hold be left to this iniquity in all our land! The spirits of our martyrs, in the long array which the battles of these years have gathered, wait to administer to the nation this vow. It is to you and me, brethren, to all of us, to men and to children. This blood will be upon our garments, if we do not wipe off the stain from the nation. From every pulpit in the land this day should echo the voice, "No peace with the wicked; no peace with that which is the source of such wickedness; no peace with that which destroys all honor; no peace with that which sends out midnight murderers!"

And if any thing could complete that union of men of all parties in the North, which was begun by the assault four years ago upon the beleaguered fort in the harbor of Charleston, it would be such a crime as this. There can be only one opinion about this act, among all men of fair minds and patriotic hearts. There can be only one voice in condemnation of such an act, only one feeling of horror. The journals most hostile to the Government and its policy will hasten to disavow this act, and will join in the wish that summary justice may be done upon these murderers, upon all who have had any part in this infamy, whatever their rank or station or motive. If there should be any heart base enough to approve such a murder, it will not dare to find a voice. Through the length and breadth of the land, there will be one utterance, as there is substantially but one feeling. This act will convert men who were only half converted before, will silence cavillers, and will bring men of all parties together in the cause of the nation. Wranglings will cease before this opened grave: they ought to cease here, in such a solemn hour. Men will vie with each other, the most conservative with the most radical, in the promptness of their devotion to the public welfare. The rejoicings of this last week had seemed almost to obliterate party strife: the mournings of the coming week will draw in the few that were still keeping

themselves apart. As, around the private bier, relatives and friends meet, forgetting their personal offences in the fellowship of grief; so, around this public bier, all differences will be forgotten in the sense of a common calamity. No Ishmael will utter his hatred in the household of mourning Isaac. Those who had never praised before will take up the lament, and will claim part in the burial. If such an occasion as this cannot silence strife, and bring men to be of one voice and heart, certainly nothing

can.

And now full justice will be done to that noble man, the chief victim of this outrage, who has been so long the mark for abuse, detraction, and falsehood, but in whom the heart of this nation recognized a providential leader. Now that he is done to death by wicked hands, with one heart and one voice all will rise up to say, that here was a sincere, a wise, an honest, a just, a Godfearing man. They will tell, that he loved mercy better than power; that he loved his country better than his own fame or interest; how beneath this careless manner there was a grave and serious heart; how on this plain brow and ungainly frame there sat the dignity of a true manhood. Every event in his life, from its early struggles to its crowning martyrdom, will unveil its significance. They will tell how this Cæsar was assassinated, not because he had destroyed, but because he had defended, the Republic; not because he had suppressed, but because he had vindicated, liberty; not as he was gathering new armies to enlarge his tyranny and triumph, but as he was about to disband and send home the armies that had done their work of saving the State. We shall now see that this plain man of the West, of unknown lineage, with no gifts of birth or eloquence or fortune, coming to the chair of State with no experience of its duties, has proved himself the man of all men to save the State; a better man than any scholar, orator, or martial leader would have been; a second

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 Comm.onwealths, 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.

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