Full Title

A Tribute of Respect by the Citizens of Troy, to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln

Description

Compiled documents relating to Lincoln's assassination in Troy, New York and the citizen's mourning. It includes sermons, addresses, and minutes from meetings.

Source

The University of California via Google Books

Rights

This item is in the public domain and may be reproduced and used for any purpose, including research, teaching, private study, publication, broadcast or commercial use, with proper citation and attribution.

Tags

Cite this Item

Various. "A Tribute of Respect by the Citizens of Troy, to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln". J. Munsell . Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed May 22, 2025. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/1168

Creator

Various

Publisher

J. Munsell

Date

1865

Full Title

Eulogy by Rabbi David Einhorn

Description

English translation by Alisa Rethy.

Transcription

Eulogy by Rabbi David Einhorn

Delivered before Keneseth Israel Congregation, Philadelphia, Pa, on 19 April 1865

And God said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you; And make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12: 1-4)

     The morning cometh, and also the night. (Isaiah 21:12) [1]

God has plunged us from the highest jubilation into the deepest sorrow. Never has a national sorrow been so deep and profound, and paired with such horror, as ours; for a horrible deed has been done, a deed blacker than the starless night and hatched in the deepest pits of hell. Abraham Lincoln, the beloved of his people, the savior of the fatherland, the liberator of millions of enslaved men, God’s anointed one has fallen by the hand of murder, by the hand of a man whose name will be the bane of centuries. Though so many tears have been shed in these four bloody years, they are but a drop in the sea of tears that now flows from the lifeblood of this great nation and surrounds the coffin being carried in Washington with the mortal remains of the best and noblest man. And when did he fall? At the height of his glory and splendor, at the very moment in which his great work was approaching completion with great strides, in which his mild pious heart pondered ways and means to heal the wounds the enemies of the fatherland inflicted upon the land and upon themselves – for he lovingly stretched out his fatherly arms to his murderers! A glittering celebration was already arranged and countless flame-tongues were set to proclaim our jubilation over the cessation of the turmoil of war and the optimistic hope for the restoration of peace – and now the country is clothed in sorrow and there is no jubilation, only broken hearts. The joy of our hearts is destroyed and our bliss turns to lamentation. The crown is fallen from our head [2]. A sweet dawn broke before us, but with morning came the night, the night from which the most dreadful crime was born. How shall I console you when my heart is also broken? No! The time for consolation has not yet come; the wound is still too fresh to heal! Do not hold back your pain, release your grieving in full force for this enormous loss we have suffered! Indeed, our elders teach: one may not attempt to console anyone as long as the body of the loved one still appears before their eyes! But it is surely now the time to demonstrate the foolishness and reprehensibility of any mournful cry that we, in our justified pain, might want to direct against God’s government of the world. Even as our hearts break, our bravery in the fight for a sacred cause, our trust in the infinitely good leader of the history of all nations must remain whole and unshaken. Abraham Lincoln has fallen, but never was he lifted so high as in the moment of his fall. A life like his could not have found any more glorious conclusion. He was the messiah of his people, and far more glorious than the crown of love, with which this people adorned him, gleams the crown of martyrdom, placed by the enemies of the people upon his sunken, bloodied head. His lot has fallen in pleasant places [3]. He was able to seal his immortal work with his blood, which ranks him even higher than Washington and will carry his luminous name through the centuries. And his sublime work – the overcoming of the rebellion and the defeat of slavery – has been in no way unsettled by his demise; rather, it has only been further strengthened. After this ghastly deed, which must open the eyes of even the most blind toward the boundless depravity of the slave drivers and their accomplices, a depravity which would even seek to kill an honorable old man on his sick-bed [4], after this ghastly deed – I say – there can no longer be parties at odds in the North. The murder of the high priest of freedom will and must unify all those who still carry a spark of moral feeling within them, unify them to an intimate brotherhood for the preservation of the republic and the eradication of this shameful institution. Those, too, who formerly misunderstood and vilified the glorified one and his world-historical feat must now learn to love and honor both the man and the deed. There is a profound meaning in the rabbinic saying: The death of the righteous procures atonement for the sins of the age. If Abraham Lincoln had a flaw, it was his excessive charity toward the rebels: he, whom the demagogues and the murderer decried as a tyrant! Moses sinned by striking the stone to give water to his thirsting people, though God had ordered him to speak to the stone. The reverse holds true in the case of Abraham Lincoln. He believed he could bow the stiff neck of the insurgents by speaking to them kindly and treating them gently, though this neck can only be bowed through the well-deserved discipline of blows. Yes, let there be mercy, charity, and all possible support for the misled people of the South! But for the leaders of the rebellion, whose hands are so horribly sullied with blood, who made hundreds of thousands widows and orphans, allowed our prisoners to starve in their cellars and, finally, took our adornment and crown from us – upon them be not revenge, but justice! Thus I call in the name of God, and thus also speak thousands, who have suddenly turned from roaring lions into cooing doves – and that, too, is a blessing that emerges from our pain. With this atrocity, the rebellion and slavery have reached the peak of their criminal lives, but upon that peak they have found their permanent grave. The beast, drunken with blood, has sunk its mangling, voracious fangs into the heart of the one who tamed it, but with this blood has only drunk itself to death, while its noble victim lives on, loved and blessed thousand fold in the memory of his people and in the memory of all of humanity. When Israel went forth from Egypt, it carried as a flaming victory banner before it the coffin which held the bones of Joseph, that righteous one, who through all manner of storms never strayed from God’s path. Joseph, a powerful leader, lovingly embraced those who betrayed him after they declared their remorse and, even in the hour of death, still proclaimed the ultimate redemption of his tribe with unshakeable confidence. As the Midrash aptly states: “the sea, which Israel crossed on dry land, parted before this coffin, before the sacred ashes, the national treasure.” And thus, too, will the sea of impermanence never be able to wash away the memory of Abraham Lincoln! In the most distant times the banner of freedom will still wave high and proud on his burial mound and spark courage in the fight against the enemies of freedom; still, in the farthest future, millions of pilgrims will surge there and say: here rests America’s pride and ornament, he who – like Moses – led his people through a long bleak desert to the border of Canaan, and was not permitted to enter! The fourth of July and the fifteenth of April are henceforth the two greatest days in American history. The first laid the foundation stone for the great construction of the Republic, the latter set the capstone – which is Lincoln’s gravestone. For this reason, honor God and do not doubt that from this horrible night a glorious morning will break forth, that God’s purifying and glorifying love stands beside our lamentation of woe, a love which will adorn the one who blissfully sleeps in the beyond with the most glorious crown.

