The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-14 00:00:00

The Assassination of President Lincoln,

The following, which we . extract from the
Bermuda Royal Gazette of the 16th ult. (just come
to hand), will be read with interest, as indicative of
the kindly sympathy of the Bermudans for the
American people upon the bereavement of the latter
of their late humane ruler, President Lincoln, struck
down by the dastardly hand of an assassin :

The public meeting convened to expreSs and put upon
record the indignation and horror felt in this community
at the murder of the late President the United States
was held on Thursday last at tho town hall at Hamilton,
his Worship and Honour H. J. Tucker, mayor and member
of her Majesty's Council, presiding. The meeting, which
was most respectably attendcd,.would have been held many
days sooner, but for the business of the Assize Court (a
part of which, even then, had at the last to be adjourned
by the Chief Justice expressly for the purpose), together
with a succession of other accidental causes, small to men-
tion, but practically unavoidable.
The proceedings were opened at about a quarter to 12 by
the CHAIRMAN, who said that they all knew the purpose for
which that meeting had been convened, and he would not
detain them to urge views and feelings which were
equally theirs and his and all men's. In ono sense, the
public of these islands had already solemnly declared and
evidenced in what light they regarded the foul and horrible
act lately perpetrated at Washington. On the day of the
President's funeral business had been to a great extent
suspended in these islands, the flags had fallen to halfmast,
the bells of the churches had tolled, the whole community
had bowed its head in sorrow. But it would be well to
leave a permanent record of the sentiments thus evinced,
and add their voice to that of the whole civilised world.
With the politics or the merits of the murdered Chief
Magistrate it was no business of his to deal. He should
feel it a kind of impertinence to open that question. They
were met to protest against the monstrous precedent that
a private individual had dared to make an attempt at es-
tablishing. He would confine himself to that. The gentle-
men present would have now the opportunity of freely
speaking what they thought and felt. He begged to call
upon her Majesty's Chief Justice for Bermuda.

The Chief Justice read the first resolution as follows:

" Resolved,—That in the opinion of this meeting, the re-
cent barbarous assassination of the late President of
the United States of America, was an atrocious outrage
upon all the principles of humanity and good government,
and deserves to be met with the just indignation and
fixed abhorrence of every peaceable and well ordered
community."

He said it would be absurd to labour the establishment of
a proposition, which he well knew was already affirmed in
the mind and the heart of every person present. The
dreadful crime just committed was a blow struck at the
very root of social order and against the first principles
that gave security to human institutions everywhere, and
rendered, ho would not say, progress, but even civilisation
itself, possible. Let such deeds go unmarked by the de-
testation of mankind, let them be tacitly encouraged or not
loudly discouraged, and the world must be thrust back into
a state of barbarism. The event concerned all nations. To
be silent about it would be to take a deliberate step down
towards the conditiori of savages. Happily he believed
that we were not forced to live in terror, lest the like hor-
rible crime should ;be committed against our own Sove-
reign, yet whoever felt with him this consoling confidence
must only be the more appalled and the more indignant
in contemplating the enormous wickedness, by which a
friendly, a kindred, a great and powerful people, had been
suddenly deprived of their head. Every circumstance of
the act aggravated the horror, of it. In the midst of the
capital, in the midst of his people and his friends, in the
centre and the heart of his family, on an occasion of rejoic-,
ing, unsuspicious of any mischief, the first and highest per-
son of the powerful republic at our doors had been barba-
rously slain. He need not expatiate on such an event, and
least of all before such an audience as he saw around him.
He had adjourned the further hearing of causes in the
Court of Assize, in order to attend this meeting, and having
but a limited time to spare, he would not set an example of
that prolixity, which he had already stated to be, in his
opinion, out of place. He would move that the resolution
which he had read be adopted by the meeting.
The ATTORNEY-GENEBAL, in rising to second the re-
solution moved by the Chief Justice, observed that it
would not be surprising, and was even desirable, that a
character of sameness, and almost of iteration should
mark the expressions of opinion elicited on such an oc-
casion. The circumstance which forcibly arrested at-
tention in considering the abominable crime by which
the late American President had been taken from his place
among men, was, in a human point of view, and it was
only in its human aspects we wero now denouncing it, the
relation which that crime bore not merely towards its im-
mediate victim, but towards 20 millions of a people in the
very van and front of our race. Besides being a cruel and
most atrocious murder, it was an affront, an insult, an out-
rage upon a whole nation, stricken.down in the person of
their elected chief. It was their voice, their choice, twice
pronounced, which had for a second time solemnly raised
up to the most august dignity in their gift the man whom
one individual had thus pulled down by the most nefarious
and daring of assassinations. The deed was a parricide.
The criminal, as far as in him lay, had attempted the very
life of his country in thus killing its head. There was not
a freeman in that free land that was not stricken by this
hateful and terrible act. Wherever the news of this
catastrophe penetrated, and as soon as it penetrated, the
same instantaneous thrill of horror shot through all
classes of civilised society. Probably at the very
moment be was now speaking similar words were be-
ing uttered to assemblies trembling with the very same
sentiments all through England. The duty which they
discharged in that meeting to-day was ono of those acts
which almost seemed superfluous, but the omission of
which could not be endured. After a few more excellent
and eloquent observations the learned Attorney-General
concluded by seconding most cordially and earnestly the
Chief Justice's resolution.

