The Assassination of President Lincoln

The people are once more called upon to reflect upon the natural results of this accursed rebellion against Freedom and Liberty. The assassination of President Lincoln is nothing but the natural spasm or convulsion of a wicked rebellion which is determined to destroy itself like an insane man, and all the evils arising are the natural result of the disease. The murder of the President is the working of this evil that has taken possession of man and has deluded the higher intelligence of his soul and now the people are called to their several places of worship to pour out their grief in behalf of the country's loss of one whom they loved and respected. But how stand those who are under the cloud of suspicion? Do they feel the sting of reproach that they, through their aid, have given countenance to the wicked act? No. They drop a hypocritical tear and say, "Well the party is not responsible for the act," but wisdom will hold them responsible and sooner or later they will reap their reward. When the principle of freedom bursts forth, they will see that individual acts are nothing but the natural result of principle and that the principle is responsible for the individual acts whether right or wrong.

God is responsible for his acts and no man can point to any one act of wisdom and say it is wrong. It is not for error to erect the standard as to what is right or wrong, for wisdom proves itself. I will take the case in question, the death of the President. In regard to Mr. Lincoln or Booth, as men, I have nothing to say; both were mediums of a principle and each placed himself where he belonged. Mr. Lincoln was the medium of the great principle of Freedom and Liberty, and this cloud or influence has been carried along through darkness of slavery and the sea of blood till he has reached the land of Liberty. Here was where the cloud stopped and the cloud of error formed round the different parties and began to burst forth and there collect its sundered fragments and cry for peace and compromise.

In this vacuum of hesitation, slavery is never easy because its life is its destruction and it always does the very thing it ought not to do for its own defense, yet it does the very thing it ought in order to destroy its life. As the President, being the medium of the people, had no motive to destroy individuals, it hesitated to carry into the effect the law of error. But slavery does not reason; it goes for "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," so it must do something and the worst thing it could do. So as all the elements were resting, as it were, on their arms, this cursed serpent crawled up from its den and struck the deadly blow at the President just at the time when he was the most popular with all the world. What was killed by the murderers' blow, Liberty or Slavery? Let some give the response, President Lincoln's body was not the body of the principle, and although slavery may kill the body, yet when it has done that, it has done all it can. But truth and Liberty cannot only kill the body or party of error but its very soul, and can cast it into hell.

God holds man as well as nations and parties responsible for their acts and the Democratic Party will be held responsible for the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, and the Liberal Party will hold them responsible, not as individuals but as a party, for Booth is nothing. Execute him and what do you destroy? Not the evil, for another may do the same. Now make the principle responsible and then see who will back it up. As long as the principle can strut around, it fears no danger, but strike at the principle and then you will see signs of mincing and uneasiness in the party. In this way, you destroy the evil and the effect will cease. This is what is now on trial, whether the principle shall have an identity in this country or whether it shall be destroyed. Slavery cannot find fault to be tried by its own laws. It has defined treason and how it shall be punished. Now as they have through their wicked acts laid themselves liable to the law, let President Johnson say to this rebellion as Jesus said to the Jews, I come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it and not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass till slavery and all its party shall be destroyed, for their souls are all against the law of God and man and cast this wicked generation of ideas into outer darkness. There will be a new heaven or principle wherein all can worship at the altar of Liberty where one shall not say to another, you shall not be free, but all shall have the privilege of freedom and the right to worship God according to their own conscience.

April 1865

The assassination of President Lincoln brings forth some grave ideas in regard to whether it was the design of God or solely the work of man. It is queer to hear the adherents of both these doctrines argue about what neither know anything of, except as their opinions, and I listen to find the point of the argument that they wish to prove, but I only hear one tell what he believes and the other in turn gives his ideas on the subject. One believed in fore-ordination and pointed to the Bible as proof. The other discarded the idea that God had any hand in the matter at all and left it altogether with man.

Differing with both, I will give my ideas which are based upon what I think every candid person will admit. Freedom is opposed to slavery, this all will admit. Now is freedom an element of intelligence or does it belong to our senses? Is it a truth that exists as a principle, the same as mathematics? Is it not like confined steam or anything that wants its liberty? Admit that liberty is wisdom as far as it goes and you have one point to reason from. Suppose wisdom to be an element and every act to come within its knowledge, so that nothing can transpire without its knowledge. Suppose everything is within this atmosphere of wisdom, as your body for instance, and if anything touches your body, your wisdom knows it. Everything that is seen by the natural eye existed without wisdom before it assumed a body. The chicken existed before it burst through the shell and had an identity and showed life, though when it came out of the shell, it assumed a new character. Now had the egg been destroyed before the chicken was hatched, would the idea chicken be destroyed to wisdom? I say no.

You hold a bullet in your hand. If you let go of it, the bullet will drop. Now wisdom knows that the bullet will fall and the holding of it one minute or more will not change the law or truth which knows that it will fall. Just as you drop the ball, someone catches it. Now is the law of gravitation changed? No, but you as a being cannot see outside your senses, that is, that there is any wisdom independent of what mankind knows and so you cannot see any wisdom outside the bullet. And if you try to account for its falling, you only make it less clear. In the fate of the President, men try to prove that he is alive after admitting that he is dead. Now he is neither alive nor dead, but if he is dead, then wisdom is not wisdom, for if you admit that the President had any wisdom and then assert that he is dead, you contradict yourself. Let us look at it in another light.

I said freedom was an element of wisdom. No principle can make itself manifest to man unless it assumes some form. Take the idea of gravitation. If there was nothing to fall, you could not prove the principle, so Freedom must have some medium by which to prove itself and so it works through man. Men may be compared to checkers. Liberty represented by Lincoln and Slavery represented by Davis are the players, and either Freedom or Slavery, the stakes. Every person who has any great interest in the great game reflects himself on the board. Now there is no intelligence in the checkers but the wisdom is in the players. The President is the party representative of Freedom and as all loyal persons are concentrated on him, it is not strange that he should play with hesitation and caution lest he lose, for slavery is a keen player and a hard element to contend with and often gains a point and then loses it.

At last Freedom gains the advantage and slavery has to yield. This excites the public and brings on discussion and discordant feelings and everyone gives his opinion and some one attacks the President and destroys the medium or body. But he is not in the body but in the principle Freedom with the people and feels the advantage gained over slavery and rejoices with the people as much as any of us. Wisdom no longer requires that he should play the game but lets another person assume the office while the President sits, looks on and enjoys the fruits of his labor. I look upon the change that has taken place in that way. He has finished his work and given up to another who will put the law in force on the traitors. Not that he has lost anything, for I cannot think that he has.

I have no death but the death of error. Wisdom cannot die. Slavery he destroyed, and he reigned till he had brought all the enemies of freedom under his feet and the last enemy was slavery. Now he delivers up the keys to his successor that his wisdom shall be all in all. Now the identity of Abraham Lincoln as a man was his own, independent of the people, and the elements of Freedom and Slavery were so evenly divided in him that he was sensitive to the outside impression of each party or element, and had he professed more of either element, either of slavery or freedom in him, it would have made matters worse. But the combination of the two made him sensitive to all feelings of each element and he was directed by the true element of freedom and justice which made every move and saw the effect thereof. He was not a man of party but of principle. Now since he has established the principle, it needs another element to gather up the grain of his threshing and burn up the chaff, and that task has fallen into Andrew Johnson's hands.

April 1865