So go into peace – You, Abraham, father of nations, who have become a rich blessing not only for us, but for the entire family of man upon the wide world! Go to the land of eternal life and receive in the kingdom of glorified spirits the sweet wage of the righteous! Our love to you will never fade, and as long as breath is in us we will never cease blessing you with the threefold blessing of the priest: God bless you and keep you, God make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, God turn his face to you and grant you peace! [5]

Most glorious judge over life and death, all-powerful leader of the history of all nations! you have laid a hard, painful trial upon us! brighter than the vault of heaven, shining more gloriously than the sun upon our head – there you allowed the lightning bolt to descend thundering and terrible upon the son of the dawn, upon the savior and redeemer of our country! as you once took Aaron’s beloved children from him on his day of joy and honor, so have you allowed the chosen one to be snatched from us in the middle of the highest jubilation, have elected the priest of freedom to be freedom’s victim. But still we kiss your chastising fatherly hand, like Aaron, and bow in deep humility before your unfathomable wisdom, in unshakeable trust that you will also lead our people through this terrible trial to victory and triumph, through this dark night to the bright morning. You have not cast us away, but purified us; you wanted to cleanse this land of the hideous black stain that darkened the light of your freedom, and you have washed this stain away forever with the noble blood of the one beloved by you and us. Oh take him graciously to your fatherly heart, that pious, patient sufferer, who breathed his last in fighting for you and, in your higher sanctuary, let him partake of all the blessedness that you have preserved for your loyal devotees. Pour the soothing balm of consolation in the deep wounds of his mourning family, of his entire people, which calls after him, having ascended to heaven, in unspeakable woe: my father, my father! O God, let his spirit be passed on to his successor, as the spirit of Elijah, gathered in a whirlwind, was passed on to Elisha, so that he might happily consummate his great work and arise, with doubled strength, against the worshippers of Baal – so that the serpent could no longer destroy upon Your holy mountain and that the long-awaited peace would soon be upon us! [6] Once, Abraham wanted to sacrifice his beloved son to you – here the children bring you their sacrificed father Abraham with broken, but humble hearts. But let salvation arise from our tears, and permit the gifts we now donate in memory of the beloved for our heroes of freedom and their bereaved families! Amen.