His Honour G. SOMERS TUCKER, Speaker of the General
Assembly, then proposed the second resolution, which was
expressed in the following terms :
Resolved—" That this meeting desires to express its
sympathy with a neighbouring nation deprived by this
outrage of the Chief Magistrate of its choice, and also to
convey to the bereaved family and personal friends of flap
late President Lincoln a heartfelt expression of condolence
with them in their deep affliction."

He felt sure there would bo no difficulty in persuading
the gentlemen around him to indorse those sentiments.
He confessed that he never in his life had felt more indig-
nant or more dismayed by any event than by this dreadful
crime. In his opinion it was the very worst political mur-
der in all history. And why did he say this? Because there
was a vast difference between killing a king who had come
to his post through hereditary descent, however wrong
and abominable murder always is and mr st be, and kill-
ing the representative of twenty millions of voters. Here
was a man chosen, picked out deliberately by a whole na-
tion to preside over its affairs, and taken away from them
by this sudden and atrocious act of .an individual. He must
repeat that he know of nothing, in his mind, so bad in all
history. It was not an ordinary murder nor even an ordi-
nary political murder. We were all hero supporters of re-
presentative institutions. And this act would tend to sub-
vert them. It had been said, and justly, that they had
nothing to do at such a meeting with the differences of
Americans among themselves, or with the conflicting esti-
mates arrived at on the subject of the various distinguished
public men of that country. But this much he might say,
that, besides the enormous aggravation of the offence in the
present case, arising from the fact that the murdered man
was not a mere king, or holding his place by a sort of acci-
dent, there was in the character of Mr. Lincoln himself much
that made the act more enormous still. Who was he, and

what kind of man was he? He was the elected—twice elected
indeed—of a whole people ; and ho was carrying on their

affairs with great ability, at all events to the best of his
ability, and to their perfect satisfaction—a straightforward
man, a moral man, a good husband, good in the various

relations of life ; and this was the man who had been
slaughtered in so shocking a manner. President Lincoln
had been under-rated ; he was rising in public estimation
when ho was assassinated ; and he wouli rise further still,
and be still more highly estimated hereafter. Mr. Tucker
had great satisfaction therefore in moving the second reso-
lution, which, he was sure, would be warmly received by
the meeting.

The Hon. MILES GERALD KEON (H. M. Colonial Secre-
tary) rose to second this resolution.
After observing how much he felt the honour of having
the support of such a resolution, and at such a meeting
entrusted to his feeble advocacy, he said—
I wish, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—l wish to Heaven,
that the crime the consideration of which has brought us
together this day had no more than its political and moral
bearings, dreadful as these are. Unhappily, it has its
domestic aspect also. There is, at this moment, a home
laid newly waste ; there are orphans now where the scions
of a prosperous house lately rejoiced ; there is a poor dis-
tracted widow lady, in the decline of life, fleeing from man-
kind, fleeing from hope, turning away her face from com-
fort, and calling, even while I now speak to you, gentlemen
—calling, calling upon the grave, as the only object of her
desires. I wish to lay before the meeting a distinction which
may seem at first sight thin, but which most completely
and thoroughly severs the two propositions which it is
intended to demarcate and divide. The distinction is
this : the more wicked the act, and the more foolish and
doltish the wickedness of the act, by which that lady has
been bereaved, the greater must be her grief ; but not the
greater her grief the more we deem the act wicked, the
more wo deem it foolish and insensate. Our opinion of its
guiltiness, and its motiveless guiltiness, cannot be greater
or stronger than hers. But to find that mankind every-
where take the same view of it that she does, to find her
self at unison with the great human family, to find that
they feel oven as she feels, and that they press forward from
every side to lift a portion of that burden under which she
is lying crushed, must manifestly be an alleviation of her
woe—some little solace—some assuagement, all that we can
tender, all that we have to give. Let us then speak out on this
occasion. Now, Mr. Chairman, there is one characteristic
in this atrocious crime, which transcends even the atrocity
itself ; I mean the unspeakable folly of it. The unfortunate
and misguided man who perpetrated it professed to be
actuated by two motives; but he betrayed a third. You

