The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-02 00:00:00

The Assassination of President Lincoln.

A meeting of the Americans in London was held
on yesterday afternoon, at St. James's Hall, for the
purpose of giving expression to their feelings in re-
lation to the untimely death of their late President.
The hall wore the same emblems of mourning as on
Saturday last, with the addition of an immortelle
which hung beneath the Stars and Stripes. The
meeting was well attended, but not at all so nume-
rous as that of Saturday. Though the requisition
which convened it was addressedto Americans alone,
a large proportion of the assembly consisted of our
countrymen who wished by their presence to testify
their sympathy and regard. The proceedings were
most harmonious. The chair was taken shortly after
three o'clock, amid applause, by his Excellency
Charles Francis Adams, Minister of the United States.

Among those present were :—Lord Houghton, Mr
Cyrus Field, Judge Winter, Dr. Black, Mr. Fuller,
Mr. E. C. Fisher, United States' Sanitary Commis-
sion, Rev. Crammond Kennedy, Mr. Morse, Consul
of the United States ; Mr. Nunn, Deputy Consul
of the United States ; Mr. B. Howard, New York,
late United States' Army; Mr. Mason Jones,
Mr. Henry Bergh, late Secretaire de la Lega-
tion des Etats Unis d'Amerique St. Petersburg; Dr.
Coffin, Mr. H. Thornton, Mr. J. B. Stephenson, Mr.
C. M. Lampson, Dr. F. Robinson (Scots Fusileer
Guards), Dr. Charles R. Nicoll (Grenadier Guards),
Dr. Ludlow, Mr. E. G. Tinker and Mr. Ward, New
York ; Mr. H. Stevens and Mr. B. F. Stevens, Ver-
mont ; Dr. Storrs, Mr. Peach, and Mr. Massey, New
York ; Mr. Phillips, Wisconsin ; Alderman Salo-
mons, M.P., Mr. Potter, M.P., Rochdale ; Mr. G.
J. Abbott, Consul of the United States for the Shef-
field and Bradford district; Rev. J. Shaw, Boston;
Mr. J. Holmes Goodenow, United States' Consul at
Constantinople ; Mr. G. Grant, Mr. G. Ralton,
Philadelphia, Consul-General of Liberia ; Captain
Richardson, San Francisco ; Mr. C. Stratton
(General Tom Thumb) and Mrs. Stratton ; Mr. J.
M'Henry, Capt. Tomkins, Mr. H. Brough, &c.

