Oration on the death of Abraham Lincoln ... : delivered before the citizens of Gettysburg, Pa., June 1, 1865

(mATlON

ON THE DEATH

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

Sixteentli President of the t'liiled States,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE

CITIZENS or GETTYSEIIKG, PA.,

JUBfE 1, 1865.

Pastor of the Prestyterian Church,

GETTYSBURG:

AUGHINBAUGH & WIBLE, BOOK k JOB PRINTERS,

Chainbersburg Street, near Comer of West.

1865.

ORATION

ON THE D E A T II

OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,*

Sixteenth President of tlie United States,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE

CITIZENS OF GETTYSBURG, PA.,

JUNE 1, 1865.

B^2^ I^E^V'. ID. T. C^^I?,2Sr.A.I3:.A.2Sr,

Pastor of the Presbyterian Cburch

•**^^^^^ ^^# #v^yvsr.

GETTYSBURG:

AUGHINBAUGH & WIBLE, BOOK & JOB PRINTERS,

Chainbersburg Street, near Corner of West.

1865.

Gettysbuuc, Juxk 1, 186.>,
Rev. D. T. Carnahan,

Dear Sir: — The undersic^ned, a Committee appointed at a Public
Mcetinjj of the citizens of Gettysburg, to take suitable action touching
the assassination of President Lincoln, respectfully request for publi-
cation, your admirable Oration pronounced this day.

Very truly yours.

EDW. Mcpherson,

C. H. BUEHLER,
DAVID WILLS,
CHAS. HORNER,
J. H. WHITE,
J. B. DANNER,
HENRY A. PICKING,
GEORGE BOYER,
EDW. G. FAHNESTOCK.

Gettysburg, June 1, 1865.
Hon. ED-n'ARD McPherson,
Col. C. H. Buehler, and others.

Dear Sirs : — Your letter requesting a copy of the Oration deliv-
ered by me to-day on the death of President Lincoln, for publication,
is received. I would that the Oration were more worthy of the occa-
sion j but such as it is, it is at your disposal.

D. T. CARNAHAN.

Digitized by tine Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

State of Indiana through the Indiana State Library

http://www.archive.org/details/orationondeathofOOcarn

ORATION.

Fellow Citizens: —

That was no ordinary event which hath wrought
such a sudden and painful change in the emotions of
the loyal people of this great Republic ; — which,
sweeping away all lines of party distinction, has
blended all hearts in a common sentiment of grief.
A few weeks ago, these hearts were filled with rap-
turous delight ; cheers upon cheers rent the air ;
banners were flung to the breeze ; merry bells sent
forth their glad peals; grand national salutes made
the welkin ring ; and staid, sober men embraced each
other as they met, and wept tears of joy, because of
the signal triumphs with which God had blessed the
national arms over the rebel forces, and in the pros-
pect of a speedy return of peace to our bleeding
land. And all nature seemed to be in harmony with
our hearts, for never did opening Spring look more
lovely, nor the smiling sun beam forth more cheer-
ingly, nor go down into the chambers of the west
with brighter promise of a coming glorious day, than
on Friday the 14th of April last. But in a night

6

all is suddenly changed. Abraham Lincoln, the
twice chosen and beloved representative of our
national sovereignty, in the height of a glorious
<;areer of usefulness to his country and to mankind,
winning the applause of his countrymen and the
admiration of the civilized world, is cut down by the
foul hand of an assassin.

In a place of public amusement, and in the pre-
sence of more than a thousand citizens, the murder-
er, with all the cunnmg deliberation of an arch-
fiend, obtains stealthy access to his presence while
sitting by the side of his wife and two personal
friends, accomplishes his wicked purpose, repeats a
motto in which he brands his noble victim as a ty-
rant, and before any one could realize what was
done, makes his escape. The President is assassin-
ated ! — is the startling cry of horror which pierces
every heart and blanches every countenance in the
capital of the nation ; and, borne on the wings of
the hghtning, it penetrates every domicile in the
land, and awakens the bitterest anguish, mourning,
and woe. And, as if in sympathy with our hearts,
the face of nature assumes an air of sadness, and
weeps with them that weep.

