Washington, entitled as truly as the first to the name of "Father of his Country." Violating no law, assuming hastily no prerogative of place, hesitating long before taking any decisive step, he has yet brought this nation through the chasm of its fate, and landed it on the hither shore of freedom, of union, and of peace. No great crime dishonors his use of the trust which the people gave to him, and which they repeated with such cheerful consent after his work had been tried as by fire. His errors have been on the side of kindness, of humanity; have come from his generous heart and from his trust in men. The worst complaint of him has been, that he had too much pity for the stern duties of command; that he could forgive so readily, and was so prone to compassion. Yet, with all this tender heart, he has taken no step backward; has recalled no promise; has been driven neither by threats, nor won by entreaties, to break any pledge to the people. No ruler of any people ever had a harder task; harder in its magnitude, its obstacles, its complex variety, the momentous results depending upon it, its infinite troubles and embarrassments, "fightings without and fears within," false friends, weak advisers, incompetent instruments. Who shall measure such a task? Yet history will say he did the task faithfully and well, -history will say that here was a successful as well as a faithful ruler. The most glorious as well as the most crowded years in all our annals will be the four years in which the hand of this ruler guided the helm of the State.

That simple name, El Khalil, the Friend, by which the Arabs designate the first of the Patriarchs, is a true designation for this our ruler who bore that Hebrew name. He was indeed the friend, - the friend of his companions, the friend of the people, and the friend of God, as James says the first Abraham was called. In all his administrations, in all his messages and letters, in his declarations so often repeated, and in the steady tone of

his discourse, there is the pious sense always appearing of dependence upon the heavenly Friend. How strangely prophetic now appears that inaugural word, spoken only a few weeks ago, on that lowering day, in front of the Capitol (sad augury of woe soon to come), no hint there of any course that he should pursue; no policy marked out for the coming years: but only an expression of trust in the Lord; only a vision of the Great Head of all Commonwealths, of the judgments of God, of God leading the people,-"Whatsoever He wills to do, let his will be done"! This was a religious man, a religious ruler. That kindness of soul was stayed upon a principle of faith. That seeming weakness of will was supported by the invisible arm. The trembling magistrate leaned upon God; and, when others seemed to see an unsteady purpose, he felt beneath him the divine succor, and was strong in that uplifting. No place more proper to honor his name and to tell his worth than the house of God, to which his summons has so often called the worshippers in these years of trial. Again and again he has asked us to pray for the nation, and for the rulers of the nation; and has been quickened in the blessing of these united prayers. Perhaps the last work of his hand may have been a call of the nation to thanksgiving and praise; to render thanks in their sanctuaries to that Disposer of events, that God of battles, who has guided the instruments of his will below, and whose right hand and whose holy arm, more than any counsel or work of men, have gotten us the victory.

That so good and pure a man, so worthy of the love and honor of the nation, should have been taken from us in such a way, immensely deepens the great lament in the land. We mourn not chiefly for the lost ruler, taken at so critical a time of public affairs; but more for the upright, noble, and patriotic man, whose large heart had endeared him to the people as no ruler since the first has been endeared. This was the people's President, not by

any qualities of high genius, of various gifts, of commanding will; not as the great philosopher who wrote the Declaration of our Freedom, or as the inflexible general who called the Eternal One to witness that the Constitution should not be nullified or impaired, - but as the man whom the people believed in as one who would not deceive them, who would not oppress them, who would not betray them. He loved those even who hated him, better than the ambitious leaders who drew them astray. He was a truer friend to the men who fought against his rule, than the haughty lords of the lash, who used these poor millions only as the tools of their pride and their will. And he died really as the Saviour died, on the very anniversary, too, of the Saviour's death, and by a crime hardly less revolting, with a prayer in his heart for his enemies. What have the last acts of this our ruler been, but a comment upon that dying word of Jesus, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"? Well may we borrow the words of one of our eminent men, and call the ruler who has so died, in a double sense, "the Saviour of his country."

Nor may we omit to speak of the other eminent intended victim of this horrid conspiracy, who has stood by the side of his chief, in these four years of trying difficulty, to cheer by his hopefulness, to advise from his knowledge of public affairs, and to perform all the office of a ready friend. How well the former rival gave up disappointment and vexation, to do his part in this crisis of the nation! With what moderation and what skill he has managed those relations of the nation in foreign lands! saving us from added war; magnanimously confessing errors, and making restitution, yet always upholding the country's dignity; daring to oppose popular clamor, rather than risk the safety of the nation, and the success of its efforts to quench the fires of rebellion! That the land is saved, is owing in no small degree to the wisdom and patriotism of this optimist, as we have believed him. His

sanguine heart has only helped to keep up the faith of the people, but has not driven him into any errors of folly or rashness. He, too, whether he live or die, will have an honorable record, — honorable, not only in the story of long, various, and distinguished services in so many public charges, for more than a generation; not only in the ability of his statesmanship, and the success of his diplomacy: but honorable as he has lived down calumnies, vindicated his prophecies, and won to himself the applause of enemies. This man, too, the country cannot afford to spare. Who shall stand in his place?

A great sorrow indeed has come upon us in these outrages; and it almost seems that these bright skies, this cheerful sunshine, these songs of birds to-day, insult our grief. We would have the heavens hung with black, as we have draped the doors of our houses and the walls of our churches. But, after all, is it not better to take the omen of the sunshine than to brood upon our grief and its emblems? We may be glad, that, heavy as our loss is, it is no worse; that, successful as this great crime has been, it was not more successful. Other victims were aimed at; and, if all the work had been done, we should have been left without a head for our armies, and almost without a Government. The crime has defeated its own ends. It will recoil upon those who have expected to profit by it. This crowning wickedness is only the last of that series of follies by which Providence has blinded insane men here to their destruction. It cannot hinder the triumph of the righteous cause. Not falsely was the vision given to our martyr, the vision of freedom established, and a country saved. Not in vain has been his service. Not too early did the good man die, for the fruition of his hopes and his labors. Our illumination has been changed to cloud, our thanksgiving to lamenting; and the voice of wailing is heard in the land. But there is no voice of despair: the blackness is not that of a cavern or of night, but

only of a cloud in the sky: the lament is not a wail,-not the threnody of those who see no future; but is rather a requiem for the dead, the minor chord which goes in the funeral march before the full note of triumph. The land is safe, for God is its ruler. He leads us to deliverance. We will not trust in any arm of flesh, which may be broken; but we will trust in the living God, who hath led us hitherto. We will go on in the strength of this conviction, that, if we are constant in his righteousness, he will give the answer to our prayer, - will give peace, prosperity, plenty, a goodlier union, and a more glorious future.