The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1866-05-03
An Eloquent Tribute TO the Memory of
y4ff' a. President Lincoln. ...f

In the House OF representatives., on
the 10th Arpil the anniversary of Presi.
dent Lincoln's death, Gen. Garfield Of
Ohio, made the following remarks;-
l desire to enter a motion that this
House be now adjourned. This day
will be memorable as long as this Ma
tional Government shall endure, which,
God grant, may be till that last mo-
ment of recorded time, when the vol
ume of the worl Is history shall be
sealed up and placed before the Om-
nipotent Judge for his sentence. On
this day, for all time to como, / doubt
not the citizens of this Republic will
meet together, looking in each others
faces with solemn sadness as they re.
call the event of this day in 1865, an
event unparalleled in the history of
nations-certainly unparalleled in
ours. ..,,,...
I think it eminently proper that this
Congress should put on its record to-
day o resolution in memory of that
event. The war with its wonderful
events, gave to the history many dis
tinguished names; it took the young
men OF the land and made them into
heroes; it made the old men patriots,
and women became ministering an
gels all over the land. But chief Il.
mong all the great developments of the
war were the character and life OF that
great man whose loss the nation still
deplores. He is aptly described in the
language of one Of England's great po-
cts as. ....A t't'. ... .H
"ThOt dtvincly gifted man, .1.
Whose life IN low estate began
% Upon simple village green. ,-4
Who breaks his birtiH inyidious bar,
And grasps the skirts ofhappy chance,
And breasts the blows of circumstance,
iri And grapples with his evil star;
~ Who makes by force his merit known.
81 And lives to clutch the golden keys
To mold mighty States decrees
And shape the whisper OF the throne;
And moving up from high tn higher
Becomes on fortunes crowning slope,
a Tho pillar of the peoples hope
.s' The center ofa worlds desire" ...g.
Such life and such character will
go down to all time as the great and
sacred possession of the mere character
ofany one man in that great struggle
through which we have passed. There
were two scenes in the drama of the
rebellion. One was the military scene,
with all its deaths, with all its suffer.
ings, sighs and tears. That scene was
closing one year ago this night; just as
the curtain was lifting on the new and
final scene, the restoration Of peace,
liberty and order; just as the curtain
was rising to show the new characters,
the evil spirit of rebellion and treason
could not resist It's desire to strike one
blow, and TO cause the chief character
in the scene just closing to perish by
the hand OF an assassin.
It was not the hand of one man that
killed President Lincoln; it was the
embodied spirit Of treason and'slavery
concentrated into fearful hate that
struck him down in the supreme hour
of the nations joy. There are times
in the history Of men and of nations
when they seem to stand 80 closely by
the veil which shuts out mortals from
immortality, time from eternity, man
from God, that they can almost hear
the beatings and teel the pulsation Of
tho heart of God.
Such q time we passed through,
when two hundred and fifty thousand
patriotic spirits broke through the fold
of that veil and went up into the pres
ence of God; and when at last the part
ing folds adreitted tho President, to go
with the dead heroes of the Republic,
the nation felt-indeed it could hear
the whispers of God coming down
among the children of men. Kneeling
at that troubled hour, when joy and
sadness were so strangely commingled,
the American people listened TO their
God, and madc q solemn covenant
with him and with each other, that
this nation should be redeemed, and
all its glories restored, and that on the
ruins of slavery and treason the tenn
pies of liberty and justice would be
built, and should survive.
However, it remains for ns, Mr.,
Speaker consecrated by the great event
and nnder covenant with God to keep
the faith, to go on in the good workuntiI
it shall be completed. Following the
lead of that great man, and reverently
following the lead of God, let us re-
member that
He has sounded forth the trumpet which shall never
call retreat.
Heis sitting out the hearts OF men before his judg
ment seat. '..
Be swim, my soul, to answer him. be jubilant my cct
For God is marching on. =.
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