And now, beloved friends, let us give these gifts! We could no better honor the memory of the one who has gone to sleep than by offering sacrifices upon the altar of the fatherland for our freedom-fighters and their widows and orphans. The mosaic law demands: if the body of a slain one is found, and the murderer has not been apprehended, a sacrifice shall be offered, because the national community feels tainted and in need of atonement. We find ourselves in the same situation, and to dry the tears of those who shed their blood for us – let these be our sacrifices! Thus, each will gladly make a contribution, for we must honor his martyrdom – kiddush hashem [7] – and must honor him, who also protected us as Israelites and embraced us with a loving heart.

[1] Written as Isaiah 21:11 in the original but it appears to be 21:12.

[2] Lamentations 5:16.

[3] Reference to Psalms 16:6.

[4] Possible reference to notorious Confederate guerilla fighter Champ Ferguson.

[5] Numbers 6:24.

[6] “Holy mountain” is a reference to Isaiah 11:8–9.

[7] Sanctification of the Holy name.

Source

American Jewish Archives. Translation by Alisa Rethy.

Rights

Use of this item for research, teaching and private study is permitted with proper citation and attribution.

Tags

Cite this Item

David Einhorn. "Eulogy by Rabbi David Einhorn". Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed May 22, 2025. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/766

Creator

David Einhorn

Date

April 19, 1865

Full Title

Liebman Adler sermon

Description

English translation by Alisa Rethy.

Transcription

Sermon delivered by Rabbi Liebman Adler at Congregation Kehilath Anshe Maariv, Chicago, Illinois on 19 April 1865

     In this hour, the earthly remains of the father of the fatherland leave the White House in Washington. As the bells proclaim it across the vast breadth of the land, so do the heartbeats of every thinking and feeling being that dwells in it.

     Reason can be corrupted, even seduced to go astray. Not only the reason of a few men, but the reason of millions. Let us consider the number of reasonable Israelites, Christians, Mohammedans, and heathens, how various are their understandings of religion! And how various are the opinions of the political parties with regard to the foremost concerns of humanity! The heart, too, can be led astray. But when the heart is stricken unexpectedly and without preparation, all good men feel the same. The voice of the heart is God’s voice.

     Since the beloved leader has lain murdered in Washington, few hearts in this country have been glad. The first reports of the terrible event shook every heart, shocked every emotion, and, in a single moment, the pain flew like an electric spark over millions of miles, through millions of hearts. In this hour our hearts beat with greater force once more, our feelings are more impassioned, the pain is again more piercing. It is as if one were whispering the question, the same question that was asked of Elisha on the day when his master Elijah ascended to heaven (2 Kings, 3:3): “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take away your master?” This accordant feeling of an entire great nation is a divine revelation, is unmistakable testimony, that it is a truly great man, a genuinely noble person, a wise ruler whom they lead to the grave today.

     Is his memory worthy of the honor presently being shown to him in solemn, expressive ceremonies by the greatest and most eminent in the land who gather around his body in Washington? Is he worthy of the honor and homage that is being accorded his memory in this hour by millions of the pious in tens of thousands of houses of God in cities and villages, and even in the wigwams of the savages? In ancient Egypt there was a court of the dead that would undertake a formal, rigorous investigation of the life of a deceased before he was granted a solemn, honorable burial. Above you, O Lincoln, the civilized world sits in judgment, a jury of millions, and calls with one mouth: “You are worthy of the honor! You shall be honored, lamented and praised, through all lands, by all nations, and through all times! – thus will the workmen proudly call: He was our own, blessed be his memory! The merchants will remember proudly that he too once ranked among them and will honor his memory. The judiciary will engrave in marble in their hallowed halls that he was a colleague in their profession and will sanctify his memory. Rulers of the future will read with joy that Abraham Lincoln once sat among them.

