let’s be guided by his spirit

at least the spirit of President Lincoln’s second inaugural

Seneca Falls Reveille 4-22-1865

I’m pretty sure The Seneca Falls Reveille (in Seneca County, New York) was a strongly pro-Democrat newspaper during the Civil War. 150 years ago today it published an editorial on the assassination of President Lincoln.

From The Seneca Falls Reveille on April 22, 1865:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN is dead! This truly national calamity is rendered doubly afflicting by the fact that he was brutally assassinated. We have no words in which to speak of the awful crime, the appalling tragedy, which occurred at Washington on Friday night. The event is utterly without a parallel in the history of our country, and we doubt whether the annals of a thousand years furnish a precedent for a deed so monstrous and fraught with consequences so momentous. The President of the United States assassinated and his Chief Secretary stabbed nearly to death! Shocking intelligence! Unspeakable horror! The mind staggers in the attempt to contemplate either the fact itself or its possible consequences. What a terrible condition of affairs exists when the Chief magistrate of the nation is thus wickedly and wantonly murdered! How awful the lesson it teaches! Civil war – terrible in its character, devastating and blighting in its effects – has culminated in the assassination of ABRAHAM LINCOLN! No matter who inaugurated the war; it is upon us, and in its long catalogue of crimes, the murder of the President is the most appalling. Civil war was the beginning of all our troubles, and just so long as it continues and is countenanced, encouraged and upheld by this people, just so long shall we have scenes of bloodshed and horror, too shocking for contemplation and without parallel in the world’s history. The assassin who smote down President LINCOLN was impelled to the atrocious crime by the terrible condition of the country and the consequent horrors engendered by this wicked war. By this blow liberty and civilization receive a shock from which they will not readily recover.

“Post office department. The nation mourns his loss. He still lives in the hearts of the people. [mourning badge]. “

Let the nation mourn, though not without hope, for one who served it, to the best of his knowledge, faithfully. Let it cherish the memory of the dead, and vindicate outraged justice and humanity in the person of his murderer. But above all, let it take the spirit of its departed leader to be its guide in the difficult and stormy future before it. Amidst the general horror and distress of the nation, over the sad event, let us forbid the indulgence of anything that will lead to ill-feeling, anarchy or confusion. The spirit of Christianity, of Patriotism and of common sense, should lead us to pursue the generous, enlightened, politic course which President LINCOLN inauguraged with reference to the great problems now confronting the country.

Washington, D.C. in mourning

According to the Library of Congress the above “Photograph shows a view of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. after the death of Abraham Lincoln showing mourning bands draped on columns, and a flag at half staff. A caisson is parked in the foreground.”