CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



287 



utationed in tho vestibule, played appropriate 



A , Ivo o'clock and thirty minutes the two 

 re called to order by tho President 

 apore of tho Senate. 



Rev. l)r. Boynton, Chaplain of the House of 

 . offered a prayer. After which 

 tin- 1'iv-iileiit pro tempore of the Senate, inin- 

 tr..ili!. -in_' tin- orator of tlio day, said: 



.nary occasion could have convened 

 this auu p u-t assemblage. For four weary years 

 the storm of war, of civil war, raged fiercely over 

 our country. Tho blood of the best and bravest 

 of her BODS was freely shed to preserve her 

 name and place among the nations of tho earth. 

 In April last tho dark clouds which had so long 

 Tiling heavily and gloomily over our heads were 

 nil dispersed, and the light of peace, more wel- 

 come even than tho vernal sunshine, gladdened 

 tho eyes and the hearts of our people. Shouts 

 of joy and songs of triumph echoed through the 

 land. Tho hearts of tho devout poured them- 

 selves in orisons and thanksgivings to the God 

 of battles and of nations that the most wicked 

 and most formidable rebellion ever known in 

 human history had been effectually crushed and 

 our country saved. 



''In the midst of all this abounding joy, sud- 

 denly and swiftly as the lightning's flash, came 

 the fearful tidings that the chief Magistrate of 

 the Republic, our President loved and honored 

 as few men ever were, so honest, so faithful, so 

 true to his duty and his country, had been foul- 

 ly murdered, had fallen by the bullet of an as- 

 sassin. All hearts were stricken with horror. 

 The transition from extreme joy to profound 

 sorrow was never more sudden and universal. 

 Had it been possible for a stranger, ignorant of 

 the truth, to look over our land, he would have 

 supposed that there had come upon us some vis- 

 itation of the Almighty not less dreadful than 

 that which once fell on ancient Egypt on that 

 fearful night when there was not a house where 

 there was not one dead. The nation wept for 

 him. 



i% After being gazed upon by myriads of loving 

 eyes, under tho dome of this magnificent Capi- 

 tol, tho remains of our President were borne in 

 solemn procession, through our cities, towns, 

 and villages, all draped in tho habiliments of 

 sorrow, tho symbols and tokens of profound 

 and heart-felt grief, to their final resting-place 

 in tho capital of his own State. There he 

 sleeps, peacefully embalmed iu tho tears of his 

 countrymen. 



' Tho Somite and House of Representatives of 

 tho United States have deemed it proper to 

 commemorate this tragic event by appropriate 

 services. This day, the birthday of him whom 

 we mourn, has properly been selected. An em- 

 inent citizen, distinguished by his labors and 

 services in high and responsible public positions 

 at home and abroad whoso pen has instructed 

 the present age in the history of his country, 

 and done much to transmit tho fame and 

 renown of that country to future ages 



lion. George Bancroft will now deliver a dis- 

 course.** 



Mr. Bancroft (who, on coming forward, waa 

 greeted with warm demonstrations of applause) 

 then proceeded to deliver an oration. 



In the Senate, on May 8th, Mr. Sumner, of 

 Massachusetts, from the Committee on Foreign 

 Relations, reported the following joint resolu- 

 tion, which had previously passed the House : 



Rtsolved, etc., That the Congress of the United 

 States of America has learned with deep regret of 

 the attempt made upon the life of the Emperor of 

 Russia by an enemy of emancipation. The Congress 

 sends their greeting to his Imperial Majesty and to 

 the Russian nation, and congratulates the twenty 

 million serfs upon the providential escape from dan- 

 ger of the sovereign to whose head and heart they 

 owe the blessings of their freedom. 



The first amendment of the Committee on 

 Foreign Relations was to strike out the word 

 "their" before the word "greeting," so that 

 it would read : " The Congress sends greeting 

 to his Imperial Majesty," etc. 



The amendment was agreed to. 



The next amendment was to add as an addi- 

 tional section the following : 



And be it further retained, That the President of the 

 United States be requested to forward a copy of thu 

 resolution to the Emperor of Russia. 



The amendment was agreed to. 



Mr. Sumner said : " The public prints have 

 informed us that an attempt was made on tho 

 life of the Emperor of Russia by a person ani- 

 mated against him on account of his divine 

 effort to establish emancipation. That report, 

 I am inclined to think, has not disclosed com- 

 pletely the whole case. It does not appear, 

 from what we are told, that the special ground 

 of animosity to the Emperor, at the present mo- 

 ment, is so much tho original act of emancipa- 

 tion as the courage and perseverance and wis- 

 dom which he has displayed in carrying it for- 

 ward to its practical results. 



" I have had occasion, formerly, to remind tho 

 Senate how completely the Emperor has done 

 his work. Not content with issuing tho decree 

 of emancipation, which was in the month of 

 February, 1861, he has proceeded, by an elab- 

 orate system of regulations, to provide, in tho 

 first place, for what have been called the civil 

 rights of all the recent serfs ; then, in the next 

 place, to provide especially for their rights in 

 court; then,. again, to provide for their rights 

 in property, securing to every one of them a 

 homestead ; and then, again, by providing for 

 them rights of public education. Added to 

 all these, he has secured to them also political 

 rights, giving to every one the right to vote for 

 all local officers, corresponding to our officers 

 of the town and of the county. It is this very 

 thoroughness with which he has carried out 

 his decree of emancipation that has aroused 

 against him the ancient partisans of slavery, 

 and I doubt not it was one of these who aimed 

 at him that blow which was so happily arrested. 