Never, in the history of the world, was a more
fiendish crime perpetrated. It was a death-blow
aimed at the life of the nation, at hberty, free gov-
ernment, and the dearest interests of mankind. Its
enormity baffles description, and fills us with a hor-

ror and agitation words cannot express. Mourn, O
Columbia ! mourn the shocking event that has bereft
thee of thy beloved Chief, thy patriotic, wise, hon-
est, incorruptible, noble hearted, mild and forgiving,
yet firm ruler — the Saviour of liis country ! Is there
in all the land a*man so base (I will not say, as to
exult, but) as not to mourn over this appalling cal-
amity ? If there is,

"I would rather be a dog,
And bay the moon, than such an American."

Every good citizen, whose moral sensibilities have
not been perverted or blunted by some unworthy
bias, feels that the death of President Lincoln is not
only a great national loss, but a personal bereave-
ment ; and that Treason displayed its true Satanic-
spirit, and struck its foulest blow at the best interests
of our common country in perpetrating his assassin-
ation. He was the people's friend and servant. He
was elevated from their midst to be their Chiiif Mag-
istrate, and lost none of his fellow feeling and warm
sympathy for them by his promotion. The highest
position in the nation, did not elevate him so high
above the general level of society, as to remove
him from all the ordinary sympathies of our nature.
He was accessible and affable to all who sought his
presence. His large, generous, honest heart ever
beat responsive to the interests of all the inhabi-
tants of the land and indicated the deepest concern
in their welfare. Their good was his aim and heart's

desire ; and their happiness his happiness. For his
country he lived, and for his country — his whole
country he died. And now, that a general wail of
woe throughout the land reveals the depth of the
nation's grief, we can estimate their sense of public
and private loss, and the strength aiid steadfastness
of the nation's loyalty. Party questions, political
misunderstandino-s, and the excitina contests of men
over them, which led our foulest and bitterest ene-
mies to say exultingly of our government, that, torn
by factions, it was going rapidly to dissolution ; all
this has in an instant disappeared under the wave of
distress which sweeps over the land. Look at the
vast population of the loyal States now, when in one
great and calamitous visitation, the feeling of parti-
san animosity is overborne, and when all over the
land there is an outburst of unparalleled grief, and
tell me is it possible that these can be other than
honest tears ? Who does not see in this the evi-
dence that the people, notwithstanding their party
differences are sound at heart; and that herein, un-
der the blessing of God, lies the pledge of our
national safety amid all the difficulties which may
threaten us ?

Abraham Lincoln — who, though of humble birth
and limited advantages, had, by the force of native
talent, risen from comparative obscurity to a com-
manding position and influence among his fellow-
men — was providentially called to the Chief Exec-

9

utive Chair of this great nation^ at a time the most try-
ing in our history. Treason liad ah-eady perfected its
dark plot for the dismemberment of the Union, and
was traininii" its armed bands for the work of blood
and desolation, necessary to carry out its fell designs.
State after State, under the management of fanati-
cal demairogues, and in bold defiance of the will of
the majority, was hurled into the vortex of revolu-
tion. The patriots of the South were either exiled,
or crushed to the earth, by a tyranny as hard-hearted
and cruel as ever made man to mourn. Treason
soon developed itself mto armed and organized re-
bellion of gigantic proportions, and with parricidal
heart aimed its deadly weapons against a govern-
ment that was always kind and forbearing, and never
unjust or oppressive. Acquiring nerve and boldness
with its advance and development, it soon presented
a belligerent aspect and martial tread which defied
all opposition, and made the pillars of our national
fabric to tremble to their foundations. It was not
only rebellion in the South, but treason in the Cap-
ital, and in the adjoining State on the North, that
threatened the nation's life, and which rendered the
Chief Magistracy an office of awful responsibility,
and of peculiar peril. It was in these trying cir-
cumstances, that he entered upon the Presidency.
And never did a Magistrate more honestlv and faith-
fully endeavor to discharge the solemn and momen-
tous duties which devolved upon him.

TO

On leaving bis home in Springfield, Illinois, for
Washington City, a large concourse of citizens had
assembled at the depot to witness bis departure,
whom, with deep emotion he briefly addressed ; and
among other things said : "My friends, no one
not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel
at this parting. A duty devolves upon me which is
perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon
any other man since the days of Washington. He
never could have succeeded except for the aid of
Divine Providence, upon which he at all times re-
lied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same
Divine aid which sustained him ; and in the same
Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; and
I hope that you, my friends, will all pray that I may
receive that Divine assistance, without which I can-
not succeed, but with which success is certain."

