American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-05-17

cluucu lIOu lhO ODJCSh " "hiSh 'i'Ny ~
excited, turn readily to some other object
which may, for the time being, take pos
session. of the mind. Another princi-
pie is that the deepest affections of our
hearts gather around some human form in
which are incarnated the loving thoughts
and ideas of the passing age. If we look
then at the times, we see an age of ex-
citement For four years the popular
heart has been stirred to its utmost depths.
War had come upon us, dividing fami-
lies separating nearestand dearest friends
a war the extent and magnitude of
which no one could estimate war in
which the blood of brethren was shed by
a brothers hand. 4 call for soldiers was
made by this voice, now hushed, and all
over this land, from hill to mountain, from
plain to valley, they sprang up, hundreds
of thousands of bold hearts, ready to go
forth and save our National Union. This
feeling of excitement was transformed
next into feeling of deep grief because
of the dangers in which our country was
placed. Many said Is it possible to
save our nation? Some in our country,
and nearly all the leading men in other
countries, declared it to be impossible to
maintain the Union and many an hon
est heart was deeply panied with appre-
tensions of common ruin, and many in
grief and almost in despair anxiously in
quired: What shall the end of these
things be? In addition, the wives had
given their husbands, mothers their sons.
In the pride and JOY of their hearts they
saw them put on the uniform, they saw
them trke their martial step, and they
tried to hide their deep feelings of sad
ness. Many dear ones slept on the bat
tie field, never, never to return again, and
there was mourning in every mansion and
in every cabin in our broad land. Then
came a feeling to deepen sadness as the
story came of prisoners tortured to death
or starved through the mandates of those
who are called the representatives of the
chivalry, or who claim to ye the honora-
BILE ones of the earth and as we read the
stories of frames attenuated, our grief
turned partly into horror and partly into
cry for vengeance. Then the feeling
was changed to one of joy. There came
signs of the end of this Rebellion. We
followed the career of our glorious. gen
erals. We saw our army under the com
mand of the brave officer who is guiding
this procession, climbed up the nights of
Lookout Mountain and drove the Rebels
from their strongholds. Another brave
General swept through Georgia, South
and North Carolina and drove the COM
bined armies Of the Rebels before him,
while the honored Lieutenant General
held Lee and his hosts in death grasp.
Then the tidings came that Richmond
was evacuated and that Lee had surren-
dered. The bells rang merily all over
the land. The booming of cannon was
heard Illuminations and torch-light pro-
cessions manifested the general joy, and
families were looking for the speedy re-
turn of their loved ones from the field of
battle. just in the midst Of the widest
Joy, in one hour-nay, in one moment
the tidings rang throughout the land that
Abraham Lincoln, the best of Presid, nts,
had perished by the hands of an assassin.
And then all that feeling which had been
gathering for our years in forms of ex-
citement, grief, honor and joy, turned in
to one wall of woe--a sadness inexpressi-
BILE, anguish unutterable. Rut it is not
the time, merely, which caused this mourn
ing; the mode of his death must be ta-
| ken into account. Had he died on bed
of illness with kind friends around him
had the sweat of death been wiped from
his brow by gentle hands while he was
yet conscious; could he have had the pow
er to speak words of affection to his strick-
en- widow, words of counsel to us like
those which we heard in his pai ting for
Washington in his Inaugural which shall
now be immortal how it would have soft
ened or assuaged something Of the grief
There might at least have been prepara-
ton for the event. But no moment of
warning was given to him or us. He was
stricken dow when his hopes tor the end
of the Rebellion were bright and the
prospects of joyous life were before him.
There was Cabinet meeting that day,
said to have been the most cheerful and
happy of any held since the beginning of
the Rebellion. After this meeting he
talked with his friends, and spoke of the
four years of tempest, of the storm being
over, and of the four years of pleasure
and joy awaiting him as the weight Of
| cara and angnisb would he IN on from his