Historical Society of Pennsylvania
At a meeting of the executive committee of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, held on Monday evening, April 24, 1865, the following preamble and resolutions were presented and read by Professor Charles D. Cleveland, and unanimously adopted. It was then moved that a special meeting of the society be called on Thursday, the 27th, to consider the same. On that evening, Edmund A. Souder, esq., was called to the chair, when the preamble and resolutions were again read, and were unanimously adopted by the society:
Whereas we recognize in the recent calamity that has fallen upon our republic, in the violent death of our President, an event that not only calls forth a personal grief from every loyal heart, but rises above individual sorrow, and forms a crisis in our national life—an epoch in our national history: Therefore,
- I.
- Resolved, That it is peculiarly the duty of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to inquire into the historic meaning of the sad occurrence that has thus suddenly overwhelmed us; to read in it, as well as may be through tears, the lessons of the past of which it is the culmination, and the monitions for the future to which it sternly and undoubtedly points.
- II.
- Resolved, That in the assassination of our beloved Chief Magistrate our sorrow for the bereavement is as intense as our horror at the crime. A life has been lost which, by a blending of mental and moral qualities in a union of rare completeness, had a hold upon the heart of every loyal citizen, and made the tie that bound him to his government no less a personal than a civic attachment; and gratefully, therefore, do we bear our earnest testimony to the consummate [Page 698] ability, the enduring faithfulness, the political sagacity, the far-seeing wisdom, the lofty patriotism, the enlarged humanity, the proverbial honesty, and the ever-flowing goodness which marked the character, through his whole term of office, of our late honored and loved President.
- III.
- Resolved, That while with deep grief we mourn the loss of him who on the 22d of February, 1861, when he raised the national flag over the State House in which our Constitution was framed, declared, with what now seems prophetic significancy, that “he would rather be assassinated upon the spot than fail to maintain the great principles of constitutional liberty;” and who, in the four years of his able and momentous administration, so nobly and firmly acted up to that declaration, showing at all times a heart beating in full sympathy with the objects of our Constitution, as declared in its preamble, “to form a more perfect Union, and to secure the blessings of liberty,” and crowding into that brief period events and principles of deeper historic interest and of wider and farther reaching influence than were ever before, in so short a time, recorded in history, it is peculiarly fitting in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to declare it to be their deepest conviction that, under Cod, it was the wonderfully attempered prudence and energy, justice and mercy, caution and decision, breadth of view and strength of purpose of Abraham Lincoln that led us triumphantly through the perils of this atrocious rebellion.
- IV.
- Resolved, That, by his wise, persistent, and finally successful efforts in crushing the rebellion, and thus breaking down forever the vilest and most tyrannical oligarchy the sun ever shone upon, Abraham Lincoln has made American citizenship mean—protection to American citizens in every portion of the republic; and that, by his proclamation of the 1st of January, 1863, giving immediate liberty to millions long held in bondage, and by his large-hearted humanity, everywhere conspicuous, he has earned for himself the richest of all blessings—“the blessings of those who were ready to perish;” and has thus engraved his name upon the page of history, for all time to come, as the friend of man.
- V.
- Resolved, That, when we view the parricide’s crime, which has thus whelmed our nation in mourning, as the result of a cause—the natural outgrowth of some principle of action—history and its philosophy utter no doubtful teachings; they say, as distinctly as voices from the past can say, that the murderous hand which took the life of the head of our republic is but the symbol of that stealthy, deadly blow which must always, sooner or later, be dealt to any republic, when it either cares not or dares not to cast out from its midst elements that give the lie to the simplest and most fundamental conditions of political liberty; and that our land, as a whole, must either be a unity of homogeneous principles in its parts, or else be dashed into a shapeless wreck by the clashing currents within in.
- VI.
- Resolved, That, in the long catalogue of crimes committed by the slave-power against liberty and humanity for the last fifty years—crimes too numerous to recount, and many of them too foul to particularize—consummated in the rebellion, and all the atrocious deeds committed in it, and culminating in the murderous assault upon our Secretary of State and the Assistant Secretary, and in that crowning crime of horror, stealthily taking the life of our Chief Magistrate, this same slave-power has shown itself to the world in its true character in acts of malignity and wickedness unparalleled on the page of history; and has shown to us the utter incompatibility of its existence with our own national life.
- VII.
- Resolved, That as, by the avowed declarations of the slaveholders themselves, who quoted the words of the Saviour—“the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner”—and with bold but characteristic blasphemy applied these sacred, heaven-descended words to the foulest of crimes, intending to make it the “corner-stone” of a new government; [Page 699] slavery was the cause and origin of the rebellion, and to extend it indefinitely the purpose, by their own avowal, of those who aimed to destroy our national life, so now it conclusively follows, and should everywhere be held, that there can be no true patriotism without hostility to that “sum of all villanies,” and a fixed determination that it shall never be the cause of another rebellion, and no longer, in any way or shape, curse our land.
- VIII.
- Resolved, That, while we tender to the wife and children of the illustrious deceased our sincerest sympathies in this their irreparable loss, and fervently pray that they may be sustained under it by Him who alike “gives and takes away,” we at the same time rejoice that he has bequeathed to them so rich and precious a legacy of public and private virtues, which they will ever fondly cherish, and which will grow brighter and brighter as time rolls on.
- IX.
- Resolved, That, to our honored Secretary of State, Hon. William H. Seward, who has conducted our foreign relations with such signal ability and wisdom in a period of unprecedented difficulty, and to his able and courteous Assistant Secretary, Hon. Frederick W. Seward, both prostrated by the dagger and bludgeon of the assassin, we extend our deepest sympathies, fervently praying that a kind Providence may so restore them to health and strength that they may be able again to labor for their country in years to come with the same ability as they have in years past.
- X.
- Resolved, That, to our new President, Andrew Johnson, thus suddenly called to his high station, we pledge our earnest and cordial support, with fervent prayers that he may be guided in all his varied and responsible duties by Infinite Wisdom; rejoicing that, in the patriotism and firmness of his past life, as well as in his recent public declarations that “treason is the highest of all crimes,” we have the fullest assurance that, while he will show mercy to their misguided and deluded followers, he will visit the guilty authors and leaders of the rebellion, however numerous they may be, with the punishment they so richly deserve; so that thus peace, tranquillity, and unity may be restored to every part of our land, and that thus a warning may be left to traitors for all coming time.
On motion of Mr. Pliny Earle Chase, seconded by Mr. John A. McAllister, it was resolved that these resolutions, signed by the officers of the society, be published in three of our newspapers, and that copies, engrossed or printed, be sent to the family of the deceased, to the President of the United States, and to the Secretary of State, requesting that they be deposited in the archives of the United States, in perpetuation of the sense of the society upon our great national bereavement.
President.
Recording Secretary.