     Ring, bells, dull and dismal; it is the faithful echo of our heart! And the bells we hear here will ring onward from village to village, from city to city, and, as you make your return journey from Washington, from the splendid site of your public activity, the field of your worries and sorrows, to your peaceful, tranquil, once so happy home in Springfield, the hearts of the nation will overflow with sadness. Not long ago men called and led you to Washington, to the seat of power; today God leads you back home again. You must follow his call, to this we must yield. – O, how glad would we have been, to have seen you able to announce the news of the golden peace that smiles upon us! How happy would we have been to see your good fortune in life united with the good fortune of the nation. How greatly it would have pleased us, had you been able to enjoy the rest of your term in office in tranquility, peace and reconciliation, after your lot on the presidential seat was one of such unrest, worry, and distress!

     But God wanted it otherwise! Providence gave the land a clement ruler in war. Perhaps it now needs a more stern one in the work of peace that lies ahead – so that strictness and tenderness may always go hand in hand. – But full, heartfelt joy is taken from us, no matter what glad tidings time may bring. The unhappy fate of the leader, the ghastly deed carried out against the chosen one of this nation will remain the bitter droplet that spoils for us the sweetest goblet of joy.

     Praise be to God that he who committed the ghastly deed does not count among our faith, that the Israelites have spawned no such monster! All the same, one might be reminded by this deed – as we now must read in the daily papers – of the “wicked Jews who killed Jesus Christ.” May our ancestors – who 2000 years ago saw[1] an individual who acted against the order of provincial law sentenced to death by their ordinary courts, and in concord with all legal forms, be summoned from the grave and placed as a counterpart to the murderers of the president. Such an accusation would be a heavier blow, now, to Christianity, that after 2000 years of activity and in our enlightened age, its confessors were capable of such a horrible deed. But we are far from such meanness, that we should wish to burden an entire religious community with that for which a mere few are responsible. We would commit a grave sin, were we to call out in our pain: “The wicked Christians have killed Ab. Lincoln! they have killed the savior of their own country!” Let us rather mourn our shared leader together, Jews and Christians, and pray, Jews and Christians, for the peace of a human soul; for indeed, according to our religious teachings, the pious of all nations and of every faith share in the happiness that awaits the pious on the other side. – He may also, as a non-Israelite, light the way for us as a paragon of rigorous honesty, pure morality, unfeigned piety, humility, goodness of heart, and patriotism that glowed in the purest flame. Let us do

in a small way, in the limited spheres of our lives, what he practiced to the greatest extent in his high position.

     While the body of our beloved former president is carried out of the White House, the new leader of the government moves in. It is now our duty for the fatherland to stand loyally with its leader, and not wait to bestow honor and recognition until death makes us compassionate. – The new president has steadfastly and unswervingly stood loyally with the Union when all stumbled and fell around him; may we forget that he once stumbled while all stood steadily around him. In this way we truly act in the spirit of the former president, the tested patriot.

     Your body, Ab. Lincoln, is now carried from city to city, from state to state, to its final resting place, to be joined as dust with the dust of the earth. But your spirit rises to God. He beholds the worlds, he surveys the spheres of heaven, all riddles of life solve themselves for him. He looks upon the glory among the righteous, while the earthly glory in Washington sinks into dust. But in the book of history the stylus is already stirring, securing immortality for you here below as well – in the realm of mortals.

     Your spirit, Ab. Lincoln, stands before the judgment seat of God. Your deeds are your interceding angels. But we, too, want, from the bottom of our heart, that our prayer for your salvation rise to heaven together with that of the praying nation.

[1] I say saw because they themselves, with Jesus, were subject to the jurisdiction of the Romans and also, in thousands, had to breathe their last under Roman authority, upon Roman crosses.

Source

American Jewish Archives. Translation by Alisa Rethy.

Rights

Use of this item for research, teaching and private study is permitted with proper citation and attribution.

Tags

Cite this Item

Liebman Adler. "Liebman Adler sermon". Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed May 22, 2025. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/552

Creator

Liebman Adler

Date

April 19, 1865

Full Title

The Murder of the President

Description

Sermon delivered at Zion Temple on 19 April 1865. English translation by Alisa Rethy.

