Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1865-04-22
From the SIN Erancisco Bulletin. ,


How we write the cruel words Lincoln
our great and good Presidents dead Fallen
by the hand of a cOwardly traitor and assassin !,
Stricken down in the hour of the peoples cnthu- !
siastic JOY over country preserved and purified;
through his courage. prudence. faith and wis.,
dom Maryred in the very arms Of those who,
ioved him The particulars are narrowing /
We cannot repeat them. The mournful dis :,
patches tell their own dreadful story. and have,
already drowned nation in grief But yester-
day full of strength and studying to temper a
nation justice with mercy to-day slaught-
cred victim to treason's spite-lost to the hope!
and heart of his age and country Kings and
Emperors have been assassinatcd before now,
some Of them good rulers-by desperate or ia !
natical wretches who obeyed only their own
secret impulse but to slay the beloved head of
n free people-himscf one of the people and the
chosen Executor of their wiil-the man who had
just saved the grand experiment of popular gov
ernment and rid continent of monstrous
{raud upon human rtghts-ths is crime en-
matched in the annals of the human race. 1t is
the great tragedy Of history. If anything was
lacking before to complete the damnable. eternal
infamF of the Shareholders rebellion this caps
the climax of its infamy. For, whether the
assassin 5 accomplices were few or many. or
whether he WAS alone in the terrible crime, it
the legitimate emanation of the fell spirit
that cheated four millions of human beings of
war, that tortured helpless prisoners With every
circumstance of cruelty and starred them by
thousands, that exhausted the language for
words to Willy the brave people who were true
to their country, and that taught murder was a
duty and assassination a virtue. When Lincoln
fell adderth dastardlv blow inspired by the
spirit of treason, he was studying how he might
pour oil on the wounds of desolated section.
Ills big tender heart was offered as n shield be-
tween the insurgents and vengeance and they
have drawn its lfe-blood He would have saved
them, and they have killed him. This will turn
tho current of popular feeling to demand for
the sternest justice-not against the deluded cit
liens Of the rebellion. but against its arch nst-
gators and the relentless leaders, who, amid
their peoples humiliation and agony, still de-
mand more blood.
But Lincoln may not be the only victim Sec
rotary Seward, whose eloquent logic aroused the
republic to sense Of the moral enormity of the
evil that was sapping its vitality-who, by his
c0usummate diplomacy aud calm adherence to
the strict principles of international law, averted
the great peril of foreign intervention-he, too ,
WAS murderousy attacked while lying sick and
helpless in his bed. lie also was studying to
amelioratc the condition of the insurgents and
TO win them back With kindness to their duty to
restored Union. Weakened by previous
wounds, it is scarcely possible that he will
recover from the assassin's blows. Doubly pre-
cious has his life become to the republic since
Lincoln has gone, and there will be universal
prayers for its preservation. The imagination is
appalled, it contemplates the circumstances OF
the enormous crime which songhtthe life of two
such men-tbe wisest and kndest of our rulers,
of whom complaint was never made by any
raticual creature, except that they were all too
kind.