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290 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

delayed, though it did not perish without adding to its long list of atrocities
one which sent a thrill of horror throughout the civilized world, in the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln; a man so amiable, so kind, humane, and honest,
that one is at a loss to know how he could have had an enemy on earth. The
details of his "taking off" are too familiar to be more than mentioned here. The
assassination of James Abraham Garfield has made us all too painfully familiar
with the shock and sensation produced by the hell-black crime, to make
any description necessary. The curious will note that the Christian name of
both men is the same, and that both were remarkable for their kind qualities,
and for having risen by their own energies from among the people, and that
both were victims of assassins at the beginning of a presidential term.

Mr. Lincoln had reason to look forward to a peaceful and happy term of
office. To all appearance, we were on the eve of a restoration of the union,
and a solid and lasting peace. He had served one term as President of the
Disunited States, he was now for the first time to be President of the United
States. Heavy had been his burden, hard had been his toil, bitter had been his
trials, and terrible had been his anxiety; but the future seemed now bright and
full of hope. Richmond had fallen, Grant had General Lee and the army of
Northern Virginia firmly in his clutch; Sherman had fought and found his
way from the banks of the great river to the shores of the sea, leaving the two
ends of the rebellion squirming and twisting in agony, like the severed parts
of a serpent, doomed to inevitable death; and now there was but a little time
longer for the good President to bear his burden, and be the target of
reproach. His accusers, in whose opinion he was always too fast or too slow,
too weak or too strong, too conciliatory or too aggressive, would soon
become his admirers; it was soon to be seen that he had conducted the affairs
of the nation with singular wisdom, and with absolute fidelity to the great
trust confided in him. A country, redeemed and regenerated from the foulest
crime against human nature that ever saw the sun! What a bright vision of
peace, prosperity, and happiness must have come to that tired and overworked
brain, and weary spirit. Men used to talk of his jokes, and he no
doubt indulged in them, but I seemed never to have the faculty of calling
them to the surface. I saw him oftener than many who have reported him, but
I never saw any levity in him. He always impressed me as a strong, earnest
man, having no time or disposition to trifle; grappling with all his might the
work he had in hand. The expression of his face was a blending of suffering
with patience and fortitude. Men called him homely, and homely he was; but
it was manifestly a human homeliness, for there was nothing of the tiger or
other wild animal about him. His eyes had in them the tenderness of mother-