The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-14

April II. 1885. A strange Good
Friday. That great. mournful. IA
cred anniversary dawned upon the
heart Of the North almost as Thanks
giving. LEES surrender was only u
few days past. JoHNsToN's defeat or
surrender could he only matter of
days. Noon saw the stars and Stripes
raised by Mr.. LINcoLN's command
over what was left Of Fort Sumter,
the FIRST theatre Of war. A sober
gratitude. chastened by the remem.
brance Of 40 many dead in those
anxious and heroic four years. the
deep sense Of triumph for what they
believed righteous purpose, PER
vaded the victors:
"They that SOW in tears shall reap in
Joy.
He that goeth forward and weep
eth. bearing precious seed. shall doubt
less come again with rejoicing. bringing
his sheaves with him"
So clergy and people at sumter
In Washington AT his last Cabinet
meeting MIR. LINCOLN. incapable OF
bitterness, was looking forward hui
namely and hopefully to the restora
ton Of the South and the Union:
I'VE mus, ex,inguish our resentment'
II We expect harmony and union
He did not wish" his biographer,
tell us, ''the autonomy nor the indi
viduality of the States destroyed. ii.
commended the whole subject to tn,
most earnest and careful consldera
ton OF the Cabinet: il was 10 he re-
sumed on the following Tuesday; i
was, he said. the great question pend
ing-they must now begin 10 act ii
the interest of peace"
Thus his last official words wer,
full Of the wise tolerance, the unSec
tlonal craftsmanship. the nation;I
thought that the narrower men an,
passionate partiSans Ia whom the mo
mentous Ia sk of reconstruction was /,
fall, could not reach or understand.
The rest OF the daylight of his las
Friday he gave to his family an,
friends. We see him wirh his son
young Captain lioGfgr, come since L
hOnOrs 20 admirably merited, talkin
over the boys campaigns. We So
him driving with Mrs. LINCOLN. "IIi
mind. as 1t had been all day, was sin
gularly happy and tender. He talke
much OF the past and future III
counted, wrongly, no doubt, If he ha
been spared. on quiet days for tn
rest OF his term: and then Illinois an
home and practice of the law.
All this, written as history, nigh
seem the stuff and shaping of tn
artist. the supreme artist Fate. pain
ing the hour Of idyl, of the qule
retrospect and prospect, to make tn
sharper contrast with the black hOu
at the theatre that night.
The dream that ar. LINCOLN ha
told his Cabinet that morning, fl
miliar as il is or should he. is Away
worth repeating, Here again dra
matter OF fact chronicle seems tinge
with twilight Of romance: and tn
shrewd, humorous. melancholy bacl
woodsman appears poet ana mystic
He had last night had his usual dreal
which preceded great events. He SCENE
TO he. ne said, in a singular and ind,
scribable vessel. but always the sam
moving with great rapidty toward
dark and indefinite shore he had tn
dream before Antietam, Gettysburg ar
Vicksburg."
The great event was then but fc
hours OF The dark shore was clio,
at hand. Now that his end has passt
from the domain OF sorrow now tn;
the "angry GRIEF is over, the polite
consequences so far MS they rcat,
TO the South revised or reiresse
that end seems an epic necessity, II
inevitable elimination, an immort
good fortune.