134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. When all this shall have come about, then may it be said with truth, "Rome is dead, and Athens is no more," the words of whose wise ones went out into all lands, and the songs of whose singing men to the ends of the world; their pomp and their glory have gone down with them into the pit. A 63. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. · GREAT leader of the people has passed through toil, sorrow, battle, and war, and come near to the promised land of peace, into which he might not pass over. Who will recount our martyr's sufferings for this people? Since the November of 1860, his horizon has been black with storms. By day and by night he trod a way of danger and darkness. On his shoulders rested a government dearer to him than his own life. At its integrity millions of men were striking at home. Upon this government foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a lone island in a sea full of storms; and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour it. Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have rested; but not on one such, and in such measure, as upon that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impassioned natures in hours of hope, and never sinking with the mercurial in hours of defeat to the depths of despondency, he held on with immovable patience and fortitude, putting caution against hope, that it might not be premature, and hope against caution, that it might not yield to dread and danger. He wrestled cease ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 135 lessly through four black and dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God was cleansing the sin of his people as by fire. At last the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the country. The mountains began to give forth their forms from out the darkness; and the East came rushing towards us with arms full of joy for all our sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceedingly, that had sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could bring to no other heart such joy, such rest, such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked upon it as Moses looked upon the promised land. Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that he had gone from among us. And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at Cities and states are his every stage of his coming. pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the hours with solemn progression. Dead, dead. DEAD, he yet speaketh! Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is any man that was ever fit to live dead? Disinthralled of flesh, and risen in the unobstructed sphere where passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome! Your sorrows, O people, are his peace! Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and weep here; God makes it joy and triumph there. Pass on! Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man, and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty conqueror. Not thine 136 GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. any more, but the nation's; not ours, but the world's. Give him place, O ye prairies! In the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds that move over the mighty places of the West, chant his requiem! Ye people, behold a martyr whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty. 64. GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. ET all good citizens in both England and America, preserve peace and international good will. Consider the fearfulness of the struggle if, at any time, a war should break out between these countries. On both sides there is great wealth, great skill, great energy, great bravery. In case of a struggle in which the honor and safety of your country are concerned, there is no true American who is not ready to sacrifice his life. It is the same with In case of any invasion of our shores, there is not one of us who would us. not die rather than survive the freedom of his country. What, then, must be the fearfulness of a war in which two such nations are engaged! Humanity shudders at the very suggestion. I appeal to you by the unity of our race for, with two governments we are one people; by the unity of the grand old language we alike speak, with the thrilling names of father, mother, home, dear to us alike; by our common literature, our Shakespeare, GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 137 who is your Shakespeare, our Milton, who is your Milton, our Longfellows and Tennysons, side by side in all our libraries; I appeal to you by the stirring memories of our common history, — by those ancestors of both our nations, who proved their prowess at Hastings, whether as sturdy Saxon defending the standard of King Harold, or as daring Norman spurring their chivalry to the trumpet of Duke William, —— and who, afterwards united on a better field, wrung from a reluctant tyrant that great charter which is the foundation of our liberties on both sides of the Atlantic; I appeal to you by the stirring times when those common ancestors lighted their beacons on every hill, and rallied around a lion-hearted queen, and launched forth some of them in mere fishing vessels—against the proud Armada that dared to threaten their subjugation; I appeal to you by the struggles of the commonwealth, by the memories of those who put to rout the abettors of tyranny- Cromwell, Hampden, Sir Harry Vane; I appeal to you by those Pilgrim Fathers here, and by those Puritans and Covenanters who remained behind, by whose heroic sufferings both nations enjoy such freedom to worship God; I appeal to you by the graves in which our common ancestors repose, not only, it may be, beneath the stately towers of Westminster, but in many an ancient village churchyard, where daisies grow on the turf-covered graves, and venerable yew trees cast over them their solemn shade; I appeal to you by that Bible--precious to us both; by that gospel which our missionaries alike proclaim to the heathen world, and by that Saviour whom we both adore, never let there be strife between nations whose conflict would be the 138 rushing together of two Niagaras, but whose union will be like the irresistible course of two great rivers flowing on majestically to fertilize and bless the world. GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. Never let our beautiful standards. - yours of the stars and stripes, suggesting the lamps of night and the rays of day, and ours of the clustered crosses, telling of union in diversity, and reminding of the One Great Liberator and Peace-Maker, who, by the cross, gave life to the world — never let these glorious standards be arrayed in hostile ranks; but ever may they float side by side, leading on the van of the world's progress. O, I can imagine that if we, the hereditary champions of freedom, were engaged in strife, all the despots of the earth would clap their hands, and all the demons in hell would exult, while angels would weep to see these two nations wasting the treasure and shedding the blood that should be reserved for the strife against the common foes of freedom. Never give angels such cause of lamentation, never give despots and demons such cause for rejoicing; but ever Great Britain and America the mother and the daughter, or, if you prefer it, the elder daughter and the younger— go forth hand in hand, angel guardians together of civilization, freedom, and religion, their only rivalry the rivalry of love. |