Chapter L: Thomas, (7)

The members of the Senate and House of Representatives now assembled in
Washington, humbly confessing their dependence upon Almighty God, who
rules all that is done for human good, make haste at this informal
meeting to express the emotions with which they have been filled by the
appalling tragedy which has deprived the nation of its head and covered
the land with mourning; and in further declaration of their sentiments
unanimously resolve:

1. That in testimony of their veneration and affection for the
illustrious dead, who has been permitted, under Providence, to do so
much for his country and for liberty, they will unite in the funeral
services and by an appropriate committee will accompany his remains to
their place of burial in the State from which he was taken for the
national service.

2. That in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who by the benignant favor of
republican institutions rose from humble beginnings to the heights of
power and fame, they recognize an example of purity, simplicity, and
virtue which should be a lesson to mankind, while in his death they
recognize a martyr whose memory will become more precious as men
learn to prize those principles of constitutional order and those
rights--civil, political, and human--for which he was made a sacrifice.

3. That they invite the President of the United States, by solemn
proclamation, to recommend to the people of the United States to
assemble on a day to be appointed by him, publicly to testify their
grief and to dwell on the good which has been done on earth by him whom
we now mourn.

4. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to the President of
the United States, and also that a copy be communicated to the afflicted
widow of the late President as an expression of sympathy in her great
bereavement.

The meeting then adjourned.

ORDERS OF THE HEADS OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

[From official records, Department of State.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

It is hereby ordered that, in honor to the memory of our late illustrious Chief Magistrate, all officers and others subject to the orders of the Secretary of State wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months.

W. HUNTER,

_Acting Secretary_.

[From official records, Treasury Department.]

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

It is hereby ordered that, in honor to the memory of our late illustrious Chief Magistrate, all officers and others subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Treasury wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months.

H. McCULLOCH,

_Secretary of the Treasury_.

[From official records, War Department.]

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 69.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

By direction of the President of the United States the War Department will be closed on Wednesday next, the day of the funeral of the late President of the United States.

Labor on that day will be suspended at all military posts and on all public works under the direction of the War Department. The flags at all military posts, stations, forts, and buildings will be kept at half-staff during the day, and at 12 o'clock m. twenty-one minute guns will be fired from all forts and at all military posts and at the Military Academy.

By order of the Secretary of War:

W.A. NICHOLS,

_Assistant Adjutant-General_.

[From General Orders and Circulars, Navy Department, 1863 to 1887.]

SPECIAL ORDER.

APRIL 17, 1865.

By order of the President of the United States the Navy Department will be closed on Wednesday next, the day of the funeral solemnities of the late President of the United States. Labor will also be suspended on that day at each of the navy-yards and naval stations and upon all the vessels of the United States. The flags of all vessels and at all the navy yards and stations and marine barracks will be kept at half-mast during the day, and at 12 o'clock m. twenty-one minute guns will be fired by the senior officer of each squadron and the commandants of the navy yards and stations.

GIDEON WELLES,

_Secretary of the Navy_.

[From the Daily National Intelligencer, April 18, 1865.]

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

_To Deputy Postmasters_:

Business in all the post-offices of the United States will be suspended and the offices closed from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the 19th instant, during the funeral solemnities of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States.

W. DENNISON,

_Postmaster-General_.

[From official records, Post-Office Department.]

SPECIAL ORDER.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

_Washington, April 18, 1865_.

It is hereby ordered that, in honor of the memory of Abraham Lincoln, our lamented Chief Magistrate, the officers and employees of this Department wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months.

W. DENNISON,
_Postmaster-General_.

[From official records, Department of the Interior.]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

_Washington, April 18, 1865_.

It is hereby ordered that, in honor of the memory of the late Chief Magistrate of the nation, the officers and employees of this Department wear crape upon the left arm for the period of six months.

J.P. USHER,

_Secretary_.

FUNERAL ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE PUBLIC.

[From the Daily National Intelligencer, April 17, 1865.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

_To the People of the United States_:

The undersigned is directed to announce that the funeral ceremonies of the late lamented Chief Magistrate will take place at the Executive Mansion, in this city, at 12 o'clock m. on Wednesday, the 19th instant.

The various religious denominations throughout the country are invited to meet in their respective places of worship at that hour for the purpose of solemnizing the occasion with appropriate ceremonies.

W. HUNTER,

_Acting Secretary of State_.

OFFICIAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE FUNERAL.

[From official records, War Department.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

_Washington, April 17, 1865_.

The following order of arrangement is directed:

ORDER OF THE PROCESSION.

FUNERAL ESCORT.
(In column of march.)

