Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

of four millions of freedmen, whose chains have fallen by his hand, and from the oppressed of every clime. Everywhere the friends of liberty weep.

[blocks in formation]

SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL HURLBUT:

AT NEW ORLEANS, LA., APRIL 21, 1865.

FE

ELLOW-CITIZENS,- With all these outward demonstrations surrounding me; with those flags - the flags of our common country-at half-mast; the habiliments of woe, and draperies that surround the balconies and porches of our fair city; the still, steady countenances of this vast assemblage, with the burden that every man feels at his heart,- we are assembled here this day to express our sorrow for the greatest calamity that has ever befallen human progress since the world was. It is well that here, in this city of New Orleans, from the banks of this magnificent river, the child of the Union, the creature of that vast commerce that sweeps back to the Rocky Mountains on the one side, and the Alleghanies on the other, -it is well that you, citizens of this city and this State, the spoiled and petted child of this Union, should recognize here to-day the obligation and duties that fall upon you as citizens of this great Republic, whose head and front has been stricken down by the hand of the assassin. It is well, too, as the remarks that have fallen from my friend who led us in prayer on this solemn occasion have indicated, —it is well for us all to peer deeply down into our hearts; for, since the day when unholy men crucified the very Lord of grace, no such crime has been perpetrated, or known in the pages of history, as this which has brought us here to-day. The parallel

holds good, be it spoken with due reverence; for the truest and best, most thorough and most powerful, friend to the madmen. who, in their frenzy and fanaticism, have laid him low, was Abraham Lincoln, late President of these United States.

Let me then, here, to-day, in the first place, recognize the deep detestation and horror which should fill every heart, wherever it is, under whatever sun, at the atrocity and enormity of the horror which has darkened this country with grief. We meet here for the purpose of paying some fit and feeble tribute to the memory of the great man who has led our country through these last four years of agony and sorrow. We meet here as citizens of a common Union, as children of the same soil, by birth or by voluntary adoption. And it may be there are those here who come under neither of these descriptions, but are the denizens of these United States, remaining under their national flag, while quietly dwelling under the broad protection of our banner; and to all of these classes of men this day is momentous.

I do not propose to speak at length here, and on this occasion, of the life and public services of Abraham Lincoln. I dare not trust myself with the task. I but little thought, years ago, before he was elevated to the presidency of the United States, — before war had spread her blood-stained wing over our country,when I used to meet him in the ordinary course of civil life in my own adopted State,-I little thought, that, after four years of service under our flag in suppressing a rebellion, I should stand in this central park of New Orleans, in the service of my country, to speak words of eulogy upon the death of him, the President of these United States. But of the past we are secure. Glory, honor, the praise of all good men, have crowned his eventful career; and when in the providence of Almighty God, to whose inscrutable decrees we must all bow,—just as the ruby dawn of peace was breaking upon our distracted country; just as the

arms of the Confederacy, fairly beaten, were being laid down; just when that gentle heart, that true, affectionate, honest man, seemed most required to throw the impulse and pressure of his power upon the question of reconstruction, -just then it pleased God that a cowardly and brutal murderer should strike down this great man by a blow, dastard-like, from behind, and in the very presence of his wife.

These things make it my duty, fellow-citizens, to say frankly and broadly to you here to-day, that however the investigation of this matter may turn out, it is written in the destinies of all men, that no man can commence upon a career of crime, and know at what enormity he will stop; and this is, whether the result of a wide-spread conspiracy or not, the natural and inevitable result of the great crime attempted four years ago against the nation. From being traitors, it is the easiest gradation downwards to be murderers and assassins. And let me say to you another thing: I trust in God, that the investigations that are now going on may not fix the guilt of this enormous offence upon any persons who may be considered as representatives of the Southern people; for, if that thing does come, no power but the Almighty can stay the just vengeance of an outraged nation. I hope, as a man anxious to see bloodshed, ruin, and devastation cease, I hope that this great crime may be proven to have been the offshoot of some individual baseness, -some single criminal. Yes, I hope it.

Fellow-citizens, - The record of President Lincoln is before the nation and the world. I affirm, that in the whole history of the world, not excluding him who, by common consent, is known as the Father of his Country, was there ever presented so spotless, so pure, so generous, so simple, so truthful, so energetic a character. Politics have ceased: there are no politics in these United States; there are no parties in these United States.

Elected originally as the representative of a party, this great man became the representative of every loyal heart in the nation! No one, but some old hack, whose back is like that of an old horse in a bark-mill, adheres to politics now. There is nothing now but a nation; nothing that divides us but the national quarrel. How widely and how entirely did he spread his inviting arms to call in all these wanderers! What has he not done for this place and this people? It is to him that you owe your existence as a State and a city; and thus it is that this occasion is so moment

ous.

Whatever you have of civil order, of civil law, is the free gift of Abraham Lincoln, the tendernesses and charities of whom were as inevitable to his nature as light to the sun. They came from him as water boils from a spring; the deep fountains of his nature yielded uncounted supplies of all kindness and benevolence: such a man, so clothed in graceful form; such a man, so surrounded by all pleasant influences; such a man, in the very pride and dignity of his great office, - has fallen by the hand of a cut-throat and a bravo; and the American nation, which has held its head high for its civilization and its courage, is disgraced by the knowledge that the crimes of all the old worn-out barbarism of Europe are to be repeated and renewed among us.

We, the officers of the army, and the soldiers here, revered him as our comrade. A man wholly unused to military affairs, he has yet taken so deep an interest that probably no man in the Cabinet at Washington could more closely follow, and more thoroughly understand, the movements and combinations of our great leaders. A man who never had mingled much in the craft of statesmanship, he yet, having assumed those duties, recognized at once that the true policy for a bold and brave people was to follow the righteous instincts of a just heart and an enlightened intellect. He has educated this people up to the position they now

« AnteriorContinuar »