The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1865-04-22

ago a Senator Of the United States wac
stricken down in the Senate chamber by
tho hand Of slavery, and now q President
Of the United States has fallen by the same
hand.
Shall not these atrocities reveal to the
people of the United States the real charac-
ter Of the deadly enemy of our peace, and
strengthen and intensity the purpose no,
only to abolish slavery, but to exterminate
the whole spirit of slavery from the land?
This is the vital question. This is the les
son of the times, whether We have good
news or bad news, whether We have vic
tory or defeat, whether our days be glad
and joyous like Friday, or mournful and
sad q Saturday. The murder of Abraham
Lincoln has great moral lessons for this
nation. It possesses the solemnity of q
divine revelation. It is dread apocalypse.
1T reveals with startling horribleness the
nature Of slavery and the necessity Of its
It repeats and confirms
tho lesson Of the whole war, that it is vain
Ito cry peace, peace-when there is no peace
10 long as a yestige of human slavery sur
wives in the land. On Friday we said tina,
there would now be peace-that peace was
|inaugurated. We felt 1t in our hearts, and
celebrated 1t with festival and Joy. VIZ
laid this aattsring JUNCTION to our soul
We were full of consolation and hope, nj
We saw the old flag rising again where !,
was frat lowered before the foe. On Sat.
|urday We felt the. muraerous dagger
pointed ut our own breasts. The nations
|life was assaulted in the person Of Its chiei
representative. Liberty and you, and /
Ind every good man fell down while
bloody treason flourished over us, and jeal.
|eusy and hate and revenge aud every foul
and damned spirit danced and gloated In
the flendish carnival. Ofthe aggravation,
|of the cruel hour. shall not trust myself
10 speak, will not harrow my own soul
|or yours. That man in tho highest Office
lin the world, whose heart was full of the
milk Of human Kindness, whose life wa
gentle, and the elements 90 mixed In him,
that nature might stand up, and say to all
the world, This was man, who bore the
donors Of exalted station and. supreme
power with meekness, and never cherish
led q thought Of unkindness towards any
human being, whose bosom glowed only
with patriotic and generous feeling, and
whose mind was burdened with no other
anxiety than the life and salvation of the
he In an unsuspecting hour
|of recreation and repose should have been
the victim Of dastardly assassination-this
Unjust forever be one Of the blacklist acts il
the whole record of human atrocities and
|crimes. It can have 20 other explanation
than the same diabolie hate which nine
teen centuries ago murdered the innocent
and holy Jesus on the same day Of the
week In the same season Of the year: s'the
devil having put 1t into the heart of Judas
(Iscariot."
But in this darkest hour Of our grief and
agony. neither virtue nor religion leaves
Jus comfortless. We may still hear the
voice Of our Lord and Savior saying TO o.,
s'Fear not them who kil the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. =
The soul Of Abraham Lincoln Ia unharm.
ID. It lives on. aud not only with God and
with the whole company Of faithful and
valiant souls in some higher sphere-with
Abraham, the father Of the faithful, with
Aosss, tho man Of God, With Elijah, the
prophet Of fire, with Paul, the Apostle of
the Gentiles, with Luther, the Reiormsr Of
the Church, with Washington, the Father
OF bis Country, and with Jesus, the great
Captain Of Salvation-but the soul Of Abra-
ham Lincoln lives on earth. and marches
ON In the great movement Of human pro-
gress and of human redemption In which
lows the life Of God and Of his Christ, and
in which resides the power of IN endless
life. You may kill me, said Christian
Martyr, but you cannot harm me. And
Abraham Lincoln il unframed. That
which was most essential to him and was
his true personality and life defied the as
sassin's violence, and survives in greater
beauty and power than ever.
The murder of Abraham Lincoln came
from no personal snmity. He probably
had not = personal enemy in the world. Ii
was the cause Tor which he stood, 1t was
the cause he bore upon his hear, that pro-
|voked the deadly malice. But that cause
survives. Abraham Lincoln IL simply re-
moved from the sphere Of the visible in
which he helped it. From behind the veil,
from spheres Of still mightier power, and
|by influences moro subtle and pervasiv.
than any that he welded IS First Magis.
trate OF the Republic, he will succor and
promote the cause Of liberty and nationa
salvation. His memory and his history
will do mightier works than his life. HI
who stitch upon the circle Of the heavens
end who comprehendeth the tangled wet
of things, aud seeth the end from the he
ginning, may have seen that the death Of
our President ut this time and under thest
circumstances would b the most eflectua
means Of humbling the pride Of this nation
and Of our public men, Of correcting oul
awickedness, of establishing the law Of uni
versal liberty, of cementing and confirm
ing the national life and unity, aud Of &c
curing to us and to future generations ,
richer and grander inheritance than coult
noasiblv hava heon vnn in any other wa,