The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by Rev. T. M. Eddy

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Title: Abraham Lincoln A Memorial Discourse

Author: Rev. T. M. Eddy

Release Date: June 9, 2006 [EBook #18540]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABRAHAM LINCOLN ***

Produced by The University of Michigan's Making of America online book collection (http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moa/).

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

A

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE,

By Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D.,

Delivered at a

Union Meeting, held in the Presbyterian Church,

Waukegan Illinois,

Wednesday, April 19, 1865,

The day upon which the funeral services of the president were conducted in Washington, and observed throughout the loyal states as one of mourning.

Published by request.

Chicago:

Printed at the Methodist Book Depository.

Charles Philbrick, Printer.

1865.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Waukegan, April 19, 1865.

Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D.:

The undersigned having listened with much interest and profit to your eloquent eulogy this day spoken before the citizens of this town, upon the Life and Death of President Lincoln, unite in requesting a copy for publication. We feel that much good would come to the community from a calm perusal of the thoughts so fitly uttered on the occasion.

H. W. Blodgett,
D. Brewster,
C. W. Upton,
W. H. P. Wright,
W. J. Lucas,
C. L. Wright,
C. G. Buell,
M. M. Biddlecew,
P. W. Edwards,
A. P. Yard,
B. S. Kennicott,
Wm. C. Tiffany,
S. S. Greenleaf,
R. Douglas,
Joseph Mallon,
James Y. Cory.

Editorial Rooms, Northwestern Christian Advocate, 66 Washington
Street, Chicago, April 24, 1865.

Messrs. Blodgett, Upton and Others:

Gentlemen—Your note is before me. You know the time for the preparation of that discourse was very brief. You are also aware, doubtless, that though spoken from copious notes, much of it was extemporized, and that I cannot reproduce those passages. But such as it is, I place it in your hands, as my humble tribute to the name and the virtues of our murdered President.

With much respect, gentlemen,

Yours truly,

T. M. Eddy.

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE.

"In the day of adversity consider."

It is the day of adversity. A great grief throws its shadow over heart and hearth and home. There is such a sorrow as this land never knew before; agony such as never until now wrung the heart of the nation. In mansion and cottage, alike, do the people bow themselves.

We have been through the Red Sea of war, and across the weary, desert marches of griefs and bereavements, but heretofore we have felt that our leader was with us, and believed that surely as Moses was led by the pillar of cloud and of fire, so did God lead him.

But now that leader is not. Slain, slain by the hand of the assassin, murdered beside his wife! The costliest blood has been shed, the clearest eye is closed, the strongest arm is nerveless—the Chief Magistrate is no more. "The mighty man cries bitterly; the day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness."

It is no mere official mourning which hangs its sad drapery everywhere. It is not alone that a President of the Republic is, for the first time, assassinated. No; there is a tender grief that characterizes the bereavement of a loved friend, which shows there was something in this man which grappled him to men's hearts as with hooks of steel.

But mourning the death of the Chief Magistrate, it becomes us to review the elements of his career as a ruler, which have so endeared him to loyal hearts.

If I were to sketch the model statesman, I would say he must have mental breadth and clearness, incorruptible integrity, strength of will, tireless patience, humanity, preserved from demoralizing weakness by conscientious reverence for law, ardent love of country, and, regulating all, a commanding sense of responsibility to God, the Judge of all. These, though wrapped in seeming rustic garb, were found in Abraham Lincoln. He had mental breadth and clearness. In spite of a defective early education, he became a self-taught thinker, and later in life he read widely and meditated profoundly, until he acquired a thorough mental discipline. He possessed the power to comprehend a subject at once in the aggregate and in its details. His eye swept a wide horizon and descried clearly all within its circumference. He was a keen logician, whose apt manner of "putting things" made him more than a match for practiced diplomatists and wily marplots. These were men of might about his council-board, scholars and statesmen, but none arose to his altitude, much less was either his master.

That very facetiousness sometimes critcised, kept him from becoming morbid, and gave healthfulness to his opinions, free alike from fever and paralysis. That his was incorruptible integrity, no man dare question. He was not merely above reproach, but eminently above suspicion. Purity is receptive. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," is as profound in philosophy as comprehensive in theology. Purity in the realm of moral decision and motive, is a skylight to the soul, through which truth comes direct. Abraham Lincoln was so pure in motive and purpose, looked so intensely after the right that he might pursue it, that he saw clearly where many walked in mist.

Without developing the characteristics of the ideal statesman analytically, let us see how they were manifest in his administration.

It began amid the rockings of rebellion. A servile predecessor, deplorably weak, if not criminal, had permitted treason to be freely mouthed in the national capitol, treasonable action to be taken by State authorities, and armed treason to resist and defy federal authority, and environ with bristling works the forts and flag of the Union. At such a juncture, Mr. Lincoln, then barely escaping assassination, was inaugurated. As was right, he made all proper efforts for conciliation, tendered the olive-branch, proposed such changes as existing laws, and even of the Constitution, as should secure Southern rights from the adverse legislation of a sectional majority. All was refused, and traitors said, "We will not live with you. Though you sign a blank sheet and leave us to fill it with our own conditions, we will not abide with you."