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FF OO RR TT HH EE PP EE OO PP LL EE A NEWSLETTER OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION VOLUME 17 NUMBER 1 SPRING 2015 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS WWW.ABRAHAMLINCOLNASSOCIATION.ORG A PSALM TO OUR MARTYRED PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN Delivered by Frederick Douglass assassinated. And for this he, today, whom he did so much, have space at on June 1, 1865 commands our homage as a glorious least, for one stone in that monument, martyr. one stone which shall tell to after- coming generations the story of the Today, men all over have been thinking colored people’s love and gratitude to of Abraham Lincoln. Our statesmen, Abraham Lincoln. scholars, and poets have been celebrat- ing as never before the memory of our Those love most to whom most is for- martyred president. It is well. He is given. One of the most touching scenes worthy of it all, and it is becoming in all connected with the funeral of our la- to join, however humbly in these tokens mented President Lincoln occurred at of respect and veneration. the gate of the presidential mansion: a colored woman standing at the gate One thing will be at once conceded by weeping was asked the cause of her all generous minds. No people or class tears. ‘Oh! Sir,’ she said, ‘we have lost of people in this country have a better our Moses.’ ‘But,’ said the gentleman, Performed by Fred Morsell reason for lamenting the death of Abra- ‘the Lord will send you another.’ ‘That on February 12, 2015 ham Lincoln, and for desiring to honor may be,’ said the weeping woman, ‘but, and perpetuate his memory than have ah! We had him.’ To her mind, one ‘as I come before you this evening with the colored people of this country. And good,’ or ‘better’ might come in his much diffidence: the rarest gifts and the yet, we are about the only people who stead—but no such possibility to her best eloquence might well be employed have been in any case forbidden to ex- was equal to the reality—the actual here and now, and yet fail of justice to hibit our sorrow. The attempt to ex- possession—in the person of Abraham the dignity and solemnity of this occa- clude colored people from his funeral Lincoln. sion, as well as the character of the il- procession in New York was one of the lustrious deceased we tonight remem- most disgraceful and sickening mani- The colored people of America, from ber. festations of moral emptiness ever ex- first to last, fully believed in Abraham hibited by any nation or people profess- Lincoln. Though he sometimes wound- Had Abraham Lincoln died from any of ing to be civilized. ed them severely, yet they firmly trust- the numerous ills to which flesh is heir; ed in him. This was, however, no blind had he reached that good old age of What was Abraham Lincoln to the col- trust unsupported by reason. They early which his vigorous constitution and his ored people of America or they to him, caught a glimpse of the man, and from temperate habits gave promise; had he as compared with his predecessors? the evidence of their senses, they be- seen the end of the great work which it Abraham Lincoln, while unsurpassed in lieved in him. They viewed him in the was his good fortune to inaugurate, our his devotion to the welfare of the white light of his mission, and viewing him task this evening though sad and painful race, was also in a sense emphatically thus they trusted him, as men are sel- would be very simple. the black man’s president: he was the dom trusted. first to show any public respect for their But dying as he did die, by the red hand rights as men. Under Abraham Lincoln’s beneficent of violence, snatched suddenly away rule, they saw themselves being gradu- from his work without warning—killed, To our white fellow countrymen there- ally lifted to the broad plain of equal murdered, assassinated, not because of fore we say, follow your martyred pres- manhood. Under his rule, they saw personal hate, for no man who knew ident to his grave, lay the foundation of millions of their brethren proclaimed Abraham Lincoln could hate him; but his monument broad and strong—let its free and invested with the right to de- solely because he was the president— capstone rise towards the sky, do hom- fend their freedom: under his rule, they the faithful, loyal president of the Unit- age to his character, forever perpetuate saw the Confederate states broken to ed States—true to his country, and true his memory; but as you respect genuine pieces and swept from the face of exist- to the cause of human freedom, for sorrow and sincere bereavement, let the these reasons he was slain—murdered, colored people of this country—for (Continued on page 2) 2 A NEWSLETTER OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PEOPLE (Continued from page 1) in ourselves and in our country. This All the great nations of this earth, no occasion, tonight, therefore, though sad matter how isolated their location, no ence. Under his rule, they saw the inde- and solemn is not one of gloom, when matter how carefully they exclude the pendence of Haiti and Liberia recog- we consider the future of the country. light of new ideas—are fated to pass nized and the whole colored race steadi- There is here joy as well as sorrow, through certain grand epochs, coming ly rising into the friendly consideration gratulation as well as grief, great gain upon them whether they will or not. of the American people. as well as great loss. These epochs come when they are ready to come and they depart when And so, we speak here tonight not This last drop in our cup of bitterness their work is done. merely as colored men and women, but was perhaps needed. No nation ever as American citizens, and we find the passed an ordeal better fitted to try its As a people, we are no exception to the prospect bright and glorious. strength or to test the value of its char- rule. One such period as this happened acter. ‘Know thyself’ is a wise admoni- to us, four score and nine years ago, The greatness and grandeur of the tion to nations as well as to individu- when our delegates sat in solemn as- American republic never appeared more als—a self-knowledge that has been sembly in Philadelphia and openly de- conspicuously than in connection with imparted to us by the four years of war clared our independence of Great Brit- this death of Abraham Lincoln. Though and by this last act of the war. ain. Then the American people with a great and powerful, this nation seemed courage that never quailed and a faith to have need of some great and wide- It had long been the settled opinion of that knew no doubt marched through spread calamity, some overwhelming European statesmen that our ship of bloody fields during all the length of sorrow, to reveal to ourselves and the state was too weak for stormy weather. seven years to make that declaration a world all the elements of our charac- They predicted that though beautiful to reality. Another and mightier than that ter—our national strength. the eye, and swift upon the wave, our is the one compressed within the nar- gallant bark would go down in the first row limits of the last four years. Noth- While it cannot be affirmed that our great storm. They had little faith in the ing strange has happened unto us. We long torn and distracted country has wisdom or virtue of “We—the peo- have been playing our appointed part in reached the desired condition of peace, ple”—and in the form of our popular the machinery of human advancement it may be said that we have survived the government. I have no reproaches for and civilization. terrible agonies of a fierce and sangui- these foreigners of little faith, for it can- nary rebellion and have before us a fair not be denied that many thoughtful and We had within our midst a gigantic prospect of a just and lasting peace. patriotic men here at home, have doubt- system of injustice and barbarism. ed and trembled while contemplating Slavery was a shocking offense against Already a strong hand is felt upon the the possibility of just such a conflict as the enlightened judgment of mankind— helm of state; the word has gone forth that through which we have now so a system which the world had out- that traitors and assassins, whether male nearly passed. grown, one which we were required by or female are to be punished: loyal and the necessity of our existence to put true men are to be rewarded and pro- I will not here argue the value of the away—peaceably if we could, forcibly tected. Slavery, that damning offense results of our conflict. I will, however, if we must. of generations, is to be entirely and for- argue the inevitability of the conflict. It ever abolished: the emancipated negro, was beyond the power of human will or What men have done, men will do; so long outraged and degraded is to be wisdom to have prevented what has what great nations and states have done enfranchised and clothed with the digni- happened. We should never forget that great nations and states will do.

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