Auguste L’Alloux: Ode
May 1865
TO THE MEMORY OF MR. ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
President of the republic of the United States of America,
May, 1865.
[Translation.]
The works of Satan fill the earth with pain;
The world is now mourning one of his wicked deeds,
Who has not heard of his last exploit?
The news is carried by the tolling of a bell.
Public welfare now demands that we be all united;
Let feelings of jealousy be laid aside;
We only think of saving our country.
Free and noble children of America!
The hero of the great republic is no more;
He who, when in danger, saved its flag!
Washington will receive him as a brother,
But the world will monrn him more than Washington.
The universe will sing a hymn,
And say he went down as a martyr to the tomb.
When the madman in his fury struck the sage,
The human race was shocked with horror and remorse.
Why should just men tolerate such fiends among them?
If such men were less common now, in France,
We would ne’er regret so many crimes.
God cries in his anger, vengeance;
Justice wants another bloody sacrifice,
And Lincoln fell, the victim of innocence.
Like Christ, like Brown, he was a martyr.
He died to save his country and to free the blacks.
Now his holy reign is over,
Forget him not, ye generous sons of Ham.
Let us now look up to heaven,
And ask his immortal soul,
Freed from the trammels of the flesh,
If his work was not perfect.
The world moves on, and men rejoice
That freedom is restored to all.
Some may not bless him now;
But ere they die they ‘ll see the good he did, And praise him.
AUGUSTE L’ALLOUX,
Former interpreter of Du Petti Thouars, Bruat and Hamlin, Bachelor of Arts, professor of English, first primary free teacher, 38 Chaussée du Maine, Paris.