One regiment of cavalry.
Two batteries of artillery.
Battalion of marines.
Two regiments of infantry.
Commander of escort and staff.
Dismounted officers of Marine Corps, Navy, and Army,
in the order named.
Mounted officers of Marine Corps, Navy, and Army, in the order named.
(All military officers to be in uniform, with side arms.)

CIVIC PROCESSION.
Marshal.
Clergy in attendance.
The Surgeon-General of the United States Army and physicians
to the deceased.
Hearse.

_Pallbearers_.

On the part of the Senate: Mr. Foster, of Connecticut; Mr. Morgan, of
New York; Mr. Johnson, of Maryland; Mr. Yates, of Illinois; Mr. Wade,
of Ohio; Mr. Conness, of California.

On the part of the House: Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts; Mr. Coffroth,
of Pennsylvania; Mr. Smith, of Kentucky; Mr. Colfax, of Indiana; Mr.
Worthington, of Nevada; Mr. Washburne, of Illinois.

Army: Lieutenant-General U.S. Grant; Major-General H.W. Halleck;
Brevet Brigadier-General W.A. Nichols.

Navy: Vice-Admiral D.G. Farragut; Rear-Admiral W.B. Shubrick; Colonel
Jacob Zelin, Marine Corps.

Civilians: O.H. Browning, George Ashman, Thomas Corwin, Simon Cameron.

Family.
Relatives.
The delegations of the States of Illinois and Kentucky, as mourners.
The President.
The Cabinet ministers.
The diplomatic corps.
Ex-Presidents.
The Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.
The Senate of the United States.
Preceded by their officers.
Members of the House of Representatives of the United States.
Governors of the several States and Territories.
Legislatures of the several States and Territories.
The Federal judiciary and the judiciary of the several States and
Territories.
The Assistant Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, and
the Assistant Postmasters-General, and the Assistant Attorney-General.
Officers of the Smithsonian Institution.
The members and officers of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions.
Corporate authorities of Washington, Georgetown, and other cities.
Delegations of the several States.
The reverend the clergy of the various denominations.
The clerks and employees of the several Departments and bureaus,
preceded by the heads of such bureaus and their respective chief
clerks.
Such societies as may wish to join the procession.
Citizens and strangers.

The troops designated to form the escort will assemble in the Avenue, north of the President's house, and form line precisely at 11 o'clock a.m. on Wednesday, the 19th instant, with the left resting on Fifteenth street. The procession will move precisely at 2 o'clock p.m., on the conclusion of the religious services at the Executive Mansion (appointed to commence at 12 o'clock m.), when minute guns will be fired by detachments of artillery stationed near St. John's Church, the City Hall, and at the Capitol. At the same hour the bells of the several churches in Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria will be tolled.

At sunrise on Wednesday, the 19th instant, a Federal salute will be fired from the military stations in the vicinity of Washington, minute guns between the hours of 12 and 3 o'clock, and a national salute at the setting of the sun.

The usual badge of mourning will be worn on the left arm and on the hilt of the sword.

By order of the Secretary of War:

W.A. NICHOLS,

_Assistant Adjutant-General_.

The funeral ceremonies took place in the East Room of the Executive Mansion at noon on the 19th of April, and the remains were then escorted to the Capitol, where they lay in state in the Rotunda.

On the morning of April 21 the remains were taken from the Capitol and placed in a funeral car, in which they were taken to Springfield, Ill. Halting at the principal cities along the route, that appropriate honors might be paid to the deceased, the funeral cortege arrived on the 3d of May at Springfield, Ill., and the next day the remains were deposited in Oak Ridge Cemetery, near that city.

GUARD OF HONOR.

[From official records, War Department.]

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 72.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

_Washington, April 20, 1865_.

The following general officers and guard of honor will accompany the remains of the late President from the city of Washington to Springfield, the capital of the State of Illinois, and continue with them until they are consigned to their final resting place:

Brevet Brigadier-General E.D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, to represent the Secretary of War.

Brevet Brigadier-General Charles Thomas, Assistant Quartermaster-General.[17]

[Footnote 17: Brevet Brigadier-General James A. Ekin, Quartermaster's Department, United States Army, substituted.]

Brigadier-General A.B. Eaton, Commissary-General of Subsistence.

Brevet Major-General J.G. Barnard, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers.

Brigadier-General G.D. Ramsay, Ordnance Department.

Brigadier-General A.P. Howe, Chief of Artillery.

Brevet Brigadier-General D.C. McCallum, Superintendent Military Railroads.

Major-General D. Hunter, United States Volunteers.

Brigadier-General J.C. Caldwell, United States Volunteers.

Twenty-five picked men, under a captain.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E.D. TOWNSEND,

_Assistant Adjutant-General_.

