  Death of President Lincoln Personal Recollections—The Tragic Event—Mr. Stanton—A Nation in Sorrow—The Funeral—The Interment at Springfield, Illinois—The House in Which President Lincoln Died—Changed Conditions—The South Honors Lincoln—A United People—A Rich Inheritance. On the 15th of April, 1865, my father came hurriedly into the house with the exclamatory interrogation, addressed to mother, "Guess who's dead!" Mother at once thought of her old father, and asked if it were he. Then came the startling news, "Lincoln is killed!" What a shock it was to our family, as it was to thousands of others. We looked at the little two-year-old boy of the household who bore the President's name, and, with childish superstition, wondered if he would suffer any disadvantages because of the murder of President Lincoln. On Friday evening, April 14, the President was in attendance at Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, in Washington, D. C. The proceeds of the entertainment were to be given to a charity benefit, and it was widely advertised that the President and wife, with General Grant and others would be present. John Wilkes Booth, a fanatic and Southern sympathizer, shot the President in the head at 10:15. He at once became unconscious, and never regained consciousness. He was carried across the street to a house, where he died the next morning at 7:23. Mrs. Lincoln, the son Robert T., Private Secretary John Hay, several members of the No one, outside of the family, was so deeply moved at the striking down of the President as was Mr. Stanton. It will be remembered that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton first met in 1857, at the trial of the McCormick Reaper Patent case, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that at the trial Stanton slighted Mr. Lincoln and made uncomplimentary remarks about him. Four years later, President Lincoln chose Mr. Stanton a member of his cabinet, making him Secretary of War. Their relations were very close during the war period up to the time of Mr. Lincoln's death. F. B. Carpenter, in his book, "Six Months at the White House," says: "A few days before the President's death, Secretary Stanton tendered his resignation of the War Department. He accompanied the act with a heartfelt tribute to Mr. Lincoln's constant friendship and faithful devotion to the country, saying, also, that he, as secretary, had accepted the position to hold it only until the war should end, and that now he felt his work was done, and his duty was to resign. "Mr. Lincoln was greatly moved by the secretary's words, and, tearing in pieces the paper containing his resignation, and throwing his arms about the secretary, he said, 'Stanton, you have been a good friend and a faithful public servant, and it is not for you to say when you will no longer be needed here.' Several friends of both parties were present on the occasion, and there was not a dry eye that witnessed the scene." When Lincoln fell, Stanton was almost heart-broken, and as he knelt by his side was heard to say to himself: "Am I indeed left alone? None may now ever know or tell what we have suffered together in the nation's darkest When Lincoln expired, and just after prayer by Doctor Gurley, Stanton was the first to break the silence, saying, "Now he belongs to the ages." At the death of President Lincoln the nation was suddenly turned from demonstrations of great joy, on account of the closing of the war, to intense grief and unutterable horror. W. O. Stoddard says, "It was as if there had been a death in every home throughout the land." J. H. Barrett says: "Never before was rejoicing turned into such sudden and overwhelming sorrow. A demon studying how most deeply to wound the greatest number of hearts, could have devised no act for his purpose like that which sent Abraham Lincoln to his grave. No man's loss could have been so universally felt as that of a father, brother, friend. Many a fireside was made lonely by this bereavement. Sadness and despondency seized upon all. Men ceased business, and workmen returned home with their dinner buckets unopened. The merchants left their counting-rooms for the privacy of their dwellings. A gloom, intensified by the transition from the pomp and rejoicing of the day before, settled impenetrably on every mind. Bells sadly tolled in all parts of the land. Mourning drapery was quickly seen from house to house on every square of the national capital; and all the chief places of the country witnessed, by spontaneous demonstration, their participation in the general sorrow. In every loyal pulpit, and at every true altar throughout the nation, the great public grief was the theme of earnest prayer and discourse on the day following. One needs not to dwell on what no pen can describe, and on what no adult living on that day can ever forget." Funeral services were conducted in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, April 19, by Doctor Gurley, of the Presbyterian Church. Andrew Johnson, the successor of President Lincoln, by proclamation, recommended that memorial services be held that day throughout the United States. I kept my first diary that year, and made the following entry for that day: "Abraham Lincoln's funeral preached; order to hold meeting at every church in the U. S. Heard David Swartz preach in Clear Spring. 