124 POLITICAL LIFE-V 



elected to pronounce one of the orations. Barely have I 

 felt an occasion so deeply: it has been my lot during my 

 life to be present at the funerals of various great rulers 

 and magnates; but at none of these was so deep an im 

 pression made upon me as by the body of Lincoln lying 

 in the assembly chamber at Albany, quiet and peaceful at 

 last. 



Of the speeches made in the Senate on the occasion, 

 mine being the only one which was not read or given from 

 memory, attracted some attention, and I was asked es 

 pecially for the source of a quotation which occurred in 

 it, and which was afterward dwelt upon by some of my 

 hearers. It was the result of a sudden remembrance of the 

 lines in Milton s &quot;Samson Agonistes,&quot; beginning: 



&quot; Oh, how comely it is, and how reviving 

 To the spirits of just men long oppressed, 

 When God into the hands of their deliverer 

 Puts invincible might 



To quell the mighty of the earth, the oppressor, 

 The brute and boisterous force of violent men,&quot; etc. 1 



The funeral was conducted with dignity and solemnity. 

 When the coffin was opened and we were allowed to take 

 one last look at Lincoln s face, it impressed me as having 

 the same melancholy expression which I had seen upon it 

 when he entered the East Boom at the White House. In 

 its quiet sadness there seemed to have been no change. 

 There was no pomp in the surroundings ; all, though dig 

 nified, was simple. Very different was it from the show 

 and ceremonial at the funeral of the Emperor Nicholas 

 which I had attended ten years before; but it was even 

 more impressive. At the head of the coffin stood General 

 Dix, who had served so honorably in the War of 1812, in 

 the Senate of the United States, in the Civil War, and who 

 was afterward to serve with no less fidelity as governor 

 of the State. Nothing could be more fitting than such a 

 chieftaincy in the guard of honor. 



1 Milton s &quot; Samson Agonistes,&quot; lines 1268-1280. 