The prayers not only of his immediate friends
and neighbors, but of all well-wishers of their coun-
try, were offered in his behalf, and were answered.
He was endowed with a spirit of exalted patriotism,
of conscientiousness, prudence, forbearance, firm-
ness, and devotion to truth and righteousness, which
quahfied him in an eminent manner for his responsi-
ble position. An intense desire to perpetuate the
union, integrity, prosperity and happiness of his be-
loved country, became the ruling passion of his soul.
Unambitious, he pursued no interest of his own
apart from the general good of the nation. He con-

11

suited tlie rights of the people, and of the respec-
tive States, as well as of the General Government,
and meditated no invasion of the rights of either ;
and claimed no powers but such as were granted
him by the Constitution. Peaceable in his nature
and public aim ; tender of the life and blood and
rights of man ; having no ambition to gratify, and
no personal wrongs to avenge, he resolved to exer-
cise the power vested in him to maintain the author-
ity of the national Government unimpaired, to de-
fend the rights of the people, and to restrain, and, if
necessary, chastise the disturbers of the public tran-
quility. It was in this noble spirit he addressed the
instigators of rebellion on the occasion of his first
inauguration : — "I shall take care, as the Constitu-
tion expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the
Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States.
— I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but
only as the declared purpose of the Union, that it
will constitutionally defend and maintain itself Such
of you as are dissatisfied, still have the old Consti-
tution unimpan-ed, and on the sensitive point, the
the laws of your own framing under it; while the
new administration will have no immediate power, if
it would, to change either. In your hands, my dis-
satisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. Tlie Government
will not assail you. You can have no conflict with-
out being yourselves the aggressors. You have no

n

oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Govern-
ment; while I shall have the most solemn one to
'preserve, protect, and defend it.'"

The war for the Union was forced upon him; and
in humble but firm reliance on Almighty God, and
the righteousness of his cause, he girded himself
and the nation for the terrible conflict. "Never,"
said Rev. Dr. Gurley in his funeral sermon delivered
over the corpse in the Presidential Mansion —
••'Never shall I forget the emphasis and deep emo-
tion with which he said in this very room to a com-
pany 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 struo-n-le 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.' " This hope was
the sheet-anchor of his soul, sure and steadfast,
which held him firm and unmoved amid all the surg-
ings and dashings of the angry waves of rebellion,
in the darkest and most tempestuous night of our
adversity. It inspired him with a moral heroism-
which made him equal to any emergency, and ena-
bled him to brave all dangers and rise superior to
all discouragements, when others were fearful and
desponding. And it gave him a firmness of purpose.

13

a patient perseverance in tlie path of duty, and an
assurance of ultimate success, which nothing could
shake or destroy.

He endeavored, through the whole of his Presi-
dential career, to discover and understand the lead-
ings of Providence. And whenever he could hear
the great Ruler of the nations saying, with reference
to any line of policy, this is the way, walk thou in it —
he unhesitatingly obeyed, without regard to the fav-
or or the frown of men. It was in obedience to the
dictate of Providence as he understood it — and I
have no doubt he understood it aright — that he is-
sued his ever memorable emancipation proclamation,
whereby 4,000,000 of human beings were liberated
from the shackles of slavery, and transferred from
the aid of the rebellion to the help of the Govern-
ment:— a proclamation, which, though at first by
many regarded as somewhat questionable, both as to
its propriety and expediency, is now almost univer-
sally regarded as eminently wise and proper, and
imperatively demanded by the times; and as having
contributed more than any other measure to the
speedy overthrow of the great rebellion. Such a
measure, he declared had not entered his mind as
either wise, or proper, or necessary, when he assum-
ed the reins of government; and was only adopted
after Providence, by the irresistible logic of events,
had educated bolh the people and himself up to its
high , necessity and righteousness. This proclama-

14

tion inaugurated a new era in the national struggle ;
flashed new hght across the Atlantic with regard to
the relative status of the contending parties, and
gave cheer to the friends of good government at
home. It placed in broader light the fact, that the
rebellion originated in the interest of slavery, and
had for its object its extension and perpetuation de-
spite the will of the majority, and even at the sacri-
fice of the nation's life ; and of course, that the
speediest and best way to crush the revolt, was by
eradicating its mischievous cause. It was an act of
splendid statesmanship, which has won for its author
the enviable cognomen — The Great Liberator — and
will make his name live through all coming time as
the benefactor of his age, and a blessing 1o the hu-
man race.

