Inhabitants of Boone County, Missouri

BOONE COUNTY, MISSOURI.

At a large meeting of the loyal citizens of Boone county, Missouri, holden at the court-house in Columbia, on the 22d April, 1865, on motion of Hon. James S. Rollins, Professor J. H. Lathrop, LL.D., was elected president, and Rev. Isaac Jones and General Joseph B. Douglass vice-presidents, John F. Baker and Robert L. Todd secretaries.

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On motion a committee consisting of Hon. J. S. Roll in, Elder F. M. Allen, Dr. M. R. Arnold, Judge David Gordon, and Colonel James R. Shields was appointed to submit resolutions for the action of the meeting

Major Rollins, on behalf of the committee, submitted the following, accompanying the same with an earnest, eloquent feeling tribute to the memory and worth of Mr. Lincoln, after which the preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Whereas Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, on the night of the 14th instant, was stricken down by the hand of an assassin, and removed by a violent death from his exalted position of usefulness and honor; and, whereas the simultaneous attempt to take the lives of other eminent public men indicates concert of action with a traitorous as well as a murderous intent; and whereas it becomes a great people, whom God has set up as an example to the nations of the earth, to purge themselves from all taint of sympathy with this crime against civilization, and also to give utterance to their sense of the national bereavement: Therefore,

Resolved, That we, in common with our fellow citizens throughout the country, hold up to present execration and perpetual infamy, as enemies of the human race, the procurers and the perpetrators of the savage and revolting murder of the Chief Magistrate of the American republic, and other like crimes simultaneously attempted but mercifully averted.

Resolved, That our gratitude is due to Almighty God for the leadership of the distinguished dead in the period of our country’s peril; for the exemplary purity of his private and public life; for his just appreciation of the national crisis; for the admirable temper with which he met its exigencies in defeat as well as in victory; for his heroic faith in the exalted destiny of the American people; for his self-devotion to the cause of human liberty, even unto death; and for the consolation which we cherish that now, in the triumphant moment of his eminent public service, the hand of the assassin has failed to impair the value of his official work, and has been only able to commit to the historic page the name of Abraham Lincoln as the second founder of the great republic.

Resolved, That, although this attempt has been made by traitorous hands to reach the life of the country, through the assassination of its distinguished public men, we have unshaken confidence in the speedy restoration of the national authority over every acre of its soil, and the termination of the shock of arms in the formation of a still closer Union; in the establishment of a more comprehensive and authoritative justice; in the assurance of an enduring domestic tranquility; in a more effective provision for the common defence; in a more vigorous promotion of the general welfare; in the immovable security of the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, and in the extension of the benefit of our great example to the nations of the earth.

Resolved, That we recognize in Andrew Johnson the chosen instrument of the American people for the promotion of these great national ends, a patriot statesman,

“Among the faithless faithful found,”

and commend his incoming administration to the generous and persistent support of every steadfast heart that tempers the sorrow of our national bereavement by an undying confidence in the integrity, the perpetuity and the ever progressive greatness of our American Union.

Resolved, That in testimony of our respect for the memory of our fallen chief, the public buildings of Columbia be draped in mourning for thirty days; and to this end the resident curators of the State University, and the county court of Boone county are respectfully requested to carry into effect this resolution.

Resolved, That we tender to the widow and family of the illustrious dead our heartfelt sympathies for the great loss which, in common with the nation, [Page 660] they have sustained; and request the chairman of this meeting to communicate a copy to them of the foregoing resolutions.

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the officers thereof, and that the newspapers of the State be requested to publish the same.