Transcription

The Murder of the President

by Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal

     In this same hour, dear friends, as we are gathered in this house, thousands of houses of God are open for the same purpose – hundreds of thousands of people are gathered for the same purpose. Just as this temple of ours is furnished with the symbols of sorrow and the emblems of grief, innumerable public and private buildings are clothed in the garb of mourning. The same feeling of deep pain which permeates the souls of all who are present here lives in the breast of millions. What, then, is the reason for the truly great, imposing and momentous mourning of the nation? – A father has been suddenly snatched from his family, the father of the fatherland has fallen by the murderer’s hand. The highest official of the land and its first and most excellent citizen has departed this life in a way never before recorded in the annals of the United States. To be sure, we have already expressed the feelings of our heart at this site twice over the course of this week. Returning to honor the great deceased once more today, we follow indeed just as much a powerful urge of our heart as we meet a demand issued upon the nation by Washington.

     In this very hour, in the capital city of the Union, the mortal remains of President Lincoln are surely being transferred, in a solemn procession, from the White House to the Capitol. We here accompany the body in spirit and fulfill the duty of the Israelites, held high through all time, to honor the dead. Millions of others also follow the coffin in spirit as we do. Every eye is filled with sorrow. A magnificent funeral procession! One, the likes of which has honored only a few!

     But what shining light issues forth from the deceased? We answer this with the word of the prophet:

     Thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of God shall be thy reward. (Isaiah 58:8)

     His righteousness goes before him! In the language of the Bible, “righteousness” means none other than what we now call greatness of spirit and a powerful morality, the sum of glorious and noble works. And Lincoln was great. He was great in that he 1. Undertook to complete the task that fell to him – the restoration of the union – with wisdom and steadfastness, and truly completed it; 2. In that he made the glorious principle of the emancipation proclamation – “all men are free and equal!” – a reality; and 3. In that he paired justice and steadfastness with clemency and love in every undertaking.

     1. His righteousness goes before him. The glory of having restored the union goes before him. Nearly eighty years ago, in 1787, a great alliance of states was created through the acceptance of the constitution, and this alliance most gloriously rose to reveal its innate power and greatness. The Union, dear to all friends of Liberty on the earth, became an object of hatred for all enemies of Liberty, a cause of inner fear for all bearers of the crown. The star-spangled banner, the emblem of Liberty to which all oppressed nations looked up in love and hope, aroused hatred and hostility in every place where Liberty is hated. Unjustifiably, led by the most abominable motives, a party of aristocrats which had grown too powerful in the south now wanted to shatter the union, to trample the flag in the dust. What would have been the consequence, had the aims of the rebellion been permitted to transpire without any attempt to prevent them? The nation and her government would have stood defiled before the world, an object of derision and contempt. And what would have been the consequence, had the rebellion advanced and the union been torn apart? Two rival powers would have emerged, which would maul each other in endlessly recurring wars, powers which would have no influence in the council of nations and would not possess the strength even to provide for their own basic needs. The history of the world gives us manifold examples of how disastrous it is for nations when the unity destined for them by land and history is destroyed. Our old German fatherland is weak and politically meaningless because it is divided into so many states and, despite every struggle, could not be unified. But even our own Jewish history gives an enlightening example of the deleterious results brought by the shattering of a union. After Solomon’s death the kingdom was divided into two kingdoms: Judah and Ephraim. But what misery this brought upon the people! What a plaything and a bone of contention these kingdoms became for their neighbors! How this hastened their demise! The prophets, those patriots and community members without equal, indeed often express, in words of deep pain, the unluckiness of a divided people. And when, with a transfixed gaze, they look into the longed-for glorious future, they see a nation, one and undivided, before them. As says Ezekiel (37:22): And I will make them to one nation in the land… and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.

     To shatter the rebellion and to restore and secure the union, that was the great task that fell upon the departed president Lincoln. With an unwavering gaze he steered the ship of the state through high and threatening waves. With a stable hand he saved the Union from perilous storms. With his wisdom and statesmanlike gaze he knew the right men to join him and the appropriate means to seize in order to reach that longed-for destination, the harbor of peace. The safe port lies before us; the storms abate; excitement runs high; salvation lies before our eyes. But then, the rudder sinks from the arm of the helmsman. Death calls: “all is lost!” – death, brought by the hand of the assassin. As an old Jewish sage once said, “Woe is the ship that has lost its helmsman!” But no! Lincoln saved the ship from the gravest dangers, and the easier task is now left for his successor. But for now, we survey his work, bring him our thanks, and profess to him our utmost admiration. And more unbiased than our grief-stricken veneration will be the verdict of history, who will sit soberly in judgment and, with an incorruptible stylus, will inscribe in her tablets: Abraham Lincoln, the restorer of the Union!