In his efforts to suppress the rebellion, and in di-
recting our domestic and foreign affairs, involving at
times, as they did, the most complex and difficult
questions, he displayed a wisdom, a prudence, a pen-
etration, a breadth of view, and a magnanimity,
which, if equaled, have never been surpassed by any
other ruler in ancient or in modern times. Even the
journalists of Europe, who at first sneered at his
capacity to grasp and master the momentous ques-
tions of the day, and cope with the wily power of
the rebellion, had learned not only to regard him
with respect, but even to admire his wonderful ad-
ministrative ability. The London Spectator, an. ably

15

conducted newspaper, lias, in llie number for March
25tli, an elaborate article; on the public character of
Mr. Lincoln. It docs not scruple to compare him
to Washington in some respects, or to pronounce,
that, with a more difficult task, he has reached a no
less honorable success. After referring to the ani-
mated euloffium on Gen. WashiniTton which Lord
Macaulay passed parenthetically, in his essay on
Hampden, it says : "If that high eulogium was fully
earned, as it was, by the first great President of the
United States, we doubt if it has not been as well
earned by the Illinois peasant proprietor and vil-
lage lawyer, whom, by some divine inspiration or pro-
vidence, the Republican caucus of I860 substituted
for Mr. Seward as their nominee for the President's
chair. Without the advantages of Washington's
education or training, Mr. Lincoln was called from
an humble station at the opening of a mighty civil
war, to form a government out of a party in which
the habits and traditions of official life did not exist.
Finding himself the object of Southern abuse so
fierce and so foul, that in any man less passionless it
would long ago have stirred up an implacable ani-
mosity ; mocked at for his official awkwardness, and
denounced for his steadfast policy 5 tried by years of
failure, before that policy achieved a single great suc-
cess ; further tried by a series of successes so rapid
and brilliant that they would have puffed up a smaller
mind and overset its balance \ embarrassed by the

16

t>oastfu]ness of his people and his subordinates, no
less than by his own inexperience in his relations
with foreign States ; beset by fanatics of principle,
on one side, who would pay no attention to his obli-
gations as a constitutional ruler •, and by fanatics of
caste, on the other, who were not only deaf to the
claims of justice, but would hear of no policy large
enough for a revolutiouary emergency — Mr. Lincoln
has perscAcred through all, without ever giving way
to anger, or despondency, or exultation, or popular
arrogance, or sectarian fanaticism, or caste prejudice,
visibly growing in force of character, in self-posses-
sion, and in magnanimity, till, in his second inaugu-
ral Address on the 4th of March, we can detect no
longer the rude and illiterate mould of a village law-
yer's thought, but find it replaced by a grasp of prin-
ciple, a dignity of manner, and a solemnity of pur-
pose, which would have been unworthy neither of
Hampden nor of Cromwell, while his gentleness and
generosity of feeling towards his foes, are almost
greater than we should expect from either of them."

Who would have expected such a glowing eulogy
from an English journal ? It does honor alike to its
author and its subject, and places, in its true light,
the illustrious character of that great civil Magistrate
whose cruel death we mourn.

Oh! never was a noble motto more foully mis-
applied, than was that on the Virginia coat of arms,
"Sic semper tyrannis," thus be it ever with tyrants —

17

by the diabolical assassin to Abraham Lincohi. He
a tyrant ! Then is the mild, gentle, long-suffering,
and forgiving father, a tyrant. He a tyrant ! Then
is the Benefactor of his age and blessing to liis race,
a tyrant. He a tyrant ! Then is the Deliverer and
Saviour of his country a tyrant. No ! His error
lay on the side of mercy, rather than on the side of
severity, in the exercise of his official authority ; in
extending too great leniency not only towards the
authors and active agents of the rebellion, but to
those, who, while they enjoyed the protection of the
government, were in avowed sympathy with its dead-
ly foes, and giving them all the moral aid and com-
fort in their power, and were capable of plotting his
own destruction and that of his Cabinet. It was
his consciousness of entire freedom from malice and
vindictiveness, that made him feel a personal security
€ven among his bitterest foes, and which eventually
cost him his life. Ah ! his enemies, and the enemies
of the country, knew not what they are doing, when,
by the wicked hands of a mercenary villain, they as-
sassinated President Lincoln. He was their best
friend, disposed to extend to them greater leniency
and a fuller pardon than they could expect. But,
"whom God would destroy, he first makes mad."

