Sketch of the life of Abraham LincolnArnold, Isaac N.
History
Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln
Arnold, Isaac N.
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
The terrible news of the death of Lincoln was, on the morning of the
15th, borne by telegraph to every portion of the Republic. Coming, as it
did, in the midst of universal joy, no language can picture the horror
and grief of the people on its reception. A whole nation wept. Persons
who had not heard the news, coming into crowded cities, were struck with
the strange aspect of the people. All business was suspended; gloom,
sadness, grief, sat upon every face. The flag, which had everywhere,
from every spire and masthead, roof, and tree, and public building, been
floating in glorious triumph, was now lowered; and, as the hours of that
dreary 15th of April passed on, the people, by common impulse, each
family by itself, commenced draping their houses and public buildings in
mourning, and before night the whole nation was shrouded in black.
There were no classes of people in the Republic whose grief was more
demonstrative than that of the soldiers and the freedmen. The vast
armies, not yet disbanded, looked upon Lincoln as their father. They
knew his heart had followed them in all their campaigns and marches and
battles. Grief and vengeance filled their hearts. But the poor negroes
everywhere wept and sobbed over a loss which they instinctively felt was
to them irreparable. On the Sunday following his death, the whole people
gathered to their places of public worship, and mingled their tears
together over a bereavement which every one felt like the loss of a
father or a brother. The remains of the President were taken to the
White House. On the 17th, on Monday, a meeting of the members of
Congress then in Washington, was held at the Capitol, to make
arrangements for the funeral. This meeting named a committee of one
member from each State and Territory, and the whole Congressional
delegation from Illinois, as a Congressional Committee to attend the
remains of Mr. Lincoln to their final resting-place in Illinois. Senator
Sumner and others desired that his body should be placed under the dome
of the Capitol at Washington. It was stated that a vault had been
prepared there for the remains of Washington, but had never been used,
because the Washington family and Virginia desired them to remain in the
family vault at Mount Vernon. It was said it would be peculiarly
appropriate for the remains of Lincoln to be deposited under the dome of
the Capitol of the Republic he had saved and redeemed.
The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 19th. The services were held in
the East Room of the Executive Mansion. It was a bright, genial
day--typical of the kind and genial nature of him whom a nation was so
deeply mourning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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