one hundred and sixty-five thousand were | Mississippi, which would not be divided, recruited into service. Once, within four and the range of mountains which carweeks, Ohio organized and placed in the ried the stronghold of the free through field, forty-two regiments of infantry Western Virginia and Kentucky and Tennearly thirty-six thouand men; and Ohio nessee to the highlands of Alabama. But was like other States in the east and in the it invoked the still higher power of immorwest. The well-mounted cavalry numbered tal justice. In ancient Greece, where sereighty-four thousand; of horses there were vitude was the universal custom, it was bought, first and last, two thirds of a mil- held that if a child were to strike its parent, lion. In the movements of troops science the slave should defend the parent, and by came in aid of patriotism; so that, to choose that act recover his freedom. After vain a single instance out of many, an army resistance, Lincoln, who had tried to solve twenty-three thousand strong, with its ar- the question by gradual emancipation, by tillery, trains, baggage and animals, were colonization, and by compensation, at last moved by rail from the Potomac to the Ten- saw that slavery must be abolished, or the nessee, twelve hundred miles in seven days. Republic must die; and on the 1st day of In the long marches, wonders of military January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the banconstruction bridged the rivers; and where- ners of the armies. When this proclamaever an army halted, ample supplies await- tion, which struck the fetters from three ed them at their ever changing base. The millions of slaves reached Europe, Lord · vile thought that life is the greatest of Russell, a countryman of Milton and Wilblessings did not rise up. In six hundred berforce, eagerly put himself forward to and twenty-five battles, and severe skir- speak of it in the name of mankind, saying: mishes blood flowed like water. It streamed "It is of a very strange nature;" "a measover the grassy plains; it stained the rocks; ure of war of a very questionable kind; the undergrowth of the forest was red an "act of vengeance on the slave owner," with it; and the armies marched on with that does no more than "profess to emancimajestic courage from one conflict to anoth-pate slaves where the United States authorer, knowing that they were fighting for Godities cannot make emancipation a reality." and liberty. The organization of the medical department met its infinitely multiplied duties with exactness and despatch. At the news of a battle, the best surgeons of our cities hastened to the field, to offer the zealous aid of the greatest experience and skill. The gentlest and most refined of women left homes of luxury and, ease to build hospital tents near the armies, and serve as nurses to the sick and dying. Besides the large supply of religious teachers by the public, the congregations spared to their brothers in the field the ablest ministers. The Christian Commission, which expended five and a half millions, sent four thousand clergymen chosen out of the best, to keep unsoiled the religious character of the men, and made gifts of clothes and food and medicine. The organization of private charity assumed unheard of dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, which had seven The proclamation accomplished its end, thousand societies, distributed, under the for, during the war, our armies came into direction of an unpaid board, spontaneous military possession of every State in rebelcontributions to the amount of fifteen mil- lion. Then, too, was called forth the lions, in supplies or money- a million and new power that comes from the simultanea half in money from California aloneous diffusion of thought and feeling among and dotted the scene of war from Paducah the nations of mankind. The mysterious to Port Royal, from Belle Plain, Virginia, sympathy of the millions throughout the to Browsnville, Texas, with homes and lodges. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Now there was no part of the country embraced in the proclamation where the United States could not and did not make emancipation a reality. Those who saw Lincoln most frequently had never before heard him speak with bitterness of any human being; but he did not conceal how keenly he felt that he had been wronged by Lord Russell. And he wrote, in reply to another caviller: "The emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, were the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion. The job was a great national one; and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and come to stay; then there will be some black men who can remember that they have helped mankind to this great consummation." RUSSIA AND CHINA. world was given spontaneously. The best writers of Europe waked the conscience of the thoughtful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old World was drawn The country had for its allies the River to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. Russia, whose emperor had just accomplished one of the grandest acts in the course of time by raising twenty millions of bondmen into freeholders, and thus assuring the growth and culture of a Russian people, remained our unwavering friend. From the oldest abode of civilization, which gave the first example of an imperial government with equality among the people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, remembered the saying of Confucius, that we should not do to others what we would not that others should do to us, and in the name of the Emperor of China closed its ports against the war ships and privateers of "the seditious." CONTINUANCE OF THE WAR. ing him to a second term of service. The raging war that had divided the country had lulled; and private grief was hushed by the grandeur of its results. The nation had its new birth of freedom, soon to be secured forever by an amendment of the Constitution. His persistent gentleness had conquered for him a kindlier feeling on the part of the South. His scoffers among the grandees of Europe began to do him honor. The laboring classes every where saw in his advancement their own. All peoples sent him their benedictions. And at the moment of the height of his fame, to which his humility and modesty added charms, he fell by the hand of the assassin; and the only triumph awarded him was the march to the grave. THE GREATNESS OF MAN. This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and ashes, that we mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a thing were man, if there were not that within him which is higher than himself if he could not master the illusions of sense, and discern the connections from God. He so shares the divine impul of events by a superior light which comes ses that he has power to subject interested Not The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for anxious spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on Lincoln, and his face was ploughed with the furrows of thought and sadness. With malice towards none, free from the spirit of revenge, victory made him importunate for peace; and his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his abounding clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but not unless the freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand battles of Mill Spring which gave us Nashville, of passions to love of country, and personal Fort Donelson, Malvern Hill, Antietam, in vain has Lincoln lived, for he has helped ambition to the ennoblement of man. Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia, to make this Republic an example of jusWinchester, Nashville, the capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher, tice, with no caste but the caste of humanithe march from Atlanta and the capture of ty: The heroes who led our armies and Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the ships into battle-Lyon, McPherson, Reyissue. Still more, the self-regeneration of nolds, Sedgwick, Wadsworth, Foote, Ward, Missouri, the heart of the continent; of Ma- with their compeers and fell in the serryland, whose sons never heard the mid- vice, did not die in vain; they and the myriads of nameless martyrs, and he, the chief night bell chime so sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by the martyr, died willingly "that government of the people, by the people, and for the peovoice of her own people, she took her place among the free; of Tennessee, which passed ple, shall not perish from the earth." through fire and blood, through sorrows and the shadow of death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the faithfulness of her own sons to renew her youth like the eagle -proved that victory was deserved and would be worth all that it cost. If words of mercy uttered as they were by Lincoln on the waters of Virginia, were defiantly repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will, went as the arrow to its mark, and without a feeling of revenge struck a deathblow at rebellion. THE JUST DIED FOR THE UNJUST. The assassination of Lincoln, who was so free from malice, has from some mysterious influence struck the country with solemn awe, and hushed, instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. It seemed as if the just had died for the unjust. When I think of the friends I have lost in this war every one who hears me has, like myself, lost those whom he most loved - there is no consolation to be derived from victims on the scaffold, or from any thing but the established union of the regenerated nation. CHARACTER OF LINCOLN. - and LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief Magistrate possessed more sources of In his character Lincoln was through and consolation and joy, than Lincoln? His through an American. He is the first nacountrymen had shown their love by choos- I tive of the region west of the Alleghanies to attain to the highest station; and how hap- Lincoln was one of the most unassuming py it is that the man who was brought for- of men. In time of success, he gave credit ward as the natural outgrowth and first for it to those whom he employed, to the fruits of that region should have been of un- people, and to the providence of God. He blemished purity in private life, a good son, did not know what ostentation is; when he a kind husband, a most affectionate father, became President he was rather saddened and, as a man, so gentle to all. As to in- than elated, and his conduct and manners tegrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him, “Lin- showed more than ever his belief that all coln is the honestest man I ever knew." men are born equal. He was no respecter of persons; and neither rank, nor reputation, nor services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but he readily deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the head of the armies he followed the manifest preference of Congress. The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward thought, rather than of action. He excelled in logical statement, more than in executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judgment was good, and his purposes were fixed; but like the Hamlet of his only poet, his will was tardy in action, and for this reason, and not from humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty which devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of another. He was skilful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present it by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would be intelligible to all. He delighted to express his opinions by apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by a story. Lincoln gained a name by discussing questions which, of all others, most easily led to fanaticism; but he was never carried away by enthusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant language, never hurried to support extreme measures, never allowed himself to be controlled by sudden impulses. During the progress of the election at which he was chosen President, he expressed no opinion that, went beyond the Jefferson proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had faith in the intuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with rare sagacity. He knew how to bide his time, and was less apt to be in advance of public opinion than to lag behind. He never sought to electrify the public by taking an advanced position with a banner of opinion; but rather studied to move forward compactly, exposing no detachment in front or rear; so that the course of his administration might have been explained as the calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful politician, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle which from the first determined his purpose and grew more intense with every year, consuming his life by its energy. Yet his sensibilities were not acute, he had no vividness of imagination to picture to his mind the horrors of the battle-field or the sufferings in hospitals; his conscience was more tender than his feelings. A good President will secure unity to his administration by his own supervision of the various departments. Lincoln, who accepted advice readily, was never governed by any member of his Cabinet, and could not be moved from a purpose deliberately formed; but his supervision of affairs was unsteady and incomplete; and sometimes, by a sudden interference transcending the usual forms, he rather confused than advanced the public business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous regard due to the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be established. Truth he would receive from any one; but, when impressed by others, he did not use their opinions till by reflection he had made them thoroughly his own. It was the nature of Lincoln to forgive. When hostilities ceased, he who had always sent forth the flag with every one of its stars in the field, was eager to receive back his returning countrymen, and meditated 66 some new announcement to the South." The amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery had his most earnest and unwearied support. During the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from his privately suggesting