American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-08-02

thy hand man whom | appointed to ut
ter destruction, therefore, thy life shall go
for his, and thy people for his people,"
Three years after this Ahab died, being
shot by Syrian, and eleven years later
Israel was almost destroyed by the Syr-
ians, and little later, ceased to be peo-
pie.
Abraham Lincoln's heart inclined to
mercy. Forgetting that death is the God
written doom of traitors that unlawful
war is Wholesale murder; that "He that
taketh the sword shall perish by the
sword )" forgetting the massacre at Fort
Pillow the systematic starvation of 64,-
900 Union prisoners; forgetting that the
hold of the rebellion was the grasp of
death upon our free institutions; that
treasoh should be crushed in its head, he
relaxed his hand and the scepter passed
into the hands of another And such an
other! Andrew johnson was a ''poor
white, victim of the social life by which
he was surrounded, denied the privilege
of the common school, he learned the Al
phabet from his wife, yet his native ge-
MUS, his mental power, was such, that,
despite the disadvantages Of early life, he
raised himself to the first place in the gift
of his native State.
Andrew johnson was the only true 10y
al man from the South in the Senate of
the United States during the dark days
of '6l. Twitted by traitors in the Sen
ate Chamber, he said of fthem: "If [ were
President of the United States | would
arrest them, | wodld try them, and if
they were convicted, by the Eternal God, ]
would hang them"
Strange as it may seem, by no act Of
his own, when the hour of retributon
came, Andrew johnson was in the Presi-
dental chair, with the oath of God upon
him. Will he redeem his pledge?
God deals with principles. Men may
perish, principles are eternal. One whole
generation of Israeites perished, but the
nation lived Moses died, but the people
passed over Jordan. Saul was rejected,
but the nation rose to the highest degree
of splendor The house of Eli pershed,
but the priesthood lived. Jesus died,
but christianity takes the world
Abraham Lincoln died, but the nation
lives, and her strongest hour was the hour
when the death wall of the dying Presi-
dent flashed along the wires. Thoughts
too deep for utteranoe stirred the soul,
hearts made soft by sorrow were moulded
into purer patriotism; a single voice
echoed the purpose of more than twenty
millions of freemen, ''h God Is our trust. "
Laggards before, we waited to be conscrip-
ted now the tocsin Of war would rally
to the defense of our liberties, an army
that would pale all Europe with its show
of power.
This is an age of lessons We have fall
len upon those days when ''mauy shall run
to aud fro, and knowledge shall be in
creased" q"
Not an hour was there, even in the pal
miest days of the elder Napoleon, not even
when nations trembled at his nod, but
that the Empire over which he ruled
would have erumbled to pieces with his
death. All powei centered in himself; it
was the same with Cromwell, with them
selves it died. The sovereign power of
this nation is with the people, under God
they reign let her be true to God and
this nation endures to the end of time.
Abraham Lincoln was great man he
impressed himself more deeply upon the
heart of the people than any man since
The days of the revolution, and upon none
more SO than the hearts of the colored
people. Four millions of men made free
would scarcely have known the difference
between Lincoln, Liberty and God had
he lived he would have been to them the
personifcation of all that is good and
praiseworthy on earth. To the instru-
ment they might have given the praise
belonging to the Creator, tut the death
of the President has taught them to put
no confidence in the arm of flesh.
The worlds redemption was affected by
the deofh of the worlds Saviour, the sin
fulness of sin is best seen in the stroke
aimed at the head of purity itself. A
great redemption needed a great victim
Upon the American shore slavery had its
worst, its most commanding form. The
world was taught that cottonis king, and
cotton only grows in the sweat of slaves
Broken here, slavery is broken every
where, and forever and the death of
Lincoln will be the mirror ia which gen
erations yet unborn will see the deep ma
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