2 Samuel, 3 chapter, 38 verse. The minister was a Methodist, and the words of the text were, 'Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?'" The remains of President Lincoln were taken to his old home, Springfield, Illinois, for interment. An address was there delivered by Mr. Lincoln's highly-esteemed friend, Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A large monument, appropriate to the memory of him who "bound the nation and unbound the slave," marks the place where his body lies in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The three-story brick building in which President Lincoln died in Washington City is still standing. The lower story is used by Mr. O. H. Oldroyd, containing the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial Collection, consisting of more than three thousand articles pertaining to the martyred President. I visited this house, May 23, 1901. In some pictures of the house in which Lincoln died there is a flag floating from a window in the second story, and in others the third story, with the statement that the flag indicates the room in which President Lincoln died. Neither is correct. He died in a small room on the first floor, in the rear part of the building. It is now nearly forty-four years since Abraham Lincoln died. There have been great changes in our country during that time. The South now vindicates Lincoln, and realizes that he was their friend. Peace and good will now prevail between the North and the South, cemented by the blood of Lincoln. Joseph H. Bradley, chaplain National Soldiers' Home of Virginia, in a communication to the Ram's Horn, quotes from a letter written by General William G. Webb, a Christian ex-Confederate: "Abraham Lincoln was a great and good man, and was raised up by God to preserve this nation as one and indivisible, and to give freedom to the slaves. As a Confederate, I could not see it; and after our defeat it took me some time to grasp it; but it became very plain to me after a while. God has a great work for this nation to do, and Mr. Lincoln was, like Washington, one of his instruments to prepare the people for this mission which the United States is to accomplish toward the enlightenment, freedom, and Christianization of the world." I heard a lecture on Abraham Lincoln at Corydon, Indiana, March 17, 1899, by Henry Watterson, the talented editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal and ex-Confederate, in which he said, "If Lincoln was not inspired of God, then there is no such thing on earth as special providence or the interposition of divine power in the affairs of men." In 1903, the State of Mississippi, the second State to pass an ordinance of secession, and the home of Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, requested Honorable Robert T. Lincoln to furnish a picture of his father to hang in the new capitol building at Jackson. The request was as follows: "We of the South now realize the greatness and the goodness of the character of Abraham Lincoln, and would honor his memory. Nothing that we could do would add to his fame. We can, however, show our respect and love for him. Permit me, therefore, in the name of the State, to invite you to place a portrait of President Lincoln in the new capitol of Mississippi; that it may symbolize his love for his country, his devotion to duty, and his heartfelt sympathy for the Southern people." Abraham Lincoln loved the South. He was Southern born. At his last cabinet meeting, on the date of his death, he advised that forbearance, clemency, and charity should be the controlling principles in dealing with difficult problems awaiting practical solution. What a rich inheritance we have in the example and deeds, the pen and voice of Abraham Lincoln. What an inspiration his noble life should be to struggling young men who trace the footsteps in his eventful history, and learn the motives that prompted him in all his actions. Not long since I received a communication from a stranger, a poor orphan boy in far-away Turkey. He lives in Konia, the ancient Iconium, mentioned in the New Testament. He says: "I have read in some books about Lincoln. I love and admire him as one of the greatest men that ever have been lived on earth." His appeal for an opportunity to know more about Lincoln was pathetic. Many years ago a young man said: "I was only a child when Abraham Lincoln died, but I cannot think of his death without feeling the same pain I would feel if it had been my father. I never saw him, and yet it seems that I knew him and loved him personally. I am sure I am a better man because Lincoln lived. His straightforward, simple, truthful life puts all meaner lives to shame." O. H. Oldroyd, editor of the "Lincoln Memorial Album," says: "His fame is world-wide and stands in history more lasting than a monument of brass. His words will continue to sound through the ages as long as the flowers shall bloom or the waters flow." Another writer says: "We hear Lincoln's words in every schoolhouse and college, in every cabin, and at every public meeting. We read them in every newspaper, school-book, and magazine, and they are all in favor of right, liberty, and truth, and of honesty and reverence for God. His words, some of them as familiar as the Bible, are on the tongues of the people, shaping the national character." Bishop Newman said: "There is no name more deserving of imperishable fame than Abraham Lincoln. He is embalmed in song, recorded in history, eulogized in panegyric, cast in bronze, sculptured in marble, painted on canvas, enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen, and lives in the memories of mankind." GEORGE W. TURNHAM, Of Evansville, Indiana, son of the Indiana constable who loaned Lincoln the Revised Statutes of Indiana. Mr. Turnham has a letter written to his father by Lincoln in 1860, and printed in this volume. MOSES MARTIN. Mr. Martin signed a temperance pledge presented by Abraham Lincoln in 1847. Mr. Martin resides at Edinburg, Illinois, and is eighty years of age. MAJOR J. B. MERWIN, Who canvassed Illinois with Lincoln for State Prohibition in 1854-55, and was associated with Mr. Lincoln till the day of his death. Major Merwin now resides at Middleburg, Conn. REV. R. L. McCORD, Of Lake City, Iowa, who named Lincoln as his candidate for President after hearing him speak at Springfield, Illinois, in 1854. |
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