to Louisiana that "in defining the franchise some of the colored people might be let in," saying: "They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed himself "not in favor of" what he improperly called " negro citizenship:" for the Constitution discriminates between citizens and electors. Three days before his death he declared his preference that "the elective franchise were now conferred on the very intelligent of the colored men and on those of them who served our cause as soldiers;" but he wished it done by the States themselves, and he never harbored the thought of exacting it from a new government as a condition of its recognition. The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent by the speaker of this House his friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the return of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruitful industry; as he welcomed in advance hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his eye kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the nation. And so, with these thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and temptations of this life and was at peace. ours. PALMERSTON AND LINCOLN. Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave, when the Prime Minister of England died, full of years and honPalmerston traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror: Lincoln went back only to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the best scholars of Harrow, Edinburgh, and Cambridge; Lincoln's early teachers were the silent forest, the prairie, the river, and the stars. Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; Lincoln for but a tenth of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established aristocracy; Lincoln a leader or rather a companion of the people. Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth; Lincoln thought always of mankind as well as his own country, and served human nature itself. Palmerston from his narrowness as an Englishman did not endear his country to any one court or to any one people, but rather caused uneasiness and dislike; Lincoln left America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. Palmerston was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the conflicting claims of the factions of the aristocracy; Lincoln, frank and ingenuous, knew how to poise himself on the conflicting opinions of the people. Palmerston was capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the sense of honour, not heedful of right; Lincoln rejected counsel given only as a matter of policy, and was not capable of being wilfully unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial, delighted in banter, and knew how to divert grave opposition by playful levity. Lincoln was a man of infinite jest on his lips, with saddest earnestness at his heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the aristocratic liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the conscience of humanity, but the House of Commons; Lincoln took to heart the eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of Providence, and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity. Palmerston did nothing that will endure; his great achievement, the separation of Belgium, placed that little kingdom where it must gravitate to France; Lincoln finished a work which all time cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the ablest of a cultivated aristocracy; Lincoln shows the genuine fruits of institutions where the laboring man shares and assists to form the great ideas and designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in Westminster Abbey by the order of his Queen, and was followed by the British aristocracy to his grave, which after a few years will hardly be noticed by the side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; Lincoln was followed by the sorrow of his country across the continent to his resting-place in the heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered through all time by his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world. CONCLUSION. As the sum of all, the hand of Lincoln raised the flag; the American people was the hero of the war; and therefore the result is a new era of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system of hereditary wrong, and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens to the renovated nation a career of unthought of dignity and glory. Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labour. The party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and are merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would have left us are not brought back as conquered States, for then we should hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained; they come to their rightful place under the Constitution as original, necessary and inseparable members of the State. We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We respect the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, raised emblems of triumph. our generals are not to be classed in the herd of vulgar conquerors, but are of the school of Timoleon and William of Orange and Washington. They have used the sword only to give peace to their country and restore her to her place in the great assembly of the nations. Our meeting closes in hope, now that a people begins to live according to the laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent. | And LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-NO. 1135.-3 MARCH, 1866. To reason, and on reason build resolve, (That column of true majesty in man,) Assist me; I will thank you in the grave; Winding along the dream-lit shadowy plain, Year after year, all beautiful and bright, Like ghosts of hope and youth and bloom, In phantom silence stealing on my sight, Comes gliding, gliding from the tomb; And, trooping by, their lines of fading light Remind of youth's decay and beauty's blight, Till, like spent meteors shimmering through the night, The vision melts in closing gloom. Another day, in sable vesture clad, All drear with new-blown pleasures blighted, Comes blindly groping through the twilight sad, Like one in moonless mists benighted. The grave your kingdom; there this frame shall For life bereft of light no memory needs fall To tell of night that ne'er to morning leads, Or day that is for ever set. From yonder sky the noonward sun was torn, from sight; The mild moon fled and never waned, And all of earth that's beautiful and fair Became as shadows in the empty air: A boundless, blackened blank remained. I heard the gates of Night with sullen jar For she, blithe offspring of the jocund Day, sway; And things of beauty, grace, and bloom, And fair-formed joys that once around me danced, Bewildered grew where sunbeams never glanced, And lost their way in that thick gloom. Pensylla, o'er me many sunless years Of faithless hopes and soul-benumbing fears Have flown, since last a beam of Heaven, The coming-on of morn mid smiles and tears, The soft descent of dreamy even; Or sight of woods and meads in green arrayed, Valley or hill or stream or dewy glade, 1479. |
