LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 



477 



neighborhoods, old and young, men, and women 

 with infants in their arms, turned out by the 

 roadside and anxiously watched the funeral 

 train. Flags at half-mast, mourning inscrip- 

 tions, funeral arches, testified the sorrow that 

 was felt in every heart. Clusters of men at 

 various points raised their hats as the funeral 

 car glided past, and the deepest sorrow was ex- 

 pressed in every countenance. 



At York, Pa., at the request of the ladies of 

 that town, a beautiful wreath was placed with 

 due solemnity upon the coffin, while a dirge 

 was performed by the band, amid the tolling of 

 bells and the uncovered heads of the mul- 

 titude. 



At Harrisburg, owing to the heavy rain, the 

 intended military and civic display did not take 

 place. Throngs of people, however, lined the 

 streets, and followed the remains to the Capitol, 

 where the body lay in state, in the House of 

 Representatives, upon a fine catafalque, sur- 

 rounded with a circle of white flowering al- 

 monds ; and during a part of the night the cit- 

 izens were allowed to obtain a view of the Pres- 

 ident's features. 



From Baltimore to Philadelphia it may be 

 said that the entire route was amid crowds of 

 sorrowing people, for between villages and 

 towns, all the way, farmers and their families 

 assembled in fields and about houses, seriously 

 and reverently gazing at the funeral cortege. 



At Philadelphia, where they were received 

 by a great procession, the remains of the Presi- 

 dent found a resting-place in Independence Hall, 

 around which cluster so many historical mem- 

 ories, and over which four years before the 

 then President-elect hoisted the American flag 

 with a declaration of his willingness to sacrifice 

 his life rather than abandon the cause which he 

 at length fell in defending. The bier was close 

 to the famous old liberty -bell which first sound- 

 ed forth in 1776 the tidings of independence. 

 The interior of the hall, as well as its exterior, was 

 heavily draped and most artistically illuminated. 

 Around the remains were appropriate decora- 

 tions, leaves of exquisite evergreens, and flowers 

 of a rich crimson bloom. At the head of the 

 corpse were bouquets, while flaming tapers were 

 at the feet, and from the elaborately hung walls 

 the portraits of the great and good who have 

 passed away, eloquent in their silence, looked 

 down upon the sad scene. The next morning, 

 before daylight, lines of. people were formed to 

 view the remains of the President, and these 

 lines extended a distance of three miles, from 

 the Delaware to the Schuylkill Rivers, and 

 thousands spent three or four hours in the lines, 

 before reaching the hall. 



The funeral train left Philadelphia at 4 A. M. 

 on the 24th of April, 1865. The incidents 

 of the journey to New York were similar to 

 those which had previously occurred. At times 

 the track was lined for, miles on both sides with 

 a continuous array of people. The most im- 

 pressive scene of the whole route thus far, was 

 furnished by the city of Newark, where it 



seemed as if the inhabitants had resolved to 

 turn out en masse to pay their tribute of respect 

 to the memory of the departed as his coffin 

 passed by. For a distance of a mile the ob- 

 server on the train could perceive only one sea 

 of human beings. 



Of a yet grander character was the reception 

 given to the remains at Jersey City. The depot, 

 one of the largest halls in the country, was draped 

 in an imposing manner, bells tolled, cannon 

 boomed in sad echoes, and as the remains were 

 moved from the cars to the boat, a choir of 

 singers chanted a solemn dirge. Again, as the 

 ferry-boat neared the New York side of the 

 Hudson, strains of funeral music pealed from 

 their united voices, and mingled with the sound 

 of cannon and tolling bells. 



In New York city the scene was imposing 

 beyond comparison. As far as the eye could 

 see, a dense mass of people, all wearing the 

 insignia of mourning, filled the streets and 

 crowded every window. The fronts of the 

 houses and warehouses were tastefully draped 

 with mourning, and the national ensign was 

 displayed at half-mast from the top of almost 

 every building. The procession which accom- 

 panied and followed the remains to their resting- 

 place in the City Hall was very large, and passed 

 through such a concourse of mourning faces as 

 New York never before witnessed. Along the 

 entire route minute-guns were fired, the bells 

 tolled from all the steeples of the city, and the 

 Trinity chimes wailed forth the notes of " Old 

 Hundred." Arrived at the City Hall, the coffin 

 was borne into the rotunda amid the solemn 

 chantings of eight hundred singers, and was 

 placed upon the catafalque prepared for it. The 

 hall was richly and tastefully draped, and the 

 coffin almost buried in flowers, while a large 

 military guard kept watch night and day of the 

 precious dust. All day and all night long the 

 living tide pressed into the hall to pay their 

 last respects to the dead, and when the time 

 came for the departure of the funeral pro- 

 cession, thousands who had waited for hours in 

 the long lines to gain a glimpse of that well- 

 known face, were obliged to turn away sadly 

 disappointed. At the solemn hour of midnight 

 on the 24th, the German musical societies per- 

 formed a funeral chant in the rotunda of the 

 City Hall, with the most thrilling effect. In 

 the afternoon of the 25th of April the great 

 metropolis took its final leave of the remains of 

 Abraham Lincoln, and after a farewell more 

 grand and imposing than any demonstration in 

 the previous experience of the nation, they 

 started on their way westward. The funeral 

 pageant was of extraordinary grandeur and im- 

 pressiveness. A military force of more than 

 fifteen thousand men, with the staffs of the sev- 

 eral brigades and divisions and their batteries, 

 and the civic elements which joined in the pro- 

 cession, formed a double line of four and a half 

 miles in length. Last in the procession wero 

 about two thousand colored citizens of New 

 York, preceded by a banner bearing the in- 