The CiwintAN, on rising to address the meeting,
was greeted with renewed applause. He said—l
have been desired to call you together, my country-
men, for the sake of giving some common form of
expression to our emotions, stirred up as they have
been by the late fearful calamity. In presence of
such an awful event we are forcibly impressed not
merely with the commonplace idea of mortal vicissi-
tude, but with the more solemn duty of keeping our-
selves wholly free from the indulgence of any un-
worthy passion. (Applause.) The ordinary jars of
human life are hushed before such a catastrophe.
A great Virginian statesman once said that " he
trembled for his country when he reflected that God
is just." The dreaded visitation appears to have
come upon us in the third and fourth generation.
Let us endeavour to bear ourselves with patience
and humility. But, while acknowledging our short-
comings, let us draw closer and closer together while
we unite in one earnest wail of sorrow for our loss
—(applause)—for I may be permitted to observe
that in this loss the bereavement is wholly our own.
We are entirely to bear the responsibility of it.
The man who has fallen was immolated for no act of
his own. It may well be doubted whether, during
his whole career, he ever made a single enemy.
(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") In this peculiarity
he shone pre-eminent among statesmen. No ; he
who perpetrated the crime had no narrow purpose.
It was because Abraham Lincoln was the faithful
exponent of the sentiments of a whole people that
he was stricken down. (Renewed cries of " Hear,
hear.") The blow that was aimed at him was meant
to fall home upon them. The ball that penetrated
his brain was addressed to the heart of each and
every one of us. (Applause.) It was a fancied
short way of paralysing the Government which we
have striven so hard to maintain. It was then for
our cause that Abraham Lincoln died, and not his
own. If he was called a tyrant who was elevated
to his high post by the spontaneous voices of a
greater number of men than had ever been given in
any republic before, it was only because he was
obeying the wishes of those who elected him. It is
we who must stand responsible for his deeds. It is
he who has paid the penalty for executing our will.
Surely, then, this is the strongest of reasons why
all of us should join, as with one voice, in a chorus
of lamentation for his fall. (Applause.) It was
one of the peculiar merits of Mr. Lincoln that he
knew how to give shape in action to the popular
feelings as they developed themselves under his
observation. He never sought to lead, but rather
to follow, and thus he succeeded in the difficult task
of successfully combining conservatism with pro-
gress. (Hear, hear.) This, surely, was not like
tyranny. (Hear, hear.) His labour was always
to improve. Hence it was that he conducted a war
of unexampled magnitude, always bearing in
mind the primary purpose for -which it had been
commenced, at the same time that he associated
with it broader views as the opportunities occa-
sionally offered. He had pledged himself at the
outset to accomplish certain objects, and he
never forgot that pledge. The time had at
last arrived when he might honestly claim that
it would be fulfilled. It was in that very moment
ho was taken away. On the very same day of the
year when the national flag, which just four years
ago had been lowered to triumphant enemies at
Fort Sumter, was once more lifted to its original
position by the hand of the same officer who had
suffered the indignity that commenced the war
Abraham Lincoln fell. His euthanasia is complete.
For him we ought not to mourn. His work was
done ; he had fought the good fight, he had finished
his course. The grief is all for ourselves alone.
And now we, the nation, who stand around his body
may well cry, " Go up, go up, with your gory tem-
ples twined with the evergreen symbols of a patriot's
wreath, and bearing the double glory of a martyr's
crown. (Loud applause.) Go up, while for us here
remaining on earth your memory shall be garnered
in the hearts of us and our latest posterity, in corn-
mon with the priceless treasures heaped up by the
great fathers of the republic, and close by that of
the matchless Washington." (Renewed applause.)
But, although we profoundly lament this loss, it
must not be presumed that we do so as having no
hope. We have parted with a most faithful servant.
But the nation has not lost with him one atom of
the will which animates others of its servants as fully
as it did him. (Applause.) It is one of the notable
features of this great struggle that it is not particular
men who have attempted to lead on the people, but
rather that the people have first given the tone, to
the level of which their servants must come up, or
else sink out of sight and be forgotten. (Cheers.)
They have uniformly designated to them their
wishes. To one man they have said " Come up,"
and to another " Give way," and in either case
they have been as implicitly obeyed. Whoever it
be that is employed, the spirit that must animate
him comes from a higher source. The cause of the
country, then, does not depend on any man or any
set of men. It has now called to the front the
individual whom it had already elevated to the se-
cond post in the Government. He had been pointed
out for that place by a sense of his approved fide-
lity to the
Union at the moment when all around
him were faltering or falling away. (Cheers.) In
the national Senate he stood, Abdiel like, firm and
determined in encountering with truth and force the
fatal sophistry of Jefferson Davis and his denouncingassociates,
and and in
leading them to their
e ruin.
course of action which was
(Hear hear.) Four
years of intense and continued
trials within the
borders of his own State have been passed in the
effort to reconstruct the edifice of civil government
which they had overthrown. No one has braved
greater dangers to his person and to all that is held
most precious to a man in this world than he. Those
four years have not been passed without at once
proving the firmness of his faith and the progressive
nature of his ideas. He, too, has been susceptible
to the influence of the national opinion. lie, too,
has gradually been brought to the conviction that
slavery, which he once defended, has been our bane
and the cause of all our woe. (Loud cries of
" Ilear, hear.") And he, too, will follow his prede-
cessor in making the recognition of the principle of
human liberty the chief pathway to restoration. It
may be that he will colour his policy with a little
more of the sternness gathered from the severity of
his own trials. He may give a greater prominence
to the image of Justice than to that of Mercy in

