain
and honest, truthful and just, benevolent and kind. His perceptions were quick
and clear, his judgments were calm and accurate, and his purposes were good and
pure beyond a question. Always and everywhere he aimed and endeavored to be
right and to do right. His integrity was thorough, all-pervading,
all-controlling, and incorruptible. It was the same in every place and
relation, in the consideration and the control of matters great or small, the
same firm and steady principle of power and beauty that shed a clear and
crowning lustre upon all his other excellencies of mind and heart, and
recommended him to his fellow citizens as the man, who, in a time of unexampled
peril, when the very life of the nation was at stake, should be chosen to
occupy, in the country and for the country, its highest post of power and
responsibility. How wisely and well, how purely and faithfully, how firmly and
steadily, how justly and successfully he did occupy that post and meet its
grave demands in circumstances of surpassing trial and difficulty, is known to
you all, known to the country and the world. He comprehended from the first the
perils to which treason has exposed the freest and best Government on the
earth, the vast interests of Liberty and humanity that were to be saved or lost
forever in the urgent impending conflict; he rose to the dignity and momentousness
of the occasion, saw his duty as the Chief Magistrate of a great and imperilled
people, and he determined to do his duty, and his whole duty, seeking the
guidance and leaning upon the arm of Him of whom it is written, "He giveth
power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth
strength." Yes, he leaned upon His arm. He recognized and received the
truth that the "kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the governor among the
nations." He remembered that "God is in history," and he felt
that nowhere had His hand and His mercy been so marvelously conspicuous as in
the history of this nation. He hoped and he prayed that that same hand would
continue to guide us, and that same mercy continue to abound to us in the time
of our greatest need. I speak what I know, and testify what I have often heard
him say, when I affirm that that guidance and mercy were the props on which he
humbly and habitually leaned; they were the best hope he had for himself and
for his country. Hence, when he was leaving his home in Illinois, and coming to
this city to take his seat in the executive chair of a disturbed and troubled
nation, he said to the old and tried friends who gathered tearfully around him
and bade him farewell, "I leave you with this request: pray for me."
They did pray for him; and millions of other people prayed for him; nor did
they pray in vain. Their prayer was heard, and the answer appears in all his
subsequent history; it shines forth with a heavenly radiance in the whole
course and tenor of his administration, from its commencement to its close. God
raised him up for a great and glorious mission, furnished him for his work, and
aided him in its accomplishment. Nor was it merely by strength of mind, and
honestry of heart, and purity and pertinacity of purpose, that He furnished
him; in addition to these things, He gave him a calm and abiding confidence in
the overruling providence of God and in the ultimate triumph of truth and
righteousness through the power and the blessing of God. This confidence
strengthened him in all his hours of anxiety and toil, and inspired him with
calm and cheering hope when others were inclining to despondency and gloom.
Never shall I forget the emphasis and the deep emotion with which he said in
this very room, to a company of clergymen and others, who called to pay him
their respects in the darkest days of our civil conflict: "Gentlemen, my
hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable
foundation, the justice and goodness of God. And when events are very
threatening, and prospects very dark, I still hope that in some way which man
can not see all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is
on our side." Such was his sublime and holy faith, and it was an anchor to
his soul, both sure and steadfast. It made him firm and strong. It emboldened
him in the pathway of duty, however rugged and perilous it might be. It made
him valiant for the right; for the cause of God and humanity, and it held him
in a steady, patient, and unswerving adherence to a policy of administration
which he thought, and which we all now think, both God and humanity required
him to adopt. We admired and loved him on many accounts--for strong and various
reasons: we admired his childlike simplicity, his freedom from guile and
deceit, his staunch and sterling integrity, his kind and forgiving temper, his
industry and patience, his persistent, self-sacrificing devotion to all the
duties of his eminent position, from the least to the greatest; his readiness to
hear and consider the cause of the poor and humble, the suffering and the
oppressed; his charity toward those who questioned the correctness of his
opinions and the wisdom of his policy; his wonderful skill in reconciling
