The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1865-05-05

known. In serene majesty the country
rises in the beauty and strength and hope
of youth, and proves to the world thequi-
ct energy and the durability of institutions
growing out of the reason and affections Of
the people Heaven has Willed it that the
United States shall live. The nations Of
the earth cannot spare them. All the
worn out aristocraeies Of Europe saw iu
the spuriOusf Judaism of slaveholding their
strongest outpost, and handed themselves
together with the deadly enemies of our
national life. If the Old World will dis
cuss the respective advantages Of Oligarcby
or equality; of the union Of Church and
State or the rightful freedom Of religion /;
of land accessible to the many, or Of land
monopulized by an ever decreasing num-
Der of the few, the. United States must
live to control the decision by their quiet
and unobtrusiye example. 1t has often
and truly been observed that the trust and
affection of the masses gather naturally
around an individual. If the inquiry is
made whether the man so trusted and be-
loved shall elicit from the reason Of the
people enduring institutions of their own,
or shall sequester political power for a su-
perintending dynasty, the United States
must live to solve the problem. If aques.
tion is raised on the respective merits of
TimoleOn Julius Caesars, Of Washington
or Napoleon, the United States must be
there to call to mind that there were twelve
Caesars, most of them the opprobrium of
the human race, and to contrast with them
the line Of American Presidents. The du-
ty Of the hour is incomplete, our mourn
ing is insincere, if, while We express un-
wayering trust in the great principles that
underlie our government, we do not also
give our support to the men to whom the
people have entrusted its administration.
Andrew johnson is now, by the cOnstltu-
ton, the President of the United States,
and he stands before the world as the most
conspicuous representative Of the indus
trial classes. Lett an orphan at four years
old, poverty and toll were his steps to hon
or. His youth was not passed in the halls
Of colleges; nevertheless he has received
throughout political education in states
manship in the school of the people and
by long experience of public lie. =.
A village tunctiOnary; member suecessiVely
of each branch of the Tennessee legislature,
hearing with q thrill of joy, the words, "the
Union, it must be preserved !" representa-
tive in Congress for successive years Cover
nor of the great State of Tennessee, approved as
its Governor by reelection; he was at the
opening of the Rebellion a Senator from that
State in Congress. Then at the Capitol, when
Senators, unrebuked by the Government, sent
word by telegram to sieze forts and arsenals,
he alone from that Southern region told them
what the Government did not dare to tell
them, that they were traitors, and deserved
the punishment of treason. Undismayed by
a perpetual purpose of public enemies TO take
his life, bearing up against the still greater
trial of the persecution of his wife and child
ren, in due time he went back to his State,
determined to restore it to the Union, or die
with the American flag for his winding sheet.
And now, at the call Of the United States, he
has returned to Washington as cOnquerer,
with Tennessee as free State for his trophy.
1t remains for him to cOnsummate the Ylndl-
cation of the Union. To that Union Abraham
Lincoln has fallen a martyr. His death,
which was meant to sever it beyond repair,
binds it more closely and more firmly than
ever. The blow aimed at him, was aimed at
a native of Kentucky, not at a citizen of Illi-
nois, but at the man who as President, in the
executive branch of government, stood as the
representative of every man in the United
States. The object of the crime was the life
of the whole people; and it wounds the affec-
tions of the whole people. From Maine to
the southwest boundary Of the Pacific, it
makes US one. The country may have needed
an imperishable grief to touch its inmost feel
ing. The grave that receives the remains of
Lincoln, receives the martyr to the Union
the monument which will rise over his body
will bear witness to the Union his enduring
memory viii assist during the countless ages
to bind the states together, and to incite to
the love of our one undivided indiEisible
country. Peace to the ashes of our departed
friend, the friend of his country and his race.
Happy was his life, for he was the restorer of
the republic; he was happy in his death, for
the manner of his end will plead forever for
the Union of the States and the freedom of
man. ... .r