Year: 1866

| WASHINGTON, April Ia.
| HorsE-On motion oil Mr.. Garfield
tho rsading of the journal of yesterday
was dispensed with.


Mr. Garfield then proceeded to address
the House at length. He said: l desire
to enter a motion that this House be now
adjourned. This day will be memorable
as long as this nation shall endure
which God grant may be till the last mo-
ment of recorded time, when the volume
of the worlds history shall be sealed up
and placed before the omnipotent Judge.
On this day for all time to come; doubt
not, the citizens of this republic will
meet together, looking into each others
faces with solemn sadness, as they recall
the great event of this day, 1865. 1t is
the life and character of that great man
(Mr Lincoln, } whose loss the nation still
deplores, and who is aptly described, i'll
the language of England's great poet, as


THAT divinely gifted man,


Whose life in low estate began


Upon simple village green,


who breaks his invidious births bar;


And grasps the skirts of happy chance,


And breaks the blows OF circumstance


And grapples with his evil star.


Who makes by force his merit known


And learns to clutch the golden keys


To mould migety State direct,


And shape the whisper OF the throne


And moving up from high tohgher,


Becomes ono fortunate browning slope


The pillar Of peoples hope,


The centre of worlds desire.


such a life and such character
will 90 down to all time as the great
and sacred possession of the American
peopie, but there is more than the mere
character. ANY one man in that great
struggle through which we have passed,
then come the scenes in the drama OF the
rebellion One was the military scene
with all its death, with all its sntterngs,
with all its tears, was seen closing one
year ago. 1t was night just as the cur
tain was lifted on the scene, and the
restoration of peace, liberty, order, jus
tiCe, as the curtain was rising to show
the view. Characters of the end of the
spirit of the 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 assassin 1t was not the hand OF
the man that killed President Lincoln.
II was the emboldened spirit of treason
and slavery concentrated with perhaps
hate that struck him down in that su-
preme hour of the nations joy There.
are times in the history of men and ct ma
tions, when they seem to stand so close
by the veil which shuts out mortals
from immortality, time from eternity,
and man from God, that they can almost
hear it's beatings, and feel the pulsatlon
of the heart of God. Such q time have
we passed through When two hundred
and fifty thousand patriotic spirits
broke through that veil and went up
into the presence of God, and when at
last its parting folds admitted the Pres-
dent, to 90 with the dead heroes of the
Republic, the nation felt indeed the
whisper that God was coming down
among the children of men, and kneel-
ING at that troubled hour, when JOY and
sadness were so strangely cOmmingled,
the American people listened to the
voice of their God, and made solemn
covenant with Him, and with each other
that the nation should be redeemed, all
lis glory restored, and that amid the
ruin Of slavery and treason \ temple OF
freedom aud Justice should be built
which would survive forever, 1t re
mains for us, Mr. Speaker, copsecrated
by that great event, and under the
covenant with God, to keep that faith,
and 90 on in the good work until IL
shall be completed, following the lead OF
that great man, and reverently follow
ING the lead OF God Let MS remember
that


He has sounded forth the trumpet which


shall never call retreat


sif mt before


Judgment seat.


BE swift my soul TO answer him be iubilant


my feet


For God is marching on.


The motion of Mr. Garfield was then
agreed to.


Adjourned.