  Peace had come and the bond was free, Lincoln was as happy as he could be; He was enjoying amusement with his wife, When a demon robbed him of his life. Sadly and quickly the message fled, Lincoln the emancipator is dead; The shocking news ran mad and wild, From the oldest to the youngest child. The North and the South together moaned, The grief-stricken blacks together groaned; For the nation had lost its greatest man, Who in deeds of wrong took no hand. The poor ex-slaves with tear-dimmed eyes, Were broken-hearted and full of sighs; Fearing that back to slavery they would have to go, In the field with the mule, the plow and the hoe. To toil daily in the cold and heat, To be kicked around, cursed and beat; They felt they had lost their dearest friend, Who believed in the freedom of all men. The Emancipation was written to place, A stamp upon the Negro race; And as long as the United States shall stand, No slaves shall breathe upon her land. The trodden race continued in prayer, To God for His love and His care; Until the cloud was moved away, And turned their darkness into day. They praised the Lord in words and song, And freely forgave their masters’ wrongs; They felt that God would do the rest, For He alone knows what is best. The years that they spent were sad and long, Tho’ in their heart they sang the song; Of future years when they would be free, And the path of knowledge they longed to see. God raised the curtain for them to view, The path of knowledge and to tread it too; And to-day we find them in all walks of life, Amid the hardships and the strife. They have come thru the forest, Been pierced by the brier; They are going onward and upward, By brain and by plow. |
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