Inhabitants of Erie, Pennsylvania
Resolutions passed at a meeting held by the citizens of Erie, Pennsylvania.
The following preamble and resolutions were reported to an adjourned meeting of citizens of Erie, held at Farrar Hall on Tuesday evening, April 18, and unanimously adopted.
The committee through which they were reported consisted of Charles W. Kelso, Andrew Scott, George W. Starr, Irvin Camp, George W. De Camp, Joseph M. Sterret, John P. Vincent, and M. R. Barr.
Whereas, after four years of terrible and destructive war, waged by traitors for the purpose of subverting our government and destroying our Union, the people of the United States were celebrating with joy and thanksgiving the success of our arms, and the speedy return of peace and fraternal concord through these successes, due, under God, to the wise administration of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, Abraham Lincoln;
And whereas, in the midst of these rejoicings, the sudden and terrible calamity of the death of our revered and beloved President by the hand of a traitorous assassin has fallen upon us, turning our pæans of joy and thanksgiving into dirges of sorrow and anguish;
And whereas it is proper that the people of the United States everywhere should manifest their sense of this their great bereavement, as well as their confidence in the patriot and statesman who, through the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, is called upon to administer the government of the United States, and their determination to sustain him in his great and important duties as they have in the past sustained his lamented predecessor: Therefore,
Resolved, That we, the people of the city of Erie, while bowing with submission to the will of God and His inscrutable decrees, do hereby express our deep and unfeigned grief at the death of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, a magistrate so pure, so upright, and so clear in his great office as to have won the admiration and esteem even of his political enemies, and the affection and love of all who faithfully and truly loved their country and its integrity—a man so honest in all his intercourse with man, so kind-hearted in all the relations of life, that no man who knew him could be his personal enemy unless filled with passions so barbarous as to unfit him for intercourse with civilized humanity.
Resolved, That, severe as the affliction is, we bow in humble submission to the will of that Being who has in his inscrutable wisdom permitted the deed to be done, saying, “Not our will but thine be done.”
Resolved, That this affliction comes with peculiar severity at this time of our [Page 664] country’s trial, when the consummate wisdom and undoubted patriotism of our good President was about arranging the disordered condition of our country’s affairs, and that, while life shall last, we will cherish the memory of the great and good Abraham Lincoln as one of the most precious of our country’s possessions.
Resolved, That we have entire confidence in the patriotism, integrity, and ability of Andrew Johnson, now President of the United States, fully believing and hoping that he will carry out the wise and judicious policy of our late lamented President, and spare no effort to crush this infamous rebellion, which shows its legitimate character in the employment of base assassins to effect that which their want of manly courage could not effect—the destruction of our civil rulers, and that we, one and all, “Pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors” to maintain and defend the government of our fathers, whether assailed by armed traitors in rebellious States, or skulking assassins in the national capital.
Resolved, That we are gratified at the evidence already given by Andrew Johnson of his disposition to carry out the views and policy of our late be loved President by the retention of his counsellors in the cabinet, believing that they were the hearty and able co-operators of Mr. Lincoln in his most wise and successful administration of the government.
Resolved, That we sincerely and deeply sympathize with our Secretary of State, Hon. William H. Seward, in his multiplied afflictions, and are thankful for his escape with his life from the poniard of the assassin, and we pray most heartily that he may be spared and restored to health and activity, when, by his matchless ability, he may continue to confound, as he has in the past, the infamous machinations of foreign governments to involve our country in ruin.
Resolved, That we sympathize, from the very depths of our hearts, with Mrs. Lincoln and the other members of her family in their deplorable bereavement, and that we most heartily commend her and them to the tender mercies of that God who does not willingly afflict the children of men, and has promised to be the protector of the widow and the fatherless, earnestly praying that from behind this dark and heavy cloud they may yet discern the smile of a merciful and gracious God.
Resolved, That a copy of the above resolutions, signed by the officers of this meeting, be transmitted to Mrs. Lincoln, his Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, and the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
- F. F. FARRAK, President.
- J. B. GARRA, Secretary.