The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1865-05-17
BY THE REV. DIR.
HAREgAUGH.

18th ult., the day Of the funeral OF Pres
dent Lincoln, and the following eloquent
and touching address was delivered on
the occasion by Rev. DR.. Harbaugh, Pro
fessor Of Theology in Mercersburg:
1t is most difficult, on this solemn oc-
casion, for one to speak for another, in
the way of loading or interpreting his
thoughts for him. This is one of those
overwhelming events which make ones
thoughts stand still and when We feel
the truth of the sacred declaration, that
the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and
a stranger doth not intermedde with it.
} For days past, throughout the land, friend
} has met friend with the feeling that, in
the presence of so great sorrow, silence
is the most eloquent word Even when
one yentured word of remark or inqui-
ry, it was with the vain hope that the one
addre ssed might be able to express and
interpret for him his own deep feeling.
! When the telegraph first dropped this
fearful news into the thousand cities,
towns and villages all over the land men
we're stunned and paraly yzed with amaze
ment. His implements dropped from the
hands of the laborer; the student cast
away his pen and books; the merchant
closed his stcre the buZzing of factories
ceased busy streets were changed into
scenes of Sabbatic quiet, and over all
this expressive silence rolled the solemn
sound Of tolling bells The land mourned
its fallen chief, as it had not mourned
from the. first hour Of the Republic till
now
We have sometimes heard of the COM
ing together of marriage and burial
where sorrow tread so closely on the heel
Of JOY that the joyful bride, on the very
day of her happy marriage, was laid out
as a corpse in her wedding rotes In
like manner has, during these last few
; days, the uatiOn's JOY been suddenly
changed into mourning Scarcely had
i the bells ceased toiiIng out their jubila,
F. tions in honor of victory, and the pros
pect of speedy peace, with the restoration
of the supremacy of law a0d order
throughout the land, when they began to
toll in sad harmony with nations sor-
row. And though days have passed
since this fearful tragedy was enacted,
! the national mind still labors urder the
subduing burden of its momentous grief
still stunned and silent
What is this all pervading and steadily
; continued feeling, but the mute utter.
ance of the peoples sense of the awful
. ness of the crime which has been com.
mitted. The mind cannot fathom the
turpitude of this crime of regicide, or the
killing Of the ruler of the land But the
existing unuterable feeling furnishes
proof that God, by the very constitution
of our being, has underlaid our deepest
life with a sense of its euormity; our
nature thus spontaneously bearing wit,
ness to what has been the sense of all
civilized-~yes, barbarian and semi barba-
riau-as well as Christian ages and na-
tions, that the highest possible crime is
regicide.
This crime is not mere murder. We
need only grade the higher crimes to
see where this enormity stands on the
scale of criminal depravity. The first
and lowest grade is common murder or
homicide, as when one man kills another
Next above this we may place suicide,
wherein man assumes the disposal Of his
own life, Then fratricide, wherein
man destroys the life Of his own brother
or sister, and thus 10 a sense becomes the
murderer of his own flesh and blood.
Then infantiede, where the helplessness
of infancy 'augments the crime Then
patriclde, wherein man takes the life Of
the father that begat him, the earthly
source of his own life. Because the
mother bears that ''softer and tenderer
name" and her life belongs to the inner
circle Of consecrated love, we would place
next in the dreadful scale the crime of
matricide, After this Only do we reach
that fearful apex Of crime-regicide So
much as the State is above the family, SO
! high above the murder of father and
mother is the murder of the Ruler of the
land-the head of the nation-the father,
for the time being, of the national family.
This is the dreadful crime which has
startled and stunned the nation, Qud
caused the bells throughout the land this
day to dole out to responsive hearts their
mufled tones of sorrow.
To understand fully this crime of reg
ieide, we must remember that it was not
merely the man Abraham Lincoln whose
life the assassin has taken away. It was
the life of the President of this Republic
which he has destroyed As man he
was only one of US, but as Gods ordained
organ for the administration he was vastly
e more: He was "the Minister of Cod
: Rom XLID-the organ of "the powers