The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-06-22
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
rouLLY AssAssINATED, APRIL IA, lS6;

You lay wreath on murdered Lincoln S bier,
You who with mocking pencil wont to
trace,
Broad for the selfcomplacent British sneer,
His length of shambling limb, his furrow-
cd face.
His gaunt, gnarled hands, MS unKempt brls-
Ting hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing i'll at ease,
His lack of all we prize as debonair.
Of power or will to shine, Of art to please.
You. whose smart pen backed up the pen
cils laugh,
judging each step as though the way
were plain.
Reckless, so it could point its paragraph
OF chiefs perple1ity or peoples pain.
Beside this corpse, that bears for winding
sheet
The stars and stripes he lived to rear
anew,
Between the mourners at his head and feet,
Say, scurril jesor, is there room for you!
Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen
To make me own this kind of princes peer,
The raii-splittcr a true-born king Of men.
Ny shallow judgment had learnt to rue,
Noting how to occasions height he rose,
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem
more true,
How, iron-likc, his temper grew by blows.
How humble, yet how hopeful he could be;
How in good fortune and in i'll the same;
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.
He went about his work-such work as few
Ever had laid on head, and heart and
hand
As one who knows where there's task to do;
Mans honest will must Heavens good
grace command.
Who trusts the strength will with the burden
grow,
That God makes instruments to work mis-
will,
Ifbut that will we can arrive TO know,
Nor tamper with the weights of good and
i'll.
So he went forth to battle, on the side
That he felt clear was Liberty's and
Rights,
As in his peasant boyhood he had piled
His warfare with rude Natures thwarting
nights
The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil
The iron bark that turns the lumberer's
axe,
The rapid, that o'erbears the boatman's toll,
The prairie hiding the mazed wanderers
tracks.
The ambushcd Indian, and the prowling bear,
Such were the needs that helped his youth
to train,
Rough culture-but such trees large fruit
may bear,
If but their stocks be of right girth and
grain.
SOhe grew up, destined work to do,
And lived to do it; four long-sufferlng
years
lll-fate, ill-feeling, il-report, lived throUgh'
And then he heard the Kisses change to
cheers.
The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,
And took both with the same unwayering
mood;
Till, as he came on light, from darkllng days,
And seemed to touch the goal from where
he stood.
felon had, between the goal and him,
Reached from behind his back, a trigger
prest-
And those perplexed and patient eyes were
dim,
Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were
laid TO rest
The words of mercy were upon has lips,
forgiveness in his heart and on his pen,
When this vile murderer brought swift
eclipse
To thoughts of peace on earth, good will
to men.
The Old World and the New, from sea to sea,
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame
Sore heart, so stopped when it last beat high;
Sad life, cut short just as its triumphs came.
A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck
before
By the heassassin's hand, whereof men doub
Ifmore of horror or disgrace they bore;
But thy foul crime, like Gains stands
darkly out.