478 



LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 



scription on one side, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

 OUR EMANCIPATOR," and on the other, "To 

 MILLIONS OF BONDMEN HE LIBERTY GAVE." 

 Throughout the whole distance traversed by 

 the procession the streets were lined by dense 

 masses of sorrowing mourners, and every win- 

 dow amid its drapery of woe was filled with 

 sad faces. At the same tune a vast concourse 

 assembled in Union Square, where an eloquent 

 funeral oration was delivered by the Hon. 

 George Bancroft, and an elegiac ode written 

 by William Cullen Bryant was recited. As 

 the sad procession moved westward, the same 

 scenes of popular grief and of heartfelt sorrow 

 and respect were everywhere manifested. 

 Arches, columns, monuments, banners, etc., 

 arranged with tasteful and loving care, lined the 

 entire route of the funeral train as it passed 

 along the Hudson River Railroad, heralded on 

 its onward course by the tolling of bells and the 

 echoing of minute-guns. At Albany the corpse 

 was escorted across the river by a torchlight 

 procession of the military and firemen, and 

 placed in the Capitol of the State, where it rest- 

 ed until 2 P. M. of the next day visited by 

 thousands. Accompanied by a vast procession, 

 it was then escorted to the depot of the New 

 York Central Railroad Company and deposited 

 in one of the richly draped cars of the funeral 

 train, for its journey westward through the 

 Empire State. 



Notwithstanding the greater part of the trip 

 between Albany and Buffalo was made at night, 

 mournful crowds were collected all along the 

 line to catch a view of the passing cortege. 

 The buildings were appropriately draped, flags 

 were everywhere at half-mast, and bonfires and 

 torches illumined the sad pageant. All through 

 the dark hours, as the train sped on, at each 

 city, town, village, hamlet, and railway station, 

 these testimonies of the people's affection and 

 grief were repeated. 



At Buffalo and Cleveland the body was ap- 

 propriately received amid every possible demons 

 stration of grief and respect. At the latter city 

 an open temple had been constructed and under 

 its canopy the coffin was placed, and thousands 

 in sad procession passed and gazed on the 

 changing features of their loved President. At 

 Columbus, Ohio, the remains were placed in 

 the rotunda of the State Capitol, which was 

 appropriately draped. The coffin rested upon 

 a mound of moss thickly dotted with the choicest 

 flowers, and was surrounded by elegant vases 

 of rare exotics. The walls were adorned with 

 Powell's great painting of "Perry's Victory," 

 and clusters of banners, smoke-stained, torn and 

 riddled with bullets, borne by Ohio regiments 

 during the war, and now festooned with crape, 

 drooped sadly around the spacious rotunda; 

 solemn dirges were played by the bands at 

 intervals on the terraces of the Capitol, and guns 

 were fired during the day. At Indianapolis, 

 similar honors were paid to the departed Chief 

 Magistrate. 



At Chicago the reception of the dead Presi- 



dent was imposing and sublime. A magnificent 

 funeral arch had been erected at the railroad 

 station, and under this the precious remains 

 were received and conveyed thus to the rotunda 

 of the Court House, where they were laid in 

 state upon a catafalque of wonderful beauty, 

 and visited by thousands who thus in sadness 

 welcomed back their dead ruler to the State 

 which had been for more than thirty years his 

 home. From all the towns and villages for 

 hundreds of miles around the Queen City of the 

 Lakes, the people had come to express alike 

 their grief and respect for Abraham Lincoln. 

 At night when fair hands had strewn the coffin 

 with fresh flowers, it was borne with chanted 

 dirges by torchlight to the station house, and 

 at last on the 3d of May, after a journey of 

 seventeen hundred miles, reached Springfield, 

 Illinois, the home where he had been so long 

 personally known. The remains were received 

 by a procession, and were carried to the State 

 House, where they were deposited in the Hall 

 of Representatives, under a canopy of exquisite 

 design and finish, while prominent among 

 the tasteful decorations of the place were the 

 words of President Lincoln at Independence 

 Hall, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861 : " SOONER 



THAN SURRENDER THESE PRINCIPLES, I WOULD BE 



ASSASSINATED ON THE SPOT." Here, as else- 

 where, the citizens of the place, as well as the 

 thousands who came pouring in by every mode 

 of conveyance, sought to gaze on the face of the 

 dead. All night long the streets of the city 

 resounded with the tramp of feet. It was es- 

 timated that more than seventy-five thousand 

 passed into the hall. 



During the morning, minute-guns were fired 

 by Battery K, Missouri Light Artillery. About 

 10 o'clock, A. M., the coffin was finally closed. 

 Meanwhile a choir of two hundred and fifty 

 voices, accompanied by Lebrun's band from 

 St. Louis, sang Paesello's " Peace, troubled soul," 

 and as the coffin was borne out, Pleyel's Hymn, 

 " Children of the Heavenly King." The pro- 

 cession moved to Oak Ridge Cemetery, under 

 the immediate command of Major-General Jo- 

 seph Hooker, raarshal-in-chief ; and on its arri- 

 val at the cemetery, the remains were placed in 

 the tomb, and after the simple but touching 

 ceremonies of interment an eloquent funeral 

 discourse was pronounced by Bishop Simpson, 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the 

 immense throng silently dispersed. 



The grief which was occasioned by the Pres- 

 ident's death, was not confined to our own 

 shores; England poured forth her encomiums 

 upon the dead, her widowed Queen writing 

 a most touching letter of sympathy to the be- 

 reaved consort of the President, while her poets 

 vied with ours in chanting his requiem. Franco, 

 too, expressed in words and tones of sympathy 

 her grief at the nation's loss; and the wave of 

 grief, sweeping over Europe, found answering 

 billows in the far off Orient, China, Japan, and 

 Siam sent their condolence. 



Mr. Lincoln's character as a man and a Chief 

 V 