dealing with notorious offenders. But if he do, to
whom is this change to be imputed ? Lincoln leaned
to mercy—and he was taken off. Johnson has not
promoted himself. The magician who worked this
change is the enemy himself. (Hear, hear.) It
would seem almost as if it were the will of Heaven
which has interposed the possibility of this mar-
vellous retribution. Yet, even if we make proper
allowance for this difference, the great fact re-
mains clear, that Andrew Johnson, like his pre-
decessor, will exert himself to the utmost of his
power fully to re-establish in peace and harmony
the beneficent system of government which he
has already hazarded so much to sustain. (Cheers.)
And should it happen that he, too, which Heaven
avert, should by some evil design be removed from
the post now assigned to him, the effect would only
be that the next man in the succession prescribed by
the public law, and inspired from the same common
source, will be summoned to take his place. And so
it would go on, if need be, in a line, like that in
Macbeth's vision, " stretching out to the crack of
doom." (Applause.) The Republic has but to com-
mand the services of any of her children, and,
whether to meet open danger in the field, or the
more crafty and desperate assassin, experience shows
them equally ready to obey her call. (Cheers.) So
long as the heroic spirit animates her frame, the re-
quisite agents will not fail to execute her will. Any
attempt to paralyze her by striking down more or
less of them will only end, as every preceding design
to injure her has ended, in disappointment and bit-
ter despair. Let us, then, casting aside all needless
apprehensions for the policy of our land, now con-
centrate our thoughts for the moment upon the
magnitude of the offence which has deprived us of
our beloved chief in the very moment of most in-
terest to our cause ; and let us draw together as one
man in the tribute of our admiration of one of the
purest, the most single-minded, and noble-hearted
patriots that ever ruled over the people of any land.
(Loud applause.)
Mr. MORSE moved the first resolution, which was
as follows :

" That we have heard with the greatest indignation and
the most profound sorrow of the assassination which has
deprived our country of its beloved chief magistrate, as well
as of the audacious assault which has greatly perilled the
lives of the Secretary and Assistant-Secretary of State ; and
that we regard the taking of the life of our chief executive
officer while our country is passing through unparalleled
trials, after all loyal Americans had learned to love him,
and with good men the world over to confide in him, and
when so much of national and individual welfare and hap-
piness depended on his existence, as the great crime of the
19th century, memorable in its atrocity, and entailing on its
perpetrator the execrations of mankind."

He said when the wires flashed the sad intelligence
of Mr. Lincoln's death from one end of the vast
country which he governed to the other, 20,000,000
people were at once bowed down to the deepest sor-
row, all business was suspended, and villages, towns,
and cities were draped in mourning. (Hear, hear.)
That sorrow was felt irrespective of party. It was
felt, in the first place, on account of Mr. Lincoln's
own personal qualities, on account of his kind and
genial heart, his unselfishness and his patriotism ;
and, in the next place, because during four trying
years of a war such as no other country had ever
waged, he had amid unparalleled difficulties carried
on the government of the nation with moderation,
ability, and success. (Cheers.) He need not re-
mind them how Mr. Lincoln had prosecuted that
war, nor of the great end at which he aimed—
namely, the restoration of the Union, and the pro-
pagation of liberty throughout the land. (Cheers.)
With regard to Mr. Lincoln's successor, he would
say that having been in Congress for some years
with Andrew Johnson he had never during all that
time heard one word whispered against his fair fame.
(Applause.) He had never once heard him re-
proached with intemperance. He had seen Andrew
Johnson daily and knew him well, and he knew that
to accuse him of habitual intemperance was one of
the foulest of slanders. (Applause.) Andrew John-
son came from the ranks of the people ; he had been
in public life for 30 years, commencing as an alder-
man of his city, then becoming mayor, next member
of the Lower House of Representatives, then a
Senator for the State of Tennessee, then presidential
elector, then member of Congress for ten years, then
Senator of the United States, until at last he was
made Vice President, and now the Providence of
God has raised him to be President of the United
States. (Cheers.) The American people had
no distrust of that noble man who had
made his way from the ranks of thepeople. (Cheers.)
As had been well remarked by the late Pre-
sident in the spring of 1861, when everything
seemed to be crumbling around him in Washington,
when Southern senator after senator and member
after member left his seat and went home to carry
on the rebellion, when Slidell, Mason, and Davis
were plotting in the cells of the Capitol, where the
light of day never entered, Andrew Johnson was at
his post in the Senate, upholding the flag of his
country like a true man as he was. (Prolonged
cheering.)

