New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-30

AVAoO Va CIRCUMSTANCES anu QcC6Soltys ~
youit especially belongs to sound his praises,
to preserve and perpetuate his memory, to
multiply his statues, to hang his pictures on
your walls, and commend his example, for to
you he was great and glorious friend and
benefactOr. Instead of supplanting you at
this altar, We would exhort you to build
high his monuments; let them be Of the
most costly material, of the most cunning
workmanship; let their forms be symmetri-
cal, beautiful, and perfect; let their bases
be upon solid rocks, and their SUBMITS lean
against the unchanging blue overhanging
sky, and let them endure forever! But
while in the abundance of your wealth and
in the fullness of your just and patriotic
devotion you do all this, we entreat you to
deepiee not the humble Offering We this day
unveil to view; for while Abraham Lincoln
saved for you . country, he delivered us
from bondage, according to Jefferson, one
hour of which was worse than ages of the
oppression your fathefs rose in rebellion to
oppose.
Fellow-citizens,. ours is no new born zeal
and devotion-a thing of the hour. The
name of Abraham Lincoln was near and
dear to our hearts in the darkest and most
perilous hours of the republic. We we're
no more ashamed of him when shrouded in
clouds of darkness, of doubt and defeat
than when crowned with victory, honor and
glory. Our faith in him was often taxed
and strained 10 the utterm0et, but it never
failed. When he tarried long in the noun
tain; when he strangely told us that We
were the cause of the war; when he still
more strangely told us to leave the land in
which we we're born; when he refused to
employ our arms in defense of the Union;
when, after accepting our services as col
ored soldiers, he refused to retaliate when
we were murdered as colOred prisoners;
when he told us he would save the Union
if he could with slavery; when he re-
voked the proclamation of emancipa-
ton Of General Fremont; when he re-
fused to remove the commander of the army
of the Potomac, who was more jealous in
his efforts to protect slavery than to sur
press rebellion-when we saw all this, and
more, we were at times. grieved, and greatly
bewildered; but our hearts believed while
they ached and bled. Nor was this, even
at that time, q blind and unreasoning su-
perstition. Despite the mist and haze that
surround him; despite the tumult. the
hurry and confusion of the hour, we were
able to take comprehensive view of Abra.
ham Lincoln, and to make reasonable al
lowance for the circumstances of his posi-
ton. We saw him. measured him, and es-
timated him; not by stray utterances to in
judicious and tedious delegations. who often
tried his patience; not by isolated facts torn
from their connection; not BY any partial
and imperfect glimpses, caught at inoppor-
tune moments; but by broad survey, in
and in view of that Divinity which shapes
our ends, rough hew them as We viii, we came
to the conclusion that the hour and the man
of redemption had met in the person of
Abraham Lincoln. 1t mattered little to us
what language he might employ on special
occasions; it mattered little to us, when we
fully knew him, whether he was swift or
slow in his movements; it was enough for
US that Abraham Lincoln was at the head
of q great movement, and was in living and
earnest sympathy with that movement,
which. in the nature OF things, must 60 ON
until slavery should be utterly and forever
therefore, it shall be asked what we have
to do with the memory of Abraham Lin
coin or what Abraham Lincoln had to do
with us. the answer is ready, full and com.
plete. Though he loved Cesar less than
Rome, though the Union was more to
him than our freedom or our future,
under his wise and benefcent rule We
saw ourselves gradually lifted from the
depths Of slavery to the heights of lib
erty and manhood; under his wise and
benefcent rule. and by measures approved
and vigorously pressed by him, we saw
that the handwriting Of agee, in the form
of prejudice and prescription, was rapidly
fading away from the lace of our whole
cour try; under his rule and in due time,
about as soon after all as the country could
tolerate the strange spectacle, We saw our
brave sons and brothers laying eff the rags
of bondage, and being clothed all over in
the blue uniforms Of the soldiers of the
United States; under his rule We saw &C, 600
of our dark and dusky people responding to
the call of Abraham Lincoln, and, with
muskets on their shoulders and eagles on
their buttons, timing their high footsteps to
liberty and Union under the American flag;
under his rule we saw the independence
object of elaveholdipg aversion and horror,
fully recognized, and her minister, a col
ored gentleman, duly received here in the
city of Washington; under his rule we cav
the internal slave trade, which SC long dis
graced the nation, abolished, aud slavery
abolished In the District of Colum bia;. un-
der his rule we saw for the first time the
law enforced against the foreign elave
trade, and the first slave trader hanged
like any other pirate or murderer; under
his rule and inspiration we saw the Con
federate States, based upon the idea that
our race must be slaves and slaves for
ever, battered to pieces and scattered to
the four winds; under his rule and in the
ful]ness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln,
after giving the shareholders three months
grace, in which to save their hateful slave
system, penning the immortal paper, which,
though special in its language. was general
in its principles and effect, making slavery
forever impossible in the United States.
Though we waited long, we saw all this
and more.
have said that President Lincoln was
white man, and shared the prejudices com :
mon to his countrymen toward the cOlOred
race. Looking back to his times and to the
condition Of the country, this unfriendly
feeling on his part may bs safely set down
as one element Of his wonderful success in
organizing the loyal American people for
the tremendous conflict before them, and
bringing them safely through that conflict.
His great mission was to accomplish two
things: First, to save his country from
dlsmemberment and ruin; and, second,
to free his country from the great
crime of slavery. To do one or the
other, or both, he must have the earnest
sympathy and the powerful cooperation OF
his loyal fellow countrymen. Without this
primary and essential condition to suc-
cess. his efforts must have been vain
and utterly fruitless. Had he put the
abolition of slavery before the saliva
ton of the Union, he would have newt
ably driven from him powerful class of
the American people, and rendered resist
ance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from
the genuine abolition ground. Mr.. Lincoln
seemed tardy, cold, dull and Indifferent.
but measuring him by the sentiment of the
country, sentiment he was bound as
statesman to consult, be was swift, Jealous,
radical and determined. Though M. Lin
ccln shared the prejudices Of his white
fellow countrymen against the negro, it IL
hearts he lOathed and hated slavery. He
was willing while the .S,uth was Iowa. that
it should have its pound Of flesh, because
he thought it was 50 nominated in the bond;
but farther tb an tl,s no esrthl power could
make HIM 90.