Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. SurrattHarris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
History
Assassination of Lincoln: a History of the Great Conspiracy: Trial of the Conspirators by a Military Commission, and a Review of the Trial of John H. Surratt
Harris, T. M. (Thomas Mealey)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Assassination; Surratt, John H. (John Harrison), 1844-1916
is made so by the sanction of your votes, and in that act the voice of
the people becomes the voice of God. I repeat, a government which is
thus instituted is ordained of God, and it is as much hedged about as
that of any king that ever reigned on England's throne. Is it possible
that our countrymen will say that the government which we thus have
made, which our fathers established, and which we are thus cherishing,
has nothing of divinity hedging it about?
"Does it rest alone on human whim, without having anything sacred about
it, and without any protection of the Almighty over it? If so, let
me again repeat, its days are numbered; it will soon pass away. Once
there was an empire in Rome. It was an empire which was in its day the
greatest which the human mind had ever reared; but it did not believe,
or rather ceased to believe, that there was a God who ruled; that
government was of God; and they ceased to punish great crimes, such as
treason, rapine, and murder, and it happened a very short time after
they ceased to inflict punishment for such crimes--ceased to exercise
the powers which belong to government--that the Roman empire tumbled
into ruins.
"It was trampled down by the barbarians, and now not a son of the
Cæsars lives on the face of the earth, and not a descendant of a Roman
matron exists anywhere in this wide universe. The empire perished, and
crumbled into dust; nothing but its ashes remain. And thus will it
ever be whenever a people cease to obey God, and cease to think that
government is of God. Let us see what the Bible says on this subject;
what views were entertained in the Old Testament, and what in the New."
Mr. Pierrepont then read from 1st Samuel, chapter xv, as follows:--
"'Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be
king over his people, over Israel; now therefore hearken thou unto the
voice of the words of the Lord.
"'Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to
Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
"'Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox
and sheep, camel and ass.
"'And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim,
two hundred thousand foot-men, and ten thousand men of Judah.
"'And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
"'And Saul said unto the Kenites, go, depart, get you down from among
the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness
to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the
Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
"'And Saul smote the Amalekites, from Havilah _until_ thou comest to
Shur, that is over against Egypt.
"'And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and utterly
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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