Mr. ILUIPSON seconded the resolution, which was
carried unanimously.
Mr. H. BERGII moved the second resolution,
which was as follows :

" That we tender to Mrs. Lincoln our heartfelt sympathy
and expression of condolence in the great affliction that she
and her family and the nation have sustained."

Mr. AIORGAN seconded it, and it was carried
unanimously.
Dr. BLACK moved the third resolution, viz. :

" That in the long public career of Andrew Johnson,
now President of the United States, the early and pre-
eminent sacrifices ho made from his devotion to the cause
of the Union, and his pledges to maintain the great prin-
ciples of human liberty, we have every assurance that he
will faithfully prosecute to its final success the wise, hu-
mane, and statesmanlike domestic and foreign policy of
President Lincoln."

He said that penple who had never lived in the South
could have no idea of the courage which it required for a
man to resist every influence which surrounded him.
(Hear, hear.) It was a grand moral spectacle to see An-
drew Johnson as he stood there. If any man chose to
doubt the integrity, the ability, fthe patriotism, the kind-
liness of disposition, the broad power of looking at great
subjects possessed by Andrew Johnson, let him read the
speech which ho delivered in the Senate of the United
States on the 19th of December, 1860, and any man who
should do so, if he had the slightest common sense, could
not but feel that it was the effusion of a great mind and a
great soul: (Cheers.) The American people were safe in
the hands of that man. (Renewed cheers.) The enemies of
republicanism and of the government of the people were
ready to catch at everything. (Hear.) Mr. Lincoln was too
tall ; he was not polished enough ; he was too good-
humoured; he said too many capital things. He was at fault
in everything. But not so now. (Cheers.) The world now
acknowledged that he had done wonderful things. He had
had before him one of the most difficult tasks that ever fell
to the lot of statesmen, and he had successfully performed
it. (Loud cheers.) And so it would be with Andrew John-
son, who had now upon his hands as difficult a task, for he
had to bring the war to a close, to reconstruct the Union,
to put its finances on a sound basis, and to conciliate hurt
feelings everywhere. (Hear, hear.) Grant and his generals
would close the war, but then came the greatest of all the
difficulties -namely, the reorganisation of the Union, be-
cause that included the question what should be done with
the slaves—where were they to be placed, how many privi-
leges were to be given to them, how far were they to be
brought in all respeets near the position of the white man.
That was a difficult question, but not so difficult as the
enemies of the United States gloated over when they talked
of it. In Jamaica a great difficulty had been felt, but the
negroes in that island had little in common with the negroes
of the States. In Jamaica there used to be fresh importa-
tions of native Africans every year, who kept up the bad
habits of the race ; their masters were always in England,
and they never had association with anybody superior to
their drivers, so that at last slavery and labour became
synonymous in that island, as did liberty and laziness.
But in the States the case was very different. Lies upon
lies had been heaped up with regard to the cruel treat-
ment of slaves in the South. (Hear, hear.) He was a
Southern, but a Union man to the backbone, and he
had always been so. Southern men had done badly
enough, but they had been punished to the last degree
for their cruelty and wickedness. But, to return to his
point. Since 1808 there had been no admixture of fresh
Africans with the slaves in the States. And here he would
remark that it was the United States that first abolished the
slave trade, and Great Britain followed. But the black men
of the States were from association with the families of
their masters entirely different from what those of Jamaica
had beep. They were willing to labour, and so there would
be no difficulty on that point. Many persons, with the
kindliest dispositions, were fearful that America would not
pay her debts. But in 1815 England had a debt nearly twice
as great, while her commerce at that time could not be com-
pared with that of the United States at present, and her
population was not half so great. And did not the people
of the United States, shrewd as they were, know well that
it was their interest to pay their debts ? (Hear, hear.)
Mr. H. PARKER, in seconding the resolution, said that