     2. His righteousness goes before him. Glory also goes before him – the glory of having made the principle of freedom and equality a deed and a truth. “All men are created equal.” Surely no greater, more glorious principle has been expressed in a political document than this declaration of the American people represented in Congress, solemnly issued on July 4, 1776. But strangely, this sentence has remained a dead letter until now. While it is true that men are not equal with regard to gifts of the body and mind, and property, they ought still to be considered equal in the halls of legislation and before the gates of the court. But that the inclusion of this sentence in the legal codes and its recognition in everyday life was met with resistance, that the institution of slavery was tolerated in a free land, was not merely tolerated but allowed to intensively strengthen, not merely allowed to intensively strengthen, but to extensively spread – that had great consequences in the end. He who reads the history of the Union during the last half century without prejudice cannot close his eye to the recognition that slavery alone was the source of mischief from which this great war finally emerged. He who names other causes remains at the surface of things and does not penetrate to the ultimate cause of the rebellion. We comprehend the reasons, although we do not condone them, that brought some to the notion that aggressive action against slavery cannot be taken. We understand if some were led by the consideration that the abolition of slavery would threaten the prosperity of the country and the existence of the Union. Such misgivings disappear now, and those once ruled by such thoughts must now declare before all: “slavery is dead; we ensure that it will never again carry the seed of horrible wars in its womb, never again hide the spark that could erupt into a destructive blaze.”

     Who above all is entitled to the glory of having carried the gleaming banner in this direction? It was Lincoln, the emancipator; Lincoln, who with his immortal proclamation freed the land of the Union from the disgrace of slavery. And for this we would like to give him our warmest thanks, our sincerest veneration. The distant future will still venerate and admire him, and furthermore, impartial history will proclaim yet another radiant name among the benefactors of the human race: Abraham Lincoln, the liberator!

     3. His righteousness goes before him. This also includes the sublime unity of justice and clemency in his essence and action. This was evident throughout his time at the apex of the government, and today everyone must admit that the accusation of tyrannical appetites was nothing but groundless and biased insinuation and that nothing was further from him than a despotic and autocratic nature. And yet, his mild, loving spirit did not show itself until his last days, not until then did it become clear that he was inclined to handle the rebellion with the utmost mercy, to open the gate wide for the rebels and to say: “come and be true members of our national family, and let our word be: Forgive and forget!” – In the beginning, as the talmudic writings tell us, God wished to rule the world in strict justice; but for the good of the world he combined this justice with compassionate love. The late president also unified justice with love. May we take this as an example! May we also nurture no feelings of hatred and vengefulness toward the rebels, after their power has broken! Suffering must better and elevate a nation, not worsen it. A tragedy may jar us, but it must purify and hallow us within. And indeed! The latest generations will still read it from the pages of unbiased history: Abraham Lincoln, the man who most beautifully unified justice and love, strength and clemency in all realms of his life.

     The relatively short history of America already has several glowing names to proclaim, radiant stars in the heavens of the history of the fatherland: Roger Williams, the tested fighter, who was first in the modern world to bring the principle of freedom of belief and conscience to governmental validation; George Washington, the noble patriot, who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the heart of his countrymen; Benjamin Franklin, unassuming and yet so distinguished, who stole the lightning from heaven and the scepter from the tyrant; Alexander Hamilton, the genial statesman, who built our financial system upon a secure and stable foundation; Thomas Jefferson, that president who, in his passion for Liberty brought the principles of a pure, true government by the people to lasting validity; Andrew Jackson, the unyielding one, who spoke these solemn words: “By God, the Union shall and must be preserved!” Next to them the name Abraham Lincoln now gleams as a star of the first rank, – Abraham Lincoln, the restorer of the union, the liberator, the man of justice and love! “May the memory of the righteous one be a blessing!”

Source

American Jewish Archives. Translation by Alisa Rethy.

Rights

Use of this item for research, teaching and private study is permitted with proper citation and attribution.

Tags

Cite this Item

Bernhard Felsenthal. "The Murder of the President". Remembering Lincoln. Web. Accessed May 22, 2025. https://rememberinglincoln.fords.org/node/545

Creator

Bernhard Felsenthal

Date

April 19, 1865