[From official records, Navy Department.]

SPECIAL ORDER.

APRIL 20, 1865.

The following officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will accompany the remains of the late President from the city of Washington to Springfield, the capital of the State of Illinois, and continue with them until they are consigned to their final resting place:

Rear-Admiral Charles Henry Davis, Chief Bureau Navigation.

Captain William Rogers Taylor, United States Navy.

Major Thomas V. Field, United States Marine Corps.

GIDEON WELLES,
_Secretary of the Navy_.

ACTION OF CONGRESS.

[From Appendix to Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln.]

President Johnson, in his annual message to Congress at the commencement of the session of 1865-66, thus announced the death of his predecessor:

To express gratitude to God in the name of the people for the
preservation of the United States is my first duty in addressing you.
Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act of
parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh. It finds
some solace in the consideration that he lived to enjoy the highest
proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief
Magistracy to which he had been elected; that he brought the civil war
substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of the
Union, and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his memory.

Hon. E.B. Washburne, of Illinois, immediately after the President's message had been read in the House of Representatives, offered the following joint resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

_Resolved_, That a committee of one member from each State represented
in this House be appointed on the part of this House, to join such
committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and
report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the
Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the
nation to the event of the decease of their late President, Abraham
Lincoln, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to
that melancholy event be referred to said committee.

On motion of Hon. Solomon Foot, the Senate unanimously concurred in the passage of the resolution, and the following joint committee was appointed, thirteen on the part of the Senate and one for every State represented (twenty-four) on the part of the House of Representatives:

Senate: Hon. Solomon Foot, Vermont; Hon. Richard Yates, Illinois; Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, Ohio; Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, Maine; Hon. Henry Wilson, Massachusetts; Hon. James R. Doolittle, Wisconsin; Hon. James H. Lane, Kansas; Hon. Ira Harris, New York; Hon. James W. Nesmith, Oregon; Hon. Henry S. Lane, Indiana; Hon. Waitman T. Willey, West Virginia; Hon. Charles R. Buckalew, Pennsylvania; Hon. John B. Henderson, Missouri.

House of Representatives: Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, Illinois; Hon. James G. Blaine, Maine; Hon. James W. Patterson, New Hampshire; Hon. Justin S. Morrill, Vermont; Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks, Massachusetts; Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, Rhode Island; Hon. Henry C. Deming, Connecticut; Hon. John A. Griswold, New York; Hon. Edwin R.V. Wright, New Jersey; Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania; Hon. John A. Nicholson, Delaware; Hon. Francis Thomas, Maryland; Hon. Robert C. Schenck, Ohio; Hon. George S. Shanklin, Kentucky; Hon. Godlove S. Orth, Indiana; Hon. Joseph W. McClurg, Missouri; Hon. Fernando C. Beaman, Michigan; Hon. John A. Kasson, Iowa; Hon. Ithamar C. Sloan, Wisconsin; Hon. William Higby, California; Hon. William Windom, Minnesota; Hon. J.H.D. Henderson, Oregon; Hon. Sidney Clarke, Kansas; Hon. Kellian V. Whaley, West Virginia.

The joint committee, made the following report, which was concurred in by both Houses _nem. con._:

Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of Abraham
Lincoln, late President of the United States, having occurred during the
recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief and
desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of the public
bereavement: Therefore,

_Be it resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring)_, That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the Hall
of the House of Representatives on Monday, the 12th day of February
next, that being his anniversary birthday, at the hour of 12 m., and
that, in the presence of the two Houses there assembled, an address upon
the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United
States, be pronounced by Hon. Edwin M. Stanton,[18] and that the
President of the Senate _pro tempore_ and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives be requested to invite the President of the United
States, the heads of the several Departments, the judges of the Supreme
Court, the representatives of the foreign governments near this
Government, and such officers of the Army and Navy as have received the
thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of Government to be
present on the occasion.

_And be it further resolved_, That the President of the United States be
requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Lincoln, and
to assure her of the profound sympathy of the two Houses of Congress for
her deep personal affliction and of their sincere condolence for the
late national bereavement.

[Footnote 18: Mr. Stanton having declined, Hon. George Bancroft, of New York, in response to an invitation from the joint committee, consented to deliver the address.]

[For proclamations of President Johnson recommending, in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, a day for special humiliation and prayer, see pp, 306-307, and for Executive order in connection therewith see p. 339. For Executive order closing the Executive Office and the Departments on the day of the funeral of the late President, at Springfield, Ill., see p. 335. For Executive order closing the public offices April 14, 1866, in commemoration of the assassination of the late President, see p. 440.]