Andrew Johnson had been a poor labouring man, who had
not learnt to read until ho was 17 years of age, and he had
worked his way to the highest honour which the Republic
could bestow. He had done that without influence and in
spite of the slaveholding aristocracy of the South, the shadow
of which was ten times colder than any of which the Times
had ever complained. (Hear, hear.) And the Southern aris-
tocracy had not the justification even of rank—the guinea's
stamp of Burns. (Hear, hear.) There was little but gallant
fighting by which the South had shown their claim to aris-
tocracy. (Hear, hear.) It should always be borne in mind
that Andrew Johnson had made his way in spite of want of
influence. (Hear, hear.) It had been said in one of the daily
papers to-day that his motto was Vie VietiS. That was not
so. All that Andrew Johnson had said was that treason
must be punished. (Cheers.) He (Mr. Parker) thought that
every individual case might be left to the new President to
deal with as it might arise, surrounded as he was by the
Cabinet which was familiar with the views and principles
of Mr. Lincoln. (Hear, hear.) By the last news that had
arrived it appeared that it had pleased God to spare the life
of their Foreign Secretary, and though Mr. Seward had
never been a favourite of his, yet he was bound to say that
Mr. Seward had always honestly maintained that peace
should be kept with all abroad whenever it could bo done
without sacrifice of honour. (Cheers.)
Mr. RUSSELL STURGIS proposed the fourth resolution—
viz..—

" That, as loyal Americans, we have witnessed with pe-
culiar pleasure the expressions of indignation and sorrow
throughout Great Britain at the assassination of President
Lincoln, and the cordial and hearty sympathy which has
been extended by the people of this realm to the Govern-
ment and people of the United States in this great bereave-
ment and public calamity."
He said, while a very large and influential party in this
country had been the firm and unswerving supporters of
the Government of the United States in the late struggle,
it was alleged that a still greater party had unkindly with-
held their sympathy, and had given it to their opponents.
(Hear.) How far that might be true, or how far the natural
and inevitable excitement existing in America might have
obscured and blinded reason, he was not there to decide.
His was the far pleasanter office to speak to a point upon
which there was no difference of opinion, but perfect una-
nimity. From rich, from poor, from high, from low, from
the castle, from the cottage, from the palace, and from the
hut, from public meetings and from private individuals,
there came one universal lament, and one universal expres-
sion of sympathy for the sorrow which bowed down the
American heart both at home and abroad. (Loud cheers.)
The drapery which he saw around him reminded him that
some of the best men in England had on Saturday last
poured out their indignation and their feelings of horror
in that hall at the crime which had been committed, and
to-day, before he had left the City, the last thing he had
seen was an address emanating from the Bank of England,
and signed by the leading firms in London, preparatory to
being delivered to Mr. Adams. (Renewed cheers.) It be-
came American citizens, therefore, to; express their appre-
ciation of that sympathy. (Hear, hear.) There was
one man, his senior, in tho City, whose noble heart and
liberal hand had spread blessings over both nations (pro-
longed cheering), who, had his health allowed him to come
there that. day, would have occupied his (Mr. Sturgis's)
place more ably—ho need not say ho meant Geo. Peabody.
(Renewed cheering.) The resolution which ho had been
asked to move had been committed to him because he re-
presented, as he was proud to do, an American citizen and
a British merchant. For 12 years it had boon his fortune in
the far East to be continually with Englishmen, and for 16
years in the City of London, and he had learnt that not only
was there a common lineage and a common language be-
tween the two nations, but also a common heart (loud
cheers); and whatever differences of sentiment there might
be upon other matters, whenever a crime like that which
they had met to condemn and deplore was committed, the
heart of both would be found in the right place, and not ono
single throb on the American side but would have its cor-
responding pulsation on the English. (Much applause.) He
would:go a step further and say, when the time came in
which discussions should take place—and they knew if on
the part of America such discussions were to be conducted
by their chairman how they would be managed by him—
(cheers)—he would undertake to say that everything which
honour and honesty demanded would be acceded to by
Groat Britain. (Renewed cheering.) Let both nations,
therefore, cultivate feelings of peace and goodwill towards
one another. He would appeal to his fair countrywomen,
whose hearts fitted them peculiarly for this service, whose
influence no manhad ever been able to moist, and he trusted
no man ever would, to exert themselves to promote those
feelings of goodwill between the two kindred nations.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. C. M. FISIIER seconded the resolution, which, while
it met his own views, would, he was sure, receive a hearty
response from all true men in America. (Cheers.) Let
every American present that day cordially acknowledge
the sincere manifestation and sympathy which had been
made by the whole people of England towards their country.
This was no time for littleness of feeling. While they were
met to mourn their generous and barge-hearted President,
they should try to lift themselves up to his high standard.
(Cheers.) Was not that the best and most appropriate way
of honouring him for whom they had met to express their
grief ? (Cheers.)
The resolution was carried unanimously.

