Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-05-19
Abraham Lincoln.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The last act of the sublime drama ha
at length been finished, and the mos
wonderful spectacle of the age, or perhap
Of time, has been completed.
Mr.. Lincoln's assassination is not 1
single act, but the last series, of which i
forms the consummate whole. 1t is sci
dom that history OF itself falls into suct
natural and dramatic periods as may bt
marked in the wonderful tragedy of five
years /; will be seen, toe, that the ex'
citement of feeling, at each step seeming
to have reached its bounds, still rose, un
Ill in the last grand catastrophe it sur
passes all that IN n conceived possible
or endurable. And among the many
other things demonstrated by this civ
revolution, is the capacity of communitie.
TO endure profound excitements prolong,
ed through wide periods of time. The
excitement of the Kansas struggle wa:
only preface to the higher glow of the
Presidential canvass of 1860. But that
was itself inferior to the profound anxiety
and feeling Of the period between Novem
Der, 1860, and March, 1861, during which
Secessionism developed into civil war -
When, in April, 1861, Fort Sumter was
assaulted, all feeling before seemed tame
compared with that fire of patriotism
which swept the land. That feeling con.
solidaied into a determination which the
various defeats and victories of four years
had no power to change. The flame.
like character of popular feeling was
changed, but only as wood that blazes, at
length grows even hotter yet when it be-
comes Goals.
In this last year of the war, as victory
upon victory, East, West and South, fore
tokened the glorious consummation, the
nation grew more joyful, until, on the fall
of Richmond and the surrender of Lee,
it seemed as if the people had expended
no vital force in former emotions, bat
burst with all the freshness of unwasted
hearts into the luxuriance of tropical joy.
Was it possible that human nature could
hoaa eaoi or nuI aaie- el-a;s, NJ -
would believe II who had not seen the
grief, horror and Indignation OF the weeks
following Mr.. Lincoln's death. The sor-
row was like the rolling in of an ocean
tide. /; quenched tue exultation Of vic
tory, and the joy of anticipated peace, as
completely as brand is quenched when
thrown into the sea. Men forgot that
they had been glad. Tie banners and
decorations Of victory were left to minele
with exhibitions of mourning, and one
could not tell whether the vast pageantry
said, "Victnry is swallowed up in Death"
or "Deah is Swallo,oed up in Kictory"
No voluntary sign of sorrow was half
so striking as the unconscious silence of
that overcoming city of New York =
A half million people thronged the city
on Monday and Tuesday, and filled the
streets to suffocation. Yet the presence
of the MIGHTY DEAD kept all so still and
gentle, that bird flying over would be
unscared by noise, as if it were midnight,
or Sabbath Day.
A martyred President was the city's
king. His pulseless hand stretched out
a scep;re, which awed all men to silence
Before that Hearse enmities died, ieal-
ousies and rivalries coiled and hid, pleas
ure forgot its rules, avarice its tolls, and
for more than week, the imperial city
that disdained always before to be sub
dued to any common sentiment, now si-
lently and humbly watched and waited,
in all its streets, to offer homage and af-
lection to him, when dead, for whom alive
/ would never give a vote
As private citizen, Mr.. Lincoln would
have lived respected, and died lamented
as kind, faithful and honest man, and
slept with hundreds of others, in a few
years undistinguisbable. He bad no such
gifts of power as would have raised him,
n spite of circumstances, to eminence.-
His was not brain that dominated. His
will was firm, but not executive nor des-
ootic. His mind was broad and strong,
'ut slow and laborious in its methods
Truths did not break upon bim with flash |
md instant revelation. He saw them far |
III, obscurely, as nebula, and like an
'stronomer, he resolved them only by pa
lent observation. Thus, he suspected
hings to be true long before be was sure,
md be was sure long before he had made
ut the whole matter with distinct accur,
cy. He Travelled with truth in long
but when once it was his, be
owed it with intense parental instinct
HIS wisdom was moral wisdom. His