Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-06-08
Charles sumner on Mr.. Lincoln.

Music Hall, Boston, on the lst inst. We
extract the following:
The country was in ecstacy. All this he
watched without elation, while his soul was
on thoughts Of peace and clemen-
~. His youthful son, who had been on
The staff of the Leutenant-G General, return
ed on the morning of Friday, 18th April,
10 resume his interrupted studies The
father was happy in the sound Of bis foot
steps, and felt the sugury of peace. On
the same day the Lieutenant General re-
turned. In the intimacy Of his family the
President said that this day the war was
over. In the evening he sought relaxation,
and YOU know the rest. Alas the war was
not over. The agents of Slavery we're dog
ging him, and that night he became mar
tyr.
The country rose at once in an agony OF
grief, and strong men everywhere wept..-
City, town and village were darkened by |
the obseauies, as they swept by with more
than spectral pail" Every street was
draped with the ensisns of woe He had
become, as it were. the inmate OF every
house. and the families of the land were in
mourning. Not only in the Executive man
sion but in innumerable homes was his
vacant chair. Never before was such uni
NeTS1l SOTTOWt anu dlTSdty NuC 'OlOV VI -
mentation is returning to us from Europe,
where candor toward him had begun even
before death. Only short time ago, he
was unknown, except in his own State
Only short time ago. he had visited New
York as q stranger, and was shown about
its streets by youthful companions. Five
years later he was borne through these
streets with funeral pomp, such as the
world never before witnessed.
At the first moment it was hard to com
prehend this blow, and many cried in des-
pair. But the rule of God has been too
visible of late to allow any doubt OF his
constant presence. Did not our martyr re-
mind US in his last address, that the judg-
ments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether? And who will say that his
death was not judgment of the LordY-
| Perhaps it was needed to lift the country to
a more perfect justice and to inspire it with
a sublimer faith. Perhaps it was sent In
mercy to set sacred irreversible seal upon
the good he had done, and to put Emanci-
patton beyond all mortal question. Per.
haps it was the essacrificial conservation oi
those primal truths, embodied in the Decla'
ration of Independence, which he had so
often indicated, and for which had an
nounced his Willingness to die. He is gone,
| ana uc DuS btbu uiuuiuCu oiuOOiS'y'. - ~
only private sorrow that could wish to re-
cali the dead. He is now removed beyond
human vicissitudes Life and death are
both past. He had been happy in life: He
was not less happy in death. In death, as
in life, be was still under the guardianship
of that Divine Providence, which took bin
early by the hand and led him from obscu
rity to power and fame Only on the Sun
day preceding his assassination, as he wa
reposing on couch, he read aloud, twice
the well known words of Macbeth:
Duncan is in his grave,
After lfr's fitfu fever, he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further
As the friends who then surrounded hin
listened to his reading, they little though
how in a few days. what was said of tn,
murdered Duncan would be said Of him. =
Nothing can touch him. further He i
saved from the trials that were gathering
about him. He had fought the good fgh
Of Emancipation He had borne the brun
of war with embattled hosts against him
and had conquered He had made tn
name of Republic triumph and joy i
foreign lands Now that the strife OF bloc
Q was ended, it remained to be seen how, n
!, could confront those Vaccinations, whic
4 are only prolonggtion Of The ,oar, and NOR
: dangerous because more subtle, where re
i. cant Rebels. with professions of Union o
J. the lips, but still defying the principles 2
g the Declaration of Independence, vanl
scek 10 organize peace on another OEgarch
d of The skin. From all these trials he wa
saved. But his testimony lives and wi
{ live forever, quickencd by tho undyin
!. echoes of his tomb Dead, he will spea
r with more than living voice. But the al
! thor of Emancipation cannot die. Ills In
J, mortality on earth has begun. His countr
: and his age are already onshrined In hi
/, example, as il he were its great poet gath
cred to his fathers:
Back 10 the living hath he turned him,
D And all OF death has pnsl away ,,i,,
, Tie age that thought him dead aad mourned INN,
4, Itself now lives but in his lay"
!,
a Such, fellow-ctizens, Is the life and char
4 acter of Abraham Lincoln. You have dl
II cerned his simple beginnings; have watohe
h his early struggles have gratefully follow
n ed his conservation to those truths whlc
" our fathers declared have hailed him q
ia the twice elected head Of the Republic
through whom it was known in forelg
II lands; have recognized him at period I
~ national trial as the representative OF th
y unfi,lflled promises of our Fathers, even I
, Washington was the representative OF nj
a. tonal Independence and you have behel
SS him struck down, at the moment OF victer
n a when Rebel Slavery was everywhere su
y, cumbing. Reverenty we acknowled dge tt
=. finger of the Almighty, and pray that q
' : our trials may not fail but that the pror
=, ~ ises Of the Fathers may be fulfilled, SO th
I - all men shall be equal before the law, an
% % government shall stand only on the conse
,o ,o of the governed two selfevident trutl
q which the Declaration Of Independence b
h. announced.
10 10 Traitorous assassination struck him dow
IL But do not be too vindctive in heart
ar wards the poor atom that held the weapo
T.. Reserve your rage for the responsible 20,
= or, which, not content with the assailing Il
nd life of the Republic by atrocious Rebellio
'N has outraged all laws human and divin
h. has organized Barbarism as principle
nf conduct; has taken the lives of Unions
4. at home has prepared robbery and mi
n der ON the Northern borders has FIR
a 4 hotels filed with women and children; h
N' plotted to scatter infection and yellow few
has starved American citizens held as pr
10 oners; has menaced assassination Away
Wv and now at last. true to itself, has assas
- | \ on. D.ao;Ianf, ond thia raspnnail