American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-07-12
E u L. d g. "
ON THE
LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES Or
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
Delivered Thursday, June 1, 1868,
In Christ M. E. Church, Penn ST.
BY Hon. Thos. Williams.
ON THE

ems aDlaZc Win the VI 'SH' P''G
'ioicing multitude But yesterday our
itemples were vocal with songs OF raptur-
ous Thanksgiving for the great victories
that had been vouchsafed to our arms.
To-day no jubilee soicits us. No loud
huzzas-no 'aves vehement,-no hurry
ing feat-no hymns of triumph salute
our ears. 1t is the hour of darkness, as
these sad emblems indicate. \ nation
mourns. A mighty people throng ITS
wide spread sanctuaries, to lament It's
,martyred Chief, but just returned from
the overthrow of the armed array that
menaced its own life, to die in the very
hour of his triumph--in the fancled Sc
,curity of its own captal-under the
iblaze off thousand lights, and thous-
and admiring eyes-and in the midst OF
the brave hearts that belted him around,
and would have spilled their liie's best
blood to shelter him from harm-and to
die, oh God II Justice by the stealthy
and felonious blow Of an assassin. In
such presence, and with such surround
ings, the chosen Ruler of this great Re-
public-the kind, the generous, the pa
rental magistrate, who knew no resent
ments and had never done aught to de.
serve an enemy-has bowed his venera-
Bile head upon his bosom, aad laid down
the high commission with which he had
been so lately re-invested by the popular
acclaim. "Most sacrieg.ous murder
hath broke ope the temple Of the Lord S
anointed, aud stolen out the life OF the
building" The pulse Of the world has
stood almost suspended by the earth
quake jar that shook It's continent and
isles, as no event of modern times has
done. A multitudinous peope-"in
numbers numberless' almost as the stars
of Hoaven-thriIled with horror, and
smitten dumb by the fearful atrocity
which flashed upon them, unheralded by
any note of warning over the ecIectric
wires, have uncovered their heads and
wept as no people ever wept before, as
the funeral cortege swept by with its pre-
cious but unconscious burthen over noun.
tain and plain, and along the rivers and
the lakes, in its long and melancholy jour
ney to the far Western nome, which he
was to see in the body no more. The
earth has opened to receive all that the
nation could give back to that now desc
lated home. and we are here to-day, by
the appointment of his successor, to bow
in reverential submission and acknowl-
.edgment before the hand that has smt-
ten us, and to draw such consultations as
are possible, from the consideration that
the chastisements Of God are sometimes
mercies iu disguise, while we water with
onr tears the fresh grave Of the heroic
martyr, who has crowned his great work
by the Offering of his own life upon the
same altar where the blood Of SO many
victims had already smoked to Heaven.
Yes Abraham Lincoln is no more.
All that could die of him who has deleu-
ded and rebuilt the t9ttering struetrue Of
our fathers. has passed from earthly view,
by a transition as abrupt as his who laid
the foundation Of the Eternal City, and
then, according to the legendary epic of
the Roman State, was rapt from mortal
vision in a chariot Of fire. The shadow
of the destroyer has mounted behind the
trooper, and the grim sceptre of the girls
ly king followed close upon the pageant
of the avenue. The wise and prudent
ruler who was commissioned of GCd to
lead this people through the fiery trials
from which they have just emerged
the chief who had Just been lifted on
their bucklers for second time to the
supreme command-the idol of the pop
,ular heart, who had so recently been
crowned anew at the Capitol with the
symbols of nations power, the insignia
of nations trust, and the rewards of a
nations gratitude, amidst the laundering
salvos of artillery, and the responsive
voices of an innumerable throug, has
ceased to listen to the app auding shout,
and passed from the regards of men, in
Il to the serener light Of an abode beyond
the stars where the banner of war is furl.
ed, aud the hoarse summons of the trum-
pet, and the roll of the stirring drum, no
longer awaken either to the battle or the
triumph.
On two occasions only in our brief but
.eventful history, the hand of death has
fallen upon the head of this great Re
public On both, however it descend
ed in period of public tranquility, by
the quiet and gentle ministration of ma
ture, without shock and without disturb
ance. The fruit fell when it was ripe,
and the nation grieved, but not as those
who are without hope. 1t paused but for
moment to cast its tributes of affection
on the tomb, and then hurried onward in
its high and prosperous career. For the
first time now, in the very hurricane Of
civil strife, bloody tragedy of fearful
aspect, and more than medieval horror
forestalling the dissolving processes that
are interviewer with the law of life has
snatched away the man who, above all
hers, was most dear to us, almost in the
twinkling of an eye, in high health, aud
in the very crisis of bis great work, when
the regards of the world were most in.
tently fixed upon him, and the destinies
of anation were trembling in his hands
1t is as though ap apparatiou had stalked
in the midst Of our reioielngs, into the
very presence Of the festal board, and il
q uiider the projecting shadow, with