“I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by.”
How wonderful his words in view of the appalling fact that the enemies of the Declaration of Independence finally took his life!
From Saturday night until Monday morning the face of the murdered President was viewed by three hundred thousand people—an eager, orderly, mourning procession, moving in and out of Independence Hall, night and day, to pay their sincere tribute of respect to the dead.
In the city of New York more than one hundred thousand people were in the procession, twenty thousand of whom were soldiers. One hundred bands of music played during the march. Nearly a million people witnessed the pageant. Public services were held in Union Square, where the Hon. George Bancroft delivered the eulogy, and Dr. J. P. Thompson read the President’s last inaugural address. The following beautiful ode by the poet Bryant was read by Dr. Osgood:—
Gentle, and merciful, and just!
Who in the fear of God didst bear
The sword of power—a nation’s trust.
Amid the awe that hushes all,
And speak the anguish of a land
That shook with horror at thy fall.
We bear thee to an honoured grave,
Whose noblest monument shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
Among the noble host of those
Who perished in the cause of right.”
Of the ceremonies in New York Morris said: “The funeral ceremonies of the first Napoleon, in the streets of Paris, when his remains were transferred from St. Helena to the Invalides by Louis Philippe, were regarded as the greatest pageant the world had ever known, but the pageant in New York far exceeded it.”
At Albany the scene was no less imposing. The city was shrouded with crape, and beautiful sentiments appeared here and there:—
“The great heart of the nation throbs heavily at the portals of the grave.”
“All joy is darkened; the mirth of the land is gone.”
“And the mourners go about the streets.”
“And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people.”
“The Martyr to Liberty.”
“Though dead, he yet speaketh.”
“Washington, the Father of his country; Lincoln, the Saviour of his country.”
At Dunkirk, upon a tastefully draped platform, was “a group of thirty-six young ladies, representing the States of the Union. They were dressed in white, each with a broad black scarf resting on the shoulder, and holding in her hand a national flag.”
At Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, one hundred and eighty persons a minute saw the remains, “two rows of spectators were constantly passing, one on each side of the coffin.” Flowers wrought into every
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