have probably read the letter addressed by the wretch to
some kinsman, shortly before the commission of this
frightful murder. The two motives professed by him were
love of liberty, and sympathy for the South—to whom, how-
ever, he never belonged. And, first, what does liberty gain
by his act ? All history proves, gentlemen, that of those
who have killed the men they denounced as tyrants, not
one ever yet killed tyranny. They have (I was going to say
generally, but I will say) invariably without fear of being
belied by so much as a single instance to the contrary, only
aggravated the despotism, which it was their professed
desire to extinguish. Curiously enough, the very first re-
corded case, in civilised history, where a nation's liberties
were overthrown, was the case in which the Chief
Magistrate pretended that his life was in danger from as-
sassins, and begged his countrymen therefore to give him
guards for his protection. The mere unsupported hint that
such a danger to their ruler could exist made his country-
men surround his person with soldiers, who were at his
orders„ and with everything which could render not only
his existence safe, but his power formidable ; and forthwith
these appliances, created by the mere thought that he was
liable to be murdered, were used for the subversion of the
people's freedom. Thus, gentlemen, fell under the feet of
brute force the glorious privileges of Athens—for this is
the story of Pisistratus. And if the mere shadow of inse-
curity, if the false pretext that a possibility of danger im-
pended over an illustrious people's Chief, led to this result,
what must the proven and horrible reality tend to accom-
plish—what, I ask you, must be the effect, the natural, the
logical and necessary effect of a doltish, demented crime,
like that which I've are deploring ? If you want to make
power truculent, suspicious, oppressive, savage, and san-
guinary—alarm it, frighten it !
Cruelty is but cowardice preventing what it fears?
Why, a more fatal or ruinous disservice to liberty than
this pretended service by a miserable assassin its worst
enemies could not have devised or plotted.
And is his act, I should like to know, one whit more
advantageous to the South than to the cause of freedom ?
Suppose, for argument's sake, that the late Abraham
Lincoln and his successor, Mr. Andrew Johnson, had been
rival candidates for the Presidency ; for which of them
would the wretched assassin have voted ? Why, accord-
ing to his own maxims he not only would have voted in
preference for Mr. Lincoln, but he would have actually
slain Andrew Johnson, in order that Mr. Lincoln,
rather than he, should fill the place and wield the power?
Yet what has he done, the infatuated man ? For whose
sake has he removed the unfortunate President ? For
what sort of ruler, and for what sort of rule, has he, in
truth and in real effect, given his bloody suffrage ? Be-
nefited the South indeed ! What have the South said to
his work, gentlemen ? What did General Robert Lee say ?
He said that he had "surrendered as much to the benignity
of President Lincoln as to the cannon of General Grant."

Those words, Mr. Chairman, ought to be engraven upon
the tomb of the poor murdered President. Not all the in-
genrity of that most ingenious and gifted people among
whom his shattered remains have just been interred could
devise a nobler epitaph for their slaughtered President. I
confess I do grieve, on every account, for this man, a
moral man, a kind husband, a kind father, a genial man,
a sincere man, respectable in all the relations of life—
persevering in trials, modest in prosperity,—more and
more moderate the more and more he was successful,
and at the last showing himself to be as merciful and"
magnanimous in the brief hour of victory as he had
had been stern and unyielding in the long and weary
days of conflict. We must not forget that his last thoughts
were of peace and reconciliation ; these were the latest, the
topmost buds of that blasted tree ; this was the crowning
and culminating efflorescence of that labouring mind and
storm-beaten career.

Talk of monuments ! The grandest monument which
his countrymen can raise to the memory of Abraham Lin-
coln will be the perpetuation, not the reversal, of his policy.
And will they now take his life, I mean his life's life, the
life of his intentions and designs, as they burned at the end
with so pure a lustre—and by way of a monument, by way
of honouring his memory—invert the torch over his grave?
I hopo not.

This wretched assassin, it seems, was seeking for
fame :—then let him find infamy. He hoped to hear
rising over his act the mans of a morbid admiration :
let him listen to the shouts of your abhorrence, mingling
themselves with the execrations of the whole civilised
world. He expected to be crowned with the wreaths
and garlands of a false and spurious 'romance—let him,
then, for the terror of the like of him, be smitten with the
indelible brand of universal reprobation. This avowal of
your principles and feelings is the solace which you can
send into the distant house of mourning and home of de-
solation. It is a comfort, Mr. Chairman, to share in any
demonstration which can have such an effect.

After this speech, which was most warmly received,
The Hon. N. T. BITTTERFIELD, Assistant-Judge and
member of Council, rosy to move tho third resolution as
follows :

Resolved—" That the chairman be requested to take the
proper measures for transmitting to the United States of
America the two resolutions which have been adopted by
this meeting."

The few earnest and cordial words in which Mr. But-
terfield invited the meeting to adopt this resolution were
followed by a short, but feeling and impressive speech from
the Hon. A. Ewing, the late Speaker of the General As-
sembly, who seconded the motion.
The fourth resolution:—

" Resolved—That the thanks of the meeting be tendered
to his honour the Mayor of Hamilton, for his kindness in
convening the present meeting, and presiding thereat,"
was moved by the Worshipful Wm. H. GOSLING, M.C.P.,
who said he knew no occurrence in all history which paral-
leled the murder of Mr. Lincoln. It was approached in
some of its incidents, but truly in some only, by the assas-
sination of the Regent Murray, at Linlithgow, in Scotland,
in the 16th century.
Dr. BUTTERFIELD having seconded the resolution, the
business of the meeting was now over, and it separated.