The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-04-27
The Nation Still Mourns.

the endless path of eternity. For the man,
Abraham Lincoln dead, she will mourn; but
her mourning will not be as though without
hope for the good which was expected from
his sojourn upon earth for though Abraham
Lincoln is dead his principles, which made
him peculiarly shining mark, still live,
and will continue to live and bless the human
race, until the last man shall have stepped
from the shores of time to those of endless
duration. 1t is meet, therefore, that, in
contemplating the infliction so suddenly let
fall upon US, JOY should freely mingle with
our sadness; for while the man is gone from
us, and gone forever, his good deeds remain
to cheer us and to bless us.
We mourn; truly, sadly, sincerely mourn.
But who, amid all the grief by which we are
surrounded, can fail to joy over the political
righteousness which already surrounds his
grave. Abraham Lincoln has but become
cold in his coffin, yet, in consequence of this,
discordant elements have become concordant,
and world unites in peans to the noble am
bition, the exalted virtue, and the uncompro-
missing patriotism which marked. the man.
Partizans who, blinded by their zeal, could
see no good in Nazareth living, mourn Naz-
areth dead with an intensity and fervor
that augers most potently for our bleeding
country. Parties which, few days ago,
were arrayed against each other in the gall
of bitterness, in the crushing force Of their
grief appear prepared to bury their anlmos-
tiles in the grave with our dead Presi-
: dent. Demagogues may except to this
Men who live, move and have their being
only in the throes of neighborhood's and
nations troubles may call Justify for the pre-
servation of party organization, and for the
continuance ofparty pickering but the think
ing masses, the men who by their votes give
tate long before they shut their eyes to the
unerring pointing of the Divine finger for
the country's future. A more perfect union
of the people for the sake of the Union was
necessary, ere we could enter wisely upon
a proper reconstruction of our Union. Mems
minds were shrouded in the blackness Of
their partizan passions: itneeded terrible,
stunning national calamity to bring US to a
common center of thought, that we might
enter harmoniously on the work before U.S.
For this, as whom He loveth He chasten-
eth, God permitted the deed we mourn, that
good might come from our sorrows. The
people accept the mournfnl token and, to-day.
engage as one man in the reconstruction of
this asylum for the oppressed Oh basis at
once firm, invulnerable and everlasting as
the hills. Pitiful indeed must be the condi-
zion of that man who would attempt to mar
the harmony thus engendered around the
bier of the illustrious dead ; and lamentabIy
demented must he be who can hasten through
a lip-sergice ofsorrow, over the greatest ca
lamity that e7er befel nation, to sound an
alarm lest party suffer from the affiicton.
The oppressed still mourn. Abraham Lin
coin was their friend. and they had already
began to sensibly feel the good effect of his
friendly Offices, when the hand of the assas-
sin shut him from their sight forever. Their
loss is indeed severe. Early and late, in
season and out of season, whether enjoying
a moments repose or immersed in the cares
and herculean labors of his exalted position,
he still had thought for them, a word hav-
ing for its object the lettering of their condi-
ton, and deed 10 secure the consummatIon
ofboth thought and word. Abraham Lincoln
loved liberty, and it was the most earnest
desire of his soul that every man should be
|, free. The oppressed, therefore have reason
to mourn; but in his principles, which would
not suffer single slave on this liberty conse-
Grated land, and which still live, there is
an agent which Will never cease from labor
until, from Maine to the Rio Grand, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, smiling cottages with
teeming fields and forests, and thriving ci-
ties and villages will present landscape un-
marred by single human being in bondage.
They mourn the corruption of the body, but
LET them rejoice that the spirit of Abraham
Lincoln lives, and still labors to hasten the
day of their deliverence.
J Even the Rebels mourn. Living, they es-
sayed to hate and despise Abraham Lincoln :
dead, they mourn him as their best friend
I With him there was hope of an easy step
from treachery satiated to the performance
OF duty under the old Government; without
him him they have littleto hope save through
the gallows and the feions-celI They have
most reason TO mourn; for it was through
the damnable teachings of their treason that
Booth, and his co-conspirators, were led to
forget themselves men and to assume. the
character of demons. But for treason there
would have been no incentive to Presiden-
tial assassination. AS treason did exist, and
as assassination followed as one of its certain
fruits, it is meet that while the loyal mourn
with hope. traitors should unourn not only