Year: 1866

WASHINGTON, April IA.
HOUSE.
On motion of Mr.. GARFIELD, the
reading of the journal of yesterday dis.
pensed with. Mr.. Garfield then pro-
ceeded to address the House at length.
He said | desire to enter motion that
this House be now adjourned. This day
will be memorable as long as this National
Government shall endure, which, God
grant, my be till that last moment of re-
corded time, when the volume of the
worlds history shall be sealed up and
placed before the Omnipotent Judge for
his sentence. On this day, for all time to
come, | doubt not that the citizens of
this republic will meet together, looking
in each others faces with solemn sadness
as they recall the great event of this day
in 1865, an event unparalleled in the his
tory of nations-certainly unparalleled in
the history of our own.


l think it eminently proper that this
Congress should put on its record to-day
a resolution in memory of that event
The war with its wonderful events, gave
to history many distinguished names; it
took the young men of the land and
made them into heroes; it made the old
men patriots, and women became minis
tering angels all over the land. But chief
among all the great developments Of the
war were the character and life of that
great man whose loss the nation still de-
plores. He is aptly described in the Ian
guage of one of England's great poets as


That divinely gifted man,


Whose life in low estate began


Upon q simple village green:


Who breaks his births insidGous bar,


And grasps the skirts of happy chance.


And breasts the blows Of circumstance,


And grapples with his evil star;


Who makes by force his merit known,


And lives to clutch the golden keys


TOmould mighty States DEGREES,


And shape the whisper of tue throne,


And moving up from high to higher,


Becomes on fortunes erOWDing slope,


The pillar Of the peoples hope


The centre Of the worlds DESIRE"


Such life and such a character will go
down to all time as the great and sacred
possession of the American people. But
there is more than the mere character of
any one man in that great struggle
throrgh which we have passed. There
were two scenes in the drama of the re-
bellion. One was the military scene with
all its deaths, with all its sufferings. sighs
and tears. That scene was closing one
year ago this night; just as the cartain





the restoration of peace, liberty and or
der; just as the curtain was raising to
show the new characters, the evil spirit
of rebellion and treason could not resist
its desire to strike one blow, and to cause
the chief character in the scene then
closing, to perish by the hand of an as
sassin- 1t 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 his
tory of men and Of nations when they
seem to stand so closely by the veil which
shuts out mortals from Immortality,
time from eternity, man from God, that
they can almost hear the beatings and
feel the pulsations of the heart of God.


Such time we passed through, when
two hundred and fifty thousand patriot
ie spirits broke through the fold of that
veil and. went up into the presence of
God; an when at last the parting folds
admitted the 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. Kneeing at that troubled hour,
when JOY and sadness were so strangely
commingled, the American People listen
ed to their God, and made solemn COW
enant with Him and with each other,
that this nation should be redeemed, and
all its glory restored, and that on the ru-
ins of slavery and treason the temples of
of liberty and justice would be built, and
should survive.


However, it remains for US, Mr.. Speak
er, consecrated by the great event, and
under covenant with God to keep that
faith, to go on in the good work until it
shall be completed. Following the lead
of that great man, and reVerentially fol-
lowing the lead of God, let us remember
that


He has sounded forth the trumpet which shall


never call retreat.


he is sitting out the hearts of men before his


judgement seat.


Be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my


feet. for God is marching on.


The motion of Mr. Garfield was then
agreed to, and the house thereupon ad-
journed.