Mr. ADAMS moved the fifth resolution from the chair
without observation.

It was carried unanimously.

Mr. CYRUS FIELD, in moving a vote of thanks to the
chair, said, just before leaving America ho called to see Pre-
sident Lincoln, and ho knew how deeply he desired peace
in America and peace in all the world. (Hear, hear.) He
trusted, therefore, that everything calculated to stir up ill-
feeling between North and South—even the last sad deeds
—or between England and America, would be allowed to
die with the good man who had boon taken away, and
would be buried in his grave for ever. (Applause.) If Mr.
Lincoln could speak to-day ho would urge on every ono of
them to do all they could to allay the passions which had
been excited in America, and ho hoped that they would all
comply with what he believed would be his wish. (Hear,
hear.) Ho now begged to move a vote of thanks to Mr.
Adams for having presided at the meeting, and for the able
address which he had delivered. (Loud cheers.)
Tho vote was passed with acclamation.

Mr. ADAMS returned thanks, and the meeting separated.

READING.

A public meeting was held yesterday in the Town-hall,
Reading, presided over by Mr. C. J. Butler, the Mayor, for
the purpose of expressing the sorrow and indignation of the
inhabitants of the town at the atrocious assassination of
President Lincoln, and their sympathy with the people of
America. Among the persons present wore the Rev. A. P.
Cust, the Rev. J. F. Stevenson, the Rev. F. J. Ponsonby,
the Rev. W. Jenkinson, Mr. Lewis Cooper, ex-Mayor,
Alderman Palmer, Alderman Darter, Alderman Blandy,
Alderman Walford, Mr. J. 0. Taylor, Dr. Wells, Mr. 11.
Cowslade, &c.

The Rev. A. P. OUST, vicar of St. Mary's and rural dean,
moved the following resolution :
" That this meeting, having heard with great sorrow and
indignation of the assassination of Mr. President Lincoln,
by which the United States have been so suddenly de-
prived of his services, desires to express its utter abhor-
rence and detestation of the crime, and its sincere sympathy
with the people of the United States on so trying an occa-
sion, and trusts that the sad event may bo so overruled as
not to be prejudicial to the continued prosperity of the best
interests of the nation."

Alderman PALMER (of the firm of Huntley and Palmer)
seconded the resolution, and it was unanimously adopted.
The Rev. J. F. STEVENSON, B.A. (Dissenter), proposed
" That a copy of tho resolution, signed by tho Mayor on
behalf of the meeting, be forwarded to the representative of
the United States in this country."
Dr. WELLS seconded the proposition, and it was agreed to.
A vote of thanks to the Mayor, on the motion of Alder-
man Darter, closed the proceedings. .