differences among the friends of the Union, leading them away from
abstractions, and inducing them to work together and harmoniously for the
common weal; his true and enlarged philanthropy, that knew no distinction of
color or race, but regarded all men as brethren, and endowed alike by their
Creator "with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness"; his inflexible purpose that what freedom
had gained in our terrible civil strife should never be lost, and that the end
of the war should be the end of slavery, and, as a consequence, of rebellion;
his readiness to spend and be spent for the attainment of such a triumph--a
triumph, the blessed fruits of which shall be as widespreading as the earth and
as enduring as the sun:--all these things commanded and fixed our admiration
and the admiration of the world, and stamped upon his character and life the
unmistakable impress of greatness. But more sublime than any or all of these,
more holy and influential, more beautiful, and strong, and sustaining, was his
abiding confidence in God and in the final triumph of truth and righteousness
through Him and for His sake. This was his noblest virtue, his grandest
principle, the secret alike of his strength, his patience, and his success. And
this, it seems to me, after being near him steadily, and with him often, for
more than four years, is the principle by which, more than by any other,
"he, being dead, yet speaketh." Yes; by his steady enduring
confidence in God, and in the complete ultimate success of the cause of God,
which is the cause of humanity, more than by any other way, does he now speak
to us and to the nation he loved and served so well. By this he speaks to his
successor in office, and charges him to "have faith in God." By this
he speaks to the members of his cabinet, the men with whom he counselled so
often and was associated so long, and he charges them to "have faith in
God." By this he speaks to the officers and men of our noble army and
navy, and, as they stand at their posts of duty and peril, he charges them to
"have faith in God." By this he speaks to all who occupy positions of
influence and authority in these sad and troublous times, and he charges them
all to "have faith in God." By this he speaks to this great people as
they sit in sackcloth to-day, and weep for him with a bitter wailing, and
refuse to be comforted, and he charges them to "have faith in God."
And by this he will speak through the ages and to all rulers and peoples in
every land, and his message to them will be, "Cling to Liberty and right;
battle for them; bleed for them; die for them, if need be; and have confidence
in God." O that the voice of this testimony may sink down into our hearts
to-day and every day, and into the heart of the nation, and exert its appropriate
influence upon our feelings, our faith, our patience, and our devotion to the
cause of freedom and humanity--a cause dearer to us now than ever before,
because consecrated by the blood of its most conspicuous defender, its wisest
and most fondly-trusted friend.
He is dead; but the God
in whom he trusted lives, and He can guide and strengthen his successor, as He
guided and strengthened him. He is dead; but the memory of his virtues, of his
wise and patriotic counsels and labors, of his calm and steady faith in God
lives, is precious, and will be a power for good in the country quite down to
the end of time. He is dead; but the cause he so ardently loved, so ably,
patiently, faithfully represented and defended--not for himself only, not for
us only, but for all people in all their coming generations, till time shall be
no more--that cause survives his fall, and will survive it. The light of its
brightening prospects flashes cheeringly to-day athwart the gloom occasioned by
his death, and the language of God's united providences is telling us that,
though the friends of Liberty die, Liberty itself is immortal. There is no
assassin strong enough and no weapon deadly enough to quench its
inextinguishable life, or arrest its onward march to the conquest and empire of
the world. This is our confidence, and this is our consolation, as we weep and
mourn to-day. Though our beloved President is slain, our beloved country is
saved. And so we sing of mercy as well as of judgment. Tears of gratitude
mingle with those of sorrow. While there is darkness, there is also the dawning
of a brighter, happier day upon our stricken and weary land. God be praised
that our fallen Chief lived long enough to see the day dawn and the daystar of
joy and peace arise upon the nation. He saw it, and he was glad. Alas! alas! He
only saw the dawn. When the sun has risen, full-orbed and glorious, and a happy
reunited people are rejoicing in its light--alas! alas! it will shine upon his
grave. But that grave will be a precious and a consecrated spot. The friends of
Liberty and of the Union will repair to it in years and ages to come, to
pronounce the memory of its occupant blessed, and, gathering from his very
ashes, and from the rehearsal of his deeds and virtues, fresh incentives to
patriotism, they will there renew their vows of fidelity to their country and
their God.