God, in great goodness to the nation, having spar-
ed him to see the power of the rebellion crushed,
and the forts and arsenals wrested from the Govern-
ment four years ago, re-possessed ; — until Richmond,

18

the capital and stronghold of the woiild-be Confed-
eracy had fallen, and Lee and his once boasted in-
vincible army had surrendered; — until the voice of
the turtle was beginning to be heard in the land, and
the dawning of a bright day of peace was beginning
to dispel the gloom of war; — and until he had just
completed a plan of rehabilitation on terms the most
magnanimous; — God, having spared him thus to see
his Herculean labors on the eve of being crowned
with complete success, — to look back upon the evils
of the past as all gone forever, and forward to that
state of peace, prosperity, and happiness which lay
before him, as the reward of his toils, and the hap-
py term of his anxiety, most mysteriously permitted
him to be cut down by the hand of a fiendish assas-
sin. O, how are the mighty fallen ! Well may the
nation as it staggers under the blow, exclaim with
Elisha, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel,
and the horsemen thereof!"

O ye enemies of your country and mine, was it
not enough that ye had convulsed the land with fratri-
cidal war — that ye had desolated once prosperous
States and happy homes — that ye had sacrificed
the lives of 500,000 men — the flower of the land
— upon the field of battle, and tortured and starved
50,000 more in pens, and prisons, and dungeons, by
a system of refined cruelty which defies the world
for a parallel — must ye cap the climax of wicked-
ness, and superadd to all the bloody slaughter which

19

lias held high carnival throughout the land, the dia-
bolical crime of assassination ! Tiic moving spring
of the infernal conspiracy to cut off not only the
President, but his Cabinet, and some of the promin-
ent officials in the nation, lay deep down in the
cause of the rebellion. The conspiracy was its na-
tural remoter development, and was approved, if not
matured by the Richmond Junta, and was the astound-
ing event by which they intended to startle the
world; its executors being only the mercenary agents
of a power which authorized or approved of the
starving of prisoners of war — of the burning of
Chambersburg and the attempt to burn New York
— of the robbery and murder at St. Albans, and the
massacre at Fort Pillow — and of the attempt by
means of infected clothing, to "unbar the gates of
the pestilence" in our northern cities. Oh, the bar-
barism of American slavery ! Oh, the Satanic vil-
lanies it engenders ! Oh, the Pandemonium of its
councils I Oh, the terrible diabolism of its conspir-
acies and its deeds ! The rebellion, which was
avowedly begun and carried on in its interest, and
which has culminated in the assassination of the
Chief Magistrate of the nation, has demonstrated
what the conservative element in the land was slow
to admit, that, in the language of John Wesley,
'^It is the sum of all villanies." But thanks be
to God, it has run its course. In its mad ambition
to rule or ruin the nation, it has destroyed itself.

20

and brought ruin and disgrace upon its lovers and
friends.

O Lincoln! Lincoln! who would not rather be
what thou art, a martyr to thy country, followed to
thy grave by weeping millions in whose hearts thy
memory is everlastingly embalmed, and honored by
all civilized nations of the earth as no mortal man
was honored before ; than the living head of the
rebellion, with his assassin's heart and hands of
blood, and the curses of widows and orphans on
his head, at one time wandering like Cain, a fugitive
and a vagabond in the earth, and finally captured
while attempting to escape the hand of justice in a
female garb ? Ordinarily, "a living dog is better
than a dead lion ;" but in this case, the dead lion is
better than the living dog.

But the work assigned our illustrious President by
Divine Providence, was finished, and

"His hour of martyrdom
In freedom's sacred cause had come:
And, though his life hath passed away
Like lightning on a stormy day,
Yet shall his death-hour leave a track
Of glory, permanent and bright."

His sun went down while it was yet noon, in the full
blaze of his glory, while his eye was not yet dim nor
his natural force abated. He was snatched away
when apparently he had reached the zenith of a vir-
tuous, successful, and glorious career — when his emi-
nent qualities as a great Ruler were most fully de-

21

veloped — when blushing honors were thickest npon
him — when he was more beloved and idolized by the
American people, than any other man since the days
of Washington ; and when the civilized world had
learned to appreciate his pre-eminent Avorth and
ability, and delighted to accord to him the highest
meed of praise.

