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the time when the leader of the rebel armies and his companions had been permitted virtually to go free, and even allowed privileges and honors,-the man and the men who have done more to sustain the rebellion than any others, and have upon them an awful weight of guilt and stain of blood, — will go far to settle the question, how to deal with traitors, and what shall be done with them. The sentiment of the army, the sentiment of the nation, will permit no more trifling. This reward for clemency and favor, this answer to kind dealing and pardon, will hush, for the time at least, all talk of amnesty, and will tell the leaders what they have to expect, if they fall into the hands of men who will remember their crime instead of pitying their misfortune.

And this crime will teach the people by a terrible illustration the spirit of slavery, the spirit of that form of social life which is based upon the oppression of men and the disregard of human rights. Four years ago, this crime was meditated, but not accomplished. The spirit of the South then justified it; and the man who had committed it would have been a hero, would have been received and honored, as was the ruffian who struck down our Senator in his seat in the Capitol. Even now, the assassin who has done this deed of blood would be welcomed with triumph, if he could find a place where they dared so to receive him. There can be no doubt that this plan has all along been designed. Think what rewards have been offered in the Southern journals for the zealot who should do this deed! This is the kind of work that suits the base, cunning, cruel, and insolent spirit of slavery. It belongs to the same class with the scourgings and the brandings of women and children; with the wanton murders of the duel; with the sending of emissaries to burn the hotels of great cities, and destroy the lives of thousands of innocent men; with the burning of cities behind them by the rebel leaders, leaving thousands to wretchedness, exposure, and despair. All these

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things- this great crime, which to-day startles the nation more than any report of a battle lost or a city burned are the na

tural, the necessary issue of the institution which blighted the land so long, and ruled with such arrogance and tyranny. Shall we not learn from it to hate more heartily this infamous thing? Shall it not tell us to cast out for ever, root and branch, every vestige of this curse? So long as any tendril remains by which this vine can cling to our national life, so long we may expect such crime as this. Nothing can change the nature of this abomination. It hesitates at no violence, no outrage, no insult to the laws of God and man. Let us, on this new grave of the chief of the nation, with an oath as solemn and as deep as that of the young son of Hamilcar, vow eternal hostility to this source of all evil, in every form and degree; that we will have no rest until it is blotted out; that we will have no heed of any sign, promise, or prayer that it may make! Reluctantly our honest ruler brought himself to the conviction that the existence of human slavery was incompatible with the safety of the land. We see that clearly, now, in the blow which has struck down his life, and made him a martyr. God grant that this deed of blood may write the death of slavery in letters red as of blood all over the land, in the purpose of every resolute and patriotic heart, in the conviction and in the determination of all men! We will have no more of that social order which uses assassination, and is built upon violence. We will have no more of that style of life, which whips women, and starves prisoners, and deludes the people to ruin by specious falsehoods. Not alone, "Down with the traitors!" shall be our cry, but "Down with the accursed thing which has brought their treason! down with the thing which has made treason possible in this free Republic!" We see now how perilous is the peace that shall come while any life is left to this enemy of our peace. Let us be fixed in this resolution, that no shape or

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

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