And now I know not that
I can more appropriately conclude this discourse, which is but a sincere and
simple utterance of the heart, than by addressing to our departed President,
with some slight modification, the language which Tacitus, in his life of
Agricola, addresses to his venerable and departed father-in-law: "With you
we may now congratulate; you are blessed, not only because your life was a
career of glory, but because you were released, when, your country safe, it was
happiness to die. We have lost a parent, and, in our distress, it is now an
addition to our heartfelt sorrow that we had it not in our power to commune
with you on the bed of languishing, and receive your last embrace. Your dying
words would have been ever dear to us; your commands we should have treasured
up, and graved them on our hearts. This sad comfort we have lost, and the wound
for that reason, pierces deeper. From the world of spirits behold your desolate
family and people; exalt our minds from fond regret and unavailing grief to
contemplation of your virtues. Those we must not lament; it were impiety to
sully them with a tear. To cherish their memory, to embalm them with our
praises, and, so far as we can, to emulate your bright example, will be the
truest mark of our respect, the best tribute we can offer. Your wife will thus
preserve the memory of the best of husbands, and thus your children will prove
their filial piety.
By dwelling constantly
on your words and actions, they will have an illustrious character before their
eyes, and, not content with the bare image of your mortal frame, they will have
what is more valuable-- the form and features of your mind. Busts and statues,
like their originals, are frail and perishable. The soul is formed of finer
elements, and its inward form is not to be expressed by the hand of an artist
with unconscious matter--our manners and our morals may in some degree trace
the resemblance. All of you that gained our love and raised our admiration
still subsists, and will ever subsist, preserved in the minds of men, the
register of ages, and the records of fame. Others, who had figured on the stage
of life and were the worthies of a former day, will sink, for want of a faithful
historian, into the common lot of oblivion, inglorious and unremembered; but
you, our lamented friend and head, delineated with truth, and fairly consigned
to posterity, will survive yourself, and triumph over the injuries of
time."
***
The
closing prayer was offered by Dr. E.H. Gray, pastor of the E Street Baptist Church and
Chaplain of the Senate:
God of the bereaved,
comfort and sustain this mourning family. Bless the new Chief Magistrate. Let
the mantle of his predecessor fall upon him. Bless the Secretary of State and
his family. O God, if possible, according to Thy will, spare their lives that they
may render still important service to the country. Bless all the members of the
Cabinet. Endow them with wisdom from above. Bless the commanders in our Army
and Navy and all the brave defenders of the country. Give them continued
success. Bless the Embassadors from foreign courts, and give us peace with the
nations of the earth. O God, let treason, that has deluged our land with blood
and desolated our country, and bereaved our homes and filled them with widows
and orphans, which has a length culminated in the assassination of the nation's
chosen ruler, -- God of justice, and Avenger of the nation's wrong, let the
work of treason cease, and let the guilty perpetrators of this horrible crime
be arrested, and brought to justice! O hear the cry and the prayer and the wail
rising from the nation's smitten and crushed heart, and deliver us from the
power of our enemy, and send speedy peace into all our borders. Through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
***
The
clocks were near to bonging three P.M. when the East Room services ended. Immediately
following services, the President's coffin was carried to a horse-drawn hearse
waiting outside.
Following
the hearse, a vast procession of mourners, the great and the unknown but all bereaved,
moved solemnly down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, drums beating a slow
cadence. Five thousand U.S.C.T. made up part of the Presidential Guard.
Immense
crowds stood along the route, many attaching themselves to the procession as it
went by. Eventually, the procession itself was three miles long and took two
hours to pass any given spot.
Within
the Capitol Rotunda a private funeral service was held for family, friends, and
select associates.
Several
hours afterward, the Rotunda doors were opened to all, and Abraham Lincoln lay
in state again. He would leave Washington D.C. forever on April 21st.
"So ended the most
memorable ceremonial this continent has ever seen," wrote George Templeton Strong,
a witness of the event.
Templeton
is wrong. No man will ever be mourned as Abraham Lincoln was mourned in April
1865.