President Lincoln, was a man of strong faith in
God as the righteous Governor of the universe. It
was this that supported and assured him in the dark
and trying times of our nation's struggle, and inspir-
ed him with a hope which nothing could shake or
destroy of the ultimate triumph of truth over error,
and of right over wrong. It was this which led him
not only to request the prayers of the people, but
also to pray himself, that he might be divinely sus-
tained and guided in his administration of public
affairs; and that the cause of the Government,
which was the cause of righteousness and humanity,
might be made triumphant over all opposition. He
not only labored^ he prayed for the good of his coun-
try ; and here was the hiding of his power, and the
secret of his success.

Fellow Citizens, If you expected an eulogy on
this occasion, you are doomed to disappointment.
I cannot eulogize the incomparable Lincoln. His
glory is above my eulogy. His eulogy has already
been pronounced in tones of melting eloquence by
the sighs and groans wrung from millions of hearts

oppressed with grief at their irreparable loss, in the
land he loved so well ; and the grand dirge has roll-
ed across the Atlantic and bowed the civilized world
in sackcloth and in tears. Eulogize the immortal
Lincoln ! His noble deeds and heroic virtues speak
his praise. He who

"Has won the battle for the free,"

and rescued an oppressed and down-trodden race
from the heel of the great Destroyer, has written
his own epitaph in the hearts of a redeemed people,
and all over the broad land which he saved from
ruin ; and his best eulogy will be heard in

"The thanks of millions yet to be.

Lincoln ! with the storied brave
Thy country nurtured in her glory's time,
Rest thee — there is no prouder grave,

Even in her own proud clime.
Thou art Freedom's now, and Fame's,
One of the few, the immortal names.

That were not born to die."

But though our great and noble Chief Magistrate
has been foully smitten down in death, the Republic
still lives: — hves, without any diminution of its vital
energies, without any deviation from its onward
course: — lives, a demonstration to the world that a
Government founded in the hearts of the people,
and on the broad principle of equal rights, is not
dependent for its permanency, upon the life of any
man who may fill its highest office. That God, who
made our late President the mighty instrument of

23

our deliverance from thrcatonod anarchy, wills that
the nation sliall not die, but from a liifjher vantacje
ground, and animated with new life, and clothed with
new power go forth to the achievement of more
glorious triumphs for his name's sake and humani-
ty's sake, in times to come. May the God of our
fathers, and our nation's God, the God who hath
preserved us all our life long, and given us the vic-
tory over the most gigantic rebellion the world ever
saw, be our Rock, and Refuge, and Glory still.

And shall all the lessons of the past be lost upon
us ? Shall the immense treasure that has been ex-
pended, and the torrents of blood that have been
shed, and the valuable lives that have been sacrificed
upon the altar of their country, be all for nought?
Shall God's judgments be abroad in the land and the
inhabitants thereof not learn righteousness ? Shall
it be, that, though in the fiery furnace through which
we have passed there was visible the form of the
Son of God, we have come forth from the flames
unharmed to be as forgetful of our Preserver and
Sovereign as ever ? Forbid it Heaven ! Let us
labor and pray that our trials may issue in our na-
tional exaltation and improvement ; and in the mak-
irig our land, Immanuel's land. Shall the spirits of
our martyred patriots, from that of the lately mur-
dered Chief, down to that of the humblest starved
soldier, call in vain upon their surviving fellow citi-
zens to rise to a higher appreciation of their national

^4

advanlages and citizen privileges, and never to risk
for one moment on visionary theories the substantial
blessings of their lot ? Shall tiiey call upon us in
vain, to love our country next to our God ; to rever-
ence and obey lawful authority, and make loyalty to
the Government and genuine patriotism, essential
elements of our virtue, our religion, and whatever
we esteem most sacred ? Oh no ! If we be true
to our God, and true to ourselves and to the fair
heritage they bequeathed us, they shall not call in
vain.

And if the blood they shed in the holy cause of
righteousness, humanity and God, shall serve to
erase any dark stain of dishonor from our national
escutcheon, and cement the Union in more indisso-
luble bonds than ever: — if every blood-stained bat-
tle-field and patriot-grave all over the land shall
serve to inflame us with a deeper abhorrence of
every spirit of lawlessness and insubordination, and
inspire us with a purer and subhmer patriotism — a
patriotism which, soaring toward heaven, shall rise
above all mean, low, selfish, and party considerations,
and make God and our country the great objects of
life ; and prompt to deeds of self-sacrifice, of valor,
and of devotion even unto death itself for every
high and noble principle which tends to the glory of
God and our country — then, the mighty host of
patriot-martyrs, headed by Abraham Lincoln, will
not have died in vain.

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